WTF: Shane Black’s ‘The Nice Guys’ Getting Female-Driven TV Reboot ‘The Nice Girls’
In this week’s edition of “sure, we guess?” news, the moderately successful, mostly forgottenShane Blacknoir comedyThe Nice Guysis getting the TV reboot that no one was really asking for — but with a genderbent twist.
The Nice Guysis nowThe Nice Girls, a female-led TV reboot of the ’70s-set profane buddy-comedy starringRyan GoslingandRussell Crowe. While buddy-comedies are a dime a dozen on TV — we even got aLethal WeaponTV version recently — the news is eyebrow-raising particularly because the movie came out only last year, only to meet mostly positive reviews butan apathetic box office. So it’s curious why this particular property would be chosen for a female-led reboot.The Nice Guysreboot has been picked up by Fox and will be written by Michael Diliberti, who wrote30 Minutes or Less, according toDeadline. Although the 2016 black comedy was set in the 1970s,The Nice Girlsis described as a “one-hour contemporary female take” on the feature film, which was produced by frequent Black collaborator Joel Silver.
Joel Silver is the figure behind this TV reboot. He and Rodney Ferrell, from his studio Silver Pictures Television, are executive producing the series, which is helming the project as part of a first-look deal at Lionsgate TV.
This is not the first time a feature film has been adapted into a primetime procedural series, with movies likeLimitless, Frequency, Taken, Training Day, Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour,andMinority Report,making the leap from the big to small screen. Indeed many of these reboots have had modern makeovers, receiving leads of color or female leads, such asMinority ReportorFrequency.
It’s just the premise ofThe Nice Guysseems far too insular — and to be honest, convoluted — to make for an episodic TV show. As much as I enjoyed the profanity and violence-laced noirish romp, the movie was steeped in casual misogyny that the protagonists engaged in. And when it makes the transition to TV, there’s no doubt it will be a wholly different story in a “contemporary” setting. Why not just create a new story centered on female leads? Other than the catchy name, it doesn’t seem worth the effort to adapt.
Here’s the synopsis for the originalThe Nice Guys:
Holland March (Ryan Gosling) is a down-on-his-luck private eye in 1977 Los Angeles. Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) is a hired enforcer who hurts people for a living. Fate turns them into unlikely partners after a young woman named Amelia (Margaret Qualley) mysteriously disappears. Healy and March soon learn the hard way that some dangerous people are also looking for Amelia. Their investigation takes them to dark places as anyone else who gets involved in the case seems to wind up dead.
While I’m all for more female-led TV shows, this news only elicits a somewhat perplexed response from me. The film was a riotous black comedy that tapped into the latent comedic potential of its charismatic stars but seems an odd choice for a TV reboot. Maybe my mind will be changed whenever its first trailers roll around.
What do you think ofThe Nice Girls?
