Deadline
By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday December 9, 2011

EXCLUSIVE: Lifetime is heading back to The Blue Lagoon. The cable network has greenlighted a contemporary remake of the 1980 romance/adventure movie starring Brooke Shields, which centered on a boy and a girl marooned on a tropical island, where they grow up together, fall in love and discover sexuality. Neil Meron and Craig Zadan’s Storyline Entertainment and Judith Verno’s Peace Out Prods are producing the film in association with Sony Pictures TV, with Meron, Zadan and Verno executive producing. The project was originally set up at Lifetime in 2004 with Heather Rutman and Matt Heller as writers. Casting is already underway, with filming eyed for a February start in Puerto Rico.The Blue Lagoon movie franchise is known for giving young actresses their big break. The 1980 film made Shields a household name, while the 1991 sequel Return To The Blue Lagoon launched the career of Milla Jovovich.

The story of The Blue Lagoon, which echoes the biblical tale of Adam and Eve, originated as a novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. It was first made into a movie in Britain in 1949, with Jean Simmons as the young girl. This is the second high-profile contemporary movie remake in the works at Lifetime and produced by Zadan, Meron and Sony TV, along with a Steel Magnolia reboot with an all-black cast. On the series side, Zadan and Meron are executive producing Lifetime’sDrop Dead Diva and NBC’s midseason musical drama Smash.