'MacGyver' Movie Reboot in the Works

Richard Dean Anderson played MacGyver in the original TV series (Photo: Getty Images)

By Dave McNary, Variety

Lionsgate is developing a movie reboot of the action-adventure TV series MacGyver, with CBS planning a remake of the show.

Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer made the disclosure of both projects on Friday during Lionsgate’s earnings call with analysts. He said the movie would be produced by series creator Lee David Zlotoff and Neal Moritz, producer of The Fast and the Furious franchise, but gave no further details.

MacGyver ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States from 1985 to 1992 and starred Richard Dean Anderson as secret agent Angus MacGyver, who worked for the Department of External Services. The series is best remembered for MacGyver being able to solve complex problems with ordinary objects and his Swiss Army knife.

Related: MacGyver Reboot in Works at CBS

After the market closed Thursday, Lionsgate had reported sharply lower earnings of $40.7 million, or 27 cents a share — less than half of the year-ago quarter — for its third fiscal quarter. The studio cited soft performance by its movies during the period, which included Jennifer Lawrence’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 and Vin Diesel’s The Last Witch Hunter.

The fourth and final Hunger Games movie generated $652 million worldwide, including $280 million in the U.S. — the lowest worldwide total of the four films, which grossed a combined $2.9 billion. Feltheimer said Friday that Mockingjay – Part 2, which opened on Nov. 20, had underperformed and cited two factors — the negative impact of the Nov. 15 terror attacks in Paris and its performance in China, where the film grossed $21 million.

Related: James Wan in Talks to Helm ‘MacGyver’ Movie (Nov. 2012)

Rob Friedman, co-chairman of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, cited a third factor in response to a question, saying that Mockingjay – Part 2 had also been negatively impacted by the strong performance by Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which opened Dec. 16. He said that the seventh Star Wars movie had taken away between $50 million to $100 million from the worldwide gross of the final Hunger Games film.

“It was a combination of circumstances that were unique,” he added.

Flashback: Refresh your memory on the original ‘MacGyver’ TV series: