Adapting the classic 1989 film Turner & Hooch for television was no easy task for series creator Matt Nix. However, after previously creating Burn Notice and The Gifted, Nix was more than up to the challenge and reimagined the buddy-cop comedy as a series. While Disney+'s Turner & Hooch maintains the same themes as its predecessor, his adaptation follows Scott Turner Jr., the son of Tom Hank's iconic character, as he begins a career as a U.S. Marshall. However, he too suddenly finds himself partnered with a rambunctious dog.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, Nix explained the creative challenges in crafting a sequel to the film with an all-new cast, what elements from the 1989 film he wanted to retain and build upon, and what he hopes to see Marvel Studios do with its beloved X-Men property.
There have been plans to adapt Turner & Hooch for television for a long time. How did the opportunity to develop this for Disney+ come about for you?
Matt Nix: I was approached and they just said, "Turner & Hooch is available." 20th Television, where I have my [development] deal had just merged with Disney and they were exploring the library for things they were interested in making into a show. For me, I was a fan of the [movie] as a kid and I always kind of wanted to do a true action-comedy for television. I was interested in working with McG and that happened early, all of those things sort of came together.
To me, the big obstacle with doing anything on TV with Turner & Hooch was you can't be replacing Tom Hanks. I think what's emerged now is the idea of sequel television series -- Cobra Kai did it and a number of other shows did it -- and that, I think we can do, where we're not saying, "Yeah, this is Tom Hanks!" Nobody is going to expect an impression of Tom Hanks. We can do Tom Hanks' son because it's also been a long enough time. It's been thirty years.
The other thing was how do you make a family-friendly, law enforcement comedy for Disney+. I said I'd do it as long as I could do it like Tom Hanks' son is a U.S. Marshall because I don't really want to do a show for Disney+ where we have to deal with crime victims or murders or things like that. I want to do something that's federal crimes, chasing fugitives, protecting people, that kind of thing because I think that's going to fit with something Disney+ would actually do and they agreed and that's how it came about.
This show has a focus on family that wasn't present in the film. Did that stem from having Scott as a legacy character and son of the original Turner?
Yeah, it absolutely did. But, at the same time, when I looked at the movie, I was like, "What is it really about?" Ask ten big fans of the movie what the crime they solve is and I bet you $20 no one can tell you. I know what it is, obviously, but most people will say it has something to do with the money in blocks of ice and there's a murder. But what it's about, on a character level, it's about this idea that dogs make us better people. Dogs [show us] our real values and they make us more ourselves. That's what happens to Tom Hanks' character over the course of the film.
Not to get too maudlin about it, but, my dog Steve had died not too long before I was asked to do the show. And I definitely had an experience with Steve where he was definitely making me a better man. At the same time, I was really interested in dog science and I would walk Steve and listen to books and podcasts about dog science. So when the opportunity came along, I liked the idea that in the original movie, the original Hooch made Scott Sr. a better man and true him up to his values: He decides to stay in Cypress Beach and get together with Emily and he gets other dogs and has evolved as a human being. I just thought that guy would go on to have a family, stay in Cypress Beach, have a lot of dogs and it was a sort of natural thing to say let's tell the story of that family and that man's son who comes to his own revelation about dogs and what they do to human beings.
The other thing was it was a great opportunity for me to use some of that dog science and just think about how humans see the world, which wasn't in the film but something I thought about from a procedural standpoint. Not so much the second episode but the first, third, fourth, and fifth really ride on how do dogs see the world? How do people see the world? How are those two things different? And how can bringing those two things together help resolve a criminal situation? That was sort of the backbone of the procedural and fun challenge on how do I do that every episode.
In dealing with that legacy, what made Josh Peck perfect for the role of Scott?
Honestly, I met with almost no one for the role. They were like, "You should meet this guy Josh Peck!" And I met him and was like, "Well, there we go!" The big thing, for me, is when you're thinking about Tom Hanks, he's someone you're rooting for and willing to be vulnerable onscreen. He's obviously a really talented comedian, he's credible in action without seeming like an action star. Those were really the things we needed in the lead.
The other thing is I needed someone close enough to Tom Hanks that you could buy that he was Tom Hanks' son, but not so close that it felt like we were trying to do redo the movie, which is not what we set out to do and Josh had that. The other thing that he has that is just as incredible and valuable is his training in children's TV, where they move very fast, and they're doing a lot of stuff. He can react to anything, if a bomb goes off in a scene, he will stay in character and make a joke about the bomb. That is what you need when someone is working with dogs. If a dog jerks him out of a scene, he'll just come right back and play the moment and continue. We couldn't have done the show without him, truly.
To that point, I feel like this has more slapstick and pratfalls than your previous projects. How is it staging and writing those moments into the show?
Well, some of it is written. [laughs] When Hammer, one of the dogs, jerked Josh out of a scene, that's not scripted. That's just Hammer seeing something he wanted to run for and jerk Josh out of the scene. With regards to some of the other things, we were definitely writing to certain elements of slapstick. For the most part, we were trying to play the sort of classic action-comedy tone, this really came out of thinking, "Why isn't there action-comedy on television? Why isn't anyone doing that?" It's a huge movie genre -- something people care about and that we grew up on, but nobody really does it on TV. To me, like in Turner & Hooch, once a pratfall happens, you don't really hang around and talk about the pratfall, you're right back into the action. That's what we tried to do with Turner & Hooch. Somebody falls, but there's more crime to be stopped so they pop right up and continue, which is what the great action-comedies of my youth always did.
As a slight detour, you got to work with the X-Men on The Gifted. How was that experience, looking back, and would you be willing to go back to that world again?
Honestly, I loved that show. It was so much fun to do and it was definitely hard when we didn't get to keep going after the second season. It's such a rich universe and there's so much to explore there and personally, I'm excited to see what Marvel does with it going forward. If there was any way for me to participate in that, I'd certainly love to.
One of the things, when you look at the X-Men Universe at the time that we were doing it, it was kind of splintering in a lot of ways. What timeline were we in? I don't know! [laughs] Is Magneto a good guy or a bad guy? Kind of hard to say! There was a lot going on there. One thing that will be interesting to see, as Marvel reboots that world and does what we'll call the planned-out X-Men Universe as opposed to the movie-by-movie and TV show-by-TV show X-Men Universe... That'll be really exciting to see.
One other thing I'll say about The Gifted: My fantasy for an X-Men TV show going forward, whether or not I'm involved with it, is something where they really can integrate what's going on with the movies and what's going on on TV and not need to keep such a rigid wall between the two of them. That's something they did very well with The Avengers and, hopefully, they can do that with the X-Men, because we were in a position where we were like, "Let's make a show about the X-Men and never say the word 'Magneto.'" And that's a challenge. I think we worked our way around it as best as we could. I'm proud of the show, but obviously, that's not ideal. But, I'm excited to see what they do with it because it's a world that I love.
Developed for television by Matt Nix, Turner & Hooch is streaming now on Disney+ with new episodes premiering on Wednesdays.