When it comes to entertainment offerings, Disney is currently the big stack. This is a poker term that refers to the amount of money a player has in the game; the big stack is the player with the most money, and they can use that chip advantage to push some of the smaller players around. Even mediocre hands become suddenly playable because it means placing another bet that others can’t afford to call. And if you have a better analogy for the upcoming deluge of remake, reboots, and sequels about to hit Disney+, well then, friend, I don’t want to hear it.
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Earlier today, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Disney is working on a live-action “Inspector Gadget” movie. The film is set to be co-written by “Saturday Night Live” writers Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell, whose filmography to-date primarily consists of web series and sketch comedy work. As the article notes, Day and Seidell will also be working on the “Home Alone” reboot for Disney+. While the report doesn’t explicitly state that “Inspector Gadget” will also be headed to Disney’s proprietary streaming platform, given the rest of the titles they announced, that would be my best guess. Either way, this will be Disney’s second live-action adaptation after the 1999 film, which starred Matthew Broderick and made $97m domestic on a shockingly big budget of $90m.
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In the original animated series, the Inspector Gadget was a bumbling (but well-meaning) character whose efforts to stop MAD were often salvaged by his niece Penny and her dog Brain. While Disney is unlikely to push the envelope with a property like this, there is potential for the screenwriters to polish this formula for contemporary audiences. A mediocre spy who is always lavished with the recognition his female colleague deserves? Take a dash of the 1988 Sherlock Holmes comedy “Without a Clue,” add a little “Remington Steele,” and top the whole thing off with a post-#MeToo empowerment angle, and you might have something with a few teeth. If Phil Lord and Christopher Miller can make “21 Jump Street” one of the smartest comedies of the decade, there’s probably space for “Inspector Gadget” to connect with audiences as well.