“Every property from 1970-2000 is getting a second and third look,” a Hollywood source told us on August 31. “I’m talking TV and movies.”
Here comes the TV half.
Paramount Pictures is putting together a Hawaii Five-O movie, per a Deadline exclusive, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton set to develop and direct, meaning he’ll shape the project with the plan of directing it himself.
Chris Bremner, the Bad Boys for Life writer, will write the script with Noah Oppenheim (Jackie).
The package was put together by Entertainment 360’s Guymon Casady along with the estate of series creator Leonard Freeman, and Casady will produce.
Why It Went To Paramount First
Per Deadline, the project went to Paramount first because both the original series and the remake were CBS shows, and CBS is Paramount.
The studio had no comment, and the report describes the project as early and just starting to come together.
The original Hawaii Five-O ran on CBS from 1968 to 1980. Jack Lord starred as Steve McGarrett, the hard-nosed head of a state police task force in Hawaii, and “Book ’em, Danno” became one of the most famous lines in television.
A movie has been tried before. Deadline notes past attempts, led by the late George Litto, Freeman’s rep, fell apart over lawsuits with CBS and rights problems.
The property went back to television instead as the hit 2010-2020 CBS remake starring Alex O’Loughlin, Scott Caan, Daniel Dae Kim, and Grace Park.
This time, the Freeman estate is in the package from day one.
Fresh Off A $2.4 Billion Spider-Man
Deadline calls Cretton about the hottest director in Hollywood right now, and the numbers back it up.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has topped the weekend box office every week since opening July 31. It’s closing in on $1 billion domestic and sits at $2.4 billion worldwide.
Before Spider-Man, Cretton directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Short Term 12, and The Glass Castle.
He’s also attached to the next Spider-Man movie and a Naruto film, so Hawaii Five-O joins a full plate.
‘I’m Talking TV And Movies’
Now line today’s news up against what our sources have been saying.
The August 31 report laid out the 1970-2000 push — “Nostalgia is the new woke,” as the source put it — and the movie side filled in fast: Days of Thunder 2 from 1990, Top Gun 3, G.I. Joe, a Freddy Krueger movie set in the world of the 1984 original, The Possession from 1981, and Street Fighter next month.
Hawaii Five-O is the first classic TV series on the pile.
The source said “TV and movies” from the start, and a show that spent the entire 1970s on CBS is now aimed at the big screen.
‘Beloved IPs, Big Time Announcements’
Two days after that report, an insider spelled out the plan itself: “Patience, patience, there is a plan… which includes A-List actors & directors, beloved IPs, big time announcements, all-out efforts to bring people back into theaters, and plenty of surprises.”
Cretton is the A-list director. Hawaii Five-O is the beloved IP. A movie package at Paramount is the big time announcement.
Tom Cruise put a number on the plan at Daytona: Paramount’s 30 movies a year “are going to turn into 40 movies.” A slate that big needs franchises, and Deadline sees one here, a big leading-man role, Hawaii locations, the theme song, and a crime premise built to run.
And the same insider has kept adding to the plan since, telling us on September 4 that Paramount-WBD wants “women pictures” back for A-list actresses, with specs already selling.
It’s also the same approach that Paramount is taking with new Star Trek.
That same message promised “plenty of surprises.”
Book ’em, Danno.
