Touchstone/Photofest
Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the 1998 Will Smith feature, is attached to the ABC Studios reboot.
Jerry Bruckheimer is returning to Enemy of the State.
The prolific producer has set up a TV sequel to the 1998 Will Smith starrer at ABC, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The potential series, which landed at ABC with a hefty put-pilot commitment, takes place two decades after the original film. When an elusive NSA spy is charged with leaking classified intelligence, an idealistic female attorney must partner with a hawkish FBI agent to stop a global conspiracy that threatens to expose dark secrets and personal mysteries connecting all three of their lives.
Bruckheimer — who produced the movie co-starring Gene Hackman, Jon Voight and Jack Black — will serve in the same capacity. Morgan Foehl (Blackhat, Escape From Davao, The Asset) will pen the script. Jerry Bruckheimer Television's Jonathan Littman and KristieAnne Reed will also exec produce. The drama hails from ABC Studios, whose corporate sibling, Touchstone Pictures, produced the original movie alongside Jerry Bruckheimer Productions and Scott Free Productions.
Produced on a budget of $90 million, Enemy of the State went on to gross $250.6 million worldwide.
This marks the latest reboot that Bruckheimer is attached to. He will next exec produce CBS' midseason Training Day sequel (Bruckheimer was not involved in the feature film). His current TV series also include Fox's Lucifer and The Amazing Race. This marks the first sale for Bruckheimer since he left Warner Bros. Television to go the independent route following a 15-year run.
Reboots continue to remain in high demand as broadcast, cable and streaming outlets look for proven IP in a bid to cut through a cluttered scripted landscape that is quickly approaching 500 original series. Key to the remakes is having the original producers involved in some capacity — as Enemy of the State has with Bruckheimer and Disney's TV side — as more studios look to monetize their existing film libraries.
Already in the works this season are reboots of Dynasty (The CW), War of the Worlds (MTV), Magnum P.I. (ABC), The Lost Boys (The CW), Varsity Blues (CMT), The Departed (Amazon), Let the Right One In (TNT) and L.A. Law, though the latter does not yet have a network attached.
Foehl is repped by CAA, Wirehouse Entertainment and Jackoway Tyerman; Bruckheimer TV is with CAA.
TV Development
