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Spoilers (1)
Michael Cimino was originally hired as director. He was fired when he asked for a $250,000 advance for re-writing the entire screenplay prior to shooting. (The movie's total budget was only $7.5 million.)
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The scenes where Chris Penn's character had to learn how to dance were added to the script because Penn really could not dance.
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In the liner notes for the re-released "Footloose" soundtrack (1999), there's a brief introduction by Kenny Loggins which mentions that the script for the film was loosely based on actual events which transpired in the young life of his long time friend, Footloose screen writer, Dean Pitchford.
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With the Principal's knowledge, 24-year-old Kevin Bacon attended the Payson Utah High School as "Ren McCormack", a transfer student from Philadelphia to get into his role. With his narrow tie and new-wave haircut, he was treated pretty much like in the film. Bacon gratefully left with the location scouts on the afternoon of the first day.
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Kevin Bacon broke out in hives around his midsection when he had to film the City Council scene where he makes the case for holding a prom dance. The actor says he is uncomfortable when speaking in public, but has never had a reoccurrence of hives.
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Chris Penn couldn't dance, so they had to teach him in terms of what he already knew: wrestling.
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Loosely based on events that took place in the small, rural, and extremely religious farming town of Elmore City, Oklahoma in 1978. Dancing had been banned for nearly 90 years until a group of high school teens challenged it.
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Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe were both slated to play the lead. The casting directors were impressed with Cruise because of the famous underwear dance sequence in Risky Business, but he was unavailable for the part because he was filming All the Right Moves. Lowe auditioned three times and had dancing ability and the "neutral teen" look that the director wanted, but he pulled his knee, and the injury prevented him from taking the part. After watching Diner, the director had to convince the producers to go with Kevin Bacon.
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The character of "Willard" (not even called by that name in the original script) was specifically rewritten by author Dean Pitchford with Chris Penn in mind.
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Lehi (named for a prophet described in the Book of Mormon) is the town where the Lehi Rollermills resides. The Lehi Rollermills is actually an old time grain house as depicted in the film and it's still (2010) operating in Utah. The film is often considered Lehi's claim to fame.
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Kevin Bacon was offered the leading role for the Stephen King movie Christine, at the same time that he was asked to do a screen test for Footloose. The producers had to convince Bacon that turning down a sure role in "Christine" for a part he might not even get in "Footloose" was the wiser choice. The producers told him that if he got the part for "Footloose," the role would make him a star. 30 seconds into the screen test, Bacon was offered the part.
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The movie was adapted to a Broadway musical and opened on October 22, 1998 at the Richard Rodgers Theater, ran for 709 performances and received the 1999 Tony Awards for Best Book and Score for a Musical.
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Daryl Hannah turned down the offer to play Ariel in order to play Madison in Splash. Elizabeth McGovern turned down the role of Ariel in order to play Deborah Gelly in Once Upon a Time in America. Melanie Griffith, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Rosanna Arquette, Meg Tilly, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Heather Locklear, Meg Ryan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jodie Foster, Phoebe Cates, Tatum O'Neal, Bridget Fonda, Lori Loughlin, Diane Lane and Brooke Shields were all offered the role of Ariel, but turned it down.
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The dancing feet in the opening credit sequence contained many of the cast and crew. Over 150 different pairs of feet were shot. The dancer with the gold shoes was actually Kenny Loggins.
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In the DVD commentary, Kevin Bacon revealed that the co-ed extras in the locker room scene were paid $20 apiece to appear nude.
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Spoilers
In the scene where Rev. Shaw shows Ren a picture of his deceased son Bobby, John Lithgow actually showed a photograph of his real son.
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