A Television Adaptation of Enemy of the State Coming to ABC
"The State Still Has Enemies Twenty Years Later"
A television adaptation of hit 1998 film
Enemy of the State will be coming to ABC, according to a published reports. The new series will be based on the original film, though it will take place twenty years later and is expected to involve different characters from the original movie.
Enemy of the State, a box office hit that grossed $250 million dollars, was released in 1998 and starred Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet, and Regina King. It was a spy-thriller about a group of U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) agents conspiring to kill a U.S. Congressman and the cover up that ensues after a tape of the murder is discovered. The new show is set two decades after the original film, when an elusive NSA spy is charged with leaking classified intelligence and an idealistic female attorney must partner with a hawkish FBI agent to stop a global conspiracy that threatens to expose dark secrets and personal mysteries connecting all three of their lives.
The producer of the original
Enemy of the State film, Jerry Bruckheimer, will serve as an executive producer for the new television series along with Jonathan Littman, KristieAnne Reed and Morgan Foehl. Bruckheimer's current TV slate includes Fox's
Lucifer and
The Amazing Race for CBS
. He also has another film adaptation in the works, mid-season replacement series
Training Day, for CBS.
Co-executive producer Foehl (
Blackhat) will be the lead writer for
Enemy of the State and has two other promising projects in various stages of development. He will also write
The Asset for 20th Century Fox, in addition to his work on a film adaptation of the World War II story
Escape From Davao.
Will Smith, the star of the original film, is not expected to be involved with this version of
Enemy of the State in any capacity. It remains to be seen if his character will have a role or presence in the new series. A production schedule and release date have not been announced, nor have any casting decisions been made public at this writing.
