Lock up your daughters/foundational documents of state: The National Treasure franchise is coming back, and this time it’s skewing young. This is per Collider, which recently had a sit-down with National Treasure series producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Amidst questions about his new Starz show Hightown, Bruckheimer also confirmed that, yes, National Treasure 3 is currently being written—with Bad Boys For Life screenwriter Chris Bremner still penning a new adventure for Nic Cage’s Benjamin Franklin Gates—but that that’s also not the only hot NT project in the works.
Yes, the only film franchise willing to base large swathes of its plot around investigating Rutherford B. Hayes’ old desk may soon be moving to the small screen, with Bruckheimer announcing that a television version of the series is currently “in process,” with an eye toward landing at Disney+. (Disney produced both National Treasure movies.) Also, the show would not focus on Cage’s Gates, instead offering “a much younger cast. It’s the same concept but a young cast.”
And honestly: We’re into it. After all, an episodic structure would massively accelerate the number of American historical artifacts that the show’s tween treasure hunters might be able to steal, meaning we could finally get episodes where they steal the deed to Mount Vernon, the gun from the Alexander Hamilton/Aaron Burr duel, and hey, maybe Archie Bunker’s old chair from the Smithsonian. (“A fat racist once sat here,” the heroes will breathlessly inform each other. “He abused his stepson so badly that he eventually directed the movie North.”)
This is all, obviously, extremely early days, with Disney having so far not given any public sign of acknowledging either project. Still, Bruckheimer has a lot of industry oomph—and National Treasure remains one of those indelible light-action franchises, like Brendan Fraser’s Mummy movies, that have a stranglehold on the lazy nostalgic afternoons of adults of a certain age. Given how carefully Disney+ has mined its libraries while hunting around for new projects to develop, it’s not hard to see this getting the green light.
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If any movie or set of movies were destined to be both loved and hated, it’s these. A series could be interesting, but I really hope they tone down the cheese factor on it. I know that Nicholas Cage is everyone’s favorite rabid puppy, but there are moments in both of those movies that could’ve been a lot better if he’d just chilled the fuck out a little bit.
1. I disagree.2. If they “tone down the cheese factor”, it will basically be The Librarians. Which is…fine, but not anywhere near as absurdly fun as National Treasure.
You haven’t said specifically what scene you’re talking about, but it’s Buckingham Palace, isn’t it.
I haven’t seen them in a while, so I’d need to check. All I remember is that there are a few scenes in each of them where he might as yell ‘I’M ACTING!’ directly into the camera.
“We need to steal William Taft’s bathtub! But first, we need to steal a crane!”
The episode centered around some random possession of William Henry Harrison’s will last 31 days.
Grover Cleveland’s pocket watch will get two non-consecutive story arcs.
We need an Abraham Lincoln episode like we need a hole in the head, but I’ll watch it anyway.
Equal parts The Librarians and Leverage. 0% from the actual National Treasure movies.
As long as we don’t have to endure Jon Voight trying to Make American History Great Again again.
American historical artifacts
At last! The market demand has never been greater for that movie series maybe a few people remember, and no one gives a shit about! I just hope that the producer who peaked 20 years ago takes a hands on role in making this desperate flail for relevance! Here’s hoping the film and TV industry uses the shutdown restructure wisely, by leaving putzes like Bruckheimer, Michael Bay, Zack Snyder, and Eli Roth, behind.