Remaking a classic film is a risky endeavor, even if you’re Steven Spielberg. The iconic filmmaker will be tackling Bullitt, one of the all-time great thrillers, sometime in the near future, and that means he’ll be doing something with what might be cinema’s best car chase.
Of course, if anyone can pull off a good remake, it’s Steven Spielberg. One of the best directors ever, he has more of the best movies under his belt than many of his contemporaries can even dream of. He’ll be taking the director’s chair again for a reworking of Bullit, one of the best thriller movies ever, starring Steve McQueen.
“Steven [Spielberg] and Josh Singer, who is writing the script, they are working on the story,” Kristie Macosko Krieger, producer on the new movie, tells GamesRadar. “I hope we have a script soon as the writers’ strike put us behind a bit. But they are working on it – I couldn’t tell you if it’s the next movie we are making as I don’t know at this point. I think that it will be a wildly entertaining film.”
Krieger reportedly calls this version of Bullitt a “reimagining” rather than a straight remake, and that certainly peaks my curiosity. The action movie contains an incredible car chase, between McQueen’s Lt Frank Bullitt and a pair of hired goons trying to stop his investigation.
The sequence is monumental. Director Peter Yates has the vehicles plow through San Francisco in a tense blur of sweat and steel. It lasts for ages as well, before Frank finally manages to shake his tail. The Fast and Furious movies owe a lot to this one scene alone, really.
If anyone can touch such influential craft, it’s Spielberg. Having a go at the scene would be part of the intrigue in a filmmaker stepping up to do their vision of Bullitt, and I am curios to see where Spielberg goes here. Would it be his version of Dom Toretto’s madcap stunts? Or could we see a return to the more nail-biting flair of the ’70s?
Bradley Cooper is pegged to be Spielberg’s lead, making the engine of this thing that much more powerful. We’re waiting with anticipation! You can check out Cooper in Netflix movie Maestro, available December 20. Peruse our list of the best Netflix series if you want more recommendations, and we have a guide to the Fast and Furious 11 release date for all the details on that.