True Lies Reboot Series Revived at CBS With Burn Notice Creator

Just months after True Lies star Arnold Schwarzenegger was announced as the star of a family-driven spy drama for Skydance, it seems True Lies itself will be headed to TV, as well. The series, which hails from Burn Notice creator Matt Nix, is set to come to CBS, with McG, who helmed the early 2000s Charlie’s Angels movies, directing the pilot. Since the film was releasd in 1994, there have been a few efforts to bring True Lies to the small screen, and McG has been there for more than one, so if this pilot indeed moves forward it will be the end of a long journey for the director and producer.

Accoring to The Hollywood Reporter, who first reported the story, the premise for the series will be the same as for the movie. Here’s the synopsis:

“Shocked to discover that her bland and unremarkable computer consultant husband is a skilled international spy, an unfulfilled suburban housewife is propelled into a life of danger and adventure when she’s recruited to work alongside him to save the world as they try to revitalize their passionless marriage.”

It isn’t immediately clear whether that’s something provided by the network or whether it’s just THR‘s description fo the film, since it could be either.

The move to sell True Lies to CBS — McG had said in 2019 that the plan was to bring it to Disney+ — is an unusual one. Certainly a more mature version of the series, which could incorporate some of the harder suspense and sexuality of the film, would likely not feel at home on Disney+, but there’s no reason 20th Television couldn’t bring it to Hulu.

Of course, it seems on its face like a perfect fit for CBS, since the network already has reboots and revivals of The Equalizer, MacGyver, and Magnum P.I. on the air.

McG has experience following up on properties from True Lies creator James Cameron: in 2009, he directed Terminator: Salvation.

The original True Lies, a remake of a French film called La Totale! from three years earlier, starred Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis alongside Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Eliza Dushku and Charlton Heston. Curtis won a Golden Globe for her role, and the film made nearly $400 million — a staggering sum in 1994, enough for it to come in third at the box office for the year behind The Lion King and Forrest Gump.