Ryan Reynolds and Amazon MGM have teamed up to develop a remake of Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, a 1974 action comedy that starred Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges.
Reynolds is eyeing to star in the adaptation and will produce alongside his team at his Maximum Effort production banner.
Reynolds is also collaborating on the script with writers Enzo Mileti and Scott Wilson, a writing team who worked on season four of comedic crime show Fargo. Shane Reid, who edited Reynolds’ Deadpool & Wolverine, will make his directorial debut with the project.
Thunderbolt & Lightfoot starred Eastwood as a bank robber disguised as a preacher and on the run from his old gang, who erroneously believe he double-crossed them. When he meets up with Lightfoot, a low-level street thief played by Bridges, the two come up with a plan to team with the old gang for a new bank job. Nothing goes as intended.
The movie was the directorial debut of Michael Cimino, who would later go on to win a best director Oscar for his 1978 Vietnam War drama The Deer Hunter. Cimino also wrote the script for Thunderbolt & Lightfoot. Bridges earned an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for his performance.
The project could be an ideal vehicle for an A-lister two-hander. As some have suggested, it could offer a possibility for a reteaming of Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, something for which some have been clamoring.
Jeff Bridges and Clint Eastwood in ‘Thunderbolts and Lightfoot’ (1974).
Everett
Mileti and Wilson worked as writer and consulting producers on FX’s drug crime show Snowfall and were staff writers on the Frank Grillo-starring MMA drama The Kingdom. The duo is repped by WME and Untitled Entertainment.
Reynolds this week signed on to star as the villain in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Eloise, based on the children’s book series written by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight, which he and his Maximum Effort cohorts are producing. He is also a producer on John Candy: I Like Me, the documentary on the late, great comedic actor that premiered at this year’s Toronto Film Festival and now streams on Amazon.
Reynolds is repped by WME and Sloane Offer.