Scott Bakula says Quantum Leap movie is in the works

While speaking at the “A Leap of Faith — A Quantum Leap Retrospective” panel at Comic-Con last month, Star Trek: Enterprise star Scott Bakula revealed that a movie version of the hit sci-fi series Quantum Leap is in the works.

 

Quantum Leap creator Donald P. Bellisario writing script

Bakula told the gathered audience that “Quantum Leap” creator Donald P. Bellisario is currently writing a script for a big-screen version of the series and has a “big time” Hollywood producer interested in developing it. Unfortunately, Bakula says he’s now too old to step back into the role of Sam Beckett, but assured fans he’d play a role in it:

The good news is that Don [Quantum Leap creator Donald P. Bellisario] is working on the film script and has a big time Hollywood producer who wants to do it … It’s about time. But what I always thought would happen, happened … [that he’s now too old for the role]. But Dean [Stockwell, who played Al] and I will have a part in it somehow.

Don did say that as he was writing, he told me he was having trouble, ‘getting you and Dean out of my head.’ But I know he will do it.

As genre fans are well aware, before becoming Captain Archer on ‘Enterprise’, Bakula played the title character Sam Beckett on "Quantum Leap" for five seasons (from 1989 to 1993). Bakula received four Emmy and three Golden Globe nominations, winning a Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series in 1992. Bakula currently stars in the hit TNT series "Men of a Certain Age" which is entering its second season.

via blastr


90 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

If it’s a reboot that would be great. If it’s a continuation of the dismall series ending they can forget about it!

Never got into Quantim Leap. Guess I’d go see the movie tho.

Cool!

Time for another reboot!

Can’t we just de-age Bakula and Stockwell?

Gotta check out the “Quantum Leap” series on dvd one of these days!

I am a fan of the series, so the planned film piques my interest. I am hoping for a faithful continuation of the series, or better yet a satisfying conclusion. It is unfortunate that the roles will need to be recast, but the quality of the story is most important.

I will keep my eye on this project, and keep my fingers crossed.

can’t we just say that hes been bouncing around in time for decades and that’s why hes old. make the movie about getting him back. The catch is that getting him back has to be both hard and interesting or it will seem like nothing more than a gimmick.

I got on a spurt of watching the show, but quickly lost interest and only caught it once in a while afterwards. I still thought it was a decent show though. But I made sure I viewed the series finally, and I thought it was just simply bad, even now I’m not 100% sure where they were coming from on that one.
Even if they didnt want to go with the obvious ending of “coming home” and instead be “ironic” or something, they could have ended it without the feeling the guy is stuck in some sort of forever temporal hell (or whatever the point was).

I don’t know why Scott Bakula is too old to play his original role. It’s not like Sam Beckett doesn’t age while he’s leaping. And if as it said in the last episode, he never returned home, doesn’t that mean that he kept on doing it until he was gray?

Loved the series! Was a big fan…until the
last show. The series finale’ sucked wind!
Horrible way to end it. Scott Bakula could
reprise the role, but they might run into
problems if it was good enough for sequels…
Then his age might become a problem.

YEEEEEEEAH – Please let him leap home – to this day I’m sad about how the show ended one and a half decade ago!

and now the angst starts…

make a respectful movie out of it with an extended role for Bakula and hopefully also Stockwell.

I met Scott last year at the QL 20th anniversary con. He was kind, gracious and full of energy. I completely disagree that he’s too old for the role. Same with Dean Stockwell. I sincerely hope that their joint appearance is not a mere cameo, and that the movie puts a satisfactory end to Sam Beckett’s travels.

Incidentally, at that same convention, Don Bellisario explained to the audience all the legal and logistical reasons why a QL movie would never happen. Glad he found a way!

I don’t get it. How would Bakula be too old for the movie? If it was a continuation of the series then it’s just the continuing story of, wouldn’t it? Am I missing something? That would be like Paramount having told Shatner back in the 70’s that he was too old to play Kirk in the movies. What do you mean? The movies were a continuation of the series.

Dean Stockwell looks pretty much the same today as he did then. He was perfect as Al, I can’t imagine someone else in the role.

Yeh c’mon…he’s not too old for that role…and neither is Stockwell…

I swear of they get Rob Pattinson to play Beckett, I will get SOOOO pissed!

On a related note, I’d say they should get Nathan Fillion to play Beckett

He’s not “too old” to reprise that role, it’s just that they want it to be ‘younger and hipper’ for today’s audiences, as with most things being produced today, and that’s a crock. If anything it’ll be good reason to skip this feature once it hits the big screen.

That doesn’t make any sense. Ofcourse he would keep aging and so would Al. In fact, moving the series ahead and assuming he’s been leaping for 20+ years is a great hook…

Sam has wanted to go home yet, the longer it takes, the more the people he knew and loved age and die. At some point, At will be too old and frail to help Sam.

A heartwrenching story right there.

