Newly-solvent General Motors is looking to get into the movie business, with the car manufacturer in talks with producer Al Ruddy to finance a remake of the 1981 Burt Reynolds comedy “The Cannonball Run”. The project is clearly being eyed as a potential feature-length commercial for the company’s automobiles.
The project, according to Vulture, is also being circled by a couple of A-list directors, with Guy Ritchie and Shawn Levy both having expressed interest in helming the project as starring vehicles for Brad Pitt and Ben Stiller, respectively. Pitt previously had a supporting role in Ritchie’s 2000 crime movie “Snatch”, while Stiller served as the protagonist in Levy’s two “Night at the Museum” films.
Ritchie appears to have the edge here, according to unnamed insiders, particularly given that the director and Pitt are both repped by talent agency CAA, which boasts GM as a corporate client.
The original “Cannonball Run” boasted the all-star cast of Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., among others, in a film about a group of oddball characters who compete in an illegal, no-holds-barred race across the U.S. It proved to be one of the biggest hits of 1981, grossing over $72 million Stateside. A poorly-received 1984 sequel made less than half that much and effectively put the brakes on the franchise – until now, anyway.
Ruddy produced both of the original movies.
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