A whole bunch of classic movies are about to get the reboot treatment, both as TV shows and movies. It’s been announced that Morgan Creek Productions, which was first founded in 1988, is rebranding as Morgan Creek Entertainment Group. Their new strategy will be to look at their massive library of titles and work on reboots across all forms of media. Some of the bigger titles they are looking at rebooting areYoung Guns,Major Leagueand, most notably, Jim Carrey’s classic comedyAce Ventura. Here’s what MCEG president David Robinson, the son of company founder James Robinson, had to say.
“Morgan Creek’s globally recognized brand and premium titles are an ideal fit for the extraordinary creative revolution taking place in the television and digital worlds today.”
Starting withAce Ventura, David Robinson says that they welcome the idea ofJim Carrey returning to the role. They envision making a new movie that won’t be a remake, but instead will be a “new movie in the spirit of the original” that is envisioned as a “baton-handing” to a younger actor. The idea is that this younger actor, perhaps a long-lost son or daughter, would then take over as a new pet detective that could shepherd the franchise moving forward, which could also include a show. This idea was already tried once before with 2007’sAce Ventura Jr., which featured Josh Flitter as the son of Jim Carrey’s supersleuth who comes to the rescue when his mother is the prime suspect in the kidnapping of a baby panda. To say that it wasn’t received well is an understatement.
“We wanted to do a mainstream theatrical production relaunch…Because it’s episodic in nature, about a pet detective, it also lends itself to a traditional single-camera series franchise.”
This new strategy for Morgan Creek started with Fox’sThe Exorcist, but is now being accelerated rapidly.Young Guns, whichstars Emilio Estevezand Kiefer Sutherland and was released in 1988 and spawned a sequel, is also on deck for a reboot. In this case, the vision is for both a TV series and a movie. Though, this reboot would feature a new group of young up-and-comers, as opposed to bringing back anyone from the original cast.
At the moment, not much has been said about theMajor League reboot, only that it’s one of the projects being eyed.Charlie Sheen recently saidthat a newMajor Leaguemovie was in the works with the original cast, but it seems unlikely this movie would take that form. Other projects mentioned in this report includeDiabolique,Pacific HeightsandNightbreed, which will include creator Clive Barker as part of the creative team, with David Cronenberg also supporting the plans for aDead Ringersreboot series. One of the things that helps Morgan Creek in pursuing these reboots is that, unlike many studios, James Robinson secured all of the underlying rights for all of their properties. David Robinson feels that is a huge asset for them moving forward.
“Given the quality of our library, we are in a unique position among independent content-driven companies to take advantage of the many opportunities this new world presents, thanks to the foresight shown by James Robinson over the past 30 years.”
Head of content Barbara Wall makes it clear that they are willing to explore any possible platforms for these reboots, saying that Morgan Creek is “platform agnostic.” According toDeadline’s report, the company will also pursue ancillary ways to exploit their existing library, with short-form content, graphic novels and video games all being explored. Even though Morgan Creek is focusing a lot on reboots, the report also notes they’re going with a “50-50” strategy, looking to do just as much original content. Still, a lot of reboots could be on the way with this new strategy kicking into high gear.
