Several decades ago, authors Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir teamed up to start a pulp paperback series called The Destroyer. The first book was titled Created, The Destroyer, and introduced a hero named Remo Williams. More than 150 novels in The Destroyer series have been published over the years, and in 1985 there was an attempt to bring the concept to the big screen in the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. That movie was a box office failure, so the adventure also ended right there. But nearly forty years later, Remo Williams is being revived by Sony Pictures Television – and Better Call Saul executive producer Gordon Smith is on board to write the Destroyer / Remo Williams TV series.
Smith will also executive produce the show alongside Adrian Askarieh of Prime Universe Films.
As Deadline reminds us, the Destroyer books center on a U.S. government operative named Remo Williams, a former Newark cop framed for a crime and sentenced to death. His death is faked by the government so he can be trained as an assassin for CURE, a secret organization set up to defend the country by working outside the law.
The producers of the TV series told The Hollywood Reporter than the plan is to use the large library of Destroyer books to create a “cohesive and iconic international action/adventure universe”. They also intend to “retain the sardonic humor of the books”.
Smith was involved with the entire six season run of Better Call Saul, starting off as a staff writer on season 1 and a story editor on season 2. He became a producer as of season 3, a supervising producer on season 4, co-executive producer on season 5, and executive producer on season 6. He has writing credits on multiple episodes, and earned Emmy nominations for some of his episode scripts.
After Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins came and went at the box office, there was also an attempt to get a TV series off the ground in 1988. A pilot, Remo Williams: The Prophecy, was filmed and starred Jeffrey Meek as the title character. But a series didn’t happen. Back in 2014, it was announced that Shane Black (who had Warren Murphy write a draft of Lethal Weapon 2 with him) would be directing a Remo Williams movie called The Destroyer from a screenplay he was writing with Fight Club‘s Jim Uhls… but that movie never made it into production. Here’s hoping this new series will have better luck.
Are you glad to hear Better Call Saul‘s Gordon Smith is working on a The Destroyer / Remo Williams TV series? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.