UPDATE: US network CBS, a prime home for cop dramas, has now ordered the pilot, with Fuqua aboard to direct and the planned ethnicity switch still in place.
Following on the recent burst of TV adaptations of movies either in the works or on screens, you might imagine Training Day director Antoine Fuqua looking on and saying, “That won’t happen to my film!” You would be wrong, because he’s leading the charge to turn the 2001 Denzel Washington/ Ethan Hawke cop drama into a series.
While we won’t go expecting either The Denz or The Hawke to show up, the team behind the potential show – because it is just a package right now – is plenty starry enough, with Fuqua has Jerry Bruckheimer in on the package setting up at Warner Bros. TV.
Will Beall, who wrote Gangster Squad and is himself a former LAPD officer, is on board to write at least the pilot for the show, drawing on his real-world experiences, his time in movies and the episodes of TV shows such as Castle he’s already worked on. The plan is to maintain the basic idea – rookie cop (Hawke) in the film is partnered for a day of experience with a hard-nosed, and brutally corrupt narcotics ‘tec (Washington) for a peek into the dark side of policing – with some twists, such as setting the story in present day Los Angeles (where the police department still doesn’t always have the best reputation) and potentially switching the ethnicities of the two main characters around.
Now we’ll have to see if one of the US networks (or possibly a cable channel) takes an interest, but given the name recognition and the people involved so far, it’s surely an attractive proposition. Can the idea stretch across several seasons? That’s the bigger question, but The Shield certainly proved you can have crooked cops succeed on TV. Fuqua, meanwhile, is busy wrangling an unofficial **Training Day **reunion, with Hawke and Washington part of the cast for his new The Magnificent Seven.