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MacGyver Film In the Works?
An anonymous reader writes "Looks like everyone's favorite Swiss Army knife-wielding action hero may be making an appearance on the big screen. The original series creator has announced plans are in the works for a MacGyver film. Serious questions abound: Will Richard Dean Anderson reprise the role? Will filming and editing somehow be done only using a paperclip, duct-tape, and TV remote?" And who, if not Anderson, would you want to play MacGyver?
And who, if not Anderson, would you want to play MacGyver?
Me!
(You insensitive clod.)
Operator, give me the number for 911!
There was a supposed to be a show a while back called Young MacGyver. I can't recall the actor, but the producers at least had someone cast. They can't run MacGyver by casting some moron like Ben Stiller or some other half bit comedian. AND definitely not Tom Cruise. Matt Damon maybe? Young Mac write up on imdb.
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
yep
If Harrison Ford can do another Indiana Jones, RDA can do another MacGyver.
They need to bring back Murdoch as well and have it end in a fiery death sequence where Murdoch is shot 11 times, burned, drowned, run over by a semi, yet still lives on to battle Mac in a sequel!
If Harrison Ford can reprise Indy Jones at the age of 113 then dammit Richard Dean Anderson can play MacGyver!!!
Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
Rename the movie to MacGyver Brothers, and performed by Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage. Would love to see the extra-dvd content where they show how and where the movie they just acted was wrong.
I hope they don't try to update the MacGuyver idea for the 21st century.
Keep that 80's feel, with the big hair and aviator glasses.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
In this day and age, I'd be surprised if they didn't cast a woman on the role.
Imagine the PR value. Great role model for girls. Oh no, they are messing with my childhood again. She wears the pants in the inevitable romantic side plot. etc.
If they do, I hope they give the role to Amanda Tapping.
I've had the chance to watch a couple of MacGyver episodes recently and they feel dated.
At the same time, the Bourne series comes to my mind as a modern version of MacGyver.
So... Matt Damon as MacGyver?
Are they going to keep the voiceovers that 'explain' how Mac manages to do those incredibly unlikely things while he's puttering around with baling wire, twine and the trap-of-the-minute?
Just another example of the lack of imagination from a script writer. Hey, let's create a show about doctors! No wait! How about cops! Uhhhh, got too many of those? Well... fashion? Talent? Housewives? Bummer, all taken? *has another scotch* Oh I know, let's do something that's been done before! Man, I'm good! It sucks.. promote original for God's sake!
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
I definitely agree that it should feel like the old '80s MacGyver. If they tried to make it modern and hip it would just be trash, but it would still make money just the same. As for who should play Mac... The one modern-day equivalent we've got - Keefer Sutherland!
He may look a bit grey now but that MacGyver movie could be done like Space Cowboys with Clint Eastwood.
Us eighties kids have become older too you know. I just discovered a grey hair a week ago, damn was I shocked.
Je me souviens.
NT
Mal from Firefly
Or, maybe not...
The Macgyver character is a younger character unless we are making a movie about "Old Macgyver".
So it would need to be a younger actor.
The character is smart and a little light so you would need a younger actor who has a smart/little light persona or someone new.
And RDA has a certain way of talking that he carries through all his characters (sort of the, heck i'm just a country bumpkin (while really being quite smart)). Do you take that away and re-envision macgyver or do you keep it and come across like a poor imitation of RDA?
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
At least then making a harpoon cannon from a brass telescope would make sense. Though it still wouldn't work w/o that special Hollywood "magic".
McGyver: The Complete Idiot's Genius
Yes! MacGuyver is my childhood hero. I would prefer Richard Dean Anderson to play it regardless of age. Its just not the same without him as MacGuyver. Just like it wouldn't be the same without Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. I always thought it was cool how'd he'd craft all sorts of nifty inventions with just what he had on hand.
Would put a very entertaining spin on the MacGyver character.
