Vin Diesel’s ‘Kojak’ Movie Is Moving Forward Again

Between his role in the Fast and Furious and Riddick franchises, and his upcoming part as Beardy McFlameSword (assumed name) in The Last Witch Hunter, Vin Diesel has established himself as a very brawny and delightful leading man — you know, sort of like Kojak. We’ve been hearing for a long while now that Diesel and Universal have been developing a film based on the classic TV series, and while development previously stalled out, it looks like Universal’s ready to give it another shot.

Per Variety, Universal has hired another writer to take a crack at the screenplay — the previous screenplay was written by James Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, while the latest iteration will be written by Philip Gawthorne, whose other credits include episodes of EastEnders and the upcoming Cube reboot, Cubed.

The original Kojak series was a big hit in the ‘70s, and starred Telly Savalas in the titular role of bald, badass detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. Kojak had a distinctive, no-BS attitude and a particular sort of swagger — hey, does that sound familiar? It’s basically Vin Diesel.

A new television series based on Kojak ran — briefly — in 2005, starring Ving Rhames in the title role. It was, as you might guess, not a big hit. But given Diesel’s mass appeal, as well as the attraction to the idea of seeing him kick some criminal butt, a Kojak film might do well.