Name a movie from the past 15 years, and there’s a decent chance that someone in Hollywood is thinking about turning it into a TV show, assuming there’s not a project already in development. Though not every film is structured to easily make the transition to the small screen, Antoine Fuqua’s 2001 action drama Training Day would work pretty well as a serialized story. Which is a good thing, since that’s the latest film-to-TV project currently being pitched to networks. King Kong ain’t got shit on this.
It’s almost unclear at this point whether the TV version would be a retread of the film, which saw the Oscar-nominated Ethan Hawke playing the wide-eyed new partner to the Oscar-winning Denzel Washington’s (almost justifiably) crooked cop, or if it will just use that basic template to tell a different story that touches upon more modern themes. According to Deadline, the idea behind this new Training Day would be set within the LAPD in 2015, and that the relationship between the cops would be the main focus. Ready for a twist? It sounds like the races of the roles will be reversed, with the unscrupulous vet being a white guy, and the clever rookie being black.
Thankfully, Antoine Fuqua will have his fingerprints on this update as well, if it comes around. He was apparently the person who decided to bring the hit feature to TV, and he’d be executive producing alongside Jerry Bruckheimer and the TV arm of the latter’s production company. Fuqua is also interested in directing the pilot episode, and it seems likely that someone will bite on this, considering how fondly remembered the film still is.
Since the feature’s screenwriter David Ayer is currently busy putting Suicide Squad together for rabid comic fans, a new writer will be needed, and Fuqua tapped former LAPD detective Will Beall for the potential job. At this point, Beall’s screenwriting credits include 2013’s Gangster Squad and a handful of episodes of Castle. So it’s not a lot to go on, but the basic Training Day story isn’t so complicated that it should stump Beall, especially with Fuqua by his side.
Fuqua’s career took him to a lot of different places after Training Day, and he’s currently got the boxing drama Southpaw in theaters, while in pre-production on his most ambitious project yet, a star-studded remake of the classic western The Magnificent Seven. Interestingly enough, Fuqua’s 2007 actioner Shooter also has a TV show in the works at USA with Ryan Philippe starring. Should we expect a King Arthur series to get announced soon?
Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC are all game on listening to Beall and Fuqua’s pitch for the Training Day series, so it would have to be pretty terrible to get passed over by all of them. Seems like a better fit for FX, but that’s just me. Are you guys excited about this?
