Showtime Planning In the Heat of the Night Remake

Hollywood Reporter says that Showtime and MGM Television have a new project on the table: a new series based upon “In the Heat of the Night”, the 1967 film that won Best Picture and 4 other Oscars. Directed by Norman Jewison, the film starred Sidney Poitier as black detective Virgil Tibbs, and Rod Steiger (Best Actor Oscar) as redneck Sheriff Bill Gillespie, who work together to solve a murder in a racially hostile town.

The film already spawned two sequels and a TV series with Harold Rollins in Poitier’s role and Carroll O’Connor in Steiger’s which ran on NBC from 1988 to 1992, then moved to CBS (1993-94). That was followed up with four made-for-TV movies from 1994-95.

Tate Taylor (“The Help”, “Get On Up”) will write and direct, and be the executive producer. The series will be set in modern-day Mississippi. Two lawmen, crime — sort of sounds like Showtime’s answer to HBO’s “True Detectives”, except it comes with Mr. Tibbs. It’s been while but the quote “They call me Mr. Tibbs” (also the name of one of the sequels) still made the American Film Institute’s 2005 list of 100 Years… 100 Movie Quotes at No. 16. We will be curious to see who is cast in the series and also if Tibbs and Gillespie are the grandchildren of the original lawmen or something like that.

Showtime also announced earlier in the week that it planned on reviving the cult classic “Twin Peaks” for a nine-episode limited series in 2016.