In continuing with the current trend of adapting movie properties into TV series, Deadline is reporting that NBC has placed a scripted commitment for a program based on Wolfgang Peterson’s 1993 thriller In The Line Of Fire. The original film starred Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich, who garnered an Oscar nomination for his performance as creepy would – be assassin Mitch Leary. This is the second Malkovich movie-to-series adaptation in development at the network, as earlier this summer it was announced that the Peacock is working on a series inspired by the RED movies.
According to the report, the story for the new In The Line Of Fire series will follow a similar story trajectory as the film but with procedural elements weaved throughout. The story will follow “a Secret Service agent who, after a fall from grace, gets the chance to redeem himself when a rogue CIA hitman threatens to assassinate the president.” The team of Carol Mendelsohn and Josh Berman are behind the new project and are no strangers to the reboot/remake/adaptation game as they currently are attached to Sawyer & Huck series at CBS as well as that fabulous sounding remake of Hart To Hart.
With NBC’s recent series order for a Taken prequel series, it seems very possible the network is clamping down on an action/drama theme for their slate of programming for the 2016-2017 season. The competition — and lack of original ideas being greenlit — is ramping up with Fox’s recent pilot order for a Behind Enemy Lines series, CBS’s plans to get all “street” with that Training Day reboot, and WGN’s TV remake of William Friedkin’s ’80s cult classic To Live And Die In L.A.
(Via Deadline)
