Quantum Leap was one of my favourite TV Shows.
The premise was simple but provided tons of entertainment. Sam Beckett is stuck in a quantum loop as he leaps through time into other people’s bodies. Inevitably, the person he leaps into will be of some importance and he has to make sure the timeline carries on.
It ran a full five seasons before it was canceled in 1995. And now a decade and a half later we get news that Quantum Leap the Movie is in development!
At Comic-Con ’10 at the panel for A Leap of Faith—A Quantum Leap Retrospective Bakula revealed that the movie version is happening. Yes!..
“The good news is that Don [Quantum Leap creator Donald P. Bellisario] is working on the film script and has a big time Hollywood producer who wants to do it … It’s about time. But what I always thought would happen, happened … [that he’s now too old for the role]. But Dean [Stockwell, who played Al] and I will have a part in it somehow.
Don did say that as he was writing, he told me he was having trouble, ‘getting you and Dean out of my head.’ But I know he will do it.”
Now it sounds like this will be a movie adaptation of Quantum Leap, and not just a film continuation to tie up the cliffhanger series.
See back when Quantum Leap was canceled, it came suddenly and the writers didn’t get a chance to write a finale. It was a season finale, and like any other season, it resulted in Scott Bacula’s character still stuck in the continuum, and not leaping back home. Before the next season started, they were told it wasn’t returning.
So with Bellisario saying he is having trouble with the script because he can’t get these actors out of his head, it sounds to me like he is re-writing Quantum Leap as a stand alone film, and the best we can hope for is a Stockwell cameo or Bacula saying “Oh Boy…”
My idea was not a film, but they should restart the TV series. Have it updated with an older Stockwell “Al” long since given up on his old friend Sam thinking he was gone to the space time continuum. Then after nearly 20 years of limbo, Ziggy (the time travel tracking computer) picks up a hit and they reopen the Quantum Leap program against orders, and the show is back on.
Or at least have a feature film where solving the Leap problem is the end result.
So as much as I want to see Quantum Leap, the opportunity for closure outweighs my hopes for adaptation.
If Kirk and Spock aren’t too old to do a movie, neither are Sam and Al. Bring it on!
I am a Hungarian boy.
I do not know English.
This is the google translator and I write.
I loved to whatch the Quantum Leap.But I do’nt think it is better end.I want a good end. The Movie is a great idea.I want to watch the Final of the story.
I would prefer Stockwell and Bakula starring as Al and Sam…but if not, then I would accept a scenerio like this:
The story can predate the tv series shwoing the backstory of Sam and Al and how Project Quantum leap came to be. This way Hollywood does what it seems to want by having younger actors play Sam and Al…but then near the end, the movie jumps to where the series left off and this is where Bakula and Stockwell take over as Sam and Al to give the series it’s closure…finally Al (Stockwell) helping Sam (Bakula) leap home.
If Dean and Scott are just going to make cameos, then at least let them be in the end and reprive their roles
I could imagine an idea or two about a QL movie.
1. One of the people (preferably a child) that Sam helped during his leaps figures out what he’s doing (by perhaps crossing paths with him again and recognizing some common behavior or something) and dedicates his/life to figuring out a way to help him.
2. Several of the people Sam has helped through leaping have gone on to do very bad things (like helping someone survive being kidnapped and harmed as a child but then grow up to be a child killer themselves).
3. Perhaps a story in which the people he leaps into suddenly start recognizing that he has leapt into them (kinda like a split personality thing).
4. A story where some outside entity knows what Sam is doing and tries to take control of him or even undo his work.
5. I don’t recall if Sam had kids during the series but there could be a story in which the kid, in an effort to find his/her dad, ends up leaping as and the movies end with said kid leaping into Sam and having the chance to prevent Sam from beginning his leaps in the first place…at the cost of said kid never being born.
Just off the top of my head.
Well I just googled this and Its not the first time this rumour has kicked off, I personally would love to see some kind of closure in this saga as I felt in the abrupt way the series ended it left me with an almost empty feeling as I hate to see things left unconcluded. It still baffles me to this day why the series was cancelled, OK the early episodes were’nt all that great but I felt as the series evolved and favourites such as the leap home, Lee Harvey Oswald, Shock Theatre and Evil Leaper I think the series had finally exploded into life and one can only speculate into what else the this had to offer if it hadn’t been cancelled but I’m more in favour of a new series rather than a film. Scot Bacula remarkably has barely aged aswell. But a film is better than nothing as least it would give us fans closure.
BUT AGAIN – we fans got closure. The series ended with Sam choosing to leap for the rest of his life. Closure is not always seeing every last detail laid out before you. Sometimes it’s having enough to know how the story continues after the credits roll. They show you the general idea, and you can be left to fill in some of the stories that happen from then forward. For that matter, no story really ends. Movies or series just close chapters – you decide where the characters might go from there.
One thing that annoys the hell out of me is the numorous star trek spin off series out there. Why not do the same with Quantum Leap it doesn’t have to be the same characters involved.
