While youngsters nowadays are unlikely to even know who Gidget is (other than perhaps from a parade of kitsch merchandise), Variety reports that 300 producer Mark Canton and Pterodactyl Pictures seem to think there’s enough life in the 1950s surfer girl to launch new Gidget projects on both the big and small screens.
Based on a 1957 novel, Gidget became a bit of a pop culture phenomenon in the late 60s and early 60s, thanks to films and TV series starring the likes of Sandra Dee and Sally Field (Field played Gidget in a mid 60s TV series, which was her first big break, before The Flying Nun). The character was what we’d now describe as a tween sensation, giving young people the sense they were seeing something hip, modern and on the edge, when it was actually all very wholesome and safe. Of course it also fed into the burgeoning surf craze, showing a girl who was ready to ride the waves.
While it definitely seems like a product of its time, producer Canton nevertheless feels that, “Gidget has always been such a strong symbol of girl power. With female surfing exploding across the globe, the time is right to bring her back in a major way.”
Barney Cohen, one of the men behind the modern TV version of Sabrina The Teenage Witch, is in charge of getting the TV series and movie off the ground, thanks to a deal with Gidget Worldwide, which own the rights to the character, and has been agressively merchandising the Gidget character in recent years, with the hopes bringing her to a new generation through a new film will open up even more ways to make money.