He didn’t kill his wife, and everyone – except for Tommy Lee Jones – cared. A lot. That’s probably why Warner Bros. has decided to relaunch The Fugitive into theaters, even though it failed to spawn a long and lucrative franchise in the 1990s.
In a vague but intriguing announcement, Deadline reports that Warner Bros. is going to revitalize The Fugitive, although it is unknown as to whether the new film will be a reboot, remake or a sequel. Ordinarily we might say that Harrison Ford is a bit too old to be jumping off of dams, and that the 68-year-old Tommy Lee Jones is more than a decade past the mandatory retirement age for U.S. Marshals, but in this era of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, anything is possible when nostalgia is on the line.
The Fugitive began its run with a 1963 television series that ran for four seasons, culminating in a finale that was watched by 78 million people, making it the fourth most watched episode of TV in history. 30 years after the premiere, The Fugitive rocketed into theaters with a blockbuster movie starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, earning $368 million worldwide and seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. (It only won a single Oscar, for Tommy Lee Jones as Best Supporting Actor.)
Related: The Best Movie Ever: Fugitives
After these stellar beginnings, Warner Bros. struggled to turn The Fugitive into a successful brand. The 1998 spin-off, U.S. Marshals, brought back Tommy Lee Jones as Deputy Sam Gerard, but ditched Harrison Ford in favor of a new – and considerably less memorable – storyline featuring Wesley Snipes and Robert Downey Jr. The film only grossed $102 million worldwide.
Then, in 2000, The Fugitive returned to television on NBC, with Tim Daly (Wings) replacing Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, and Mykelti Williamson (Forrest Gump) replacing Tommy Lee Jones. The series only lasted one season, and ended on a cliffhanger.
Warner Bros. is no doubt seeking to bring the old magic back with this new version of The Fugitive. (No duh, right? Otherwise they probably wouldn’t bother.) They have already assigned the screenplay duties to Christina Hodson, whose screenplay The Eden Project made the illustrious Hollywood Black List, and whose script for Shut In is currently in production with Naomi Watts playing the lead.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
