New Live-Action 'Inspector Gadget' Movie In The Works At Disney

Are you ready for another live-action Inspector Gadget movie? Well, too bad, you're getting one anyway. Aladdin producers Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich are set to produce the movie for Disney, with Saturday Night Live writers Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell handling the script. The film is based on the animated series of the same name, created in 1983. There was a previous live-action film adaptation starring Matthew Broderick, and a direct-to-video sequel starring  French Stewart, and I'm betting you forgot both of them existed.

THR broke the news on the new Inspector Gadget movie. There are no further details beyond the team involved and the fact that it will be live-action. This means you can probably expect a whole slew of CGI effects of all those gadgets and gizmos shooting out of Inspector Gadget's freakish body. The original cartoon series followed "a bumbling and incompetent cyborg cop named Inspector Gadget, who is sent on cases and missions by his boss, Chief Quimby. These schemes are often caused by his arch-nemesis, the evil Dr. Claw, head of the malevolent criminal agency M.A.D. With the unknown help of his brainy niece Penny, and her dog Brain, Gadget always comes out on top, usually resulting in Claw vowing revenge."

The original Gadget only ran two seasons but launched several spin-offs, including Inspector Gadget's Field Trip, Gadget and the Gadgetinis, and a 2015 reboot commonly referred to as Inspector Gadget 2.0. In 1999, David Kellogg directed a live-action Inspector Gadget movie starring Matthew Broderick as Gadget and Rupert Everett as Dr. Claw. It also deviated heavily from the cartoon, just in case that's something you actually care about.

Critics trashed the film, but it ended up being a moderate box office success, taking in a worldwide gross of $134.4 million on a $90 million budget. That was good enough for Disney to go ahead and make a direct-to-video sequel in 2003, Inspector Gadget 2. Broderick didn't return and was replaced by French Stewart. This sequel was more faithful to its source material, which I guess is a good thing for the three or four people who bothered to watch it.

And now Disney will try this out all over again! Hooray, I guess!