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Warner Bros. is about to go on a fateful trip.
The studio is putting into motion a big-screen version of Gilligan’s Island, the classic 1960s television comedy, that will serve as a vehicle for Josh Gad, the Broadway star who is one of the voices in Disney Animation’s hit Frozen, THR has confirmed.
Gad will write the script with Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez, who were both writers on the Gad-starring NBC sitcom 1600 Penn.
Lloyd Schwartz and Ross Schwartz, the children of Island creator Sherwood Schwartz (a TV legend who also created The Brady Bunch) will exec producer along with Tracey Silvers and Cathy Silvers.
The show chronicled the lives of seven castaways stranded on an island and their comedic attempts to find a way off. Gilligan, played by Bob Denver, was a goofy screw-up who usually found a way to unintentionally ruin any escape plan. Other characters included Gillian’s best friend the Skipper, a wealthy elderly couple, a movie star who was partially based on Marilyn Monroe, a scientist who came up with schemes to get off the island and a girl-next-door type.
The show lasted only three seasons when it ran on CBS but became a multigenerational hit in syndication during the 1970s and 1980s, spawning everything from an animated series to a musical — not to mention the massive cultural influence the show had.
Adapting TV shows for the big screen has met with mixed results, but Schwartz’s other show birthed Paramount’s The Brady Bunch Movie, which proved to be a delightful hit. More recently, 21 Jump Street surprised critics and audiences who had given up on movies based on TV shows.
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