I loved this series. And the final episode was fine by me…it was heart breaking when the voice over stated “he never leapt home.”

I once believed that a new QL would be sunk without the chemistry of the two original actors. But after Star Trek 2009? Well, I never say never anymore. It will be tough to shake the memory of Bakula and Stockwell; but anything’s possible….

I consider myself a fan of QL (good comfort food TV), and I have moderate-to-good hopes for the new movie (if it actually happens; Hollywood is a very fickle town).

And a P.S: I totally agree with #18;

Nathan Fillion would be a perfect choice for the Beckett character/surrogate (however they’ve written it). I somehow see Oliver Platt (or someone like him) as the holographic guide.

How about a reboot that has Bakula leap right before he does his first Quantum Leap with a bad guy killing a significant other (say like a mother) and throws him into a parallel timeline. So it honors the series but still a reboot and you get to have Bakula play in it too. And the new Quantum Leap facility that looks like an Apple Store, tons of lens flares, and we can see how Bakula and Stockwell actually meet in this movie.

scott still look good and whats wrong with doing an older sam i want to see an older sam amd dean, we age in life so why cant we see and older and maybe wisers sam and al and please lets no re-boot it, quantum leap the montion picture follower by the wrath of the evil leapers then the search for al,the next leap home,leap fronties and final the undiscovered leap

QL film: great! ENT film? Even better. After having heard Siddig & Mulgrew speak out during the last couple of days, I have to admit: ENT is the Star Trek show I’d like to see turned into a feature film most, whether cinema or TV doesn’t really matter. It needs proper closure. And I’m still in love with T’Pol. :-) Bring ’em back!

Why would they need to de-age Bakula? He never ages to begin with, just like Keanu Reeves.

Oh what the heck? Just have Beckett leap into Archer, and be done with it. Oh – and Al can leap into Porthos!

I’d have to say I’d rather see the story of the rescue of Sam Beckett played by Bakula, than some reboot. The reboots are getting annoying. Maybe holywood should switch to Mac, then they wouldn’t have to reboot as much.

#28

“Maybe holywood should switch to Mac, then they wouldn’t have to reboot as much.”

Good one! :D

I don’t know why Sam and Dean would be too old? Honestly they really don’t look THAT different than they were when they were on the series. If it’s a reboot, it would be cool if it lead to a new TV series.

Almost everybody I know personally whose ever watched Quantum Leap loves it, whether they’re a sci-fi geek or not. Sam and Dean made great leads back in the day (still do IMO).

I’ve currently been going through the series via netflix (a little annoying because for some reason they can’t offer all disks via streaming) and enjoying it, halfway through season 3. One thing’s for certain is it’s shown me how much range Bakula has as an actor and how under-used he was on Star Trek. I’m sure he said “oh boy” out loud more than once when he got a new script for an episode.

I hope this makes it to the big screen (and then the little screen as a new series) and is successful. Either that or I wouldn’t mind something that fixed that terrible (haven’t watched it yet but everyone talks about how bad it was) ending. It’s almost as bad as Farscapes “to be continued…” that would have stayed that way if it weren’t for Peackeeper Wars.

I’m so looking forward to a ‘Quantum Leap’ movie, whether a reboot or a big-screen continuation and I hope that movie will R-U-L-E, rule! Hope no one would say that a new QL movie would D-R-O-O-L, drule.

Um… I was at that panel. And from what Señor Bakula said, “In the works” is probably too strong of a term.

This is Hollywood we’re talking about. “Development” has a lot of stages, and just because Don Bellasario is writing a script, doesn’t mean anything more than some studio thought there was enough of a possibility of a movie there to option the rights and throw money at a screenplay.

There are many, many people who have to say “yes” to many, many steps of the process before we could say QL was definitely coming back.

I agree with others who’ve commented on him being too old. I don’t see how he’s too old for the role. He’s really kept himself young and in shape. Also will be very cool to see Dean Stockwell in it too. Saw Dean the other day in the last Thin Man movie as little Nickie Charles.

i liked ql but i just cant see any reason for bakula n stockwell not reprising their roles—as someone else mentioned bakulas either been leaping for 20 years or imprisoned n that purgatory thingee–so the plot could be youngr people or son rescuing dad after 20 years n he ends up replacing bakula who finally leaps home–they could call it quantum legacy! in 3d! hahah

Hollywood is running out of ideas ! Whats next ? A Three’s Company Movie ? Or a Golden Years Movie ?

I don’t understand why he’s too old to do it, really.

I can see it now Zachary Levi as young Sam Beckett and Josh Gomez as young Al..

#35

“Come and knock on our door…”

Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a big screen version of Jack, Janet and Chrissy coming out in the next few years. That Hollywood remake excavation machine is in full gear and mining the past forty years of American pop culture for all its worth. Remakes of The Jeffersons, All in the Family, and Diff’rent Strokes are sure to follow…

But I don’t think it’s so much a lack of ideas that’s the problem with Tinseltown; it’s that less-than-dynamic duo of money and safety that are at work here. The great majority of the studio “suits” are afraid to invest in anything original right now (Inception notwithstanding), partly because of the economy, mostly because of a simple lack of old-fashioned, ballsy risktaking that built those studios in the first place.

