Inspector Gadget live-action film in development at Disney
Disney is continuing its mining of old properties for live-action films as the studio has begun development on a new adaptation of the acclaimed 1980s cartoon Inspector Gadget, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The project is being produced by Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich, the team behind this year’s box office smash Aladdin, through their banner Rideback and is being scripted by Saturday Night Live writers Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell.
The cartoon, a co-production between American and Canadian studios, followed the adventures of its titular protagonist, a bionic detective reminiscent of The Pink Panther‘s Inspector Clouseau who has access to an array of gadgets in his body, only to struggle to command control of them as he bumbles his way through every case. His frequent nemesis was the mysterious Dr. Claw and the evil organization M.A.D. while being assisted by his niece Penny and the family dog Brain.
Thanks to its success, the series sparked numerous spin-offs and continuations, the most recent of which included a CGI-animated series on Netflix that ran for four seasons from 2015-2018.
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This will mark Disney’s third live-action adaptation of the character, with the studio producing a theatrical adaptation in 1999 with Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) in the lead role and was a box office success but a critical failure. The studio followed it up with a direct-to-video sequel Inspector Gadget 2, which only saw D.L. Hughley reprise his role as the voice of the Gadgetmobile while French Stewart (Clockstoppers) took over the lead role from Broderick.
In addition to Gadget, Day and Seidell are also attached to script the upcoming reboot of the Home Alone franchise for Disney+.