TV’s Charlie’s Angels to fly again, Barrymore hopes

Drew Barrymore just can’t let go of the Charlie’s Angels franchise. After acting in, and producing, two big-screen versions of the cult 1970s television show, she is now planning a TV remake. Barrymore will produce – not star in – the new Angels, and has roped in the director of the two cinema versions, McG (aka Joseph McGinty Nichol), to help her.

The original Charlie’s Angels series launched the careers in 1976 of Jaclyn Smith, Kate Jackson and, most famously, although she bowed out of the series early, the late Farrah Fawcett.

The 2000 and 2003 films updated the original, bringing an element of racial diversity to the three heroines – Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz and Barrymore herself.

Now McG says he hopes the new Angels will be even more diverse, naming Barbadian-born singer and model Rihanna as his ‘dream’ Angel (though he didn’t say whether he would actually ask her). He said: "This is a more progressive, 2010 take on the idea. We want to be even more progressive in terms of racial background."

Barrymore, a scion of Hollywood royalty – her grandfather was the great John Barrymore - has come a long way since she made her debut in Steven Spielberg’s ET at the age of six. As well as starring in films like Poison Ivy and Bad Girls, she has produced such diverse movies as Donnie Darko and He’s Just Not That Into You. Last year she made her directorial debut – favourably received – with the roller derby film Whip It.

Barrymore, now 34, says it will be no easy task to cast her new Angels, who have to be "incredibly capable, but not take themselves too seriously. That's a tough combination to find."