Believe it or not, but the American Gladiator TV series has been on the air every year except one during the past 20 years, beginning in 1988 and lasting all the way through to 2008 when the series was revived, given a primetime slot and co-hosted by Hulk Hogan. However, it didn’t seem to take off like some thought it would (at least not in my neck of the woods), and so, naturally, the only thing left to do now with a property no one is really interested in is to somehow turn it into a movie. (If the movie fails, look out for American Gladiators: The Pop-Up Book!)
Variety reports that Sunset Pictures is developing and funding a big-screen version of American Gladiators that will actually take place within the world of the TV show and still manage to churn out tons of action. I’m not sure how you would go about creating an action movie set inside the TV show (unless one of the Gladiators loses it, forcing some lowly nerdy producer to save the day), but color me curious to see what comes of this potential guilty pleasure.
According to producer Scott Mednick, the idea here is to create "a compelling story that launches a whole new set of characters." One imagines those characters will then help re-launch a new TV series, and so on and so forth.
Are you down for an American Gladiators movie? If you were in charge, what sort of story would you like to see play out on screen?
