Rumors are heating up that James Wan's upcoming film The Conjuring could be a lot bigger than your average horror film-- after all, it was bumped to a prime July release date next year after initially being scheduled for next January. So Wan, who directed the first Saw film and had the surprise hit Insidious last year, may be poised for his biggest hit yet-- and he's using that positive buzz to line up another big new project for himself.
According to Variety, New Line-- the studio behind The Conjuring-- is aiming to keep Wan in the fold by assigning him to its MacGyver movie, an adaptation of the famous 80s series starring Richard Dean Anderson. The project's been in the works since 2009, and since the parody MacGruber came and went in that time, they're assuming the MacGyver character can still be taken seriously enough to make a big-screen comeback.
There's no word on the status of the script, which was last worked on by Brian and Mark Gunn, the two writers credited with Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. And there's no word on if Richard Dean Anderson would make a cameo, though given that he gave his blessing to MacGruber when he appeared on SNL as the character's father, we probably can't rule out an appearance. I probably would have put money on a MacGyver movie lingering in development forever, but Wan's involvement seems to promise some forward movement. Are we ready for the 80s to make this kind of comeback?
