According to Deadline, the Morgan Creek production house has rebranded itself as Morgan Creek Entertainment Group with an eye towards exploiting some of their most popular titles. That includes a planned Ace Ventura reboot, as well as revivals of the Major League and Young Guns franchises, among others.
The nearly three-decade-old company, which was founded in 1988 by James G. Robinson and Joe Roth, has had numerous successful films during its run, including Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Last of the Mohicans, True Romance, The Whole Nine Yards and The Good Shepherd. It has also had many more notorious flops (Battlefield Earth, Chill Factor, Get Carter, Exorcist: The Beginning, The Thing prequel), but the company has turned things around recently with FOX’s hit The Exorcist TV series as well as the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez on Me.
According to Morgan Creek president David Robinson, their Ace Ventura plans include “a mainstream theatrical production relaunch. Because it’s episodic in nature, about a pet detective, it also lends itself to a traditional single-camera series franchise.” Robinson confirmed they would love the sequel-averse Jim Carrey to reprise Ventura in “a baton-handing” situation, wherein a long-lost son or daughter would arrive and take over. Carrey launched his movie star career with 1994’s sleeper hit Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, then reprised the part for 1995’s hit sequel Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. An animated Ace Ventura: Pet Detective cartoon series (sans Carrey) lasted three seasons, while a live-action TV movie spin-off Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Jr. (also sans Carrey) was released in 2009.
Plans for a Young Guns reboot call for a new group of up-and-comers to take over for Emilio Estevez and company. Both 1988’s western Young Guns and 1990’s Young Guns 2 grossed around $45 million each.
1989’s hit baseball comedy Major League starred Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Corben Bernsen, who all reprised their roles for 1994’s Major League II. Only Bernsen returned for the failed 1998 film Major League: Back to the Minors, though original director David S. Ward stated in 2010 he was working on a proper Major League 3.
On the horror front, TV series based on the 1988 David Cronenberg film Dead Ringers and 1990 Clive Barker cult classic Nightbreed are also in development with their original creators’ blessing.
