Universal is finally moving ahead on its big-screen adaptation of Kojak that is to star Vin Diesel as the lollipop-sucking detective.

The studio has hired Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, two writers behind the James Bond hit Skyfall, to pen the screenplay.

Diesel will produce with Samantha Vincent for their Universal-based One Race Films. 

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The studio has been actively developing the project for months and had spent a long time hearing pitches for a way to bring the tough, streetwide (and bald) detective, originally played by Telly Savalas in the 1970s CBS TV series to the screen.

Purvis and Wade are known as the modern Bond writers, having penned the screenplays for Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Die Another Day, on top of Skyfall, which was also written by John Logan.

The duo is repped by UTA, Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Ltd. and Stone, Meyer.