Grease is the word! While it may come with some mixed feelings from fans of the hit musical movie, HBO Max has announced they are producing a straight-to-series spinoff titled Grease: Rydell High.
The news was announced by WarnerMedia Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt at the Mipcom conference in Cannes. The new series will be set in the 1950s and will reimagine the movie, but also feature characters from it. Within the series, it will feature “big musical numbers from the era combined with new original songs.” It will explore the peer pressures of high school, the horrors of puberty and life in middle America with a modern sensibility.
Few details have been announced about the series and who is attached to it except for Erik Feig’s Picturestart and Temple Hill (Love, Simon) executive producing.
“Grease is an iconic pop-culture phenomenon that works for every generation, and I’m thrilled that our friends at Paramount were excited about the idea of opening up the show and putting it on a larger canvas for a weekly series,” said Sarah Aubrey, head of content at HBO Max. “This is high school and life in small-town USA told on the scale of a big rock ’n’ roll musical. It’s Grease 2.0 but with the same spirit, energy and excitement you immediately think of when you hear any of these iconic songs. You’re the One That I Want!”
The news comes after rights-holders Paramount announced a Grease prequel feature film six months ago, which is currently titled as Summer Lovin’. In regards to the prequel, John August (Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) will be writing the script and Picturestart and Temple Hill are producing the film too.
HBO Max will launch at the end of 2019 with content including Game of Thrones and Friends and new originals such as a new take on Gossip Girl and a female-focused new chapter in Dune.
