ABC is looking to reboot history.
The network is teaming with Power creator Courtney Kemp, Debra Martin Chase (The Princess Diaries) and Vin Diesel to reboot 1970s cop drama Get Christie Love.
The drama, which originally launched in 1974 on ABC as a TV movie before being turned into a short-lived series, starred Teresa Graves as the titular detective. Until Kerry Washington in Scandal, Graves was the only African-American female lead in a U.S. network drama. (Watch a scene below.)
ABC has handed out a sizable pilot production commitment for Get Christie Love following a competitive situation. It’s being produced by Universal Television — which distributed the original — and Diesel’s studio-based One Race Television banner. It’s a co-production with Lionsgate Television, where Kemp and her End of Episode banner is based. It’s the first sale for Kemp after she signed an overall deal with Starz/Lionsgate TV in May. Martin Chase produces via her Martin Chase Productions banner.
Related Stories
Inspired by the TV movie and subsequent series that aired on ABC in the ’70’s, Get Christie Love is described as an action-packed, music-driven drama that centers on Christie Love, an African-American female CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit. She transforms into whomever she needs to be to get the job done, especially when it’s down to the wire and the stakes are life and death. The high-adrenaline missions of the series are anchored by an emotional mystery about Christie’s first love — unearthing the truth about this relationship will be the biggest mission impossible of her life.
That the drama landed in a competitive situation at ABC comes as current ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey played a key role in developing Scandal, which saw Washington become the second African-American actress to land an Emmy nomination. Many of the key auspices behind the project are African-American — ABC’s Dungey, Universal Television president Pearlena Igbokwe as well as Martin Chase, Kemp and Diesel’s head of television Shana C. Waterman.
This is the latest sale this development season for Diesel and Waterman, who are also readying a Miami Vice reboot for NBC.
Reboots continue to remain in high demand this development season as broadcast, cable and streaming outlets look for proven IP in a bid to cut through a cluttered landscape of more than 450 original scripted series. Also in the works this season are reboots of True Lies (Fox), The Jetsons (ABC), The Munsters (NBC) and Starsky and Hutch (Amazon), among others. Key to the remakes is having the original producers — in this case, Universal TV — involved in some capacity as more studios look to monetize their existing film libraries.
Kemp is represented by CAA and attorney Michael Gendler. One Race Television is with CAA, manager Stacy O’Neil and attorneys Patty Felker and Eric Suddleson. Martin Chase Productions is with CAA and attorneys Nina Shaw and Laurie Megery.