Another serious question: will whomever plays MacGuyver have the correct mullet haircut?
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
come on you were all thinking it!
Most of the science on that show was phony.
I'd rather be save by someone with a leatherman than that stupid boyscout knife.
Swissarmy toy = corkscrew = LOL
And who, if not Anderson, would want to play MacGyver? :)
The Sig, the sig
Will Forte is up for the job... MacGruber!
From Firefly, Mal "Capt. Tightpants" Reynolds, Nathan Fillion
Start Running Better Polls
Samuel L. Jackson
Wait, its been done...
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
...then Major General Jack O'Neill.
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
Insider reports suggest that the production is done with amateurish cameras and gerry-rigged equipment.
The pay is also rumored to be quite low, as a sound technician has been seen improvising a trap to catch small game in order to feed himself, using nothing more than a piece of wire from his equipment and a twig.
You can't take the sky from me...
Curious, did any of you actually succeed in making the hot air balloon that MacGuyver made in one episode? It was two or three feet in diameter, made of paper or plastic or something and used an alcohol soaked cotton ball for the heat source. I tried making this five or six times from age 12 to 17 and have never succeeded. I don't think this has been done on Mythbusters yet either. Any success out there?
It was filmed and developed using duct tape, eye-glasses, orange juice, shoe-polish, and paper-clips.
Table-ized A.I.
How about Jet Li, Jackie Chan, or that fellow from Heroes?
In any case, let us have an Asian fellow play the part. Make up a story about the young fellow was adopted by a couple named "MacGyver." They sent him to MIT, Cal Tech, or UC Berkeley.
Let us have some realism to the story!
I am only kidding.
Well... the obvious thing to do is to pass the MacGyver torch to a kid and let Anderson, if he's inclined, play his father and/or boss.
And who says it has to be a guy? What about Katee Sackhoff??
But, seriously, I won't buy tickets unless Marge Simpson's sisters are in it.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
If they can pull Harrison Ford out of mothballs to play Indy "one last time", there's no reason RDA can't pull his khakied ass off Stargate SG-1 to play the role that made him a household name.
What would Neil Patrick Harris do?
When are they making a movie version of The Greatest American Hero?
Or better yet, Tales of the Gold Monkey
Wil Wheaton
Has anyone else watched the 1st season of Burn Notice? The main character is almost like a modern-day MacGyver, especially with his use of on-hand materials and with the voice-over narration of his MacGyveresque antics like RDA did in MacGyver. And just how many times can I say MacGyver in this MacGyver related post?
I think Jeffrey Donovan would make a half-decent MacGyver (damnit, I said it again).
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
If not Anderson ... who are we kidding, Sly did Rambo, but if not, then Greg Kinnear.
I'm dreading though that it might become some new, young, upcoming all-american type.
You get paid quite a bit for doing a movie. And i hear it can be fun too.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I was just discussing this possibility with friends the other day. We decided that the mullet would have to stay, but in one of the first scenes he'd have to cut the back(the "party" end, if you will) and weave a rope from it to escape.
- Rooster
They've been talking about a Magnum P.I. movie for years. Obviously, that should come first.
This may be my geezer memory going, and imdb.com absolutely does *not* back me up, but I thought I saw early episodes of MacGyver as part of "CBS Late Night" which was what CBS briefly called the hodge-podge of bad movies and not-ready-for-prime-time (and often not-half-hour-multiple) TV shows that they ran after midnight (I remember Letterman being annoyed with the name, he was still at NBC at the time). I thought the actor was not Anderson?
Someone straighten me out so I can sleep at night (I already sleep OK during the day).
How about Michael Welch as MacGuyver? He's (almost) done it before.
