I have gotten word that Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have attached themselves and their production company, K/O Paper Products, to the reboot of CHARLIE CHAN. The story tells the adventures of a U.S./Chinese detective based out of Honolulu, who travels the world as he investigates mysteries and solves crimes. The team is going try to bring the sleuth back to life with Daniel Kim as the star and attempt to keep some of the humor of the originals but make the story more character driven, while remaining fun but not goofy a la “Charlie’s Angels.”
This will be an attempt to reboot the franchise that has been dormant for the last 33 years, even though during the height of the franchise’s popularity it spawned almost 60 films, from three different countries with more than a dozen different actors playing Chan. That’s almost three times the number of James Bond movies and double the number of actors who have played the title role. The only question is, after 33 years (and there was a 40 year gap between that one and the last Chan film) does anyone still want to see this character rebooted on the big screen?
Well, with Orci and Kurtzman coming on board this project the answer is of course, yes, as they are the pretty much the masters of the modern reboot. The producing/writing duo are an absolute powerhouse in the industry and continually write and/or produce some of the biggest blockbusters of the past decade. Some of their writing credits include the upcoming “Amazing Spider-Man 2,” (they are working on 3 & 4 as well) both of the latest “Star Treks,” the first two “Transformers,” and the upcoming reboot of “The Mummy.” Then in the producing field they did “Ender’s Game,” “Now You See Me,” and “The Proposal.” That is not mentioning their TV credits which go far as back as “Hercules” and as current as “Sleepy Hallow.” If there were anyone you wanted to have control of rebooting a franchise, it would be these two guys.
As for Kim, he is currently enjoying his fifth season on “Hawaii Five-O” (another Orci/Kurtzman reboot) but will probably never live down playing Jin Kwon (always one of my favorite characters) on “Lost.” He has never really blown up on the big screen, but this is just the type of project (and franchise) that could propel his silver screen popularity through the roof.
Kurtzman and Orci are repped by CAA.
Kim is repped by Agency For The Performing Arts, United Agents, and Anonymous Content.
