Sparkle tells the story of a 19-year-old innocent young woman growing up in late 1960′s Detroit, who dreams of becoming a music star.  Sparkle (Jordin Sparks), Sister (Carmen Ejogo) and Dee (Tika Sumpter) are sisters who love each other fiercely, but each have their own ambitions.  When they form a girl group and set out to take the music world by storm, the harsh realities of the spotlight take their toll on the girls and threaten to tear apart the tight knit family, which also includes their less than supportive mother (Whitney Houston).  The film also stars Derek Luke, Mike Epps, Omari Hardwick and CeeLo Green.

At the film’s press day, producer Debra Martin Chase talked about the 12-year journey of bringing Sparkle to the big screen, how Aaliyah was originally set to star, how proud Whitney Houston would be of her work in the film, what made Jordin Sparks the right choice for the role of Sparkle, and what moment from the shoot stands out the most for her.  She also talked about her overall producing deal with ABC, and how she’s developing the remake of Dirty Dancing, which has been pushed until Spring 2013, in order to give them time to find the right actors for Baby and Johnny.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

It looks like Baby’s gonna have to stay in the corner for a while longer.  Deadline reports that Lionsgate has decided to put their upcoming Dirty Dancing remake on hold for another year.  Apparently the delay can be chalked up to “casting issues,” though no cast has yet to be announced.  It’s possible that director Kenny Ortega (High School Musical) has an eye on a couple of actors who won’t be available for a while, but the report doesn’t specify exactly what the hold up is.

Glee and American Horror Story co-creator/co-showrunner Brad Falchuk is writing the script, and it appears that Ortega is still attached to direct for the time being.  The film was set for release in July 2013, and the pic is said to include 1960s hit songs, cuts from the original soundtrack, and new compositions.  Baby is now slated to have the time of her life at a future date TBD.

We last reported that Maria Maggenti (Monte Carlo) would be scripting the remake of Dirty Dancing for director Kenny Ortega (High School Musical). Now the creative minds have a deadline to follow, as Lionsgate has set a July 26^th, 2013 release date. Perhaps the studio is banking on those summer nights to stir up some reminiscence for the 1987 original. Though a cast has not been announced as of yet, you can rest assured that no one will yet be able to put Baby in a corner.

Lionsgate has also decided to delay their horror-thriller The Possession, produced by Sam Raimi. The pic, starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) and Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) will move from January 6^th, 2012 to August 31^st, 2012 to take advantage of the Labor Day weekend. Hit the jump for more on both projects.

Earlier this month, we reported that High School Musical director Kenny Ortega would helm the remake of Dirty Dancing.  Now Deadline is reporting that Monte Carlo screenwriter Maria Maggenti will handle the script.  The original story revolved around Frances (aka “Baby” and played in the original by Jennifer Grey), a young, upscale teen going to holiday camp over the summer with her family.  There she meets and falls for the camp’s handsome, slightly-brooding dance instructor (originally played by Patrick Swayze).  At the end of the film, she’s had the time of her life and never felt that way before.

I’m not sure what Ortega and Maggenti’s take on the new version will be, but I’m hoping that what I liked about the original—that Swayze’s character is basically the girl and Baby is the dominant one no matter how many corners she may be pushed into—will remain in the remake.  Dirty Dancing is the latest gig for Maggenti who also wrote an adaptation of Before I Fall and is finishing up My Name Is Memory.

With Craig Brewer’s Footloose remake on the way, you can bet your ass that other 1980’s movie about dancing is getting a remake as well. Deadline reports that Lionsgate has set Kenny Ortega (High School Musical) to direct a remake of Dirty Dancing. We actually have Ortega to thank for those taboo dance moves, as he was the choreographer of the 1987 film. Lionsgate is taking a mulligan on the franchise after the 2004 sequel Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights was a bit of a bomb upon its release.

Ortega was actually set to direct the Footloose remake, but eventually dropped out and Brewer and newcomer Kenny Wormald took over (believe it or not, that film is getting some fantastic word-of-mouth). There are no casting decisions or screenwriter announcements for Dirty Dancing as of yet, but the report states that it’s a high priority for Lionsgate so expect things to move quickly.

If you were a child of the 80s, you may have fond memories of the Tron video game.  But do your recall the other 8-bit creations based on the movies of the day, like Dirty Dancing, Cool Runnings, Rain Man, and Field of Dreams?  No?  Well, I suppose that’s because they didn’t exactly… exist.

But they do now, thanks to Dan Meth.  Meth has animated a clip reel for the “forgotten” Nintendo games of the 1980s.  His scope extends beyond the cinema to other cultural events of the decade, from Tank Man, to tearing down the Berlin Wall, to the Chernobyl disaster.  It’s absolutely worth a look after the jump.

According to multiple sources, Patrick Swayze died this evening at the age of 57 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.  Patrick revealed his illness to his fans in March of 2008 and while some reports said he would be dead within a matter of weeks, Swayze not only continued to tell those reporters to go screw but work on a memoir with his wife Annett Wolf as well as doing 13 episodes of the A&E series “The Beast”, work he did without painkillers because he felt it would take the edge off his performance.

Click through for more regarding Swayze’s passing.