They need to keep it 80's because MacGyver with 21st century tech wouldn't work anyway. I think the 80's was probably about the only decade when a concept like MacGyver would work, for the following reasons:
Things just aren't simple enough or accessible enough anymore. Think about the 80's... things were starting to get really high tech, PCs had just been invented, etc, but all that was still in the early stages. It was easy for Mac to hotwire or jury-rig a car, mess with a computer, oscilloscope or some other high tech piece of equipment, tie the wires of a car phone into a car security system, etc.
On a modern show, what is Mac going to do? Almost everything is an integrated circuit these days. Intel cpus are made with 45 nm process. You can't just go in and mess with the wiring on something like that, or even repair it when it breaks. In fact, almost none of our technology can be repaired anymore. Most of it has to be scrapped, and a new factory chip put in, because no one can physically deal with the level of miniaturization we have now using just their hands. And going back to the car example, most modern cars have computers built into everything, including the tires. There's a lot less jury rigging that can go on with those. And the security systems, with chips inside keys, etc, etc, makes it a lot harder to just go hotwire one.
The other issue MacGyver of the 21st century would have to deal with is the level of specialization required to do most anything. You can't just jump into a device and start messing with it, because as was stated above, most things are computerized integrated circuits. There are a lot more black boxes and many more types of engineers involved in almost any project, so knowledge of basic principles and a strong grasp of chemistry doesn't carry you nearly as far.
That said, I think if they are going to have a 21st century MacGyver, they need to rewrite his back story a bit. I think in the show he had a physics (and maybe chemistry?) degree, but for this decade they'd better give him a compsci/computer engineering degree instead (perhaps still combined with his physics or chem degree). And they almost have to make him more hacker-ish. In the 21st century, 90% of what he does would touch computers, so if they make him a reverse engineering expert specializing in software (which is the easiest thing to circumvent/mess with/jury rig), he might be believable again. I've seen clips on youtube of people hacking those electronic signs over freeways and putting in their own personal messages, and there's really no end to what software you can hack at this point. So if they took that route, he'd be believable again.
Lastly, though, I think they need to have RDA in the role, and I think it's good that he's probably in his 50s. Mac was always a lifelong learner, so you could convincingly say he went back to school in the interim and picked up the comp sci degree. Also, I don't think I would find a movie or show like MacGyver very convincing in this day and age unless the star was probably 45. There's just too much to know for some 28 year old to take the part and seem convincing, no matter how much of a buff action star he may be. So if RDA can work out and get into shape again (he didn't look the greatest in that superbowl mastercard commercial), I think he's absolutely the one who should be cast for this.
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
I take back what I said above about RDA and the mastercard commercial. Looking at this recent picture of him on wikipedia, he TOTALLY looks like he's in good enough shape for the movie. He looks way better than Harrison Ford even, so if Ford is ready for Indiana Jones, then I'm sure RDA can reprise MacGyver. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dean_Anderson
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
Who would I want to play MacGuyver? Well, speaking in my capacity as a major Hollywood executive, I would probably want either Hayden Christensen or Shia LeBoeuf.
I think you put RDA back in. I just looked at a recent picture of him on wikipedia, and he looks more than good enough to reprise his role. If Harrison Ford can do Indiana Jones again, then looking at what I see of MacGyver I would say he looks ready (except that he'll have to grow his mullet back out).
I think as long as the original actor is in good enough shape and recognizable, you put them back into the role, and I think that's definately the case for RDA.
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
One of the blokes from Mythbusters. And give them free rein over the gadgetry.
If you can't get them, then hell, how about Tom Hanks?
I think that only Bill Gates and Steve Jobs should audition for the role. And may the best geek win!
Richard Dean Anderson already has prior commitments not doing stargate, he won't have enough time to not do MacGyver as well.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
How about female, blond, and spacy? Reese Witherspoon did an amazingly interesting job in Legally Blond with both the technical aspects of the law; and the satire. Instead of a mullet how about a disarmingly, blond, geeky smile? And pink; don't forget the pink.
Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
or even better, Run, Joey Run
Because nothing is more American than Sean Connery. Teamed up with Samuel L Jackson (because, you know, he's in everything).
