Sony rubbing the bottle for I Dream of Jeannie remake

It’s no secret that Hollywood wants to make an I DREAM OF JEANNIE movie. In fact, I dusted off this 2004 article from the JoBlo archives where Lindsay Lohan was attached to star in a JEANNIE movie. The film has been stuck in development hell in the years since (if Lohan had been able to keep it together, who knows what could’ve happened), but now Sony is looking to pop the cork on that bottle and make a wish for a new film. (No more bad genie puns, I promise.)

A number of writers have been attached to the project including NATIONAL TREASURE writers Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, MULAN’s Rita Hsiao and BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM’s Gurinder Chadha. Jimmy Fallon was allegedly under contract to play the Larry Hagman role. But now Sony wants to blow that all up and start fresh with a new script from Sheila Callaghan, a writer on “The United States of Tara.”

So what exactly would be her take on the film that would kickstart a moribund property like this? It’s unclear but the studio is clearly looking for a more egalitarian story that wouldn’t have our Jeannie playing housewife to a hunky astronaut. I’d expect the only things to stay the same would be a guy finds a hot looking genie in a bottle.

I guess the obvious question to ask is who you’d like to cast as a modern-day Barbara Eden in the film?