In the 2000s, Walt Disney
Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer produced a film franchise that could best be
described as “’Indiana Jones’ as a big family adventure.” This was “National
Treasure,” the first movie premiering in 2004 and its sequel in 2007. Nicholas
Cage starred as cryptologist-treasure hunter Ben Franklin Gates. With his team
of history specialists and family members he found the treasure hidden on
American shores by the Templars/Freemasons, and the golden city of Cibola,
while being forced to extremes like stealing the Declaration of Independence
and (briefly) kidnapping the US President. A spinoff book series was also launched
even as development of Part 3 dragged on for years.
“National Treasure 3” might still
be some time off, but franchise co-creator Jerry Bruckheimer has been teasing a
TV series to stream on Disney+ since last year. Variety reports that Disney+ has given the OK for a “National
Treasure” series, consisting of 10 episodes. Bruckheimer (“Pirates of the
Caribbean”) returns as executive producer while husband-and-wife team Cormac
and Marianne Wibberly will write the story under the direction of Mira Nair (1996’s
“Kama Sutra”). The series will be a reimagining, and thus swaps out the original
film series’ Gates family for a new, different main character.
Scant initial info on the planned
“National Treasure” series puts the focus on Jess Morales, described as an
undocumented 20-year-old Latina in the DREAMer movement. Despite her tenuous status
residing in the US, she stumbles on clues to both an incredible hidden treasure
as well as an in-depth look at her family history and its ties to America. Where
the movies’ Gates family are ‘traditional” American heroes, having Jess as a
protagonist who technically is not yet American is a stark contrast, as invoked
by Nair, who wants the series to explore issues of “identity, community,
patriotism and historical authorship.”
No casting news has been given
for Jess or any other characters for the “National Treasure” series on Disney+,
and there is no word on a possible streaming release window either. It is the
same as word on the “National Treasure 3” movie, which remains in the writing
table although Jerry Bruckheimer hopes to reunite Nicholas Cage and the cast.
Image courtesy of BroBible
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