'Dirty Dancing' remake decides on a screenwriter

'Dirty Dancing' remake decides on a screenwriter, promises it won't be an exact replica of the original

Production is still a ways off and a release date even further down the line, but audiences are already divided when it comes to Lionsgate's Dirty Dancing remake.

Any reboot or remake is bound to have some doubtful die-hard fans of the original, but Dirty Dancing has the added cred of being one of the defining movies of the '80s.

It was Patrick Swayze's breakthrough into sex symbol-dom and you'll be hard-pressed to find a soul who can't hum along to "(I've Had) the Time of My Life."

But the production studio is moving full steam ahead with their plans to revamp the song-and-dance drama, with High School Musical's Kenny Ortega taking on directorial duties.

And now Ortega, who choreographed the now-iconic dancing for the original flick, has chosen his partner in crime.

According to Deadline, Ortega and Lionsgate have tapped Maria Maggenti to pen the update.

Maggenti doesn't have an incredibly colorful resume just yet, but she does have the girly fun Monte Carlo under her belt. Fox and New Regency were so impressed by her work with the Selena Gomez-Leighton Meester fluff fest that they let her tackle the film adaptation of young adult novel Before I Fall.

Ortega and Maggenti surely have their work cut out for them when it comes to converting the Swayze-purists to warm up to the idea of a remake.

Ortega, for one, knows that the performances of the original will be impossible to recapture or imitate.

"I'm not looking for someone to fill Patrick Swayze's shoes, or Jennifer Grey's shoes. They're one of a kind and they deserve to be called that," he told The Insider.

According to Slash Film, Lionsgate doesn't want to simply find another Baby to put in a corner -- they are planning to use the film simply as a "template" for their next-gen reimagining.