Randal Kleiser to direct <i>Red Riding Hood</i> (9349)

Openly gay Grease director Randal Kleiser will take the helm of a movie musical version of the classic fairy tale Red Riding Hood, with a script from Timothy Dolan and music by Bruce Roberts. Joey Fatone, Debi Mazar, and Lainie Kazan are set to star along with newcomer Morgan Thompson. Henry Cavill and Cassandra Peterson--better known as her alter ego, Elvira--also are on board. Tag Entertainment's Steve Austin and Jonathan Bogner will produce. The Tag team also recently produced a big-screen version of Hansel & Gretel.

Hood is being described as an irreverent adaptation--a modern retelling, complete with contemporary dialogue and music--of the well-known tale about a young girl traveling through a scary forest to visit her sick grandmother. Shooting is slated to begin this month with Fatone as the wolf, Mazar as Red Riding Hood's mother, Kazan as the grandmother, Cavill as the hunter, and Peterson as the hunter's wife. Sam Stone, Daniel Roebuck, David Kaufman, Sung Hi Lee, Andrea Bowen, Ashley Rose Orr, and Callie Waterman round out the cast.

Besides Grease, the 1978 hit movie musical that starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, Kleiser's credits include The Blue Lagoon, It's My Party, and Summer Lovers.