It’s been more than a decade since Steve Martin graced the silver screen as everybody’s favorite bumbling inspector, Jacques Clouseau. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, MGM is ready to wake the sleeping panther once more.
That’s right, Jeff Fowler, who directed the recent Sonic the Hedgehog adaptation, is set to reinvent The Pink Panther for a whole new generation. Bad Boys for Life screenwriter Chris Bremner will pen the script.
Sources tell the outlet that, while story details are largely being kept hidden, this new Pink Panther will focus on a smooth operating inspector who, thanks to a traumatic event, now has a pink panther for an imaginary friend. The latter, although he doesn’t speak, does help solve the case.
The deal, complicated by several rights holders and a search for the right take, has been in the works since the beginning of the year.
Released earlier this year and grossing over $306 million worldwide, Sonic was Fowler’s feature directorial debut. He worked in visual effect and animation before that, and saw his short, Gopher Broke, which he co-directed with Tim Miller, score an Oscar nomination for best animated short. He is repped by WME and Ziffren Brittenham.
Bremner co-wrote Bad Boys for Life, which is now the top grossing movie of 2020. He has slowly become an in-demand writer for studio franchises and is writing M.A.S.K. for Paramount, National Treasure 3 for Disney, and another Bad Boys project for Sony. He is repped by UTA, Kaplan/Perrone, and Ziffren Brittenham.
What do you make of this development? Are you game for a new interpretation of The Pink Panther? Do you agree with the take this new film is working off of? Hop down to the comments section below and let me and the rest of the movie loving world know your thoughts!
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