Remo Williams, The Destroyer headed back to the big screen

The Destroyer, created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the novel series created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, The Destroyer, is once again getting the big screen treatment.

Some of you may remember the movie in the 80's, Remo Wlliams: The Adventure Begins, starring Fred Ward as the titular hero.  It wasn't particularly good, but fun at times.

As a fan of the original book series (I'd read at least 60 or 70 of them in my teen years) I always found the film to be a little hokey.  But now comes this news:

"The Dark Knight” producer Charles Roven and “Transporter” producer Steve Chasman are teaming up to produce “The Destroyer,” a franchise vehicle that brings back ’80s action hero Remo Williams. The pair have set up the project at Columbia.

The minds that brought you "The Dark Knight" and "Transporter" seem like the perfect blend of action and fantasy to finally do this property the job it deserves.

The story revolves around Remo Williams, a New Jersey cop framed for murder and sent to the electric chair.  But even the death sentence was a frame up by a super-secret government organization (led in the original film by Wilford Brimley) who operates outside the purview of the standard government channels.  They've hired, Chiun, Master of Sinanju (the most lethal martial art for assasination in the world), to train Remo into a lethal killing machine for the government.

Remo and Chiun went on hundreds of adventures and the material is ripe for a franchise.  With the right handling, it could be another James Bond-style franchise. (In fact, the original film was directed by Guy Hamilton, who directed three James Bond pictures.)

Color me excited to see what happens next.