Kevin Smith is Trying to Reboot THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI as a TV Show
I alienated friends because of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension. It's a super weird B-movie from the mid-80s in which the title character — a neurosurgeon, physicist, test pilot, and rock 'n roll star — leads his friends, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, on a mission to stop alien invaders. Peter Weller (Robocop himself) stars alongside Jeff Goldblum in a cowboy outfit and John Lithgow playing a villain. Here, just watch the trailer.
As you can see, that's definitely not a movie for everybody, so when I invited a group of my friends in high school to watch it, I should have suspected that a few would give me weird looks after it was over and hardly speak to me again after that. To be fair, I had no idea just how insane the movie was; it was our first time watching it, and while I embraced the craziness, I can see how some would find it to be a little too much to handle.
The end credits for the movie promised a sequel called Buckaroo Banzai Against The World Crime League, but unfortunately that movie was never made. It may never see the inside of a darkened theater, but if writer/director Kevin Smith has anything to say about it, fans will see that story eventually come to life on the small screen instead.
On a recent episode of his Hollywood Babble-On podcast (via Uproxx), Smith revealed that the overwhelmingly positive reaction to his episode of The Flash (which aired this past week) opened some "weird doors" for him and has allowed him to set up three new projects, one of which is a TV reboot of Buckaroo Banzai for MGM. Smith cites the original film as a big inspiration that's "largely responsible for the weird shit that I make." He explained how his version of the project came about:
"MGM said, 'Hey, we heard you like Buckaroo Banzai...we took Fargo and turned it into a TV show and it's won awards, and we have another property we want to do that with, and we're wondering if [you're] interested.' So I went in and met with those cats, and we talked about 'What would you do to turn it into a series?' That's what we want to turn it into. I was like, 'Oh my Lord, well I've loved this movie for forever. If you're going to do that, basically you just do the entire movie for season one, and then season two you finally do the sequel we've all dreamed about, Buckaroo Banzai vs. The World Crime League...in the next month, we take it out and try to find a home for it."
Would you watch a Buckaroo Banzai TV series? Smith sounds like he might actually be a good fit for this franchise. He has an interesting idea for roles the original cast members could play in the TV show, and you can hear all that and more starting at the 11:30 mark below: