David Boreanaz to re-open THE ROCKFORD FILES in reboot…

David Boreanaz has had quite the career with almost back-to-back hit series since the mid-90s. He rose to prominence as vampire-with-a-soul Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, appearing in nearly sixty episodes of the show – the character’s popularity leading to the eponymous spin-off Angel, set against the backdrop of Los Angeles and running for four seasons between 1999-2004.  Next came his role as FBI Agent Seeley Booth, partner to Emily Deschanel’s forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan in Bones (which ran from 2005 to 2017). After that he appeared as team leader Jason Hayes  in seven seasons (and 114 episodes) of SEAL Team.

So what’s next?

Well, despite the reboot of Buffy which should debut sometime early next year, Boreanaz seems unlikely to refit the fangs anytime soon and will, instead, be headlining a reimagining of another classic tv show: The Rockford Files.

The original show starred Hollywood veteran James Garner as an often down-on-his-luck private investigator who had a habit of pissing off criminals and police-officers alike. He lived in a trailer near the beach with ‘Rocky’, his elderly father.  The show, which usually started with a message left on Rockford’s phone, ran on CBS between 1974 and 1980 with six additional tv movies once the show ended. Quite how much will be directly lifted from the classic series isn’t known, but the series is described with the logline: Newly paroled after doing time for a crime he didn’t commit, James Rockford returns to his life as a private investigator using his charm and wit to solve cases around Los Angeles. It doesn’t take long for his quest for legitimacy to land him squarely in the crosshairs of both local police and organized crime.  The description of Boreanaz’s version as a “witty, world-weary and chronically broke private investigator whose charmingly gruff exterior masked a strong moral core...” also seems to match the original’s tone.

Michaela McManus (who also appeared with Boreanaz in the first season of SEAL Team) will play Kate, a new character described as an East Hollywood detective whose romantic relationship with Rockford is put under strain when he accuses some of her colleagues of framing him.