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EXCLUSIVE: After smashing box office records with Titanic, James Cameron segued to television with a primetime series. Now, after topping Titanic’s record haul with Avatar, Cameron is returning to TV with what is one of the hottest projects this development season: a TV series take on his 1994 action comedy True Lies that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. I hear the project, from Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox TV, is about to be taken out to the networks. Rene Echevarria 
is the writer/showrunner, exec producing with Cameron and Lightstorm’s Rae Sanchini and Jon Landau. The 1994 movie centered on Harry Tasker (Schwarzenegger), a computer salesman/family man who lives a double life as a government spy. During a top-secret mission, Harry discovers that his mousy wife Helen (Curtis), is seeking adventure. Harry sets out to give her the excitement she craves while battling Middle Eastern terrorists who threaten nuclear war with the U.S.
After Titanic, which nabbed 11 Oscars, Cameron co-created and exec produced his first and only TV series to date, Fox’s sci-fi drama Dark Angel starring Jessica Alba. Echevarria worked on the show for its entire 2-season run, first as a co-executive producer and then as an exec producer. Lightstorm president Sanchini also served as a producer on the series. Echevarria, who co-created/executive produced the USA Network series The 4400, most recently served as an exec producer/co-showrunner on ABC’s crime dramedy Castle and also exec produces the upcoming MTV series Teen Wolf.
On the feature side, Cameron is considering several projects, including Avatar sequel(s), Battle Angel and The Dive. But 16 years after its release, True Lies continues to be a fan favorite, with speculation about a potential sequel never dying. Cameron wrote and directed the movie, which was based on the 1991 French film La totale! penned by Claude Zidi, Didier Kaminka and Simon Michael. The trio shared screenplay credit with Cameron on the Hollywood adaptation. Like Titanic and Avatar, True Lies was at the time the most expensive movie ever made, rumored to be in the $100M-$120M range. True Lies also marked the first Lightstorm project to be distributed under Cameron’s multi-million dollar production deal with 20th TV’s sibling movie studio Fox.
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The genre has been done to death. Mr & Mrs Smith, Killers, Day & Knight, Undercovers, and a lesser extent Chuck.
Good God you’re an idiot. This genre was “done to death” back in 70s. Do you really not understand this industry at all? This idea is perfectly suited to TV.
I get nillo’s point, but have to agree with Well well well. Yes, the genre has been done to death, but try to name a “genre” that has NOT been, at some pont, “done to death”. (You can’t so don’t try.)
Everyone that complains about things being “tired”, “old” and “done to death” needs to realize that this is a BUSINESS and if they crave originality then maybe they need to go read an abstract novel or, better yet, WRITE what it is you would actually like to see.
Newsflash: EVERYTHING has been done. The same stories are simply retold with different twists, elements, etc. Get used to it. Pirate movies were a punchline to a joke prior to POTC.
Of course it is cleverly suited for television as are Chuck, Covert Affairs, Burn Notice, Leverage, and the many other shows in this genre which have been on for several years in most cases.
Jim better do a good job with True Lies as he is late to the party, and much of the current crop of televisions shows which are similar…are pretty darn good!
Oh well, Hollywood’s curse is that it often copies what works ad infinitum until the market loses interest from over saturation of the same concepts.
Doug Liman has Covert Affairs and JJ Abrams has Undercovers; so are we going to stop when every network has a husband and wife spy team on it? What’s next, and update of Hart 2 Hart?
In my kvetching I forgot to state the obvious; why the heck isn’t Cameron penning the movie sequel to True Lies? Fans have been waiting for True Lies 2 for way too long.
I hate to be the requisite Internet misanthrope but: *YAWN*
good because that was a great movie…get his rino butt out of politics
I feel a snore-fest coming on….there’s already many copies of this in existence. James Cameron, drop this one like the bomb it already is and run!
Hopefully if it starts off well, like Dark Angel, he wont let it go to shit like the latter.
I am excited about this.
This sounds like a great idea! I can think of two people who have terrific on screen chemistry to play the leads: Jennifer Love Hewitt and David Conrad. They did a fantastic job as a married couple in Ghost Whisperer.
Thank you for the laugh, Carolyn. Jennifer Love Hewitt….oh my.
Not wishing to be the wet blanket, but hasn’t the ‘double life’ spy trope been pretty well worked-over on TV since the movie came out? Everything from Alias to Chuck, including Covert Affairs and the forthcoming Undercover, counterpoints high jinks with a domestic facade.
I’m sure Cameron saw a promo for “Undercovers” and thought, if they’re gonna rip off my movie and get paid for it, why shouldn’t I too?
good on ya!
Really? A “True Lies” knockoff? Not a TV-itization of the Dennis Quaid/Kathleen Turner “Undercover Blues?” BTW, a thoroughly enjoyable flick, wouldn’t you say, Morty?
