For years there’s been talk of making a movie based on the 80s action series MacGyver, and now things are moving forward once again with the news James Wan, director of Saw and Insidious, has entered negotiations to direct the film for New Line.
The movie has been stuck in development since May 2010, when the studio hired Jason Richman (Bangkok Dangerous, Swing Vote) to write the screenplay. Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) have provided the most recent script revisions. The whole thing was almost derailed by the spoof film MacGruber, which even led to the creator of MacGyver suing that film saying it was based on his rights and they were trying to get around it by changing the name.
The original MacGyver TV series, which ran from 1985 to 1992, starred Richard Dean Anderson as the title character, a secret agent working for The Phoenix Foundation. Although he never carried a gun, MacGyver used his innate technical know-how to defeat the bad guys with a variety of weapons he builds himself.
It isn’t known when the movie version might shoot. (Source: Variety)