So it has come to this, has it?
Having run out of fairly recognizable old television series to translate to the big screen it is looking like Hollywood is turning to shows that barely lasted a season to translate to the big screen.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Glen A Larson is attached to produce Manimal, a live action/CG hybrid film based on the series that the created back in 1983. Starring British actor Simon MacCorkindale and Melody Anderson, the show centered on a doctor who could transform into a variety of different animals and uses his powers to help the police fight crime. (What can I say, it was the ’80s.) The show lasted a grand total of eight episodes, though some of the cause for the show’s quick demise was it being scheduled on Friday nights opposite ratings juggernaut Dallas.
Studio Sony is currently looking for a writer to take on the project.
Among a number of geeks who can actually remember this show when it initially aired, it is a bit of a punchline. The show was so campy that it made Larson’s The A-Team seem like a gritty, realistic drama in comparison. And despite having a number of critical and ratings flops including Bay City Blues and We Got It Made that season on NBC, it is Manimal that has endured as a symbol for just how bad things were.
Here is the show’s opening titles and the explanation, such as it is, for it’s hero’s powers.
Can’t wait until we get around to the inevitable Automan and The Highwayman movies in the next couple of years.
