David Cassidy on the Web
"Partridge Family" Flocks to Megaplex
Thursday, May 6, 2004
By Lia Haberman
http://au.eonline.com
Hollywood has either run out of good ideas or else is suffering from a serious bout of TV nostalgia.
How else to explain a big screen adaptation of the Partridge Family--following on the platform heels of Charlie's Angels and Starsky & Hutch?
Paramount Pictures has snapped up the feature film rights to the musically inclined TV series that aired on ABC from 1970-74, per the Hollywood Reporter.
Bernard Slade, the series' original creator who sold the rights to Paramount, will executive produce the feature, which is currently being scripted.
"It's a contemporary family comedy," producer Billy Gerber told the trade. "We aren't looking to make it some campy remake but a mainstream family movie in the vein of School of Rock."
The original sitcom focused around single mom Shirley Partridge (played by Shirley Jones) and her large brood who traveled to singing gigs via a psychedelic tour bus.
It also launched the careers of its young stars: David Cassidy, who became a reluctant pop idol; Susan Dey, who recaptured TV gold a decade later with L.A. Law; and Danny Bonaduce, now a popular radio morning man in Los Angeles.
The Partridge Family flick has been a long-time coming. Warner Bros. originally purchased film rights back in 1999 but never got the project off the drawing board.
Meanwhile, VH1 hopes to introduce an updated remake sometime this year in the guise of reality contest (i.e., the selection of the band) followed by a regular series chronicling the band's exploits.
And the studios are obviously hoping there's room for more small-screen flashbacks. Other feature adaptations in the works include Bewitched, 21 Jump Street and Laverne & Shirley.
