Brace yourselves. Comedy Central is breaking out of TV and taking its part scripted/part improv show "Reno: 911!" to the big screen. According to the Hollywood Reporter the movie will begin filming on January 23.
The story will hold to the show's tradition of using a script while still relying heavily on actor improvisation. The setting will be a national police convention being held in Miami Beach in the middle of Spring Break. Oh, the humanity.
I was going to make a joke about this being the next Police Academy franchise until I noticed a couple of sites indicating that Bruce Berman and Jerry Weintraub were cooking up a new Police Academy movie (yes, that would be number 8) set to roll out in late 2006. Why don't they just shove bamboo shoots under my fingernails now and get it over with?
Hollywood has been rehashing classic shows into movies in a major way in the last couple of years but only recently has the idea of adapting present-day shows like "Lost" and "24" been a significant talking point (children's shows excepted - how many Pokemon movies are there now?).
Reno: 911!: Miami isn't exactly breaking new ground (Serenity went there last year) but it could be setting a very creepy precedent. 90 minute long episodes of TV shows shot in wide camera format would be relatively cheap and easy for a lot of cable television groups to produce (until the actors start getting greedy), a welcoming proposition in this present day of iffy box office sales.
