Amazon is currently developing a script-to-series original Starsky & Hutch, from James Gunn.
A co-production with Sony Pictures Television Studios and a continuation of the original 1970s series, the project will be a character-driven one hour procedural for Prime Video that deconstructs the buddy cop genre in the same entertaining way that Gunn did with the science fiction genre.
Starsky & Hutch will be written by Brian and Mark, based on an idea by James.
“Chekhov said if you have a gun in the room, it’s going to go off. We can’t wait to see what three Gunns do with Starsky & Hutch,” said Joe Lewis, Head of Comedy, Drama and VR, Amazon Studios.
“We are thrilled to be working with Amazon on this unique approach to a character driven procedural,” said Jason Clodfelter, Co-President, Sony Pictures Television Studios. “The Gunns completely surpassed our expectations while paying respect to the original.”
“When I was a kid, Starsky & Hutch was the first ‘adult’ show I ever saw, and I fell in love,” said James Gunn. “It instilled in me a lifelong love of gritty street shows, of killer 70’s threads, and muscle cars. So when Neal Mortiz asked me if I wanted to be a part of an all new Starsky & Hutch on TV, I was instantly intrigued. I teamed up with the two writers I trusted most in the world to work with us, my brother Brian Gunn and my cousin Mark Gunn and together we came up with a show that I’m really proud of. At Amazon I believed we would have the most freedom to create something that is different, challenges the audience, and that strays outside the parameters of genre from time to time.”
Starsky & Hutch is the first foray into television for James Gunn and his production company Troll Court Entertainment.
Created by William Blinn and produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, the original series, which aired on ABC from 1975 to 1979, centered on two detectives, the streetwise David Michael Starsky (played by Paul Michael Glaser) and the by-the-book Kenneth Richard “Hutch” Hutchinson (David Soul), traversing the streets of the fictional Bay City, California in a two-door Ford Gran Torino.
**Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney**