Those Samuel Gerard impressions are coming back into fashion! Yahoo reports that Warner Bros. is developing a new iteration of The Fugitive, 22 years after the feature film adaptation of the popular 1960s TV series opened to commercial and critical acclaim, spawning new catchphrases for both Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. It’s unclear whether the actors will return, or even whether this is a sequel, remake, or something else entirely, but Christina Hodson has been set to pen the screenplay with Arnold and Anne Kopelson returning to produce.
Director Andrew Davis’ film was one of those rare “perfect storm” movies, in which everything seemed to click perfectly despite the fact that much of the film’s dialogue was improvised on the spot. Jones won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role of Samuel Gerard, the U.S. Marshal tasked with hunting down Ford’s Dr. Richard Kimble, a man falsely imprisoned for murdering his wife. The action thriller netted seven Oscar nominations in total, including Best Picture and Best Cinematography.
Warner Bros. moved haphazardly on a sequel called U.S. Marshals in the 90s, with Jones reprising his role opposite new characters played by Wesley Snipes and Robert Downey Jr. That movie was, quite frankly, very bad, but I’m intrigued by the possibility of a new iteration. The Fugitive is one of my favorite films of all time so it’ll be a tough act to follow, and I’m not entirely convinced WB won’t try to make this into a Taken-esque brawler, but if done right it would be nice to see a summer blockbuster that’s minimal on CG for a change.
What do you think, folks? Would you see a new The Fugitive movie? Should it be called The Fugitive: Re-Armed? (h/t Matt Goldberg on that one) What’s your favorite line from the original? Sound off in the comments below. I’m partial to, “The guy did a Peter Pan right here off of this dam, right here!”
