The six billion dollar man

[Murdoch]

I had read some place that a possible remake of the Six million dollar man motion picture could be in the works. What are your thoughts. I would like to see it done, but with respect to the fans. I think Mark Walberg would make a great Steve Austin... GM

 

[CB2001]

Doubt it will ever happen. You see, the show is based off a novel called Cyborg by Martin Caidin. His estate probably wants an arm and a leg for the rights to do a film (which is why we saw a short lived reimagining of The Bionic Woman hit the air, which was not authored by Caidin, instead of seeing a reimagining of the series, or even see a SMDM movie sooner after various reports as far back as 1990).

 

[IEDBOUNTYHUNTER]

Doubt it will ever happen. You see, the show is based off a novel called Cyborg by Martin Caidin. His estate probably wants an arm and a leg for the rights to do a film (which is why we saw a short lived reimagining of The Bionic Woman hit the air, which was not authored by Caidin, instead of seeing a reimagining of the series, or even see a SMDM movie sooner after various reports as far back as 1990).

Well that, and you cant buy jack for 6 mil. Now a days

 

[robn1]

I found this on the web a few years ago, supposedly written by Kevin Smith. Don't know for certain that it's true, but it's a pretty good read.

 

[SSgt Burton]

Doubt it will ever happen. You see, the show is based off a novel called Cyborg by Martin Caidin. His estate probably wants an arm and a leg for the rights to do a film (which is why we saw a short lived reimagining of The Bionic Woman hit the air, which was not authored by Caidin...)

Gotta agree that it will probably never happen.

I first heard of a SMDM movie rumour in the early 2000s: The plot summary went something like- "Steve Austin is the 1 Billion (?) Dollar Man... and the 6 million dollar man is a renegade prototype that must be stopped."

The thing with the reimagined "Bionic Woman" series--- In the 2007 version Jamie Sommers has a bionic eye... That was one of Steve Austin's bionic implants in the original SMDM and not one of the original 1976 Bionic Woman's implants (she had one arm, two legs and a bionic ear).

Reading between the lines, I pretty much figured that since they "borrowed" one of the SMDM's implants (the eye) for the new Bionic Woman, it slammed the door on any chance of seeing an updated version of Steve Austin (if you get what I'm saying).

And that reimagined series lasted eight episodes; killed by the writers strike of 2008, and not renewed by NBC for the returning shows fall season.


I have some very fond memories of the original SMDM as a child in the mid Seventies. :cool


Kevin

 

[Solo4114]

There's also the demographic factor. Remakes these days seem to be more 80s focused, which helps bring in the 30-40 crowd. 70s propertys hew more towards the 35-45 crowd, who are less likely to go see something like that.

Bear in mind that films like this are primarily targeted at teenagers and folks in their early 20s. Mid 20s at the oldest. A reboot/remake of a property that people 30-40 remember fondly is more likely to get them to tolerate the otherwise stupid crap that studio execs and marketing hacks dream up as the best way to appeal to teenagers.

The Six Million Dollar Man is too old a property, at this point, to survive in theaters under the strength of its brand, I'd say. Better to option, oh, I dunno, ALF or Dino Riders or something like that.

 

[Moviefreak]

They would ruin it with someone like Will Ferrel or Seth Rogan playing Steve Austin. Maybe Bradley Cooper could pull it off if they were going for a slight comedy edge.

 

[IBCW]

If they put some money in this and did it properly with a good story
and awesome special effects...I think it would do well as the concept
of making someone better, stronger, faster than he was before is pretty cool.

 

[clonesix]

Isn't everything with a cyborg in it, a re-imagine of the $6Mman? Every time they need a super hero or villian, he/she is cybornetically enhanced. They do the sam schtick, run fast, jump high, break through walls, see far away, analyze crap...

The newest gimmick is "Genetically Enhanced"... Same schtick

...and lastly, our next cyborg is a Robocop remake. I think we all agree how that will be

 

[ArcLight]

They've been tossing around the idea for decades, it seems like. Usually as a comedy.

