The relative success of The A-Team and 21 Jump Street has led Hollywood to consider what other Stephen J. Cannell TV series it can reboot, now that Cannell is dead and can’t poke his goatee into the proceedings. NBC has already called dibs on Wiseguy, William Katt’s persistent phone calls have only soured them on The Greatest American Hero, and Stingray and Silk Stalkings were both merely elaborate pranks created to serve as ironic references 20 years later, so that pretty much leaves The Rockford Files, which Universal is now developing as a feature film. Deadline reports that the studio has commissioned a script that will revive the down-on-his-luck private eye who prefers to talk his way out of trouble, with the role played by James Garner in the 1970s series now passing to Vince Vaughn, based on Vaughn’s similar gift of gab and head girth. There’s no word as yet whether the script will follow the faithful yet contemporary update formula of NBC’s own failed Rockford Files reboot with Dermot Mulroney, or take the winking, we-are-aware-this-is-cheap-and-stupid-but-thanks-for-paying-anyway tack of so many other TV-to-movie remakes, but you can probably make an educated guess as to tone, given Vaughn’s involvement. “Fine, but where’s my Riptide movie?” asks someone who probably owns a speedboat.
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