Remembering the Dirty Dancing Movie Prequel Starring Patrick Swayze We All Forgot

11 October 2022, 16:23

Dirty Dancing was a monster hit upon its release in 1987 that has only gone on to become more iconic over time.

Its success and its introduction to many of lead star Patrick Swayze made the decision to release a sequel an easy one.

However, you'd be forgiven for not even realising this happened at all. Not only that, but it took 17 years for a follow-up instalment to be made.

So what was this film, what was it about and why wasn't it a hit?

1. When and how was Dirty Dancing's prequel made?

   Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights - Trailer

   Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights was released in 2004. This one was actually a prequel, taking place five years before the original movie, in 1958.

   Havana Nights was based on an original screenplay by radio host Peter Sagal, based on the real-life experience of producer JoAnn Jansen. Jansen had lived in Cuba as a 15-year-old in the late 1950s.

   Sagal wrote the first screenplay, which he titled Cuba Mine, about a young American woman who witnessed the Cuban revolution, and had a romance with a young Cuban revolutionary.

   At first, the story was to be a serious political romance story. It was commissioned in 1992 and the screenplay was bought by a film studio, which requested several rewrites before dropping out.

   A full decade later, producer Lawrence Bender wanted to make a Dirty Dancing sequel, and this film was very loosely adapted from Sagal's script.

   However, not a single line from Sagal's original screenplay appeared in the final film, and Sagal said that the only a minor amount of the political theme stayed.

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   Who was in the cast of Havana Nights?

   Natalie Portman was first offered the role of Katey Miller, but she turned it down.

   Ricky Martin was also considered for the role of Javier Suarez.

   The film starred British actress Romola Garai in her first Hollywood film, and she since said that the filming of the movie was an extremely negative experience.

   In 2004, she said that the filmmakers "were obsessed with having someone skinny. I just thought, why didn't they get someone like Kate Bosworth, if that's what they wanted?".

   Opposite Romola was Diego Luna as Javier Suarez, plus other roles for Sela Ward, John Slattery, January Jones, Mika Boorem and Mya among others.