With full credit taken for delivering the best Bond film in years with “Casino Royale,” a gritty reboot (of sorts) of the franchise, director Martin Campbell flopped hard with his next two films. There was the misguided Mel Gibson thriller “Edge Of Darkness” (which this writer turned off halfway through) and then this summer’s comic movie disaster, “Green Lantern.” So what kind of movies do you get direct when you get locked up in director’s jail? TV reboots.
This project has been developing for years — as far back as 2003 this was being worked on — but last we heard in 2010, DreamWorks was teaming with producer Walter Parkes (“Catch Me If You Can,” “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Men In Black 3“) to bring the 1980s Lee Majors-led TV show to the big screen. We haven’t heard much else but now this thing might have a director.
Deadline reports that Campbell is in “early discussions” to take the helm. If you never watched the show, it follows a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a bounty hunter. It’s like “Dog The Bounty Hunter” meets “Drive“! (We really hope the actual pitch didn’t go like that). “Thor” and “X-Men: First Class” writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz are penning the script so there’s some promise, but Campbell has long way to go to get back in our good graces. It’s not quite clear if the project is still at DreamWorks or has moved on, but at the very least, let’s hope they keep that theme song.
