They tried this once, and it really, really didn’t work. The Avengers was a well-loved British television show that found fans on both sides of the Atlantic. It was one of the first British shows to be picked up by a US network.
In the UK, it launched in 1961 and ran for six seasons, There was also a sequel series. Escapist espionage with a touch of sci-fi, it featured Patrick Macnee as the bowler hat-wearing John Steed who tackled surreal threats against Britain.
It featured a famous roster of female assistants, including Honor Blackman, Linda Thorson, and Diana Rigg as Emma Peel.
A big-budget remake was tried in 1998. That starred Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman, alongside Eddie Izzard and the mighty Sean Connery. It was a notorious flop. It gained only $57 million at the box office on a $60 million budget. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes shows a 5% score, based on 83 reviews, with an average rating of 3.20/10. Criticism included that the American production team fatally misunderstood the symbols of “Britishness” central to The Avengers series.
Now it appears that StudioCanal is going to go again. They will reboot The Avengers with Warner Bros. Discovery-owned Wall to Wall co-producing the project. This will be a series.
Mickey Down and Konrad Kay have penned a pilot for the series alongside Sex Education director Ben Taylor. As well as directing, Taylor will executive produce.
Talks are continuing around a distributor.
Check back every day for movie news and reviews at the Last Movie Outpost
