EXCLUSIVE: A famous 1980s title is eyeing a comeback. ABC has nabbed Magnum, a sequel to the classic series Magnum P.I. that starred Tom Selleck, with a script commitment plus substantial penalty. The project, from Leverage creator John Rogers and Eva Longoria’s UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, will keep the fun, action-packed style of the original as it follows Magnum’s daughter, Lily “Tommy” Magnum, who returns to Hawaii to take up the mantle of her father’s PI firm. She and her tribe of friends mix tropical beaches with the seedy underbelly of international crime and modern espionage, even as she tries to unravel the mystery of the blown spy operation that ended her career in Navy Intelligence.
Rogers will write the script and executive produce through his Kung Fu Monkey banner alongside UnveliEVAble’s Longoria and Ben Spector and Kung Fu Monkey’s Jennifer Court. Universal TV, which owns rights to the original series and where UnbeliEVAble is based, is the studio.
Longoria and Spector, whose UnveliEVAble is under an overall deal at Universal TV, looked at the studio’s catalog for titles that could be suited for reboot. They identified Magnum P.I. as particularly viable and relevant, and then Rogers unlocked a way in with Thomas Magnum’s daughter that he took custody of in the show’s finale. While the trio felt that rebooting the series with another Thomas Magnum would be daunting, focusing on his daughter was an organic way to update the franchise.
“We knew no one could replace the iconic role of Thomas Magnum, so John decided to make the reboot a sequel and continue the adventure of a Magnum — his daughter, who was established in the original series,” Longoria and Spector told Deadline.
Rogers will write the script and executive produce through his Kung Fu Monkey banner alongside UnveliEVAble’s Longoria and Ben Spector and Kung Fu Monkey’s Jennifer Court. Universal TV, which owns rights to the original series and where UnbeliEVAble is based, is the studio.
Longoria and Spector, whose UnveliEVAble is under an overall deal at Universal TV, looked at the studio’s catalog for titles that could be suited for reboot. They identified Magnum P.I. as particularly viable and relevant, and then Rogers unlocked a way in with Thomas Magnum’s daughter that he took custody of in the show’s finale. While the trio felt that rebooting the series with another Thomas Magnum would be daunting, focusing on his daughter was an organic way to update the franchise.
“We knew no one could replace the iconic role of Thomas Magnum, so John decided to make the reboot a sequel and continue the adventure of a Magnum — his daughter, who was established in the original series,” Longoria and Spector told Deadline.
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