New Line Gears Up For 'MacGyver' Film

MacGyver is BACK! That's right, it seems that 80's pop culture is once again, about to be tapped, as New Line is developing a big-screen adaptation of the popular 1985-1992 series.

Set to produce is Raffaella De Laurentiis, daughter of the legendary film producer, Dino De Laurentiis (who will also serve as exec producer.) Also on board, is Martha De Laurentiis and Lee David Zlotoff (the original show's creator.) No writer has been named yet.

Whether this will be a complete "reboot" or some kind of continuation of the series has not been confirmed. Yet at the same time, the idea of it being a reboot is all but certain. From a business perspective, not enough people care about the "continuing story of MacGyver," and film studios certainly would not put Richard Dean Anderson's nearly 60-year-old face on a poster. (It might work with Clint Eastwood, but...he's f***ing Clint Eastwood.) The question of "who will be the new MacGyver" will probably be speculated upon in the near future.

The show became a cultural phenomenon and if anything, brought three things to the forefront of pop culture: Mullets, Swiss-Army Knives, and Bomber Jackets. The show even managed to spawn its own verb. To "MacGyver" something means to hastily or desperately improvise a rough mechanical solution by unconventional means. (We could say, for example: "New Line MacGyvered up a new MacGyver movie because original plots and ideas were not available.")

The show has also been parodied in recent (and current) seasons of Saturday Night Live by Will Forte's MacGruber. (Although AOTS's parody version, MacGunner, came first, and was way funnier, if you ask me.) 

To get in the spirit of things, let's make up some MacGyverisms. I'll start us off with a few.

 This week, MacGyver:

-Solved Global Warming with a cigarette lighter, two rubber bands, a Dr. Sholl's freeze away wart remover, a phonograph needle, a Sham-Wow, an empty 24-ounce Coke bottle, and a vinyl copy of Rush's Moving Pictures.

-Cured AIDS with a syringe, a bottle of Lysol, some cheesecloth, three twist-ties, a paperback copy of John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, a ceramic knife, and the engine of a 1988 Honda Civic.

-Disarmed Iranian nuclear weapons with two staples, a number 2 pencil, some used chewing gun, a ball of twine, two wood scews, a ThunderCats Mumm-Ra action figure, and a remote control to an old CD disc changer.

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