Tom Hanks Classic ‘Big’ Gets TV Adaptation
Good news, fans of Eighties coming-of-age comedy: Zoltar has granted your wish for a half-hour TV show loosely based on Big, the 1988 classic starring Tom Hanks. According to Variety, Fox has acquired the project from Kevin Biegel and Mike Royce, executive producers of that network’s Enlisted.
The as-yet-untitled show will explore themes similar to the movie, specifically “what it means to be an adult and what it means to be a kid, and how in today’s world those two things are more confused than ever.” Biegel, who also co-created the comedy Cougar Town, and Royce, who co-created the short-lived TNT dramedy Men of a Certain Age, will team up to executive produce and write the show.
TV networks have been capitalizing on Eighties and Nineties pop-culture nostalgia throughout 2014. Last month, Lifetime went behind the scenes of a hormonal sitcom staple for The Unauthorized Saved By the Bell Story, and in July, the Disney Channel premiered Boy Meets World sequel/spin-off Girl Meets World, which focuses on the 12-year-old daughter of Cory and Topanga.
And, as Variety notes, there are more revivals in the works – including NBC’s single-camera adaptation of the 1990 film comedy Problem Child. In August, rumors began swirling about a potential reunion of Bob “Danny Tanner” Saget and the Full House cast, which is reportedly in the early stages of development and being championed by original cast member John Stamos and series creator Jeff Franklin.