You know, Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's tough-talking dick (that's 1940s slang for "detective") who first appeared in print in 1939, and was played by Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep. (Not The Maltese Falcon. That was Sam Spade.) The private eye's also been played onscreen by Dick Powell, Robert Montgomery, George Montgomery, Robert Mitchum, Elliott Gould and James Garner-- and in a couple of old HBO series, Powers Boothe and James Caan.
ABC is looking for another "fresh take" in Marlowe.
Producer Sean Bailey and Touchstone Television want to set the one-hour drama series, like the new Dragnet, in present-day L.A. Of course, they won't be using any of the Chandler novels as source material, and probably the men won't all be wearing hats. But they say it will be a "procedural crime drama with noir aspects", with lots of femme fatales and rich people.
Bailey tells Variety that Marlowe will be "a detective show, but very much a character-based one. He's a guy who can travel in the highest echelons of power and the darkest and dirtiest corners of the city" and will "get his ass kicked every once in a while."
Sounds a lot like Jim Rockford from The Rockford Files. Hey, that's an idea...