Lacey Bridges
Uber-producer Jon Peters (“Batman”) is back in business – he’s currently producing a starry, big-budget remake of “A Star is Born” – and if his chit-chat with The Hollywood Reporter this week is anything to go by, he’s going to play it safe for this second wind.
One of Peter’s early hits, “Caddyshack” (1980) is getting the remake treatment, and if Peters has his way, his old friend Jack Nicholson will be starring. The new version, says the trade, will be “an old guard vs. millennial golfer comedy.”
In other words, Nicholson won’t be playing the Ted Knight or Rodney Dangerfield role but, likely, a new character – an old-school golfer (likely with a temper, right!?) who takes on the young hot shots on the golf course.
It’ll be hard to rope Nicholson, now 79, back into film, he hasn’t done a film since 2010’s “How Do You Know”. Might be especially hard to coax him out of semi-retirement with an offer to star in a “remake of an ’80s’ comedy”.
Not opposed to remaking or rebooting “Caddyshack”, there’s a lot of room for a new interpretation of that classic, and we’ve already had one bad attempt at replicating the original’s magic (1988’s dire “Caddyshack II”) so it’s not like a remake is going to tarnish the brand, but does anyone actually think this will come off – Nicholson in “Caddyshack”? Didn’t Tom Cruise try and get Nicholson for some very meaty, power-packed drama a year or two ago and the Oscar Winning Legend wouldn’t even budge from the sofa for it? Can’t see him wanting to redo an old Chevy Chase movie.
While I dare say the “Caddyshack” remake will go ahead, I think we’ll end up with a Bryan Cranston or Robert De Niro (he should be as fussy as Nicholson but he’s not!) in the part intended for Nicholson, likely teeing off against a couple of young comedy guns like Dax Shepard and Keegan Michael- Key.
At the same time, Peters was the one to convince Nicholson to play the bad guy in a comic book movie back in the ‘80s… that couldn’t have been an easy task.
Fascinating interview with Jon Peters, read it here.
