Amazon Mines 'Legally Blonde', 'RoboCop' For New TV Series
Amazon Mines 'Legally Blonde', 'RoboCop' For New TV Series
Michael B. Jordan will direct and star in a new edition of 'The Thomas Crown Affair'
Back in April 2023, it was reported that Amazon was ready to scour the MGM library for franchises to resuscitate. While at first it seemed that The Pink Panther was out to an early lead with Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy director Jeff Fowler attached and Eddie Murphy in negotiation to star, the last several months have seen a clear new leader emerge with Legally Blonde, while RoboCop and The Thomas Crown Affair have made significant leaps.
At their first ever upfronts back in May, because hey when you turn yourself ad-supported you’ve got to pitch yourself to secure advertisers, Prime Video announced they had ordered Elle, a Legally Blonde prequel series. It is being produced by lead character Elle Woods’s original portrayer Reese Witherspoon and her Hello Sunshine banner, part of Candle Media. She starred in the original 2001 film and its 2003 sequel Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, and produced the straight-to-video spinoff Legally Blondes, starring Camilla and Rebecca Rosso. This series is created by Laura Kittrell, previously of High School and Insecure, who will serve as showrunner It follows Woods’s high school years and the life experiences that shaped her into the iconic young woman audiences were endeared to. It is therefore set about eight years before the first film which saw her graduate from college.
“I truly couldn’t be more excited about this series! Fans will get to know how Elle Woods navigated her world as a teenager with her distinct personality and ingenuity, in ways that only our beloved Elle could do,” Witherspoon said. “What could be better than that?! I’m extremely grateful to the incredible teams at Prime Video and Hello Sunshine – along with our amazing writer Laura Kittrell – for making this dream of mine come true. Legally Blonde is back!” The other executive producers are Lauren Neustadter and Lauren Kisilevsky as well the movies’ producer Marc Platt.
“One of the most quotable, iconic, and beloved characters that is ingrained in the fabric of Hollywood history has to be Elle Woods, and we are honored to bring her origin story to our global Prime Video customers,” said Vernon Sanders, the head of television at Amazon MGM Studios. “Reese and Hello Sunshine’s vision for this series, coupled with Laura Kittrell’s winning voice, made this show completely undeniable.”
Then came Wednesday, when Witherspoon put out an open casting call for the role of high school-aged Elle right on her Instagram. She wrote “Our search for the high school version of Elle Woods is officially ON!” Witherspoon wrote in the post. “With our friends [at Prime Video] we’re making the casting process totally OPEN, so you can submit your auditions at the link in my bio… I’m SO excited to see all your fabulous takes on everyone’s favorite Gemini vegetarian!”
Shifting from a more female-targeted franchise to a male, RoboCop’s fifth television series is starting to be assembled. The series has found its showrunner in Peter Ocko, who will also write and executive produce. Horror master and director of the DCEU Aquaman films James Wan has also hopped aboard as executive producer under his Atomic Monster banner. Others involved from Atomic Monster include Michael Clear and Rob Hackett as executive producers, while Danielle Bozzone is overseeing the project. Ocko created the short-lived AMC+ series Moonhaven after decades of television writing for series including Dinosaurs, Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies, Black Sails, The Office, and Lodge 49.
Produced by Amazon MGM Studios, this new series will seemingly start fresh, as the logline reads “A giant tech conglomerate collaborates with the local police department to introduce a technologically advanced enforcer to combat rising crime — a police officer who’s part man, part machine.” Of the four previous television series, two were animated. The first was in 1988 of the same name and the second ten years later subtitled Alpha Commando. The live-action series were Canadian, the first in 1994, also simply called RoboCop and it was as aimed at children as the first animated series. The other was a 2001 miniseries subtitled Prime Directives, consisting of four feature-length episodes. Of course, the franchise began with films, with the first in 1987 starring Peter Weller in the title role directed by Paul Verhoeven. Weller returned for the sequel in 1990, but not for the third film in 1993, so Robert Burke took it on. Nancy Allen was the only consistent cast member as Officer Anne Lewis. Joel Kinnaman starred in the film remake released in 2014.
And finally, the third go at The Thomas Crown Affair has found its director and star in Creed’s Michael B. Jordan who made his directorial debut with the third film. As star of the new theatrical film, he follows in the footsteps of Pierce Brosnan and Steve McQueen, who starred respectively in the previous 1999 and 1968 iterations. Attention now turns to casting the female lead, extending a lineage that consists of Faye Dunaway and Rene Russo. Despite being a remake, the plot details are being kept under wraps, but the 1999 version saw a rich playboy who enjoys stealing art for a hobby meet his match in an insurance investigator, and they quickly fall for each other. Drew Pearce wrote the script. A previous draft by Wes Tooke and Justin Britt-Gibson was based on the original film. Jordan produces through his Outlier Society banner, which has a first-look film deal and overall TV deal at Amazon MGM, alongside Elizabeth Raposo. Patrick McCormick and Marc Toberoff also produce, while the original film’s writer Alan Trustman executive produces.
