The TJ Hooker Movie Is Moving Forward
Stay with this story for the frightening clue that theTJ Hookermovie is actually going to star William Shatner. It’s worth it for the shudder factor.
Varietyhave namedChuck Russellas the director out in the lead for theTJ Hookergig. The screenplay is being written byBrent MaddockandSS Wilson, who previously took up pens forTremors,Short CircuitandGhost Dad. While the 80s TV series was a straight up cop action drama, his movie is being pegged as a comedy, perhaps inevitably.
The plot details available fromVarietyare vague but perhaps very telling, revealing that the story “focuses on the relationship between the title character and his father”. There was no father in the original set-up, so I think I can sniff out the gimmick here. This new TJ Hooker will be, I guess, ‘the next generation’. My hunch is that Shatner will return as Thomas Jefferson Hooker, with a younger, comedic actor cast in the role of TJ Jr. This will, effectively, prevent the film from being a remake adaptation and turn it into a sequel instead. I’d say there’s also a chance that they’ll finally end up solving (or re-solving?) the murder of TJ Hooker Sr.’s partner.
I expect that in the filmmaker’s dreams they’d wind up with Ben Stiller as Hooker mk2, though Seann William Scott seems like a more reasonable bet. Perhaps they can get Michael Rappaport in to audition for a bad guy, at least. Of course, this is all supposition andTrue Romancejokes on my part, but I’m stacking shinies on Shatner’s involvement. He certainly seems keen to remain in the orbit of his TV franchises and, over here at least, he’s definitely still seen with a lot of sentimental nostalgia.
The last time Maddock and Wilson translated a TV drama into big screen comedy, we ended up withWild Wild West. It doesn’t bode well, does it?
