Amazon MGM Studios is developing a new take on Thunderbolt and Lightfoot with Ryan Reynolds attached to star and produce through his Maximum Effort banner, according to trade reporting. The project reimagines Michael Cimino’s 1974 crime caper, which starred Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges, and is being developed with writers Enzo Mileti and Scott Wilson.
Shane Reid, an editor on this year’s Deadpool and Wolverine, is set to make his feature directing debut on the remake. The original film followed an older bank robber who teams with a young drifter after crossing his former crew; Bridges earned a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his performance, and the film helped launch Cimino’s career.
Early details position the remake as a character-driven heist story anchored by Reynolds’ screen persona while drawing on the buddy-crime dynamics that made the 1974 film a cult favorite. Attaching the actor as both star and producer aligns with his recent pattern of steering projects from development through marketing under the Maximum Effort umbrella. Mileti and Wilson bring genre credentials from television crime drama, while Reid’s promotion from editorial to the director’s chair mirrors a broader industry pathway in which cutting-room veterans shape tone and pacing on set.
Rights availability and library strategy also factor in. Amazon’s stewardship of the United Artists catalog has yielded new exploitation of legacy titles, and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot sits at an intersection of recognizable IP and relatively open creative space compared with higher-profile franchises. A modern iteration can recalibrate the story’s Americana road-movie textures, blue-collar milieu, and uneasy camaraderie without the constraints of sequel continuity. With the package still in development and no casting beyond Reynolds confirmed, production timeline and release plans have not been announced.
The remake arrives as studios weigh risk around mid-budget theatrical crime films against the reach of streaming-backed launches. For Reynolds, whose slate spans broad comedy and family fare, the material offers a pivot toward a leaner crime caper with built-in awareness, while the creative team’s configuration suggests an emphasis on tempo, banter, and muscular set-pieces shaped in the edit.
