Line #20 Trivia/Grease2


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2	* BTeamSequel: Not only did Creator/JohnTravolta and Music/OliviaNewtonJohn not return, but director Randal Kleiser and writer Bronte Woodard (who had died in 1980) had no involvement.
3	* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/ChristopherMcDonald auditioned for the role of Johnny five times before being cast as Goose.
4	* CreatorBacklash: Creator/MichellePfeiffer joked that she showed the film to her kids and they turned it off after twenty minutes. While filming ''Film/{{Stardust}}'', Creator/MatthewVaughn told her that this was his favourite film of hers, her response was a FlatWhat.
5	-->I thought he was pulling my leg... It was my role in ''that'' that made him want to work with me.
6	* DeletedScene: Several scenes were cut from the film, including:
7	** Frenchy trying to help Michael become a "cool rider".
8	** Michael talking to Stephanie and comforting her after the talent show.
9	** Goose accidentally slamming a door into Rhonda's nose.
10	** Davey helping Dolores stuff her bra at the luau so that she can be dating material for him.
11	** A sequence at the very end where Michael and Stephanie fly off into the sunset on a motorcycle, similar to the ending of the first film, where Danny and Sandy fly off into the sunset in a car.
12	* DisownedAdaptation: Jim Jacobs, who created the original play, described this movie as "awful... the pits.".
13	* FranchiseKiller: Creator/{{Paramount}} was envisioning up to three more sequels and possibly a TV series. Would ''Grease 3'' have worked with the mid-Sixties and UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion music as a backdrop? Would ''Grease 4'' have dealt with hippies? Would there have been a Seventies version, sorta like ''Film/DazedAndConfused'' with musical numbers? We'll never know.
14	* HostilityOnTheSet: Maxwell Caufield and Creator/MichellePfeiffer didn't get on at all. He found her stuck up, while she thought he was full of himself.
15	* RecursiveAdaptation: Guy Unsworth adapted it into a stage musical titled, ''Cool Rider''.
16	* StarDerailingRole:
17	** Maxwell Caulfield blamed this film for killing his budding Hollywood career. After the movie bombed, Paramount dropped his contract. In his own words, "It took me ten years to get over ''Grease 2''."
18	** Creator/MichellePfeiffer's career nearly suffered this because she was initially passed over for ''Film/{{Scarface 1983}}''.
19	* TroubledProduction: While the film wasn't an outright disaster to make, it ''did'' have a ragged production, which had a lot to do with its poor critical and commercial performance.
20	** For starters, no one involved in the original film had really expected there would be a sequel. The line "See you in summer school!" was added to the last scene [[SequelHook just in case]], but despite the hugely successful Broadway production and the [[TheFifties '50s]] nostalgia that had made ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'', ''Series/HappyDays'' and Music/ShaNaNa successful, in the years after the spectacular failure of the ''Lost Horizon'' musical Paramount saw the film as being a modest one-off hit, at best.
21	** So, after it was one of the biggest hits of 1978, suddenly there was going to be a sequel. Initially it was to include all the characters in some post-high school capacity, with a younger crop of actors playing new students at Rydell, but while even Creator/JohnTravolta and Music/OliviaNewtonJohn expressed interest at initial meetings, delays in getting a script together meant most of the original cast who had played students moved on to other projects save Didi Conn (Frenchy) and Creator/EddieDeezen (Eugene). Paramount, meantime, thought big, envisioning a franchise to consist of, ultimately, four films, the latter two to take place in the mid- and late 1960s, and a TV series.
22	** Original screenwriter Bronte Woodard [[DiedDuringProduction died]] young in 1980, further slowing things down. Ultimately writing the first draft would fall on Canadian comedian Ken Finkleman, who had to find time to come up with characters and a story from scratch while writing and directing ''Film/AirplaneIITheSequel''. Patricia Birch, who had choreographed both the original and the stage show, was tapped to direct after Randall Kleiser took the helm of ''Film/TheBlueLagoon''.
