According to The Hollywood Reporter CBS are looking at rebooting MacGyver with James Wan at the helm.

The report claims that R. Scott Gemmill will pen the script and exec produce alongside Henry Winkler with James Wan directing the pilot.

There is no mention in this report of Lee Zlotoff's role in the show. Zlotoff is the owner of the MacGyver copyright and needs to give his stamp of approval on any new MacGyver project. It's conceivable that this is a preliminary idea from CBS being floated to see if it is in fact possible.

This announcement comes on the back of what seem to be a reboot frenzy in Hollywood at the moment with The A Team, Minority report, X Files, Uncle Buck, Rush Hour and Lethal Weapon all being lined up for the reboot treatment with mixed results. Minority Report hasn't lived up to the potential thus far, Heroes: reborn had modest reviews while Bradley Cooper's 'Limitless' has had positive reviews.

Only time will tell how this MacGyver reboot will pan out and if they have enough duck tape and paper clips to MacGyver a reboot together.

Wow -- very interesting. For a second I had to think about what day it was to make sure it wasn't an April Fools.

Heard about this too. Interesting to see NCIS LA writer is involved but more importantly, Winkler!!!

MBD sounds keen to reprise his role as Murdoc.

With Henry Winkler as one of the producers, maybe we can hope something good comes up from this new series.


I hope it's not a lame one like the recent revival of knight rider.

Well, let's see how this develops. There has been talk about a reboot for ages, hasn't there? I only hope they won't do a female version, sorry for saying this. But MacGyver is a guy.
Bringing MDB back in would be kind of cool! But let's just wait and see how this whole thing unfolds.

I'm a girl, and I agree, Mac is a guy and should stay that way. I don't really envisage Mac as anyone but RDA, so it will be hard for me. I think I'd prefer it if they still went along with the idea that the original show existed and all that happened, and the new Mac was his son. I hate it when they just wipe whole timelines out just to make a new version of something. That way you could have RDA guest to get things started, and it would still feel right for MDB to be Murdoc!

I think this great news / I sure hope this show works out / it sounds great.

Winkler had no creative input into the original show. He just wrote the checks to pay for it. The same will happen again this time.

It sounds like they plan to make him a 20 something year old, so does that mean a new MacGyver universe will be created - erasing the old show? The only way they could make MacGyver 20 is if he's actually SAM, or it's a prequel to the Original show. Either way is preferable to just starting over. There's too much character history built from the original show to just ignore it - surely?

Winkler had no creative input into the original show. He just wrote the checks to pay for it. The same will happen again this time.

Oh didn't know that part, but thanks for the clarification @KiwiTek




It seems that they're going for a new timeline then. I'm curious at least to see where this goes.

UPDATE:

OK, this is sounding like a prequel.

The casting will be crucial for this revival.

I've read some comments in the last 24 hours sighting the Knight Rider reboot failure as an example of why not to do reboots, but I will say there is one thing the KR reboot did which I think would work well in this instance too - and that is that they listened to feedback from the fans. The writers and FX guys would do live chat sessions as the show aired to get immediate feedback on the show and they also were reading and responding to comments in the KR forums and we would see things included or excluded from week to week in response to our comments and discussions with them.

I'd love to see that same sort of tweaking happen with MacGyver. Also I think shows like Arrow and The Flash have proven just how powerful fan interaction can be.

I do think they listened to the fans on the new KR, but by the time it was getting where it needed to be to work, it had gotten canned. Shame. I'm not really into the prequel idea, but its better than starting over and ignoring the original Mac altogether. And thank goodness its still Angus, and he's not be turned into an Angela tee hee

Or Mac in Pete's position at the Phoenix Foundation, taking on a new, hot-shot kid and showing him the ropes. That might work and if they changed the title to "Phoenix", that would still be okay.

This may just be me... but it sounds like James Wan went whining to CBS since he couldn't get anywhere with Zlotoff with his "vision".

I have no problem with a reboot or prequel, or anything like that. But, that just seems a bit weird to me.

It's just me, isn't it...

I can't wait to see what they come up with. I imagine they will start fresh with the character, and alternate universe kinda situation, much like they did with Hawaii Five-O. The character will resemble what we're used to but that might be about it. More the "spirit of MacGyver" than the strict timeline that we're used to.

The creative, use-what's-around-you character I doubt will disappear. I just hope they keep him as innocent as RDA's version was. I don't want to see a hard drinking, womanizing version of Mac.

I don't know what to think of this really. The whole movie thing died out again when James Wan was going to do Fast 7. Fast 7 sure had it's delays because of Paul Walker's death. Maybe it's not that weird yet that we haven't heard in a while. After all the movie got delayed and has been released not even six months ago. So maybe there wasn't time yet to start up a fresh project. But I've been checking Wan's filmography and he's back in horror territory filming the sequel of The Conjuring and he has another movie planned for 2018. We don't actually know yet what his position will be if it happens. But I think my guess would be just producer than along with Heny Winkler?

How long has it been since we've heard anything from Lee? Where is he and what is he doing lately? And can they do something without him?

