Magnum, P.I. helmer signed

It’s another one of those TV show transitions that has been lost in the development wilderness for years, along with The A-Team and MacGyver… No? Just us on that one, eh… fair enough.

Finally, Universal have begun putting things in place to haul ‘80s TV hit Magnum, P.I. to the big screen. Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment will produce the flick with Rawson Marsall Thurber taking on script writing and directing duties.

Thurber’s last outing as scribbler/helmer was on Dodgeball, starring Vince Vaughn as a gym owner who captains a bunch of losers in a Las Vegas tournament.

Imagine first optioned the series in 2003 and roped in Mike Myers collaborator Mike McCullers to write a draft script. Last year, George Clooney reportedly asked Brit comedian Ricky Gervais if he’d be interested in starring as Magnum’s nemesis Higgins – Gervais politely declined.

In the original show, Thomas Magnum was a Ferrari-driving Hawaii based private investigator who was a guest on the vast estate of novelist and friend Robin Masters. His life was made hell by Higgins, the uptight estate manager. Magnum was always helped out of various scrapes by his Vietnam war buddies – helicopter pilot TC and club manager Rick. The show ran for seven years in the US and made its star, Tom Selleck, a household name.

Now all Thurber has to do is find someone who is around 6ft 4ins, with a razor sharp delivery and looks good with a ‘tache. We wonder if he still has Vaughn on speed dial...