Morgan Creek Productions is no more. The company has been rebranded and is now officially called Morgan Creek Entertainment Group, and they’re digging into their library of films to “exploit across multiple platforms” titles like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Young Guns, Major League, Pacific Heights, Diabolique, Clive Barker’s Nightbreed, and David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers. Some of these properties will be intended for television while some are heading for the big screen, and you can read all about their plans below.
Deadline brings the news about the company’s new vision, which began by getting The Exorcist adapted into a FOX television series. The idea is to do something similar for Dead Ringers (they’re currently in talks with an unnamed showrunner about a TV version), while they’re aiming high for Young Guns: a movie and a TV show are planned for that property, and they’re looking for a new group of up-and-coming actors to take over for Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Lou Diamond Phillips, Casey Siemaszko, and Dermot Mulroney – some of whom went on to have better careers than others.
But the one that fascinates me the most is an Ace Ventura reboot, because how on Earth would anyone recapture the singular insanity that Jim Carrey brought to that role? First of all, they’re looking to make that one a “mainstream theatrical production relaunch,” and they want Carrey to come back and reprise the role to hand the baton to “a long-lost son or daughter of Ace possibly showing up at his doorstep and taking over.” But the company’s president, David Robinson (not the basketball player), also said it could work as a show:
“Because it’s episodic in nature, about a pet detective, it also lends itself to a traditional single-camera series franchise.”
I love the fact that a businessman had to issue a serious statement about a pet detective. That cracks me up.
Ideally, the company wants to get the blessings of these films’ original creators before they move forward, and they’re also approaching these properties with the possibility of actors moving from film to television (or vice versa) if the projects justify that level of expansion.
Anyway, good luck casting all of these projects: most of these movies were boosted by excellent casting (pro tip: seek out a creepy Michael Keaton in Pacific Heights if you’ve never seen that one before), so that sounds like the biggest obstacle ahead of them at this point. Well that, and coming up with stories that actually warrant reboots in the first place. And don’t be surprised if you start seeing graphic novels, games, or live productions popping up, because those are all on the table as well. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather see an Ace Ventura stage show than a movie reboot/sequel. Have the people at Morgan Creek ever seen Ace Ventura Jr: Pet Detective? Making a good comedy sequel is harder than it sounds.
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