EXCLUSIVE: A famous 1980s title is eyeing a comeback. ABC has nabbed Magnum, a sequel to the classic series Magnum P.I. that starred Tom Selleck, with a script commitment plus substantial penalty. The project, from Leverage creator John Rogers and Eva Longoria’s UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, will keep the fun, action-packed style of the original as it follows Magnum’s daughter, Lily “Tommy” Magnum, who returns to Hawaii to take up the mantle of her father’s PI firm. She and her tribe of friends mix tropical beaches with the seedy underbelly of international crime and modern espionage, even as she tries to unravel the mystery of the blown spy operation that ended her career in Navy Intelligence.
Rogers will write the script and executive produce through his Kung Fu Monkey banner alongside UnbeliEVAble’s Longoria and Ben Spector and Kung Fu Monkey’s Jennifer Court. Universal TV, which owns rights to the original series and where UnbeliEVAble is based, is the studio.
Longoria and Spector, whose UnbeliEVAble is under an overall deal at Universal TV, looked at the studio’s catalog for titles that could be suited for reboot. They identified Magnum P.I. as particularly viable and relevant, and then Rogers unlocked a way in with Thomas Magnum’s daughter that he took custody of in the show’s finale. While the trio felt that rebooting the series with another Thomas Magnum would be daunting, focusing on his daughter was an organic way to update the franchise.
“We knew no one could replace the iconic role of Thomas Magnum, so John decided to make the reboot a sequel and continue the adventure of a Magnum — his daughter, who was established in the original series,” Longoria and Spector told Deadline.
Magnum P.I., created by Donald P. Bellisario and Glen A. Larson, premiered in 1980 and ran on CBS for eight seasons with Selleck in his signature role as a Hawaiian P.I. Lily, who appeared in four episodes, had been raised by her mom, Magnum’s once presumed dead wife Michele, and her second husband. Following their death, the little girl was reunited with her birth father who at the end of the series vowed to provide a stable home for her.
In addition to TNT’s long-running drama Leverage, Rogers created the network’s current hit The Librarians, heading into its third season, and NBC’s The Player. His feature credits include the first Transformers movie, American Outlaws and The Core.
