Fame will “live on forever” with a remake of the 1980 musical scheduled to hit theaters Sept. 25, 2009.
The $25 million project, written by Allison Burnett and Aline Brosh McKenna, has added a roster of stars to fill out the administrative and teaching roles in the Kevin Tancharoen-directed remake. Kelsey Grammer, Megan Mullally, Charles S. Dutton, Bebe Neuwirth and Debbie Allen have joined the cast of the film which is set to start production on Wednesday.
Each of the newly recruited actors boast noteworthy performing arts backgrounds: Mullally graduated from the School of American Ballet; Grammer attended Juilliard; Dutton went to the Yale School of Drama and Neuwirth has won two Tonys. Allen, who played dance teacher Lydia Grant in the original film, will appear in the updated version as Principal Simms.
The casting also marks a reunion for Grammer and Neuwirth who starred together as husband and wife in Cheers and later in Frasier.
The student cast includes newcomers Kristy Flores, Paul Iacono, Naturi Naughton and Kay Panabaker.
