‘Footloose’ Director Cuts Loose From Movie_1527 and

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‘Footloose’ Director Cuts Loose From Movie

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Caption Chace Crawford attends the premiere of ‘The Stepfather’ at the SVA Theater, NYC, October 12, 2009 First Zac Efron leaves the “Footloose” reboot and now director Kenny Ortega has reportedly left the movie as well.

According to Variety, the director, who helmed the Michael Jackson concert film “This Is It,” parted from the project due to differences with Paramount over budget and tone.

“Coming off the extraordinary project, Michael Jackson’s ‘This is It,’ director Kenny Ortega has decided it is premature for him to commit to his next film and will not be moving forward with ‘Footloose’ as previously reported,” a rep for the director said in a statement.

According to a Variety source, Kenny wanted to make a musical heavy movie with “elaborately staged musical numbers,” which was slated to reportedly cost around $30 million. The studio reportedly had an edgier movie in mind with less musical numbers, costing around $25 million.

Paramount is reportedly searching for a new director and will start production in March, in order to coincide with Chace Crawford’s hiatus from “Gossip Girl. Chace replaced Zac after he hung up his dancing shoes on the project.