I'm not sure about all those planned reboots. It's reboots left and right and often with mixed results. In case of Lethal Weapon I'd rather see a fifth one with a new cast. There was an early rumour they wanted Chris Hemsworth for the lead. And I rather have MacGyver movie instead I think. Depends on what they have mind I guess. I'm all for the fans involvement.

But it kinda troubles me. It's like they wanna do something again that didn't work out before. A younger MacGyver with the difference that it's actually Mac and not a family member we'd never seen before.

I think we better don't get carried away. Young MacGyver didn't work out and a movie never took off either. I'm not really saying I'm against it but I've had a few let downs about this before. One minute it's a dream, than something happens and when things are becoming interesting it just dies out. Let's just see how this plays out but don't get your hopes up.

And Jedi, I don't think James went whining to CBS. I haven't kept an eye on his activities but he's filming The Conjuring 2 and I wouldn't be suprised he just went back immediately after F7 to film this movie. This guy belongs in the horror genre.

Okay, maybe not whining per say... but it does feel like he's trying to bypass Zlotoff. Take that with a grain of salt... it just my take on it.

You'll have to forgive my bluntness, my sister hates James Wan and went on an hour long rant about this the other night. I suppose it lowered my faith in it.

If it happens, I'll give it a fair shot... but if it ends up being too painful to watch, or if he "breaks" the character... I'm tuning out.

It's not even certain this all will happen. I like James Wan's movies so far or what I've seen from it. Saw and The Conjuring were not bad and Fast 7 wasn't disappointing at all. He directed it well. Maybe doesn't count, because most actors worked almost five to six times before in the same franchise and knew what they had to do, but I think he can handle action adventure. But like I said this guy belongs in horror genre.

Right there with you Jedi.

Yes.

From what I understand...

Lee Zlotoff owns the rights to MacGyver, but CBS still own the rights to the old show and everything in them. This means the characters (except MacGyver), organisations, etc all belong to CBS...

So what does all that mean?

It means Lee Zlotoff has control of any new MacGyver material and CBS have control of the old TV series.

But remember that in Sept of last year CBS and ZLotoff came to an agreement regarding merchandising rights of the show. There was no real explanation of what that would mean, but this may be one of spin offs of that agreement. In any case ultimately it means that CBS and Zlotoff need to come ot an agreement for any movie or TV show containing original MacGyver characters to be made.

I don't think Zlottof was bypassed in anyway but I do agree with you that I do not have much faith in Wan.

Only time will tell whether the reboot will actually work but from the synopsis I have read on Time, it looks like he's hell bent on doing his reboot which makes no sense of the origin story. But thy also use the word re-imagining. So that means that Wan can pretty much change whatever he wants.

That could be both a good and bad thing.

This from Time:
MacGyver will be "recruited into a clandestine organization"

The 80s-90s action-adventure TV series MacGyver is getting a reboot from CBS, and the director of Furious 7 will be the executive producer.

According to Entertainment Weekly, CBS has described the series as a “reimagining of the television series of the same name, following a 20-something MacGyver as he gets recruited into a clandestine organization where he uses his knack for solving problems in unconventional ways to help prevent disasters from happening.” James Wan, who directed Furious 7, will be producing the show.

Wan has wanted to make a MacGyver film for some time, EW reports. However, film plans have yet to come to fruition.

Richard Dean Anderson starred in the original MacGyver series which ran for seven seasons on ABC starting in 1985.

interesting, I read the same note yesterday in the newspaper, If I have to chose I would prefer a movie instead of a reboot of the whole series.

only time will tell, but as it was mentioned before too many reboots at the same time, are we running out of ideas?

I agree with those who have said that RDA is MacGYVER. If indeed, this supposed new series is set earlier in the world of MacGYVER we already know, then great. Being able to see Mac doing and learning things, cultivating his beliefs, etc. would add so much depth to the character, on top of the depth that is already there.

I am in no way in support of a re-imagining of such an icon character.

It'll be interesting to see if this goes anywhere.

The concept is always there. Another portrayal pov is all good, if only that it will introduce another, younger generation to the wisdom of the character. Having said that, don't really care if it every makes to screen ... or not. No way, as long as the ubiquitous and cartoonish Computer graphics are being pushed, will ever be as good as the original.

The more I read about this, the more I fear I'm not going to like it. The word re-imagining scares me. I don't want something so iconic and in my eyes almost perfect, re-imagining. It was fine as it was!

Seeing a younger Mac, and what he got upto might work, but for me, it would ONLY work, if they left the original show intact as well, so one fed into the other.

I was not a fan of the new Five-0, either, so I am fearing the worst here.

The plot of reboot don't convince me.
Another "young" MacGyver?
It doesn't work!!!!

and I don't like that "clandestine organization" nonsense also. Phoenix Foundation was a respected and important organization in the MacGyver "universe" as I remember.

DXS is the clandestine organization?? He was recruited by Pete in a way... I don't mind "reboots." I mean the telling and retelling of hero stories have been going on forever, like Osiris to Jesus. Just another version with the spirit of the character being honored (hopefully!)