Higgins! Call Off the Dogs!

I’m no fan of remakes, especially when I can still remember the original. So the news that a movie version of Magnum PI. is in works has left me quite torn. Because I loved Magnum.

I have so many questions: Is Higgins also Robin Masters? How come criminals never noticed that a fire-engine red Ferrari was tailing them? Was Rick more involved with the mob then we knew? And what was Magnum doing when he ended the last episode back in his Navy uniform?

I watched the show, which ran from 1980 to 1988, and watched again and again when it ran into reruns. There were good mysteries, generous dollops of humour, Hawaii and Tom Selleck – the best moustache before Jack Layton came along.

Will it be an update on the characters, telling us where they are now and answering my questions? Seems unlikely, as who wants to watch a bunch of old guys creak around the palm trees (other than me I guess), and could Selleck squeeze into those little shorts anymore?

Losing Selleck means losing a lot of the appeal. So if not an update, what? A retelling? That concerns me, especially as the guy they have hired is Dodgeball writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber. Dodgeball? Oh-oh. According to the industry trades, he doesn't intend to make Magnum into a spoof, but I worry.

If they are going ahead with this, who should play mains? The Stax Report suggests a few names:

Magnum: George Clooney; Hugh Jackman
Higgins: Ian McKellen
TC: Bernie Mac; Don Cheadle
Rick: Ben Stiller; Paul Rudd

Hmm, Clooney might be good. Well, it’s gonna happen. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens and go find myself a Hawaiian shirt and a rerun.