Just when you thought it was safe to go back into a cinema…
Eighties franchise Police Academy is to get a revival thanks to Warner’s sister company New Line films. Original producer Paul Maslansky is back for the new iteration, which has no writer or director attached. We’re not sure if it’s good news or bad news, we have fond memories of the cult comedy (just check out the subject lines of our frequent spot-prizes in the forums) but the wacky humour was very of its time and would go over the heads of today’s 3D loving audiences.
The first film was launched in 1984, and starred Steve Guttenberg as Mahoney, a repeat offender who is forced to enter the academy and emerges as the group’s leader. Other leading characters included Moses Hightower (Bubba Smith), gun-crazy Tackleberry (David Graf), mousy Hooks (Marion Ramsey) and sound effects-spewing Larvell Jones (Michael Winslow). Other notable stars included Sex & The City girl Kim Cattrall and Basic Instinct lead Sharon Stone.
Guttenberg dropped out of the franchise after Police Academy 4 – Citizens On Patrol, but most of the cast stayed on for all 7 movies, each dipping in quality more and more as the franchise went on.
The series started off as an 18 cert, sexual comedy but ended in 1994 appealing to children with the truly awful “Mission to Moscow”, it even spawned a Saturday morning kids TV show, but the less said about that, the better.
Speaking of the new version, producer Maslansky said “It’s going to be very worthwhile to the people who remember it and to those who saw it on TV. It’s going to be a new class. We hope to discover new talent and season it with great comedians. It’ll be anything but another movie with a numeral next to it. And we’ll most probably retain the wonderful musical theme.”
There is no news yet of director, writers or cast… It would suit a talent like Todd Philips or Judd Apatow perfectly.
Steve Guttenberg said last year that he’d love to return in Police Academy 8. Check out this earlier Movies.ie story.
Who would you cast in the new version?
Listen to the infamous hum-along theme tune below