I would love more Quantum Leap – the series was amazing and inpiring. Unfortunately, the series wrapped up and gave the fans everything they could want from the end of a story. I know we always want happy endings (like Sam returning “home”), but this time we didn’t quite get that. What we did get was something just as good. Sam got to help his best friend, and he made the choice to stay leaping forever. It’s not a Hollywood ending, but the character made a great choice to continue doing the right thing. For those that stuck with him for 5 years watching him do good after good after good, the ending was sad, but at the same time a great ending to the series and a noble end for Sam Beckett. I would hate to see the story re-opened just to bring him home – we already know that doesn’t happen. But a movie showing one of his many future leaps could be cool, if it wasn’t done just for the sake of doing it. They’d need some sort of fresh story and a different twist to the formula we saw so many times through the series
yeeeeeeesssssss! I love Quantum Leap. Rodney, I agree with you completely. I still remember watching that finale. Good stand alone episode but it was obvious that it was not meant to tie up the series. I have always wanted to see a bew series WITH BACULA AND STOCKWELL BACK. You and I are definitely on the same page here. However, any revisiting of QL is welcome. GREAT SHOW!!!
I agree that at least Bakula should return as Sam Beckett. Not in a cameo. Not as a feature, anyay. If it is a feature film, the two best premises are to “find” Sam Beckett and bring himhome (whatever -or whenever- “home” is) because the gerenal premise of the series itself…I don’t see how thatcan work as a two hour film. OR
Another possibility is when Sam leaps into a person, that person is put in the legendary “waiting room” and escapes *into the future* and the switch can’t happen until said person is back in the “room”.
I don’t see a two movie of having the basic premise of most eps- what it is like to be in someone else’s shoes, (unless they made him into a total annoying sleazball and he learns “a life lesson’ – which Ain’t happening folks…least I hope not) but how many folks will he jump out of/into? And what if it’s only one?
I just can’t see this happening unless they follow up from the series.
And when I think it over, I prefer TV movies anyway.
They should use Bakula! I was so sad when the show ended and “Dr. Becket never made the leap home” They should continue on with the original cast where Sam is still “jumping” 15 years later and has grown bitter and depressed.
QL is one of my all time favorite shows. I too hope for a new TV series rather than a movie, but it will have to do. I think Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell aren’t too old at all to do this. I mean Scott Bakula is currently in Men of a Certain Age, although I haven’t seen Dean Stockwell in anything lately other than BSG.
Everytime I see either of them on any TV show, I just see AL and Sam.
I would love a passing of the torch, may Star Trek like with some tie in to the original, alot of people who would see this movie will have seen the series and will need a proper ending as well as giving us a new start.
I would love Al to be in it again, he could have no memory of the project having not been in it but feeling a connection to Sam. Sam could be actually trying to help Al in the past with something threatening his life now things have changed.
Both these actors are still alive and kicking on TV (Enterprise and Battlestar Galactica) so no reason to exclude them!
to me it wont be QL w/o Bakula and Stockwell. :-(
too old my ass, i don’t want anyone else
Cable Series pitch it to Syfy, 12 episodes with Sam and Al in the first one.
Hi,
i have never commented on this site before but have been a long time reader, anyways i just wanted to say a few things about this story.
I too have been life long fan of Quantum Leap and remember crying as a child over the last episode. I was Seven granted. It is great news that the film is coming. And i think in a way Bakula should and could still be in it, Maybe not Stockwell however because of how the series ended.
Anyway I just wanted to say a few things about what Rodney has written. The Aim of Sam’s leaps was not to make sure the time line carried on but to put “right what once went wrong” and therefore “change history for the better”. As it states in the opening of every episode since season two. Also the series did get a finale of sorts and a beautiful one to my mind too. It was by no means left as a general series cliffhanger. It was given a proper send off that left it slightly ambiguous but a finale non the less. Throughout all series Sam had a feeling that his leaps were being governed by a god like figure. Who Sam meets in his final leap Which also happens to be Sam’s Day of birth in history, giving the whole nature of the leap this quite eerie and surreal nature, as he was is only supposed to be ab;e to leap in his own lifetime. The whole episode is given over to the discussion of the importance of his leaps and that he himself is in charge of them and can if chosen leap home. However instead he decides to change history for Al once more. Giving him another chance with his true love and therefore making it so that AL never gets involved with the Quantum Leap project. Leaving Sam with no guide to carry on with and therefore no Ziggy giving him guidance… so in theory a man just lost in time. The screen then fades to black With the title “Dr Becket never returned home”. This is a perfectly fitting ending and even though i have not seen it since childhood it has been one that has stayed with me for my whole life. What more can and could a series ask for.
With this in mind there is no reason Why Bakula could not stay on as Sam. With the film returning to him as a much older man still leaping from life to life putting things right that once went wrong. The whole film could be a leap, and about a Sam who has completely lost all memory of who he was. It could also work as a specific leap that by some means returned his knowledge somehow and eventually leading to his return. But would he want to go back home after altering so much of the past the future he would go back too would be unrecognizable as home.
Anyway i know it’s a bit of a rant. But man i cried harder at that originally than i did when i watched E.T. for the first time as a child.
Peace out
Ric
Great post. The series finale of Quantum Leap was one of my favorite show wrap ups ever.