It will be deju vu all over again for "No respect" comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who has signed on with MGM to remake his own 1986 movie "Back to School," reports the Associated Press.
Only this time, the comic, who recently underwent brain surgery in preparation for an upcoming heart valve replacement, will not star in the film, which in the original was as heartwarming as it was amusing.
Dangerfield, now 81, played a wealthy but uneducated businessman who signs up for college courses on the same campus where his son is failing. They not only eventually graduate together, they also strengthen their relationship.
For the remake, Dangerfield's publicist Kevin Sasaki told the AP, the comic will deliver no more than a cameo on screen but will serve behind the camera in a producing capacity. Dangerfield retained some ownership of the film, which had been made by the now-defunct Orion Pictures.
And in other casting news, Joey Buttafuoco, 47, the Long Island, N.Y., auto mechanic who gained notoriety in 1992 after his teenage love, Amy Fisher, shot his wife, Mary Jo, will play a Mafia don in the upcoming independent film "Gangsta Mafia," reports the AP.
The film is said to be about an Italian crime boss who decides to expand his operations into South Los Angeles.
Buttafuoco's previous film credits include "Finding Forrester," which also starred Sean Connery, and Woody Allen's "Celebrity."
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