Posted without comment… because, really, what is there to say? And no, it’s not April 1st.

The breaking news below: "Sony Pictures and producer Scott Rudin will turn the groundbreaking ’70s sitcom Good Times into a feature film. They’ve set a writer, Phil Johnston, whose most recent credits include Wreck-It Ralph and Cedar Rapids. Rudin will produce the family comedy with Eli Bush. While Rudin is selective about the remakes with which he becomes involved – Manchurian Candidate, Shaft and Sabrina – I think this has a lot of potential […] The movie will be set in the 1960s, which gives Johnston a rich and politically charged period to mine. William Bannister, Michael Daniels and Neville Moguel will be associate producers and Eric Monte, Tammie Evans and Carlena Harris will be executive producers."

Ok, so I lied about posting without any commentary…

In all seriousness, however this turns out will depend on the approach the studio and producer take. Will it be a straight comedy, more of a drama, or a mixture of the two – a dramedy? Since it’ll be set in the 60s, there’ll be plenty of socially and politically-relevant material to mine. What will the story be exactly? Will all the characters from the TV series feature in the film? Questions, questions, questions…

So, let’s see how the filmmakers plan to really tackle this, because it could go down any number of paths. For example, it could just be a straight drama with some comedic elements about a working class black family growing up in the 1960s, and that forms the base for whatever narrative they think up to build upon it, and the title Good Times, may be the only thing that it has in common with the TV series, assuming they opt to keep the same title.

But really, there are so many other stories to be told about the black experience in this country (many that aren’t remakes of old TV series), that are set in the present-day (if you look at Hollywood studio output, you’d think there are so few contemporary stories about black people worth telling) that I don’t quite get why this is the one that Sony and Scott Rudin chose. I’d love to chat with Rudin and get into his head about this, because I’m really curious as to what inspired him to want to tackle this particular TV show.

Needless to say, the producer and screenwriter are both white, and we can probably guess that the director will likely be white as well. I’ll leave it to you guys to suggest actors for the various parts…