LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Steve Keller and Mike Stone are back on “The Streets of San Francisco.” CBS is developing an update of the classic 1970s cop series starring Michael Douglas and Karl Malden.
The remake will keep key elements from the original Quinn Martin production: the title, the names of the two main characters and, of course, the backdrop of the City by the Bay. But the main focus is to bring the spirit of the original “Streets” into the new reincarnation.
“The times are very similar -- it was the Vietnam War in the 1970s and the Iraq War now,” said Robert Port, who will write the pilot script with Sheldon Turner. “There is the same sort of tension between generations, and we wanted to carry that to the new series.”
Turner compared the 21st century Keller and Stone to presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.
“One, like Obama, wants to be active and believes in rehabilitation, while the other one, like McCain, doesn’t quite believe in rehabilitation and believes that the enemy is the enemy,” said Turner, who wrote the remake of “The Longest Yard.”
Turner and Port have worked on the “Streets” reinvention for seven months. They spent time at the San Francisco Police Department and with SFPD cops.
While reinventions of old series are hot with such recent entries as “Knight Rider,” “The Bionic Woman” and “90210,” cop dramas have rarely been remade, with “Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf’s 2003 attempt to revive “Dragnet” a rare example.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter