Goonies Shot-for-Shot Remake Series Cancelled at Fox

Last year, just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down almost everything worldwide, came word that FOX had given a pilot order to a peculiar show, an untitled series about a substitute teacher who recruits a trio of students to help re-enact the iconic Amblin Entertainment coming-of-age movie, The Goonies. Sarah Watson (The Bold Type, Parenthood) penned the script but now that project is no longer happening. TheWrap brings word that the untitled Goonies-inspired show will not be moving forward and a drama titled "Blood Relative" starring Melissa Leo has also been given the axe. No specific reason was given for the change in decision.

In development with Superbad's Greg Mottola as director and executive producer, the logline for the show previously read: "After failing to make it in New York and carrying a heavy secret with her, Stella Cooper returns to her distressed automotive hometown to substitute teach. She finds inspiration, hope and ultimately salvation when she agrees to help three students who are pursuing their filmmaking dreams by putting on an impossibly ambitious shot-for-shot remake of one of their favorite movies —The Goonies. Over the course of the season of the potential series, their passion will inspire a town in desperate need of hope in this love letter to the power of cinema, storytelling and dreams."

It was previously reported that The Goonies series was "part of an overall strategy by Fox TV to push some new (as in risky) concepts for TV shows on the network." The two shows that FOX gave series orders to while cancelling The Goonies series seem to point toward this still being a strategy, with one, titled "The Cleaning Lady," being described as "a darkly aspirational character drama about a whip-smart doctor who comes to the U.S. for a medical treatment to save her ailing son. But when the system fails and pushes her into hiding, she refuses to be beaten down and marginalized. Instead, she becomes a cleaning lady for the mob and starts playing the game by her own rules."

While it's unclear what about the proposed Goonies-inspired series got it cancelled, rights issues may have been a problem as the Richard Donner directed film is owned by Warner Bros.

Fans and the filmmakers of the 1985 classic have also never lost faith in a direct sequel to the original film happening at some point - even though the cast has been knocking down the notion for years.