Hollywood is lining up a relaunch of the fabled 1980s "Cannonball Run" movie franchise, with Warner Bros reportedly negotiating with director Rawson Thurber, who helmed the films "Dodgeball" and "We're the Millers" and will next team with Dwayne Johnson in "Skyscraper."
That's according to a
report in
Deadline Hollywood, which also notes WB is negotiating with Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, the duo perhaps best known for playing the short-shorts-wearing cops on "Reno 911!" as script writers. The outlet
recently reported that director Doug Liman ("The Bourne Identity," "Swingers") was being lined up as director after earlier talks with Thurber fell through.
The original "Cannonball," released in 1981 and a staple of early cable-TV movie channels, was directed by Hal Needham and grossed $72.1 million at the box office. It starred Burt Reynolds, Farrah Fawcett, Roger Moore and Dom DeLuise in an action-comedy about a police-defying race from New England to Los Angeles. It was based on the
Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, an illegal coast-to-coast rally organized by then-Car and Driver editor-in-chief Brock Yates, who also wrote the script, during the 1970s as a protest to the 55 mph speed limit then effect across the United States.
Autoblog is now part of Oath
Cannonball Run a personal classic f
