Blame THE FALL GUY for DreamWorks’ Adaptation of 1980s Stuntman/Bounty Hunter Series

In a post-A-Team world, action series from the eighties seem to be en vogue.  Scribe Jason Richman is currently fashioning a MacGyver movie with just a paper clip and some twine.  Russell Crowe is attached to a remake of the CBS crime series The Equalizer.  Now DreamWorks is hard at work on a reboot of the Lee Major stuntman series The Fall Guy.

The series was created by Glen A. Larson, the man behind such series as Magnum P.I., Knight Rider, and the original Battlestar Galactica.  Majors starred as Hollywood stuntman/bounty hunter Colt Seavers, who did all the cool things you would expect a stuntman/bounty hunter to do.  More after the jump:

According to 24 Frames, the project is still in early development, but the studio is expected to hire a writer soon.  I look forward to more details on the approach.

Majors was 42 during 1981, when the first season started airing.  I imagine DreamWorks will be tempted to go younger, but let’s assume they don’t.  And let’s assume for now that they play it somewhat straight (i.e. ’tis not a Will Ferrell comedy).  Who would would you cast as a Colt Seavers for the new millennium?  I’m thinking Clive Owen.  I could be talked into Gerard Butler.

On a related note, what eighties action series is still ripe for adaptation that the studios haven’t picked yet?  In the right hands, Quantum Leap could be a pretty fantastic franchise.  In the wrong hands?  Oh, boy…

Here’s a tongue-in-cheek synopsis for The Fall Guy via Amazon:

The hero of The Fall Guy, Colt Seavers–played by Lee Majors, the former Six Million Dollar Man–is a Hollywood stunt man, which lets the show do all kinds of spectacular car crashes with no justification whatsoever, and he’s a bounty hunter, which lets him get into all kinds of fist fights and ridiculous plots with no justification whatsoever. It’s the perfect 1980s TV show, and it’s no surprise it was created by Glen Larson, the mastermind behind such hits as Knight Rider, Battlestar Galactica, and Magnum, P.I.

Assisted by his handsome but not-too-bright cousin Howie Munson (Douglas Barr) and sexy stuntwoman Jody Banks (blonde bombshell Heather Thomas), Colt grapples with a corrupt sheriff, a mob hit man, a government secret agent, a neo-Nazi biker gang (which, naturally, Colt had to infiltrate through cunning disguise), women wrestlers, and more, more, more. Preposterous? Absolutely! It’s all an excuse to set things on fire and parade scantily clad young women around (Thomas had a popular bikini scene that led to a top-selling poster), while the Hollywood setting allowed for cameo appearances by stars ranging from James Coburn (In Like Flint) to Lou Ferrigno (appearing as himself playing the Incredible Hulk–it’s downright postmodern) to Farrah Fawcett (Charlie’s Angels), Majors’ just-divorced ex-wife.

Here’s the theme song from The Fall Guy, which Majors performed himself: