Caffeinated Clint
It was only a couple of months ago when I spoke to Scott Bakula, and at the time, despite years and years of rumours, he’d heard nothing of a “Quantum Leap” movie – well, when I say nothing I mean ‘the same garbage the rest of us have on the IMDB messageboards’.
Said Bakula of suggestions that plans were afoot to bring time-traveling Sam Beckett back to the screen, ”That rumor’s always out there.”
Having said that, the amiable actor did believe it could happen – sometime in the future. ”I would always – you know, you talk about this stuff, and you’d have to see how it would manifest, you know? In terms of a script. And – I always have joked that they’ll do it, but it won’t be with me and Dean [Stockwell], you know? Because that’s just the way that Hollywood is. If they did a feature, they would recast it. And make it better.”
(In my opinion, there is no better unit than a Bakula/Stockwell double-act, and despite the fact that there is now a film in the works, I strongly doubt it’ll end up better than the treasured series – there was something incontrovertibly charming, sweet about the show. I’m guessing the movie will be more interested in kabooms! than characters)
Since my chat with Bakula late last year seems there’s been some movement on the “Quantum Leap” movie.
At Comic-Con, Bakula announced that there was indeed a script in the works and, from what he’d heard, he and Stockwell would be in the film.
”The good news is that Don [Quantum Leap creator Donald P. Bellisario] is working on the film script and has a big time Hollywood producer who wants to do it … It’s about time”, Blastr quoted the actor as saying. “But what I always thought would happen, happened … [that he’s now too old for the role]. But Dean [Stockwell, who played Al] and I will have a part in it somehow.”
Bakula goes on to say that, “Don did say that as he was writing, he told me he was having trouble, ‘getting you and Dean out of my head.’ But I know he will do it.”
Below the news article on the aforementioned site there’s a bunch of posts from readers, voicing their opinion on the “Quantum Leap” movie – and there’s one in particular I can’t agree more with. Said ‘MB’, if ”If there is going to be a Quantum Leap movie.. It should be with Scott Bakula as an aged Sam Beckett… Because giving somebody else that role just seems wrong somehow.”
True. Look at Jeff Bridges and “Tron Legacy”! Can’t they cast a young, bankable actor to play opposite Bakula’s Sam? Maybe he can be a son – or something? Or maybe a ‘Leaper’ in training?
Whatever the case, Bakula’s as much Sam Beckett as Tom Selleck is Thomas Magnum – let’s hope Bellisario realizes that before Robert Pattinson’s taking orders from Ziggy.
