Warner Bros’ ‘The Bodyguard’ Reboot Taps Scribe Matthew López To Pen

Tony-nominated The Inheritance playwright Matthew López is writing the remake of Warner Bros’ 1992 blockbuster The Bodyguard. That pic starred Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston (who died in 2012), grossing $411M WW.

The new movie is reportedly inspired by the 1992 romantic drama which followed a former Secret Service agent, played by Costner, who takes on the job of bodyguard to an R&B singer, whose lifestyle is most unlike a President’s. The Bodyguard repped Houston’s big screen debut at the time.

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Lawrence Kasdan of Kasdan Pictures, and Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich of Rideback are producing. Rideback’s Nick Reynolds will serve as EP. Lin has been shepherding the project since 2011.

The film’s original soundtrack is the top selling of all-time with 45M copies sold around the globe. The soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and certified 18x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Two songs, “Run to You” and “I Have Nothing,” were nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars, but lost out to “A Whole New World” from Disney’s Aladdin. The pic’s signature song “I Will Always Love You” went 8x Platinum in the U.S. selling 8M copies. Overall, it was the 15th-best selling album in the U.S., big shoes for this reboot, as yet uncast, to fill. Lawrence Kasdan wrote and produced the original movie which was directed by Mick Jackson.

Variety first reported the news.

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