'Dallas' To Get Big Screen Adaptation

[Thursday, October 10th, 2002]
Regency Enterprises is to turn the primetime soap opera "Dallas" into a feature film, reports Variety.

Original show creator Dave Jacobs is on board to produce, No writer is yet attached.

"I like the idea of doing it for the 21st century, with a new cast," Jacobs told Daily Variety. "We've got a new take on it. It's a much bigger canvas today and it belongs up on the big screen. Before people would have been interested in who is screwing each other. Now it's the national crimes that are affecting everyone. The conflict is still about family conflicts, but the stakes are higher now. That's the thing that excites me about it."

"Dallas," which ran on CBS from 1978 to 1992 and was produced by Lorimar, was ranked either first or second for five straight years in the early 1980s. The famous "Who Shot J.R.?" episode garnered one of the highest ratings for a series in history of TV. Show, which is still running in syndication in many countries, has revenues of more than $1.3 billion.

"Dallas" revolved around the machinations of the wealthy. It starred Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing. "Dallas" the film will be populated by the characters who turned the series into a hit: Bobby and Pam, Jock and Miss Ellie, Lucy and Ray, Sue Ellen and Cliff Barnes and, of course, the devilish J.R. Ewing. It will be set at Southfork Ranch, as well.

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