5 Classic Movies From The '80s You Forgot Are Getting Reboots

Many great '80s movies still hold up today, but that doesn't stop Hollywood from eyeing the era's intellectual properties for rebooting purposes. This is a double-edged sword for 1980s film aficionados because resurrecting a franchise from so many decades ago means it'll inevitably need to be tinkered with. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, because there are many excellent film reboots that are nothing like the original. On the other hand, tons of great old films have been turned into some of the worst reboots and remakes of all time. 

Because there's no way to know how a reboot project has succeeded before it actually premieres, all fans can do is keep tabs on their old 1980s favorites and hope for the best. For this purpose, Looper has collected some of the most high-profile 1980s reboots that are currently in progress. Be warned, however — there are some seriously surprising names on the list.  

From "Police Squad!" — which, incidentally might just be the best one-season slapstick crime series out there — to "The Naked Gun" movies, the late, great Leslie Nielsen's bumbling cop character, Frank Drebin, is as iconic as police parodies get. Nielsen's unique ability to combine the roles of a bumbling buffoon and a stone-faced straight man is incredibly hard to replicate. Still, that doesn't mean Liam Neeson isn't willing to give it a shot.

Neeson's new "The Naked Gun" movie is set to premiere in 2025, with Akiva Schaffer at the helm and Seth McFarlane on board as a co-producer. It remains to be seen how the film will capture the spirit of the original, and the reboot news has had fans doubting Neeson's particular set of comedic skills. It's worth noting, however, that Nielsen reinvented his career by transitioning from serious roles to comically serious ones. Likewise, Neeson has already pivoted pretty hard between serious drama and his post-"Taken" action thriller career. The Academy Award nominee has already proven that he can act, so it will be interesting to see if he can follow Nielsen's career path to gruff cop comedy. 

Yes, "The Goonies." The classic adventure film is getting resurrected as a Disney+ series — and it will be more than a little meta. While "The Goonies 2" might never happen, this particular project seems to be moving along nicely. With the Donner Company and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment attached, it seems to have a fair amount of weight behind it.

"When I was at Paramount, there were these young boys doing this movie about 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' a shot-by-shot remake. It got some press at the time, and the studio was very upset about it. I thought it was an amazing idea, and it always stood in my head of — how can you take an idea like that and turn it into a TV series?" producer Gail Berman told Variety in 2022. "Sarah Watson is our creator. The series is a story of a town and a family in the lens of 'Friday Night Lights,' and within that they tell a story of a shot-by-shot remake of 'The Goonies.'"

On one hand, "The Goonies" seems like a logical choice for a traditional remake. It has plenty of amazing action, familiar faces, and just as much entertainment as you can expect from a film that was conjured up by names like Spielberg, Chris Columbus, and Richard Donner. On the other hand, the movie is a rare gem that's part of the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, and a conventional reboot might have a hard time catching that kind of lightning in a bottle. The Disney+ series' meta approach might be just the ticket to get the best of both worlds while still bringing the viewers that nostalgic "Goonies" goodness.

The murder mystery of "Clue" is just as enduring on the screen as it is on the board. The 1985 black comedy, which is based on the popular board game of the same name, provides the exact kind of fun you can expect from a mansion murder story with Tim Curry playing the butler. What's more, the success of similar movies — Rian Johnson's "Knives Out" and "Glass Onion" in particular — has proved that there's plenty of demand for a well-executed, darkly funny movie of this particular genre. 

The cast and plot of the "Clue" reboot is still up in the air, save for the fact that Ryan Reynolds will produce and play one of the characters. Fortunately, the concept allows a fair amount of leeway beyond the overall setting, character archetypes, murder weapon ponderings, and multiple-choice endings. This means there's plenty of potential to take this wherever Reynolds sees fit — and, judging by his track record with the "Deadpool" series, he certainly has the black comedy genre down.

The most confused little battle machine this side of Robocop might not be the best-known name on this list, but people who know their 1980s sci-fi comedies are no doubt familiar with Number Five (Tim Blaney). A military robot with a strangely emotive design, Number Five gains sentience after a lightning strike and wanders off to have adventures as "Johnny 5." Said adventures are chronicled in 1986's "Short Circuit" and its 1988 sequel, "Short Circuit 2." 

A "Short Circuit" remake has been in the works since 2020, with Eduardo Cisneros and Jason Shuman working on the script. In all fairness, this is one 1980s film that could probably benefit from the reboot, too. While the design of creatures like "E.T." is timeless, the original "Short Circuit" sci-fi movies have aged horribly, and the robots — let's just say they're not exactly cutting-edge. As such, taking another stab at the project with more modern technology and cooler-looking robots might be the jolt of electricity the franchise needs.

A remake of a 1981 Terry Gilliam movie that features two other "Monty Python" members alongside stars like Shelley Duvall and Sean Connery might not be on too many remake bingo lists, but here we are. "Time Bandits" is Gilliam's second non-Python time in the director's seat. It tells the story of Kevin (Craig Warnock), a young boy who ends up on a time-traveling trip that sends him face-to-face with some of history's greats, from Robin Hood (John Cleese) to Napoleon (Ian Holm). 

Gilliam has a fairly distinctive style and, as usual with 1980s adaptations, the remake will likely go through some changes. As it turns out, the project is helmed by none other than Taika Waititi, so chances are the remake will indeed be quite a different beast. 

Apart from the Academy Award-winning filmmaker, actors attached to the project include Lisa Kudrow, Kal-El Tuck, Charlyne Yi, Tadhg Murphy, Roger Jean Nsengiyumwa, and Rune Temte. The new "Time Bandits" is set to air as an Apple TV+ series, so whatever else happens, fans can at the very least expect a much longer storyline.