Brace For Explosive Action In ‘Soldier Of Fortune, Inc.’
Your mission - should you decide to accept it - is to sink into the couch, click remote and assess whether the thrills of movie blockbusters like “The Rock” can move to the small screen in “Soldier of Fortune, Inc.”
Action-film producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who joined the late Don Simpson to make crowd pleasers like “Top Gun” and “Beverly Hills Cops,” is taking his action to television in a new syndicated series. It airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Spokane’s KSKN-Channel 22.
Bruckheimer’s rucksack for his TV mission is packed with all the high-tech gizmos, digital gadgetry and Tom Clancy-style artillery that an audience might see on the big screen.
He’s also recruited a great cast led by Brad Johnson, star of “Flight of the Intruder” and “Rough Riders.”
It’s the kind of tough-but-tender team that made the “Mission Impossible” television series such long-running fun.
“We want the show to be different,” Johnson said, adjusting his rappelling gear atop a warehouse overlooking Los Angeles Harbor. “Jerry Bruckheimer’s in the transportation business, and he wants to take you on a wild ride.”
Rev up your Hummer. Check your equipment. Bring your earplugs.
The show’s idea came to him as a title. “It occurred to me it would be a great title for an action series,” Bruckheimer said in a telephone interview.
Use the title as recipe, then salt with bad guys in Bosnia, spice with African civil wars, add Mideast turmoil for texture, and you have a lot of show. Many things explode. Plots, vehicles and soundtrack are turbocharged.
The Hollywood producer embraces stories about military machismo because soldiers seek “peak experience” and the rest of us love to watch from a safe distance.
On “Soldier of Fortune, Inc.,” missions range from barely possible to occasionally non-lethal. Hey, even soldiers of fortune indulge a humane streak when the mission profile allows.
The show has no relation to the magazine of similar name, other than the theme of guns, guts and gadgets.