The 2010s reboot of Police Academy was canceled after a tragic real-life incident sparked a national debate about police use of force.
On the June 17 episode of his podcast “Funny You Ask with Ike Barinholtz,” the comedian told guest Joel McHale a story about an awkward pitch meeting he had with writing partner David Stassen. The two were writing the script for the Police Academy reboot, which was to be produced by and starring Barinholtz’s Mad TV co-stars Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, but the unfortunate encounter didn’t actually cause the project to be put on hold.
“Years ago, my partner and I were hired to rewrite ‘Police Academy’ for New Line Cinema,” Barinholtz said. “I don’t even know if he’s still alive. We might have to cut this film, but the guy who made the original ‘Police Academy’ came to us with a contract. So they said to us, ‘We want you to write it, we want it to be dirty, R-rated, modern.'” He’ll be in some meetings, but we don’t have to listen to him. All he wanted to do was give us notes. “But we never did that in the first movie.” Never, never, never. No, no, no. Mahoney would never say that.” He was adamant that the film would feature the original cast.
“He wanted them to play big roles, and we were like, ‘Yada yada,'” Barinholtz continued. “So, when we were pitching, my partner said, ‘There’s this scene, and then you see the whole original cast. You see Hightower, you see Tackle Berry, and…’ He’s just naming all the people who died. And I was like… he didn’t even do the research to find out who was still alive in the cast. But more importantly, when we were developing the movie, all of a sudden, Mike Brown got shot, and we were making a movie about Key and Peele, and people were like, “Now we’re not making a cop comedy where we have these two hilarious black actors playing cops.”
On August 9, 2014, an 18-year-old black man named Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking more than a week of protests and debate over police use of force and militarization. The officer was investigated but was never charged with civil rights violations.
The 1984 comedy “Police Academy,” starring Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall and Bubba Smith, was a box office success that spawned six sequels and live-action and animated series. Attempts to restart it began in 2003 and stalled.
Barinholtz is currently starring in the popular showbiz satire The Studio, Peele is working on his next secret film, and Key is filming the sequel to Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion.