23	** The scramble for talent behind the camera was nothing compared to the movie's casting woes. For the male lead, the producers hoped to land Creator/TimothyHutton, hot off his Oscar for ''Film/OrdinaryPeople'', but failed. Next up was Music/AndyGibb, but he failed the screen test. Finally, after seeing him in a production of ''Entertaining Mr. Sloane'' on Broadway, the producers found an unknown, Maxwell Caulfield, seeing star potential in him.
24	** [[Music/BlondieBand Debbie Harry]] likewise turned down the female lead, as she felt she was too old to play a high school student.[[note]]Given that Stephanie's hairstyle looks, in the early scenes, exactly like Harry's did at the time, it's clear that part of the reason Creator/MichellePfeiffer got the part was that they saw her as a SpiritualSubstitute for the actress they had really wanted[[/note]] Other singers and actresses with musical experience, like Music/PatBenatar, Andrea [=McArdle=] and Kristy [=McNichol=], were also considered or pursued before they finally settled on another young then-unknown, Creator/MichellePfeiffer, who had by her own admission little experience singing or dancing at the time and was surprised she got the part, for her "quirkiness".
25	** Creator/TomCruise also auditioned for Nogerelli, but Birch thought him too young and short for the part. Music/{{Cher}} backed out of playing one of the Pink Ladies over the delays in getting production going and what she considered to be too low a salary to justify the wait. Jennifer Beals left her part in that group to take the lead role in ''Film/{{Flashdance}}''. Creator/AnnetteFunicello couldn't find time away from her Skippy Peanut Butter commercials to play one of the teachers.
26	** Principal photography finally got underway in front of a different Rydell, the same former high school used for ''Series/SquarePegs'', with the script still not finished. The two unknown leads [[HostilityOnTheSet didn't like each other]]—he thought she was "stuck up" and she saw him as overly self-absorbed. Midway through production, the final draft of the script was turned in ... without Frenchy. But after wrap, the producers decided to use some of the scenes with her anyway, explaining [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome her disappearance]] mid-film.
27	** The film's title evolved from ''More Grease'' to ''Son of Grease'' to, late in production, ''Grease 2''. Caulfield thought the last was a horrible title and fought hard to go back to its predecessor.[[note]]Perhaps, given the effect the film had on his career, he might have been better off changing ''his'' name[[/note]].
28	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
29	** Creator/TomCruise auditioned for Johnny Nogerelli, but director Patricia Birch wanted someone older and taller.
30	** [[Music/TheBeeGees Andy Gibb]] was initially going to play the male lead, but he failed his screen test. Creator/TimothyHutton was also considered.
31	** Music/{{Cher}} initially signed on to play Paulette Rebchuck, but backed out, complaining of a low salary and not having a finished script.
32	** [[Music/BlondieBand Debbie Harry]] was initially asked to play Stephanie Zinone. She declined, saying she was too old to play a high school student. Creator/KristyMcNichol was also considered.
33	** Creator/JenniferBeals was offered the role of Sharon, but turned it down in favour of ''Film/{{Flashdance}}''.
34	** Creator/JohnTravolta and Music/OliviaNewtonJohn were expected to reprise their roles as Danny and Sandy, now married and running a gas station, but nothing came of it. There were also plans for Creator/JeffConaway and Creator/StockardChanning to have a cameo. According to Didi Conn [[http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/good-morning-britain/news/a856740/grease-secret-frenchy-actress-didi-conn-good-morning-britain/ in a May 2018 interview]], a direct sequel was always intended and a line of dialogue about "see you in summer school" at the end of the first movie was intended to be the SequelHook, but the studio expected the film to be no more than a moderate one-off hit; by the time it became clear that the film more than justified a sequel, the original cast were not available to film a sequel.
35	* WorkingTitle: Early title ideas considered were ''More Grease'' and ''Son Of Grease''
36	* YouLookFamiliar: Johnny's actor, Adrian Zmed had previously played Danny in a stage production of ''Theatre/{{Grease}}''.

Context Trivia / Grease2