Latest in Kenny Ortega

When ABC and Bob Iger asked High School Musical director Kenny Ortega to participate in the April 16 special, The Disney Family Singalong, he was immediately on board. “I wanted to find something I can do to participate and it was so great to be given the call and invited by ABC to join,” Ortega told Deadline. “It…

Gregg Smith, an actor and dancer whose three-decade collaboration with director and choreographer Kenny Ortega included casting dancers for such films and TV productions as Dirty Dancing, Newsies, Hocus Pocus, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty in Pink, To Wong Fu, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar and various Oscar…

High School Musical franchise filmmaker Kenny Ortega has signed a multi-year overall deal with Netflix with his first two projects being a feature musical adaptation of Elise Primavera’s book series Auntie Claus, and the original series Julie and the Phantoms. Ortega will direct and produce Auntie Claus (working…

The wait is over, and the result isn’t a huge surprise: Disney Channel has greenlighted Descendants 3, a second sequel in its popular musical telefilm series about the teenage sons and daughters of classic Disney villains. The news broke with an interstitial during tonight’s Disney Channel airing of Zombies as…

Gearing up for a major July premiere across multiple networks, the Disney Channel today released a new trailer and music video for Descendants 2, the sequel to one of the top-rated cable TV movies of all time. The trailer (watch it below) shows the new twists in the story of the Villain Kids (or “VKs”) – Mal, Evie…

Jennifer Beals, star of one of the most iconic dance movies ever, Flashdance, has teamed with Kenny Ortega, choreographer and director-producer of the High School Musical franchise, and James Larosa, creator of VH1’s cheerleading drama series Hit the Floor, for The Edge, a dance drama that has been set up at <a href="https://deadline.com/tag/fox/" id="auto-tag_fox"…

Disney Channel has greenlighted a sequel to its hit 2015 musical fantasy original movie about the teenage children of classic Disney villains, with production on Descendants 2 set to begin this summer. The project, which had been in development, will premiere in summer 2017 with China Anne McClain joining the main…

As we mark the 40th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Fox is prepping a remake of the cult classic. The two-hour taped event special, which is in development with a cast-contingent order, is executive produced by Gail Berman of The Jackal Group; the 1975 movie’s producer Lou Adler; and Kenny Ortega, who is…

EXCLUSIVE: Meet the offspring of Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, the Evil Queen and Jafar. Disney Channel has ordered to production Descendants, its first live-action original movie tapping into Disney’s vault of classic fairytale characters. Directed by High School Musical helmer and choreographer Kenny Ortega in his…

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate is postponing the Dirty Dancing reboot. The studio has put the remake on ice for another year for casting reasons, Deadline has learned. The remake of the 1987 Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey film was scheduled to be released in July 2013, but now the movie is off the studio's release dance card…

Lionsgate said today that its remake of Dirty Dancing will get a wide release on July 26, 2013. Deadline broke the news in August that the studio had set Kenny Ortega to direct the period musical drama, a new take on the iconic 1987 film that starred Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in the 1960s-set story of a girl…

EXCLUSIVE: NBC is developing a Latino family drama with dance elements executive produced by top choreographer/director Kenny Ortega and The Event executive producer Steve Stark. Ortega is also set to direct the untitled project, about a multi-generational Hispanic family running a Latin dance studio in Miami. Ligiah…