LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Sony is reportedly planning to reboot 1970s cop series Starsky And Hutch with Guardians Of The Galaxy director James Gunn set to oversee the project.

He will also write the "character-driven, hour-long procedural" with his brother and cousin, the Hollywood Reporter said.

Sony's television subsidiary already owns rights as worldwide distributor of the original series while Warner 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 screens, including CBS' MacGyver and Hawaii Five-O as well as Fox's Lethal Weapon.