There’s no point being outraged, shocked or surprised. Moviemakers want safe, reliable properties, preferably cheap, and with every comic book, sexy fan-fiction, fairytale and young adult series getting snatched up, of course, television will be the next place to get fracked. Even the title alone will suffice, with “21 Jump Street” hardly resembling the show except in name plus a cameo from Johnny Depp because, well, he’s Johnny Depp. So what’s next on Hollywood’s list?
Well, it would be “Good Times” with Scott Rudin producing the movie for Sony. The 1970s series — sort of a spinoff from “Maude” — was groundbreaking at the time, one of the first shows to center on a black, working-class family. Finding the laughs as the family fought unemployment and financial concerns, one of the show’s lasting pop cultural effects (aside from the opening theme) was Jimmy Walker‘s catchphrase “Dyno-mite!” How much the movie will stick to the show remains to be see, but a 1960s setting is promised so perhaps it will stay at least in the spirit of the original series, and probably won’t feature Korean Jesus.
“Starsky & Hutch” proved you could keep the flavor and contemporize an old TV show, so it will be interesting to see how this all develops. But studios don’t pick up these kind of properties to be thought-provoking — they want big, mass-appeal entertainment, so let the casting for the new Jimmy Walker begin. [Deadline]