People wear face masks as they watch a film in a cinema on Monday in Prague, as shopping malls, outdoor restaurant seating, hairdressers and cinemas resume business as COVID-19 measures ease after a two-month lockdown in the Czech Republic. Photo: AFP

 A new Dirty Dancing movie is in development, with Jennifer Grey expected to reprise her iconic role as Frances "Baby" Houseman after more than three decades.

The original 1987 romantic smash hit about a teenage girl who falls for her summer camp dance instructor propelled Grey and her co-star, actor Patrick Swayze, to global fame.

The film's climactic scene in which Swayze's character vows "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" before capping a dance routine by lifting Grey above his head has entered movie folklore.

Grey will star in and executive produce the new movie, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said in an earnings call Thursday.

"It will be exactly the kind of romantic nostalgic movie that the franchise's fans have been waiting for and that have made it the biggest selling library title in the company's history," he said. 

Dirty Dancing - a low-budget movie which went on to gross over $210 million worldwide - has already spawned a prequel, 2004's Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.

During the earnings call, Feltheimer joked that the new film was "one of the worst kept secrets in Hollywood."

But no plot details were revealed, and it is not known if the movie will be a direct sequel.

Complicating matters around a possible sequel, Swayze passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2009 aged 57.

The original movie won an Oscar for the song "(I've Had) The Time of My Life."

The new film will be directed by Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies).