One day there will come a time when movies that have yet to be released in cinemas will already be in development as TV series. Until that dystopian pop culture moment arrives, we have Hollywood snuffling through the cine-archives for well-known older titles to turn into small screen efforts. The latest target is Ivan Reitman's 1981 comedy Stripes.
The story saw hard-luck cabbie John Winger (Bill Murray) – directionless after being fired from his job and dumped by his girlfriend – enlisting in the US Army with his close pal, Russell Ziskey (Harold Ramis) in tow. After his barely satisfactory performance in basic training, the irreverent Winger emerges as the figurehead for a ragtag band of Army misfits. However, his hijinks threaten to cause an international scandal when he inadvertently commandeers a military assault vehicle behind enemy lines...
This time, the creative drivers are Trevor Moore, Sam Brown and Zach Cregger, known collectively as comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U'Know, who had an eponymous sketch show on Stateside screens on different channels between 2007 and 2011. It marks just the latest movie to be in the works as a TV show, with recent examples including True Lies and The Nice Guys. While not everyone loves the idea of movies being wrangled down into series, you do get a Fargo every once in a while...