Warner Bros. is heading back to New Jack City for a reboot

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Time to break out your Potential Reboot bingo card and see how close you are to sweet victory, because yet another major studio is looking to reboot yet another property from their library. After news of the Jared Padalecki-led WALKER, TEXAS RANGER reboot, news is now out that Warner Bros. will be rebooting the gangster film NEW JACK CITY with Malcolm M. Mays of FX’s SNOWFALL to write the script.

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Deadline got the scoop that while Mays (who played Kevin Willamson on SNOWFALL) will be behind the script for the reboot of the 1991 film, there’s currently no one on board to direct. The original movie was helmed by Mario Van Peebles, and starred himself, Wesley Snipes, Ice T, Chris Rock, Judd Nelson and more, and centered on several cops trying to take down drug kingpin Nino Brown (Snipes) during the crack epidemic in the 80s. The movie received solid reviews from critics and was a hit at the box office, making $47 million off an $8 million production budget.

Warner Bros. must have a lot of confidence in Mays, as the writer-actor-director-producer already has a script in the pipe for the studio titled FERGUSON, which is an adaptation of the book “Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy and Love of My Son Michael Brown” by Lezley McSpadden with Lyah Beth LeFlore. The shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown sparked protests that lasted a week in Ferguson, Missouri, and the book co-written by his mother (McSpadden) chronicles her life and their life together.

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Mays also has the movie FLINT in the works as director and producer for Overlook Entertainment, which has been described as a CHINATOWN-esque noir thriller, in which an ex-con tries to solve a murder mystery against the backdrop of Flint, Michigan and the water crisis that affected the community.

Details are sparse on the new reboot, and if it will involve anyone else from the original movie. This project seems to be in the very early stages, with Mays set to write but with no one on board to direct or star. Mays' other current projects hint he has a knack for developing stories around hard-hitting current events, so that makes him a good choice for something like a new take on NEW JACK CITY, so now only time will tell what that take will be.