Varsity Blues Reboot Ordered to Series On Quibi

Bite-sized entertainment platform Quibi has ordered an episodic adaptation of “Varsity Blues“, due next year.

The reinterpretation of the 1999 classic comes to us from writer Tripper Clancy; while two of the movie’s producers, Mike Tollin and Tova Leiter, return alongside John Gatins and Peter Guber to helm the project.

The original film centered on the story of quarterback Jonathan “Mox” Moxon (James Van Der Beek) as he navigated the intricacies of high school football and his aspirations to leave the fictional town of West Canaan, to study at Brown University. He dealt both with a football-obsessed dad and an abusive football coach in his struggle to break out of the path that had been set out for him.

The movie also starred Jon Voight, Paul Walker, Scott Caan, Amy Smart, and Ali Larter.

“For all those who cheered Mox’s refrain, ‘I don’t want your life,’ as well as all those who never heard of the West Canaan Coyotes, we’re thrilled to bring Varsity Blues to Quibi and into the 21st century,” Tollin said of the project.

The original film’s release had it at #1 in the North American box office, grossing $17.5 million in just its opening weekend (against a budget of $16 million). The film grossed $54 million in total, despite a 41% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

This is the second attempt at a television adaptation of “Varsity Blues”, back in 2016 CMT was developing a series but eventually gave up on the project.

Quibi is the brainchild of Jeffrey Katzenberg and is scheduled to launch April 6, 2020. Subscriptions range from $5 a month to $8 a month for an ad-free experience. The format is skewed to a younger, mobile, audience with chapters of their episodic content coming in at 10 minutes or less.

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