John Travolta's Baby Comedy Look Who’s Talking Getting a Big Screen Reboot with a Diverse Cast
Look who’s talking… again!
A whopping 30 years after the 1989 John Travolta/Kirstie Alley comedy Look Who’s Talking hit theaters, Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems is taking baby steps on a reboot.
Deadline reports the project is underway, with Jeremy Garelick (The Wedding Ringer) set to write and direct. Though Garelick is early in the process, the outlet says he’s “looking at a version that will allow for a diverse cast.”
The original film was written by Clueless scribe Amy Heckerling and had a unique perspective on parenting, featuring voice-over by Bruce Willis giving baby Mikey’s hilarious point of view.
Alley’s character, Mollie, was a single businesswoman woman who conceived Mikey via an affair with a married man (played by George Segal). Travolta’s character, a cab driver named James, served a potential love interest to Mollie and father figure to Mikey.
Audiences were charmed, with Look Who’s Talking grossing nearly $300 million worldwide.
A sequel, 1990’s Look Who’s Talking Too, added a sister to the equation (voiced by Roseanne Barr). A third installment, 1993’s Look Who’s Talking Now, turned the formula to the dogs — specifically, two pooches voiced by Danny DeVito and Diane Keaton.
Both Alley and Travolta stayed on for the follow-up films, but didn’t join for the ABC spinoff series Baby Talk. That show, which aired from 1991-2, followed a similar premise but with Mary Page Keller, Scott Baio, and Tony Danza as the voice of baby Mickey.
Garelick told Deadline he’s looking forward to getting back to the magic that made those projects a hit.
“What excited me about doing is, I have four kids, including twins, and this is something they can watch, and share some of the experience I had with my wife,” he said. “Like, figuring out how to raise these kids, with all the mistakes that happen. Add in the voices that are keyed to facial expressions, it just really seems like a fun idea.”
“Everyone can relate to babies,” he added. “The challenge is, that was a really good movie, Travolta and Kirstie Alley had great chemistry and Amy Heckerling wrote a great script. We’re in the early stages of figuring out what the story is for the modern version of the movie.