Kevin Smith did write a pretty un-inspired script. He even jokes about how bad it is in one of his "Evening with Kevin Smith" videos. Of course, Dynamite used it as the basis of their awful BIONIC MAN comic book much like they started their Green Hornet series with another Smith script that he admitted wasn't very good.

The rights have cleared up a little bit since that BIONIC WOMAN reboot, and now both series are available on DVD so I suppose there's a better chance of it actually happening but personally I hope it doesn't. None of the approaches I've read yet have done much for me and I can't imagine that changing.

Would, however, love to be proved wrong.

 

[Dozer3677]

They would ruin it with someone like Will Ferrel or Seth Rogan playing Steve Austin. Maybe Bradley Cooper could pull it off if they were going for a slight comedy edge.

If that is the case, and they want to be taken seriously, but still have slight comedic overtones, the perfect Six Million/Billion Dollar Man is.......

Will Smith.

 

[autoprops713]

six Million Dollar Man Teaser - YouTube

 

[Wes R]

There's also the demographic factor. Remakes these days seem to be more 80s focused, which helps bring in the 30-40 crowd. 70s propertys hew more towards the 35-45 crowd, who are less likely to go see something like that.

Bear in mind that films like this are primarily targeted at teenagers and folks in their early 20s. Mid 20s at the oldest. A reboot/remake of a property that people 30-40 remember fondly is more likely to get them to tolerate the otherwise stupid crap that studio execs and marketing hacks dream up as the best way to appeal to teenagers.

The Six Million Dollar Man is too old a property, at this point, to survive in theaters under the strength of its brand, I'd say. Better to option, oh, I dunno, ALF or Dino Riders or something like that.

I'd go for a dino rider's movie lol. There's a reason you don't see many Six Million Dollar man jokes on Robot Chicken, it's out of the range of viewers. Plus the remake would be terrible CGI and flavor of the month actors. They'd probably want tom cruise

 

[Solo4114]

See? Case in point. You want to know what to remake? Watch Robot Chicken and option any toy line referenced therein.

 

[Dozer3677]

I'd go for a dino rider's movie lol. There's a reason you don't see many Six Million Dollar man jokes on Robot Chicken, it's out of the range of viewers. Plus the remake would be terrible CGI and flavor of the month actors. They'd probably want tom cruise

See? Case in point. You want to know what to remake? Watch Robot Chicken and option any toy line referenced therein.

Um.... yeah, forget what I said about the 6M$M, I want Dino Riders or Dino Saucers. Oh, one of those movies would be sooooo awesome. Those were seriously two of my favorite shows growing up. Those and Bravestarr.

 

[Wes R]

Thundarr The Barbarian lol.

 

[almundy67]

Please don´t...! The hollywood brains maybe offer the part to Will Smith :lol

 

[Solo4114]

Um.... yeah, forget what I said about the 6M$M, I want Dino Riders or Dino Saucers. Oh, one of those movies would be sooooo awesome. Those were seriously two of my favorite shows growing up. Those and Bravestarr.

You see? It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

I could rattle off ten toy lines or cartoon shows (although, in the 80s, same thing...) and I bet you there'd be a clamor for "OMG!!! THAT'D BE SUCH AN AWESOME MOVIE!!!!"

What y'all fail to realize, though, is that it'd actually be a fairly generic movie bearing only the slimmest of connections to the source material, and generally being geared towards relaunching a toy/movie franchise targeted at younger audiences who have zero knowledge of the originals.


So, sure, you can have a Dino Riders film. Except it'll be about a group of space soldiers who are in the midst of a war with other humans, everyone crash-lands on an alien planet ("We'll make it like that Avatar film. But with post-production 3D"), and the "dinos" are actually dino-looking aliens. who are actually sentient and can talk. And Will Smith provides the voice of the wisecracking good-guy "dino" rebel.


I'm ready for my studio exec job, Mr. DeMille...

 

[lowelker]

About twelve years ago or more I read in, I think it was Amazing Figure Modeler, that Jim Carey was doing the SMDM movie and the script was either being finished or being looked over.
So yes, studios were going to parady the franchise.
I have seasons one and two on region one DVD and will be gathering the rest of the seasons on region two soon.

 

[YenChih Lin]

You know, that you are necroposting and reviving a zombie?