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Hollywood retrofits MacGyver into feature flick

Applied science hero's pop culture resurgence

American TV action hero and world's greatest improvisational engineer MacGyver is set to hit the big screen — just as soon as Hollywood jerry-rigs a script.

New Line Entertainment plans to develop the cult 1980s television series into a feature film that will retrofit MacGyver into a new "global franchise," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The studio said it already has producers for the project lined up. With the important stuff out of the way, New Line is now looking for trifles like a writer and a script for the movie.

The series originally ran from 1985 to 1992 on ABC starring Richard Dean Anderson as the titular secret agent with an extraordinary knack for saving the day by turning household items into ingenious gadgets.

MacGyver also saw two made-for-TV-movies starring Anderson ("Lost Treasures of Atlantis" and "Trail to Doomsdsay") after the series' cancellation.

Long after the show ended, MacGyver has entered pop culture lexicon to label making a tool or device out of what's available at hand.

The series is now owned by CBS and has recently been used along with aging shows like the original Star Trek and Beverly Hills 90210 as the studio's conciliatory fruit basket for streaming video sites attempting commercial content deals. Because of this, MacGyver is readily available on YouTube, TV.com, and a host of lesser-known streaming sites.

According to earlier reports on THR, New Line has been sitting on rights to the show for several years. Today's push is most likely a response to US skit show Saturday Night Live frequently airing "MacGruber" parodies — making the license more relevant for today's audiences. And now that SNL and MacGruber have begun unashamedly (and apparently successfully) hawking Pepsi products, we're sure New Line is positively slobbering at the license's prospects. ®

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