The classic film Flashdance is getting the series treatment from streaming service Paramount+ (currently known as CBS All Access) according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The original movie, released in 1983 by Paramount Pictures, starred Jennifer Beals as a passionate young dancer who aspires to become a professional ballerina while working a day job at a steel mill in Pittsburgh.
The reboot, according to THR, will “revolve around a young Black woman with ballet dreams and a strip club reality who struggles to find her place in the world while navigating romance, money, art, friendship and how to love herself.”
Angela Robinson will exec produce and direct the pilot for the potential series and Flashdance associate producer Lynda Obst is attached and will also exec produce.
Flashdance was the first collaboration of powerhouse producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and the presentation of some sequences in the style of music videos was an influence on other 1980s films including Footloose, Purple Rain, White Knights, Hard to Hold and Top Gun.
Director Adrian Lyne helmed the project based on the script by Joe Eszterhas.
The film opened to negative reviews by film critics, including Roger Ebert, who panned it as “great sound and flashdance, signifying nothing.”
Nevertheless, it was a surprise box-office success, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 1983 in the United States behind Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Terms of Endearment. Its worldwide box-office gross exceeded $200 million on a reported $8 million budget.
Flashdance is also often remembered for its iconic poster featuring Beals sporting a sweatshirt with a large neck hole (according to the actress, her look in the scene came about by accident after she simply cut a large hole at the top of one that had shrunk in the wash).
Flashdance won an Oscar for Best Original Song for “Flashdance… What a Feeling” by Irene Cara.
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