New Line has been trying to cobble together a big screen version of TV's MacGyver for years with very little success. But it may have gotten the boost it needed thanks to Will Forte's spoof MacGruber skits on SNL, followed by the underrated feature film. It certainly helped thrust the resourceful action hero back into the spotlight, so much so that a MacGyver film is again in the works, with James Wan(Insidious, Saw) the surprising pick to direct it.
Variety reports that New Line is so hyped about Wan's latest horror, The Conjuring, that they've entered talks for him to take over MacGyver. The 1980s series was probably really popular with your mom and dad, starring Richard Dean Anderson as an agent of The Phoenix Foundation, who was known for using his brains and whatever tools were readily available to defeat his enemies. If that meant crafting a bazooka out of spit, bubble gum, and talcum powder then he could do it. Brian and Mark Gunn wrote the latest draft of the script, although no plot details are available yet.Anderson's over sixty years old, so he probably won't reprise the role except possibly in a cameo. It'll also be interesting to see if this is a straight-up approach to the character or one played for laughs. Even as a child MacGyver was ridiculous to me, so taking him seriously now would be impossible.