And then there’s the more insidious reason for remakes — residual profits. Even if a remake (take the A-Team for example) is a flop or just breaks even at the box office and the DVD/Blu-ray market, even if this remake is a complete insult to the original, there will still be an interest created in that original product, which fans will loudly proclaim to be superior. And — ahem — who just happens to own the rights to the original series, which just happens to get a special boxed-set re-release around the time of the remake’s release?

Oh yes, there’s a lot of money, a lot of safety in tracing paper these days…

A reboot seems tough. The basic premise is really episodic. A movie would have a few leaps, but not a long series of them with lots of emotional churning in each. It would seem they’ll have to change the basic premise to fit a movie, even a three-movie deal. Dunno. Hope it’s fun.

Something people need to understand about the ending is that it was never actually intended to be an ending. The show was canceled. What we saw was originally meant to be a cliffhanger for the next season which was going to take a different path with Sam being able to control his leaps. But when they found out the show wasn’t renewed they added on the little bumper saying “Sam never leaped home” to give some sense of closure.

@10

I was thinking the same thing. I’m sure this occurred to them. Maybe Sam made it back in the interim, and Scott Bakula and Dean each have a small mentoring role for the new main characters? Can’t wait to see.

Actually, there is a logistical problem of a continuation rather than a remake. I think there were several early episodes which strongly hinted that more time was passing for Al back at Project Quantum Leap than for Sam in mid-travel. There was a reference by a hungover Al that “everyone partied all night after you leaped” but to Sam it had only been a few minutes. So Sam shouldn’t have aged nearly as much as Al.

A big vote against Nathan Fillion as Sam. Waaaaaayyy too smarmy for the “overgrown boy scout” that was Sam Beckett.

And for those of you who never watched QL on TV and only watch the DVDs, be advised that a large amount of period music had to be replaced for the DVD releases due to music rights. So instead of Ray Charles singing “Georgia on my Mind” in a pivotal episode, the DVD only has some canned ‘stock’ music. (This same problem has prevented the release of QL contemporaries “The Wonder Years” and “China Beach” on DVD, shows that wouldn’t settle for canned music.)

40… That’s technically true, but QL ratings were fading in its last season, and Mr. Bellisario really should have planned a true finale, given the unlikelihood of renewal. And the ratings were fading deservedly: the show abandoned its “little stories of normal people” plots in the final season and started doing “big” episodes like Lee Harvey Oswald, Elvis, and Dr. Ruth, alienating longtime fans. And then there was the misstep of the “Evil Leaper”, Civil War, and Vampire episodes. It was really sad to watch the show sputter and stall its way to the finish line.

Gr8 news!

Neither actor is too old for it; that’s just silly talk.

I was never a faithful fan of the show, but I’d tune in at random and catch and ep now and then, and enjoyed it when I did. A movie could be cool … very much a wait-and-see prospect.

Quantum Leap is well suited for a trilogy of films, as noted the leap premise wouldn’t work well with many leaps per film , however much like the “trilogy” episodes in season 5 a well executed movie trilogy could be epic . And yes this would then gives us a “happy” ending for sam and al which could then spin into Quantum Leap- phase two on TV.

On a side note I believe Sam Becket would be 57 today!

Today is indeed Sam Beckett’s birthday!

I’d much rather see a show on SyFy than a theatrical movie. A-Team (which I loved) didn’t do all that well, and I’d venture a guess that it has quite a bit more nostalgia going for it than Quantum Leap does.

If there is a movie, I’d like it to be Bakula and Stockwell winding things down (And I’ve always wanted to see them hug after years of not being able to touch). New series: Go ahead and reboot.

Please, Don Bellisario, cast Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell again and find a way to bring Sam Beckett home. Put right what once went wrong.

Scott and Dean look fine. They’re not too old for the roles. GAH!

We should get the word out that the fans want them in their original roles. Seriously.

OK, this is an opportunity for people who are sick and tired of age coming before ability in Hollywood.

Respectfully, Backula and Stockwell are NOT “too old” to play characters that have no age limitations. I mean, it’s not like they were in “Doogie Howzer, MD” where the whole premise was a teenage doctor. It would be absolutely compatible with QL that the two of them had been at it since 93.

Also, QL and ST have something in common: fans that look at the shows as a vehicle for delivering messages about society. Remember the QL episode Backula did completely in drag because he leaped into the body of a woman and other great episodes?

Casting Backula and Stockwell would send a signal: ability before age, which would be completely consistent with the show, and it would satisfy the fans.

From a ST point of view, I would never have gone to see ST:TMP if the studio had said that Shatner and crew were “too old” to play Kirk, etc.