The trend of unwanted remakes continues, and the latest victim is a well-known ‘80s comedy. Deadline reports that screenwriter Jeremy Garelick (The Break-Up) has joined the effort to reboot Police Academy, the wacky franchise that spanned seven films and a TV series over the course of a decade — a very long, mostly Steve Guttenberg–less decade.
In the time since New Line announced the remake of the bumbling cop romp back in 2010, a screenplay was penned by David Diamond and David Weissman, but Garelick was –as happened on a little movie called The Hangover — hired for rewrites. In addition, Paul Maslansky, who produced the original series, will oversee the film, which is being helmed by first-time feature director Scott Zabielski; he was hired in January.
Despite the success of other recycling efforts, like 21 Jump Street, I don’t have much faith in this project. There’s not much more for the recruits to do – throughout the course of the sequels, they went back to training, they went to Miami, and they went to Moscow. Unless they find a way to fight crime on the moon — or the script simply takes this story in a whole different direction — the premises are pretty much dried up.
Are you a fan of Police Academy? Do you think it’s possible to revamp it for a new audience?