Jason Richman writing MacGyver

Patty and Selma from The Simpsons would love this news! It seems that the 80's classic MacGyver is coming to the big screen, screenwriter Jason Richman is set to write the film.

MacGyver was the ABC series that ran for seven years in the 80s and early 90s, starring Richard Dean Anderson as the secret agent able to make life-saving inventions out of household materials. If you took him captive, you'd better hope there were no paper clips or rubber bands or bottle tops lying around: he'd have jury-rigged a tank in no time.

MacGyver was first put into development at New Line last Spring, but he's been slower to get off the blocks than his bemulleted SNL twin. Producer Rafaella De Laurentiis is clearly unfazed however. We'd imagine the buzz around The A-Team might have something to do with that, and that MacGyver might be looking at a similar tone: basically seriously intended, but still with plenty of humour.

Richman is a credited screenwriter on Bangkok Dangerous, Swing Vote, and Bad Company, while he did uncredited work on films including Black Hawk Down, Rush Hour 3, and the proposed Beverly Hills Cop 4.