Time to start running in slow motion and leaping across car bonnets in celebration, folks – for Shat-tastic ‘80s cop show, T.J. Hooker, is about to graduate to the big screen, and it looks like The Shat will be involved!
Chuck Russell, who helmed the enormously fun likes of The Blob, The Mask and A Nightmare On Elm Street 3, is in talks to direct the action comedy, which will focus on the relationship between the eponymous no-nonsense cop, and his father.
No casting has yet been announced for the movie, but if William Shatner doesn’t wind up playing Hooker’s dad, then it'll be more disappointing than Adrian Zmed’s career. And should The Shat wind up on board, hopefully it’ll make up for the disappointment of not appearing in the** Star Trek** reboot.
A quick recap for those to whom Hooker means a trip to King’s Cross at 4am: T.J. Hooker starred The Shat, in his first iconic post-Kirk role, as Thomas Jefferson Hooker, a no-nonsense police sergeant who fought crime with the help of a younger team, including the aforementioned Zmed and the incredibly hot Heather Locklear.
It ran for five years from 1982 to 1986, before it was cancelled. Let’s be honest, it wasn’t very good, but there’s definite scope for a remake, especially if Russell and writers Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson play up the comedy angle. After all, it worked for Starsky & Hutch…
The movie will be produced by David Foster, Ryan Heppe and Rick Husky, who created the show in the first place. We wish them well, and hope that sooner or later this triggers an avalanche of The Shat on the big screen, culminating in the **Boston Legal **movie. Altogether now: Denny Crane!