Remember the song “Summer Nights” from Grease? John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John’s Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson sing to their respective high school cliques how they met and fell in love (excuse me, “lovin’”) over the summer. For 40 years, that was enough information about Danny and Sandy’s meeting for most viewers. What this news presupposes is, maybe it’s not?

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount is now — four decades after the original film based on the 1971 musical — working on a Grease prequel set during that summer, and called Summer Loving. This movie will “tackle that fateful meeting” between Danny and Sandy. THR also reports that John August, screenwriter of GoBig Fish, and the upcoming live-action version of Aladdin, has been brought on to work on the script. This is not the first time Grease’s enduring popularity has spawned an ancillary property; a Grease 2 movie, with an almost entirely new cast of characters (and a very young Michelle Pfeiffer in her film debut), came out in 1982.

Personally, and with apologies to the great Frankie Valli, I’ve never been a huge Grease fan. But I recognize that the Broadway show and movie have devout fans that stretch across generations. It’s kind of surprising that this idea has taken so long to happen, given the way Grease has remained the word for almost half a century. I imagine those hardcore Greasers will have them a blast, and it will happen so fast, etc.

Gallery — Great Movies That Became Terrible Franchises:

More From Mix 95.7