EXCLUSIVE: Hot on the trail of a strong weekend opening of The Naked Gun, the ’80s prime time procedural T.J. Hooker will be next procedural in line for promotion to an action comedy movie. Netflix has collared screen rights to the venerable cop drama, with Jarrad Paul & Andy Mogel tapped to write. The film will be produced by Sophie Cassidy and Matt Crespy for 2.0 Entertainment, Adrian Askarieh for Prime Universe Films, and Alex Westmore for Vali Vista Films.
The original series premiered in March 1982 on ABC and ended its five-season, 91-episode run in 1986, with its final season airing on CBS. The show starred William Shatner as Sgt. T.J. Hooker of the LCPD, a hard-nosed veteran reeling from a divorce from his wife and the loss of his partner in the line of duty. Principled, moral, and driven to fight crime, the former plainclothes detective returns to uniform to train recruits and clean up the streets of criminals like the kind who killed his partner. Heather Locklear, Adrian Zmed and James Darren also starred. It is at this point unclear whether the 94-year old Shatner will be involved.
The show seems organically suited for a more action comedy take, given Hooker’s old style and often roughneck crime fighting style, which seemed out of place in a more woke world.
The series was created by Rick Husky, who will also serve as an executive producer on the film. The original series was produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg. Cassidy runs 2.0 with Zack Conroy
Jarrad Paul & Andy Mogel are currently showrunning Bert, a Netflix show starring Bert Kreischer that they co-created, wrote. The duo will direct all the episodes. Their feature Little Brother is shooting for Netflix this summer, starring John Cena and Eric Andre, directed by Matt Spicer. Paul & Mogel also created and directed Huge in France, the Netflix series that premiered April 2019. The pair wrote Himelfarb, which Donald Deline is attached to produce. They created and executive produced The Grinder for Fox, and wrote and directed 2015’s The D Train, starring Jack Black and James Marsden. They began together cowriting the 2008 romantic comedy Yes Man for Warner Bros, starring Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel, and co-created and executive produced Allen Gregory for Fox/20th with Jonah Hill.
Paul & Mogel is repped by UTA. Mosaic, and Johnson, Shapiro. Slewett & Kole.
