CSI co-star George Eads is returning to CBS and CBS TV Studios with a role in their pilot MacGyver, a reimagining of the 1985 series about a resourceful and ingenious agent who improvises his way out of sticky situations using everyday items like rubber bands, chewing gum and a Swiss Army knife. Saw and Furious 7 director James Wan, who had been shepherding the project from the get-go, was slated to direct but has pulled out due to a scheduling conflict with post-production on his latest film, The Conjuring 2. David Von Ancken (Code Black, Salem) will step in to helm the pilot. Wan remains an executive producer. CBS was in a similar situation on another high-profile pilot remake, Training Day, where Antoine Fuqua pulled out as a director because of a feature commitment but stayed on as executive producer.
Also joining the MacGyver reboot is the original’s creator Lee David Zlotoff who will be an executive producer.
The MacGyver script that was picked up to pilot by CBS was written by Paul Downs Colaizzo. (R. Scott Gemmill had been originally attached as a writer.) Colaizzo has since been joined by Code Black executive producer Brett Mahoney, who has been co-writing with him for the past couple of weeks.
Eads is the first actor cast in MacGyver, which features twentysomething Angus MacGyver who is recruited into the clandestine organization from the original series where he uses his knack for solving problems in unconventional ways to help prevent disasters from happening. Eads will play Lincoln, a man who could easily be written off as an eccentric conspiracy theorist but he’s a legit government employee with great capability for compassion.
Colaizzo and Mahoney executive produce alongside Wan, Zlotoff, the original’s executive producer Henry Winkler as well as Michael Clear, who heads Wan’s Atomic Monster.
Eads, who played Nick Stokes on CSI for the show’s 15-season run, is repped by APA. Mahoney, who is under an overall deal at CBS Studios, is repped by WME.
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