‘THE Six Million Dollar Man,” a once-hot ’70s sci-fi show, is coming back as a potential box-office blockbuster.
This time, instead of the serious secret agent theme that made the show famous more than 25 years ago, the movie is planned be a comedy produced by the Farrelly brothers — the About Mary” and “Dumb and team behind “There’s Something Dumber.”
Also, in a decidedly 21st century twist, the movie will be called “The Six Billion Dollar Man” to adjust for inflation.
The show, which aired from 1974 to 1978, was about Steve Austin (played by Lee Majors), a former astronaut-turned-secret agent whose strength has been enhanced with bionic-mechanical limbs. The new movie is tentatively about a hero (who may or may not be called Steve Austin) who is trying to figuring out how to work his billion-dollar body parts while dealing with a rival who cost $1 billion more than he did to build, Variety reports.
Up until now, the movie had been a pet project for Richard Anderson, the actor who played Austin’s boss, Oscar Goldman on TV.
Anderson had been expecting to produce a “Six Million Dollar Man” movie as recently as last year, but with the Farrelly brothers in charge now it is not known how involved he will be — on or off-screen.
Rumors of the film have been circulating for more than three years ever since Kevin Smith (“Clerks”) and Joss Whedon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) both submitted scripts to Universal.
“The Six Billion Dollar Man,” is just the latest in a long line of films that are based on vintage TV shows.
Hoopla hit a fever pitch for the upcoming “Charlie’s Angels” film.
The movie — set to hit theaters later this year — is based on the hugely successful ’70s babe-detective show and will star Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and “Ally McBeal” star Lucy Liu as a new trio of sexy private-eyes.
The roles were first made famous on TV by Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson.
Also on the way later this month is a sequel to the 1994 film “The Flintstones” and possibily next year, a movie based on the ’70s sci-fi show, “Battlestar Galactica.”
Meanwhile, casting rumors abound for the “Josie and the Pussycats” movie in development at Universal Studios.
The film, based on the popular ’70s Hanna-Barbera cartoon is likely to star Tara Ried (“American Pie”) as the guitar wielding Josie who solves mysteries with the help of her rock band and friends, “The Pussycats.”
Theatrical remakes of TV shows have a long history of flopping, however, and if history is any indication, the latest batch of made for TV show based movies may have a rough road ahead.
“Wild Wild West,” “Lost in Space,” “The Mod Squad” and “The Avengers,” all based on classic TV shows, have tanked famously at the box office.