Many car fans have a list of their favourite movies starring certain cars and featuring certain car chases – and we’re not just talking about the Fast & Furious franchise. One of the movies that’s likely on most of those lists is the 1968 classic Bullitt.
That movie might have starred Steve McQueen, but it’s equally famous for his character’s Ford Mustang, which engages in an all-time classic chase scene in and around San Francisco with a Dodge Challenger.
Bullitt was made almost 55 years ago. But now it appears there’s a follow-up in the works. Strong speculation has no less a figure than Steven Spielberg attached to a project to make a modern movie based on the titular character.
Citing anonymous sources, Deadline reported last week that the new film would not simply be a rehash of the original, but a new story based on the character of Frank Bullitt, the San Francisco cop originally played by McQueen.
The film legend's son and granddaughter, Chad and Molly McQueen, will serve as executive producers. Spielberg will direct, and be a co-producer along with Kristie Macosko Krieger, while Josh Singer will write the script. Josh Singer previously worked with Spielberg on the movie The Post in 2017.
Of course, at the time of writing, there is nothing written or so we have no idea if the new version of the film will feature another spectacular chase scene. However, knowing Spielberg's work and his respect for details and history, it would be astounding not to find such a sequence in the new movie.
Will it be between a Dodge Challenger and a vintage Ford Mustang, or maybe contemporary versions of them? Who knows. It would be interesting to see a mix of the two... as long as there’s respect for the movie that has become a classic.
Some might not know, by the way, that the first two feature films directed by Steven Spielberg include… extended chase scenes involving vehicles. And by extended we mean virtually the entire movie. His full-length film debut was Duel, in which an ominous tanker truck stalks a Plymouth Valiant and, especially, its driver. The follow-up to that was The Sugarland Express, starring a young Goldie Hawn who spends most of the movie on the run with her boyfriend in a stolen police car, pursued by law enforcement.
The script of the new movie is still in the drafting stage, according to sources, which means that the film may not see the light of day for several years - assuming it is made.
Still, we're already impatient.
See also: Original ’68 Mustang from Bullitt Going to Auction: Expect a Winning Bid in the Millions
See also: 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt Review
See also: 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt Review