Magnum P.I. the movie

[Seaver41]

well......watching that clip on the red carpet.....you can tell Jillie has had the ol' facelift.......when she smiles.

[robspace54]

This Tom Selelck quote was in last weeks's TV Guide mag:

Would you like to play Magnum again?

I keep hearing about a movie. Universal has the rights, and they don’t call and they don’t write. That said, if you took a poll tomorrow as to who should play him, I can almost guarantee I would win.

My fear is, we see too many examples of studios buying the rights to a franchise then spending $100 million on explosions and trivializing and making fun.

Magnum’s in the Smithsonian, and for a very good reason. It was the first show to portray Vietnam veterans in a positive light. I’m very proud of that.

[Quigley]

I found Tom's take on what Magnum would have done after the series finished:

"Where would Magnum be today?

Tom: I know where he’d be. He went back in the Navy, at the end of Magnum. He was a very good officer, but what’s going to happen because he left the Navy for eight years is that he’s not going to make the next rank in time because he was way behind the curve. He’s going to have to leave and he’s probably going to go back to Hawaii. I don’t want to tell you anymore."

Taken from here:
http://www.collider.com/2010/09/30/tom- ... ue-bloods/

Sounds like a good starting point for the movie plot to me!

[KENJI]

A good read Quigley - thanks!

[308GTS]

Great to see TM still interested in the greatest role he ever had, and Jillie with massive pumped up lips, weirdorama! He's looking a little bear like these days, looks a little tired too.

Rachel Smith is absolutely smokin hot!

[zebra3]

To be honest, I could see him making the movie 10 years ago, but I think he's at an age (and his former co stars as well) where he can't play the physical side of the character as well. Now don't take that as definite because obviously Clint Eastwood was still making great films at that age....

But consider this:

Magnum's character wasn't locked in the 80's, but the feel of the show for some part was. Can you see Magnum wearing today's clothes? Can you see him with shorter hair and a more trimmed mustache? Magnum was a fun loving guy who could pull off the big fights when it came to it, which he frequently did. Despite how great the dramatic scenes were in MPI, the action and humor kept it going. He hasn't done any "Magnum and Higgins" style humor (higher pitched voicing and arguments that make you laugh) in a long time. Can he still do it?

I'm not saying he shouldn't be the one to do it if they make one, but these are concerns that the studio will be thinking of. Who wants to see Magnum mooching off of TC and Rick at 65 years old? We loved that Magnum was a 23 year old at the age of 33 in the show. That character would logically have progressed, but with us not having seen him do that...it's like not seeing a relative for 30 years and then he shows up. He's not going to be that guy you knew. Which means 2010 Magnum will not be 80's Magnum. And that's the guy that we loved and who the studios would want to portray.

[Seaver41]

how about this.......a movie about a movie. Robin Masters wrote cheap novels, correct? Alright, we find out that he had writer's block some years ago and needed an idea............so he comes up with a private detective that was a former Naval intelligence officer. The actual movie covers plot of the Masters' novel brought to big screen (plausible if you accept Masters had influential contacts). We assume masters is dead, but like Ian Fleming, movies about his character James Bond go on. Ok, back on track, the novel plot covers the material since the show ended. This is the tricky part.......the novel needs a big enough plot hook that makes Magnum bigger than life-or more precisely-bigger than what we behind the 4th wall already know.

The novel plot brough to big screen sells because we see what happened to the characters post-show. You keep Selleck concealed until the end......leaving viewers in suspense about whether he lives to the present day or not...........and then you can go in one of 2 directions........he does and we then see him on set......or he is gone and we get his voice in a narration. I don't see the hook if we see Selleck early and then know he survives what the movie will detail.

For the movie in movie idea to work.........you have to leave the novel plot uninterrupted.........a stand alone work itself.

Perhaps the AHA moment would be at the end of the movie in the movie.......after the final scene....the camera pans back to show the setting in a theater.........and then the credits roll on the set movie screen to reveal "in Memory of Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV'..............in essence, the novel brought to life is a post mortem tribute.

I know I was all over the place.........but you get the gist of where I'm going. You can't sell anyone taking over Magnum, but you can sell someone showing us where Magnum went.

[KENJI]

That is a very interesting concept Seaver41!!!

[robspace54]

Just don't tell me that Magnum was really Robin Masters too!!!