Ryan Reynolds Eyes Remake of Clint Eastwood’s Thunderbolt & Lightfoot

Ryan Reynolds Eyes Remake of Clint Eastwood’s Thunderbolt & Lightfoot

Thanks to our friend Olly Peden for pointing me towards this. It seems that Deadline are reporting on this possible remake of another classic Eastwood movie – why? Is Hollywood really so short on ideas and originality? Don’t get me wrong, I kinda enjoy the work of Ryan Reynolds, hell you can make as many Deadpool films as you wish, but don’t go stepping all over a classic.

Anyway, Deadline’s Anthony D'Alessandro reported:

We can confirm that a remake of the hit 1974 United Artists action-comedy Thunderbolt & Lightfoot is in works at Amazon MGM Studios with Deadpool & Wolverine‘s Ryan Reynolds looking to star and produce under his Maximum Effort banner. 

Below: Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds in R.I.P.D. (2013)

Shane Reid is making his feature directorial debut. Reid was an editor on the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever, Deadpool & Wolverine, which minted $636.7 million domestic and $1.33 billion at the global box office. Reynolds is working on the script with writers Enzo Mileti and Scott Wilson. Mileti and Wilson penned the fourth season of FX anthology series Fargo and wrote and worked as consulting producers on the network’s Snowfall. In addition, they were part of the writing staff for the Frank Grillo MMA series The Kingdom.

The original dark-comedy heist movie was written and directed by the late Michael Cimino in his feature helming debut. The pic follows a bank robber (Eastwood) and his irreverent sidekick (Bridges) who reassemble their old posse for a daring new heist.

Unadjusted for inflation, the movie made $21.7M back in the day. Bridges notched a Supporting Actor Oscar nom for the movie produced by Robert Daley.

Reynolds’ Maximum Effort has a first-look deal at Paramount that was re-upped in February 2024. He will play the bad guy and produce Netflix’s live-action take of children’s book Eloise, which his Maximum Effort is also producing.

Reynolds stars in Legendary and Warner Bros’ hybrid animated movie, Animal Friends, next summer in the role of Pony.

This story prompted a response from an anonymous reader which I think pretty much sums up the general feeling:

‘Bad idea. The movie is a classic it’s perfect just the way it is. Impossible for Ryan to do a role Clint was superb in and Bridges was great in his role they had amazing chemistry.’

I wouldn’t really add anything to that…