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
I can just imagine the argument between DOP and focus puller:
D.O.P. - "Check the gate!"
Focus Puller - "There's a HAIR in the gate!"
D.O.P. - "The gate IS a hair, stupid!"
(O.K., maybe only movie buffs will get this but here are a few clues: focus puller / DOP / gate )
I loved MacGyver when I was a kid, but when I watched a few reruns a year ago or so I was surprised by how bad it was. Poorly written, very badly acted, and extremely embarrassing bad guys (especially the foreign ones).
You may think that Saturday Night Live's "MacGruber" skits are satire, but they are pretty much identical to the original. Except that MacGyver always succeeded.
I don't think I'd want to see a MacGyver movie.
RDA to play MacGyver. If Harrison Ford can reprise Indy, RDA can easily do a movie or two. I *personally* don't think the franchise concept has enough gas in it to spawn a huge following and a long series of movies, etc. with a new face in the role. Most of the big fans really just want to re-live the late 80's... see MacGyver stop global annihilation with chewing gum and a paperclip a few more times... and put a nice wrapper on the whole series. No better way to do that than with RDA.
Duchovny and Anderson in a new X-Files movie.
Ford reviving Indy
Willis reviving Die Hard
Stalone in new Rambo and Rocky movies
It's a no brainer.. all making good money. RDA has to do MacGyver and Selleck has to do Magnum.
Play me online? Well you know that I'll beat you. If I ever meet you I'll "/sbin/shutdown -h now" you. -Weird Al, kinda.
He's been auditioning for the role for some time on http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8433640887694062971&q=macgruber+snl&ei=2UMeSJrVIorQ4gL-h6TFAQ&hl=en>SNL.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
I take issue with this. I have an applied physics degree; and, I can write code and hack hardware as well as most with a cs or ce degree.
In fact, I am always amazed at just what we gratuitously stuff processors into. Digital coffee maker anyone?
I think having a physics degree would be adequate for MacGyver.
You can feel for the poor sod who has to manage the set items, 1. 200lb of used chewing gum 2. 400 paper clips in various sizes. 3. Paper that morphs into a 4 door family sedan with ABS when water is added.
when you have no mouth?
I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
get your heads out of your asses.
this kind of shit sucks. what the fuck is so nerd about mcguyver except for your lack of technical knowledge? mcguyver is shit and if you like it you're a worm in the shit. you probably like comic books too. fucking queers.
MuffDyver...
Beavis
Is there any doubt as to who should play MacGyver?
Two words: Chuck Norris
I recommended Austin Power.
If RDA doesn't play MacGyver, then they should get a robot to play RDA playing MacGyver.
And let's just forget about MacGyver's kid.
(You can get one of those robots through the Stargate, it won't even know it's not RDA.)
This article showed up in my RSS feed in gmail as I was watching a Macgyver episode on veoh.com!
www.purevolume.com/martyd
I heard the movie budget is in fact a tooth pick, a thimble, a grenade pin and a piece of string.
For all the reasons you outline, I feel a Macgyver movie would be a bad idea because it would likely be "updated" as Miami Vice and SWAT were for today, losing much of its relevance. It would end up being a spoof. Even a modern day A-Team where the team are former Iraqi war vets would do better, although if that one is set in Los Angeles but filmed in Phoenix, I'll be pissed.
Nah, better to not risk it. Make Garth Margengi's Dark Place into an actual show instead.
However, powered gliders with scooter motors work--as do human powered gliders (human < 1hp). This exposes MB's own problems in the conducting of its tests: they're not always that scientific or well-thought-out.
Also, it's "right off the bat"--not bad, as I typed.
"Things just aren't simple enough or accessible enough anymore..."
So that was Diebold's plan all along! They heard about the upcoming MacGyver film, and being huge fans, decided to do their part to maintain the 80s status quo with low-tech, easily-hacked technology. It finally makes sense now!!!
how about this: part of the appeal of a 21st century MacGuyver to a younger audience could be his ability to apply his wit to situations by coming up with low-tech solutions to high-tech problems. Kids today have grown up in a world where technology does most things for them: people today aren't as practical as they were in the past. Seeing someone who can manipulate the world around them in clever ways in order to solve problems could translate to fascination, and to the success of said project.
I think RDA should have a cameo as McGiver's father. He could have the following line: "You get off my .... lawn .... kids, these days".
Justin Long as MacGuyver and John Hodgman as Murdoc.
I mean, come on! He was practically Young MacGyver on TNG and he's about the right age now. I bet he'd love to do it too. Wasn't he a Mac fan too?
I live life on the edge
... will love this!
PLEASE let it be like MacGyver was before it jumped the shark. I wanna see Mac kicking some terrorist / commie butt, not playing Captain Planet. Keep Al Gore away from the set.
For an alternative actor I'll echo calls for Fillion or Damon. Someone who looks clean cut and American (yes, I understand the irony with who I suggested to play the role).
This space for rent.
Opening scene: MacGyver is standing in a queue at the airport waiting to board a flight, only to be arrested as a terrorist when security officials discovers his swiss army knife. He's shipped off to Guantanamo Bay, and dies in a failed waterboarding interrogation.
Only The Hoff is up to the challenge, if RD is unavailable.
Dude... Harrison Ford is Han Solo... you can't, in good conscience, put Richard Dean Anderson up against that. It's just not fair.
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
Put it in the far future, where things are controlled by thought alone.
I can throw myself at the ground, and miss.
that is all. oh, and you don't have to do it '80s. There's plenty of postmillenial cheezeball tech workarounds for Mac to work. Lessee... he could rescue an airbus 320 with his iPhone, he could lift an overturned semi trailer off a van full of nuns by using his passenger-side airbag and he could turn his microwave into a navigational beacon for the space shuttle. I could go on for quite a while...but you get the point. this stuff writes itself!
You and I know this, but the average Joe does not. If MacGyver starts playing with a black box, the average Joe would think that's possible.
On the other hand, if the writers are clever, they can use whatever today's technology has available. Many online systems are vulnerable to various kinds of attacks, many black boxes have hidden-in-plain-sight holes in them (admin password for CISCO routers, for example) etc.
you'd be amased of what the right size hammer can do to all this "complicated technology" or how many high tech security systems in the end trigger a simple relay or use normal open as opposed to normal closed circuits.
Actually, avoiding that could make for a pretty rough and intense end-battle.
sig? Oh, that sig...
To fit the current trend of ignorance leading to bliss, he should have a young, religious preacher as a sidekick. As Mac could no more work out the integrated circuits, the duo could get out the tough spots by praying for a divine intervention. The episodes could always end up for the dynamic duo to participate in Sunday church as MacGyver slowly starts to give up science for blind faith.
MacGyver: You know Mitt, those computer's where Intelligently Desigined after all.
"Laughter"
Roll credits.
... maybe sporting one of them inane gel-shaped pseudo-mohawks. Just think of the hours of fun we could have waching them battle mullet vs. globhawk. Maybe some extreme styling, right near the end of the movie: the blow-dryer is wet, but the wet-gel is dry. What to do, what to do... but wait!... The gravity of the moon, some Wet-Gel, a little burst from that Hair-Spray-Can and just one match could... [WOOOOOMP] Ah. Never mind. Who likes bald guys, anyway.
sig? Oh, that sig...
I think you made some valid points, but I still think it could easily be done with some imaginative script writing.
The premise of the show was not his specilization of skills, but his ability to assess a situation, and use the tools in the environment to escape/remedy the problem (using physics/chemistry/etc). In essence, he was a bit like a ninja (Ninja MacGyver would be awesome..but I digress).
I imagine the movie to be a bit like Bear Grylis (Man Versus Wild), in adapting to any situation using what you have. Sure the technology has changed, but the physics (in general) has stayed the same (things still explode/react as they did in the 80's). MacGyver would not have to be an Ubber Hacker to make a good film.
Sig it.
I am so going to see this movie even if I have to get a baby sitter. I grew up on MacGvyer, and watched the show religiously not missing a single show/mini-movie.
I think RDA did a fantastic job reprising the MacGuyver role in that commercial he did a year or two ago for MasterCard. I don't see why he couldn't do it for a full-length film.
He's in at least as good a shape as Harrison Ford was for reprising Indiana Jones.
Serving your airship needs since 1995.
I agree - if you wanted to do something like that today, you'd focus on the other aspects that a spy-action-hero-on-a-budget would do - still a little bit of rigging things where possible, but also a few clever physical tricks, some social engineering, and a lot more clever planning. We don't get the 80s version, but we still get something.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
Don't know if you've seen a current photo of R.D.A., but he is old, old, old, and he looks older than that. They had to take him out of his action role on Stargate SG-1 (the story reason was a promotion, ha ha) because he's too old, and it's simply not plausible for him to be jumping around like way back when he was a lad of 60.
The next MacGyver should be played by Ellen Page.
unless they can create it using only a small length of string, a bent penny, a can of hairspray, and a piece of used chewing gum.
sudo eat my shorts
I agree with you but I think the whole concept of making a MacGyver movie in the 21st century would be to unbelievable.
It would be as believable as a scene in one of the Mission Impossible movies where a scientologist riding on a motorbike can takeout snipers in a mid-air jump while throughout the whole scene he is never touched by a single bullet.
The only way it could be made believable is if RDA was a android in the 22nd+ century. And with that, RDA would touch such a tacky plot line.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
Does anyone else remember that episode where MacGuyver gets in a situation thats impossible to get out of, then makes something out of nothing and gets out of it?!?
The movie should be just like that
For those of you who didn't catch it, that description works for every single MacGuyver episode.
John Malkovic.
He's the answer to the the vast majority of "who should play who" as long as it's not a "buff action hero"
Man... as much as I have awesome fond memories of watching MacGyver as a kid... I made the mistake of going back and watching some episodes in reruns a few months back. WOW. That is some horrendous TV right there.
I've already got a double date planned for the premiere with my two babes, Patty and Selma.
You know I'm gonna get me some that night.
Ashton Kutcher. I never did like the tv show, but watching Kutcher bumble through MIT-inspired contraptions might be entertaining, in a "so bad it's good" fashion.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Hey, why not? He sorta looks the part, and he has some of those similar rye facial expressions. I think he'd be perfect for the part.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Wasn't the first episode about MacGuyver entering some high tech lab by redirecting lasers and fighting against automated guard bots?
MacGuyver dealt with a lot of then advanced and futuristic technology. The problem is that most of this stuff is not as exciting and new anymore. Computers were kind of a mystery back in the 80ies. This allowed for a lot of imaginative story lines. I don't believe that the feeling of MacGuyver, Tron, Knight Rider or War Games could be replicated, now that computers, the internet and electronics are about as exciting as a washing mashine.
Cell phones ruin a lot of potential plot lines, as some other poster noted. The kind of encyclopedic knowledge about technical subjects that MacGuyver had, is pretty worthless in our days of Google and Wikipedia as well.
So what is left? Maybe social engineering, as well as the usual escape plot.
Well, I think the obvious answer is "Ben Bowder"
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
To some extent, that could be the movie. Old Mac has been sidelined and forced to watch younger, more 'with it' agents take his job. So somehow he gets in a jam or is recalled (or whatever - need the money) and he get to give them their come-uppance. Like Space Cowboys or something.
Matt Damon would make an excellent MacGyver.
But he looked so stupid in that movie "Team America". Hardly can deliver any dialog...