My name..is Muerte
If they did a decent version as a show I can pretty much promise my living room would be packed on that night – it’s one of our favorite get together movies and a possible group Halloween costume this year, too.
Despite your feelings about Mr. Cameron, I don’t see how the movie going public could harbor such ill will towards the man that discovered the new frontier in movie making. The man may have an ego, but I’m sure Columbus did as well and look what HE discovered!
Thank you.
Well said
Please, that was so five months ago.
I think it would make a great show for cable. 13 episodes a year. That way they can make better episodes.
One of the best movies ever. Can’t imagine it being too easy to replicate, though. How often can they shoot Middle Eastern terrorists through skyscrapers and say “you’re fired”?
Damn a TV series! Where’s the movie on Blu-ray?
If Camerons involved then I am very supportive of the project but I have to agree there is way too many Rom Com/Action films and TV shows on ATM Chuck,Undercovers,Date Night,Bounty Hunter,Mr. & Mrs. Smith,Killers and Knight & Day!
So how are they going to out-PC Undercovers… by making the leads an interracial gay couple? Actually, that already sounds more interesting then Undercovers. Instead of a restaurant though, one of them could own a fancy Cake boutique, like the kinds you see in that reality show on Bravo. Fabulous!
So Cash, how exactly is Undercovers PC to begin with?
I know I may be in the minority, but True Lies is probably my least favourite James Cameron movie (outside of Piranha 2). It’s the only one I don’t own on DVD. I thought it had a great premise, but I don’t think it was executed well, either on the page or on the screen. Neither of the main characters had much depth nor were they all that sympathetic.
Agree about TL. Mean spirited Cameron flick.
I’m not that big a fan of ‘True Lies’ either, Tim. It began the downward trend in Cameron’s storytelling abilities, as far as I’m concerned. The comedy was cheap and the characters are all pretty two-dimensional. It had some fine sequences but overall I found it lacking and forgettable. And while the technical achievements of ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’ are amazing and game-changing, I found that both suffered from the lack of creativity or honest emotional connection that took root in ‘True Lies’. So I don’t tend to look on ‘Lies’ too favorably.
“Undercovers” looks nothing like “True Lies”
I concur — Undercovers doesn’t look half as entertaining.
Great movie but no way should it be turned into a TV show. I would rather see them make the sequel than see this garbage. Especially since Arnold is done as Governor in January and will probably start acting again.
I literally wanted to do this three years ago, but knew that Cameron would never give up the property to let me produce it. I actually think this would work as a television show because ultimately it’s a family show with spy action.
Guy trying to be a good father and husband while catching the bad guys. Plays much better than a lone wolf story IMO.
Hopefully NBC is the network to take this. Cameron’s name would be a big boost to them IMO.
Hmmmm…well Eliza Dushku did play the daughter in True Lies. Maybe to get away from the overdone husband/wife spy team trend…they could make the show about the daughter who is all grown up now and in the business. Eliza has done many kick ass characters, this would be one more and with Cameron on board, it could possibly be successful. They could even bring Tom Arnold’s character back as her sort of mentor because it’s not likely that Arnold or Jamie Lee Curtis would ever do TV. Grant Heslov could even bring back his role, his last go at movies didn’t turn out so well. Just ideas, but I’m into it.
definitely! I’ve been a fan of Dushku forever, I just wish she had a role that isnt to cheezy, or limited to screaming for help. Never got into The Dollhouse… It just didnt fit. This might, and Im pretty sure she’d be down for television.
I rather like your idea, JasonPDX. It’s a great concept, and looking at her more recent pictures, she is ‘true’-ly beautiful! I think she could pull it off.
I think sleuthing teams make for some fun TV – loved Remington Steele, Moonlighting, Bones even the Father Dowling mysteries – but there does seem to be an oversaturation of the spy guy/gal. Too many new shows look too much alike. You can draw out a MacMillan and Wife for years but so many spy shows in one season means most of them, and maybe all of them, are going to fade.
On the government agent to-do list for the new series (if NBC) could be an attempt to solve the mystery of th4e destruction of the NBC Network franchise: Leno in prime time (in an intimate airplane Hanger?), Ben Silverman in general, or a near-complete reliance on one program (Law and Order, et. all) for prime time survival.
The unemployed Eliza Dushku must be very happy about this. In the original she was so young, now she is old enough to be a married secret superspy.
what’s next? A Saturday morning cartoon called “The Titanic Kids” ?
I wonder if they’re going to play it before or after the wife knows the truth about the husband. I think it’s more interesting before.
I’ve seen nothing except the TV promos. Still, all they give me is the impression that “Undercovers” is more of a knockoff of “Undercover Blues,” the fun Dennis Quaid/Kathleen Turner flick, rather than “True Lies.” Even the character names point in that direction… Quaid’s and Turner’s characters are the Blues. The TV show leads are the Blooms.