After being stuck in development for a number of years, New Line Cinema’s Police Academy remake started moving in the right direction back in 2014, when Key & Peele stars Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele came aboard to produce the comedy. The duo are working alongside original Police Academy producer Paul Maslansky, who has been shepherding this project for the past six years. While we haven’t had any updates on the project since Key & Peele signed on two years ago, the Police Academy remake is still happening, and the story is inspired by two surprising sources.
The original Police Academy hit theaters in 1984, starring Steve Guttenberg and Kim Cattrall, following a group of unconventional police cadets, after new rules imposed by the mayor allowed anyone to apply for the police academy. The slapstick comedy went on to spawn seven movie and two TV shows, but Keegan Michael Key revealed that they are taking a different approach. During an interview with CinemaBlend, Keegan Michael Key said that the movie will be inspired by David Ayer’s gritty 2012 cop thriller End of Watch, and the hit 1970 army comedy M*A*S*H, which spawned a very popular TV sitcom.
“It’s mostly about having a sense of, when Jordan was pitching the idea, it should feel a little bit like End of Watch – and this is going to feel like a strange reference, but it should also feel a little bit like M*A*S*H*. Do you know what I mean? M*A*S*H* is hysterical, but still [really about the Korean War]. We’re moving in that direction.”
A few months after Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele signed on to produce, Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen came aboard to write the script. They previously worked together as writers/producers on The Mindy Project, and they also wrote the upcoming summer comedy Central Intelligence, starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. While it isn’t known how far along the script is in development, Keegan Michael Key also teased that their reboot may follow at least one aspect of the original Police Academy movies.
“Another thing is thinking about all the weapons that have come, all the technology is different now. [Police Academy producer] Paul Maslansky, he always tried to put the biggest technology from the ’80s in the set pieces. So that’s a tradition we might follow.”
The Police Academy reboot doesn’t have a director in place quite yet, and New Line hasn’t set a production start date. It still isn’t known if Key & Peele plan on having starring roles in Police Academy, or if they will only be behind the camera as producers. Paul Maslansky revealed in an interview several years ago that he was eyeing up and coming comedians to star in this project, but we’ll have to wait and see who comes aboard when casting officially begins.
Source: Movieweb
