Tom Hanks, Big
Robert Loggia, left and Tom Hanks appear in a scene from the 1988 movie "Big."
(Video still)
"I wish I were big." With five litttle words and a Zoltar machine, a little boy transformed into man-child Tom Hanks overnight and box office magic was made.
Now, Syracuse native Mike Royce wants to bring "Big" back in a small way -- for the small screen, that is.
Slash Film reports Royce and his "Enlisted" partner Kevin Biegel are developing a TV show for 20th Century Fox Television based on the 1988 film, which grossed $150 million worldwide. The pair will write and executive produce the remake as a half-hour weekly "event series," meaning fewer episodes than a traditional season.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the project has a script plus penalty commitment from Fox, the same network that canceled the pair's critically acclaimed military comedy series earlier this year. Yahoo! considered reviving "Enlisted" for its online streaming service but ultimately backed out, opening Royce and Biegel up to new ideas.
"Kevin Biegel and I love love love 'Big' and when Fox suggested the movie as a basis for an event series, we started talking and ideas started coming fast and furious," Royce tells syracuse.com.
"So we're using the movie as a jumping off point to tell a new story (and then some) about what it means to be an adult and what it means to be a kid, and how today those two things are more confused than ever."
For those that didn't see the original movie (what's wrong with you?!?), it follows the adventures of a boy named Josh (a then 14-year-old David Moscow) who wishes he were an adult and wakes up the next day as a 30-year-old man (Hanks). Josh then gets a job at a toy company and falls in love with a woman (Elizabeth Perkins) but quickly learns up being a grown-up isn't all fun and games -- though he still manages to do an epic floor piano performance of "Heart & Soul" and "Chopsticks" with Robert Loggia.
No casting or directors have been named for the "Big" reboot but Royce, a Jamesville-DeWitt High School graduate whose credits include "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "Men of a Certain Age," expects it to air sometime next year.
As Slash Film points out, the project follows a growing trend of '80s properties being revived for nostalgic fans, such as "The Greatest American Hero" and "Problem Child," plus potential spinoffs of "Full House" and Married... With Children." TV adaptations of movies are also hot lately, like FX's "Fargo," NBC's "Hannibal" ("Silence of the Lambs"), A&E's "Bates Motel" ("Psycho") and SyFy's upcoming "12 Monkeys."