Fresh from helming the 2026 superhero blockbuster Spider-Man: Brand New Day, director Destin Daniel Cretton is taking on another massive IP with a film adaptation of the popular police procedural Hawaii Five-O in the works.
As reported by Deadline, the project is in the early stages of development, with Chris Bremner (Bad Boys for Life) penning its script with Noah Oppenheim (Jackie). The film will be distributed by Paramount, and the package was put together by Entertainment 360’s Guymon Casady with the estate of Leonard Freeman, who created the original 1968 CBS series.
The original series starred Jack Lord as detective captain Steve McGarrett, who investigated organised crime together with his team as the head of the fictional police task force operating in Hawaii. The series also starred James MacArthur as Steve’s partner Danny “Danno” Williams, Kam Fong Chun as detective Chin Ho Kelly, and Zulu as detective Kono Kalakaua.
The series received a reboot in 2010, which replaced the original “O” in Hawaii Five-O with a “0” instead, and saw Alex O’Loughlin, Scott Caan, Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park take on the roles of Steve, Danny, Kelly, and Kono, respectively, putting a modern spin on the cop drama and running for 10 seasons until 2020.
With hits like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Spider-Man: Brand New Day under his belt, the latter of which recently became the third highest-grossing film of all time with its US$2.413 billion global haul, there’s certainly no one better than Cretton to try to breathe new life into the iconic Hawaii Five-O franchise. All that remains to be seen if he will bring back the iconic tagline of the original series, “Book ‘em, Danno”, the famous catchphrase Steve says to Danny when they eventually snag their suspect.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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