Doug Liman Circling Warner Bros’ ‘Cannonball Run’ Re-Ignition

Doug Liman Circling Warner Bros’ ‘Cannonball Run’ Re-Ignition

EXCLUSIVE: We are hearing that Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman is in early talks to take over the directing reigns of Warner Bros.’ reboot The Cannonball Run, the 1980s action comedy franchise made popular by star Burt Reynolds and director Hal Needham.

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Warner Bros. production executives Jesse Ehrman and Paul Perez are overseeing the re-imagining for the studio.

Last year, Skyscraper filmmaker Rawson Marshall Thurber was in talks to direct a Cannonball Run reboot from a script by Night at the Museum scribes Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant. A deal with Thurber wasn’t reached. Word is Liman will work off of Lennon and Garant’s version with a new scribe to be announced.

Cannonball Run I and II were directed by Needham and featured all star ensembles with ’80s stars like Reynolds, Farrah Fawcett, Roger Moore, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and Dom DeLuise. They played roles in the re-enactment of an illegal cross-country race where the participants were not above playing dirty tricks on one another.

Andre Morgan and Alan Gasmer (Vikings) are producing for Warner Bros. Morgan, who produced the first Cannonball movies has been making movies at Warner Bros. since Enter The Dragon in 1973. Warner Bros acquired all sequel and remake rights to the franchise from original copyright owners Brock Yates, the Hal Needham Estate and Fortune Star LTD. Albert S. Ruddy and Raymond Chow are EPs.

The first film was released by Fox in 1981 and was a notable moneymaker for the year, the sixth best then earning $72.1M at the domestic B.O. Warner Bros released the 1984 sequel; and Orion released the 1989 third film, which starred John Candy, Donna Dixon, Eugene Levy and Brooke Shields.

Liman is repped by CAA and Weintraub Tobin Chediak Coleman Grodin. Of his directing credits which include The Bourne Identity, Warner’s Edge of Tomorrow, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Liman has amassed close to $1.5 Billion at the WW box office.