For a while know Universal Pictures has been working on a big screen version of Kojak, and now it’s been confirmed they’ve cast The Fast and the Furious star Vin Diesel to play the title character, according to Deadline.
Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have been hinted to come up with the screenplay. The duo worked on The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale, and Quantum of Solace, but announced last month that Skyfall is the last James Bond movie they plan to work on.
Kojak ran on TV from 1973 to 1978, with Telly Savalas as the famously bald, lollipop-sucking New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. This version will “re-imagine and con temporize the series in a modern-day setting.
Vin Diesel will also produce alongside Samantha Vincent, but it isn’t known when the movie might go into production.