It was recently announced after 5 years of development that the Cannonball Run remake has finally gotten itself a director. Warner Bros. brought Rawson Marshall Thurber (Central Intelligence) on to direct the remake with a writing team that includes Thomas Lennon (Reno 911) and Robert Ben Garant (Reno 911). Thurber was interviewed at the Television Critics Association panel for his new YouTube comedy series Ryan Hanson Solves Crimes on Television and he brought up what fans of Cannonball Run can expect from the new reboot.

During the panel, director Rawson Marshall Thurber mentioned via SlashFilm that the remake for Cannonball Run is currently being written by Lennon and Garant and that they'll basically see what they have after that. The original movie was a zany cross-country car race comedy starring Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, and Jackie Chan among others that featured crazy car stunts during a very different type of race. Since the release of the Fast and Furious franchise, moviegoers are expecting more and more extreme car stunts coming out of action movies these days and that is definitely something that Thurber has taken note of.

Thurber mentioned that the remake of Cannonball Run may be able to benefit from those insane stunts from the Fast and Furious, but also was careful to say that the remake would not be a lighthearted take on the extreme movie franchise. Instead the director brings up Ocean's 11 and says that a possible mix of those two movies could work. The idea of mixing those two ideas into a Cannonball Run remake could end up being a pretty interesting combination. Thurber explains.

"I think we're living in a post or current Fast and Furious worlds I don't think Cannonball can out-Fast and Furious the Fast and the Furious. That's its own thing, but we definitely want to harness that with the fun of Ocean's 11 and put those together. It'll have to be a different thing than Fast, but should have some great car action, obviously."

The first Cannonball Run came out in 1981 and became the 6th highest grossing movie of that year and spawned 2 sequels. In addition to spawning the 2 sequels, the original movie also brought a renewed interest in the real-life races that the movie was based off of. Car enthusiasts are still running their own time-lapse races to beat the records that were set in the original 5 races.

Burt Reynolds who starred in the original Cannonball Run has recently suggested some advice to Warner Bros. about making the new version and it seems as though Rawson Marshall Thurber has taken note. Reynolds said that the key to the success of the new movie would rely on getting as many big-name stars as possible. Reynolds also said, "you have to be able to get a lot of people nobody thinks you can get," which could be one of the reasons that Thurber has talked about an Ocean's 11 type of vibe. Writing has just started and we're still a long way out from seeing The Cannonball Run remake, but it sure seems to be like it's heading in the right direction.