The Time of Your Life, Twice: Lionsgate to Remake ‘Dirty Dancing’

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Lionsgate has announced plans to remake the 1987 dance flick Dirty Dancing.

It’s true that everyone and their sister is a fan of the original film: there’s dancing, there’s a love story, there’s a young Patrick Swayze–we’re practically swooning just thinking about it. (Bonus feature: Jerry Orbach!) But NewsFeed has serious qualms about the idea of a remake.

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First of all, no one can top the chemistry of Swayze and Jennifer Grey — when Johnny utters the famous line, “Nobody puts Baby in the corner,” we melt. And without Swayze, who will sing the movie’s power ballad?

Then there’s an issue of setting: the original movie was filmed in the ’80s but set in the ’60s, with the plot largely centered around the limited options women had in accessing abortions (and here you thought it was just a dance flick). While the remake could very well be set in the ’60s as well (there’s no plot details available yet), we fail to see the logic of updating an already classic movie if you’re going to keep the retro setting. Shouldn’t a remake bring something new to the original idea?

One ray of light, in an otherwise dim announcement, is that the original movie’s choreographer, Kenny Ortega, will be directing. If there’s anyone who can do the remake of our most beloved dance film justice, it’d be the man who helped bring us the original.

Megan Gibson is a reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @MeganJGibson. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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