Sony is planning to reboot 1970s cop series "Starsky and Hutch" with "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn set to oversee the project, US media reported Thursday.

Gunn will also write the "character-driven, hour-long procedural" with his brother, Brian Gunn, and cousin Mark Gunn, the Hollywood Reporter said, with all three executive producing.executive producing.

James Gunn may also direct, subject to availability, according to entertainment website Deadline.

Sony's television subsidiary already owns rights as worldwide distributor of the original series, while Warner Bros. distributed the 2004 film starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Snoop Dogg.worldwide distributor of the original series, while Warner Bros. distributed the 2004 film starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Snoop Dogg.

"Starsky and Hutch" started out in 1975 as a feature-length pilot on ABC and ran for 92 episodes starring David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser until May 1979.

It followed detectives David Starsky and Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson on their crime-fighting exploits in the fictional Bay City, aided by informant Huggy Bear, played by Antonio Fargas.

It will be the latest in a string of television reboots of favourite detective and other procedural properties from the big and small screen, including CBS's "MacGyver," and "Hawaii Five-O," as well as Fox's "Lethal Weapon."

Sources told AFP earlier in August NBC was working with action star Vin Diesel on a reboot of hit police drama "Miami Vice," which originally ran from 1984 to 1989.