It’s back to the 1970s for Universal, which has hired the scriptwriting team of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade to write a Kojak movie for Vin Diesel.  Telly Savalas played the  savvy, foliclely-challenged, lollipop-licking New York City police detective in a memorably realistic police show that aired on CBS from 1973-1978.

 

According to Deadline, Purvis and Wade will attempt to fashion a contemporary version of the 1970s sleuth for the big screen.  With Skyfall, which is approaching a billion dollars worldwide, as well as the three previous Bond films on their resume, Purvis and Wade are real heavyweights whose efforts don’t come cheap, so it appears that Universal is very serious about mounting Kojak as a potential cop movie franchise.  But it’s early days--so far no director has been selected and only Vin Diesel, who is set to play the chrome-domed copper, is attached to act in the project at this point.