‘Turner & Hooch’ TV Series In Works At Disney+ From Matt Nix

The classic 1989s buddy cop comedy feature Turner & Hooch is getting a TV series treatment for Disney+. I have learned that the Disney streaming platform is working on a Turner & Hooch TV series adaptation from Burn Notice creator Matt Nix and 20th Century Fox TV where Nix is under an overall deal.

Details about the series are scarce, but it is believed to be keeping the premise of the original movie, which starred Tom Hanks, and also revolves around a police detective and his dog, I hear. The TV series had been in the works for awhile. It has been gathering momentum recently, and I hear it is heating up for a green light. Reps for Disney+ and 20th TV would not comment.

Nix is the Turner & Hooch series writer/executive producer. 20th Century Fox TV, part of Disney TV Studios, is the studio. The project marks the latest cooperation between studio divisions on both sides of the Disney-Fox merger as 20th TV is tackling a classic Touchstone Pictures title.

The 1989 movie starred Hanks as Detective Scott Turner and Beasley the Dog as Hooch, the large, slobbery dog he reluctantly takes in following the murder of his longtime friend and the dog’s owner. The film, which co-starred Mare Winningham and Craig T. Nelson, was a boxoffice hit, grossing $71 million on a $13 million budget. It also became an enduring pop culture staple, getting frequent references in other movies and TV shows.

This is not the first attempt to mount a Turner & Hooch TV series. An ABC half-hour pilot, produced by Touchstone TV and starring Thomas F. Wilson as Det. Scott Turner and Beasley the Dog reprising his role, did not go to series but aired under ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney banner in July 1990.

For Disney+, Turner & Hooch fits into the streamer’s strategy of mining the combined company’s movie and TV libraries for new content. The originals that helped launch Disney+ included a Lady & the Tramp movie reboot, a High School Musical series and the Star Wars drama The Mandalorian.

Coming up are a TV series based on the Fox movie Love, Simon and a Lizzy McGuire revival, with a slew of other reboots in the works.

Nix most recently served as creator, executive producer and showrunner on the 20th TV/Marvel drama series The Gifted, which aired on Fox for two seasons.