Hairspray, the film of the Broadway musical of the film, is 'an absolute hoot' featuring, among other surprises, John Travolta in drag. Director Adam Shankman talks to Donald Clarkeabout remaking a cult favourite - just don't mention his previous efforts

'YOU may not have liked my other movies," Adam Shankman, a neat, brown man in a well-cut sports jacket, says with a cheeky twinkle. "But whatever you think, you have to accept they made a lot of money."

I'd like to make positive noises about Shankman's previous pictures, but some lies are just too gigantic to pass comfortably through the average human mouth. Adam, originally a dancer, then a choreographer, began his directing career with The Wedding Planner, an unlovely Jennifer Lopez project, and, hard though it may be to believe, it was downhill from there on in. The Pacifier? Cheaper by the Dozen 2? Bringing Down the House? Men have run away to join the Foreign Legion after committing lesser atrocities.

With this in mind, recovering Shankman victims would be well advised to hold onto their hats. Hairspray, the film version of the stage musical based on (do keep up) John Waters's bracing 1988 movie of the same name, is an absolute hoot from beginning to end. John Travolta, taking on a role previously essayed by gay icons Divine and Harvey Fierstein, sashays about in a fat suit and several fabulous dresses. Nikki Blonsky, a 19-year-old with no professional experience, grasps the central role by the neck and throttles it into submission. Michelle Pfeiffer gets to be satisfactorily evil. Christopher Walken dances.

Hairspray should find a substantial mainstream audience but, even if it does get bullied aside by Transformers and Harry Potter, it will inevitably pick up an eager following on DVD.

"Oh I don't care where the audience comes from. I just want them to see it," Shankman flounces. "And I was astonished by the test screenings we did. Suddenly these waves of laughter began sweeping across the audience. They began laughing when John appeared and I quickly realised they were laughing with John rather than at him. Then, when we looked at the test scores we were astonished to discover they were as high with men as with women."

Warming to his theme, Shankman, now 42, suddenly comes over all evangelical.

"This film is like crack to audiences. They come out buzzing and singing. I have never seen anything like it. I can't believe I had anything to do with it."

Hairspray - set, like Waters's original film, in Baltimore during the early 1960s - follows the attempts of a chubby, optimistic teenager named Tracy to secure a place dancing on a teen TV show. The film addresses the conflicts that surrounded racial integration and has something to say about the erosion of 1950s social conformity, but is most notable for its relentlessly positive tone and gently subversive humour. The first picture, which introduced Ricki Lake to the world, had a slightly more sardonic tone to it.

"Yeah, that's right," Shankman says. "The difference here is that we see everything through Tracy's point of view. John Waters made the original as a tribute to his own early days in Baltimore. But in that film Ricki Lake was very much more acidic. She was very brash and tough. The musical on stage delivered a different kind of Tracy and we, maybe, created a hybrid of the two here."

Splendid as Blonsky's performance is (the plucky youth sent a tape to the producers and was astonished to be selected) most of the press attention will inevitably be focused on John Travolta's impressively weird performance as the girl's mother. Dainty beneath pounds of rubber, Travolta makes something genuinely poignant of this likeable grotesque. It does not, however, seem like an obvious casting choice.

"Well, it's funny you say that. We all thought that at first. For the most part, John's comedies have not been very outrageous. He is known for these macho roles, even in his musicals."

In all previous incarnations of Hairspray, he says, Tracy has been played by a newcomer while the role of the mother provided a showcase for an established star.

"Look. We didn't want it to be a little independent thing. John is the biggest musical star of our generation. So, in an odd way it does make perfect sense for him to be in the picture. I suddenly thought: holy crap, this could be fun. If I get John we can get Edna to really dance. The whole thing is about dance."

Despite Travolta's attempts to de-gay Hairspray (see panel), the picture has received the imprimatur of its distinguished progenitor. John Waters, who directed such disgusting classics as Pink Flamingos and Polyester before skirting the mainstream with Cry-Baby and the original Hairspray, appears in the picture's opening number as - what else? - a flasher.

"I sent him this awful e-mail when I was in Baltimore," Shankman recalls. "'Dear Mr Waters, my name is Adam Shankman and I am directing the film of the musical version of Hairspray.' I got a text back minutes later and he picked me up in his big gold car and drove me around all the original locations. I was, I think, calling him 'Mr Waters' throughout. Eventually he said: 'Adam, you just have to stop that'."

Given Shankman's record as a director, Waters could have been forgiven for recoiling in horror from the younger man's handshake. But perhaps Waters realised that, as a professional choreographer, Shankman would likely know one end of a musical from the other. Sure enough, the picture features energised dance numbers opened out to persuasively cinematic effect. It must be an exhausting business directing actors and devising choreography on the same project.

"I wish I could have a complicated answer that would help you out," he says. "But it's really quite straightforward. The choreography is prepared in advance. But it really doesn't feel like two separate jobs anyway. You are doing the same thing in both tasks, but one happens to involve a camera. Look, they are both just different versions of telling people what to do."

Adam Shankman seems like a nice fellow. Don't miss this rare opportunity see a good film by the man.

Hairspray opens on July 20th

Straight story? Travolta, Scientology and gay rights

THE presence of John Travolta, a prominent scientologist, in the cast of Hairspray has attracted some negative publicity to the picture. Kevin Naff, editor of Washington Blade, a gay publication based in the US capital, is leading the protest.

"It's well known that Scientology has operated reparative therapy clinics to try to 'cure' gays," he said recently. "Scientologists are required to donate a hefty portion of their income to the church. So, by going to this movie, gay people are literally putting money into an organisation that seeks to 'cure' them."

Travolta's response to this apparent call for a boycott introduced fresh ambiguities to the debate. "There is nothing gay in this movie," he said. "I'm not playing a gay man. Scientology is not homophobic in any way. In fact it's one of the more tolerant faiths. Anyone's accepted."

One can only imagine what John Waters, one of cinema's most unapologetically gay directors, would make of the phrase "nothing gay in this movie". Adam Shankman, not unfriendly to Dorothy himself, chooses to downplay the controversy.

"This was just one guy on one small, local paper," he snorts. "It's total bullshit. It's a horrible plea for attention. You are trying to convince gays not to see Hairspray! I mean, come on. The majority of the creative people on this film are gay. The writers. The hairdressers. The dancers. We are all gay. And you are trying to organise a campaign against all that. It is total bullshit."

There are, however, questions to be asked about Scientology. Are there not? "This is a completely misguided campaign," Shankman says. "Scientologists don't actually go after people to deprogramme them. Am I going to boycott all films featuring Catholics? I don't think so."