Major Jan Zeman foiled saboteurs planning to destroy communist cooperatives, uncovered secret caches of treasure and arms hidden in Catholic churches, and blocked would-be Ukrainian defectors from fleeing West across the Czechoslovak border.

Handsome, charismatic, righteous and socialist through and through, the fictitious Zeman embodied the qualities of an ideal citizen in communist Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. At the same time, the television series that chronicled Zeman's exploits, The 30 Cases of Major Zeman, provided entertainment in the form of hour-long mysteries.

Now a new production company is hoping to cash in on the Zeman cachet while artfully dodging his ideological roots. In the past six months, Idefia Communications has lined up original Zeman actor Vladimír Brabec, director Marcel Bystron and a screenplay set in the post-communist Czech Republic for a feature-length Czech-language Zeman film.

Made anew

As with film updates of old TV shows everywhere, the plot features at least one major twist. It's 2001 — the year of the NATO summit in Prague. Amid fears of a terrorist strike, the CIA dispatches a Czech-speaking agent to Prague, where she teams up with Zeman, who, it turns out, has been working for Washington, D.C., all along.

"Zeman met up with an agent in Berlin in the 1960s," says producer Lukáš Bulín. "After that he was really a double agent working for the West."

Will audiences buy the revisionist super-spy story? Former dissidents and political prisoners have reacted with outrage and disbelief.

"Is this a joke?" said Hana Marvanová, former dissident and current parliamentary deputy. "What an absurd premise."

Naděžda Kavalírová, chairwoman of the Confederation of Political Prisoners, sees little to snicker at in the return of an icon of Cold War pop culture. "We protest any renaissance of Major Zeman, who cannot be reformed. Zeman helped strengthen the Bolshevik position in our country."

But just as cafés and bars across the former Eastern bloc have cashed in on statues of Lenin, Stalin and other famous communists as tongue-in-cheek décor, nostalgia and camp have likewise driven a revival of interest in Major Zeman. On no fewer than five Web sites, fans discuss Zeman episodes and their political implications. Pubs with Zeman themes serve customers in Bratislava and Prague.

Not too dry

At the same time, Bulín says the new Zeman movie will not be a spoof. "We do not plan to make fun of Zeman," he said. "We intend to create a light spy comedy along the lines of the James Bond movies."

Controversy erupted in 1999, when Czech Television first rebroadcast the Zeman series, originally shown from 1975 to 1979. To placate critics, Czech Television followed episodes with documentaries that explained the political context of the episodes. More than half of all Czechs with their TVs on watched the first rerun of Zeman episode No. 1. The documentary that followed set a documentary ratings record. Prima television now airs Zeman episodes every Thursday night.

Although six years have passed, the series still galls some Czechs who suffered during "normalization," the strict clampdown following a period of expanded freedoms in the late 1960s.

"The series was highly ideological," said Marek Benda, a parliamentary deputy whose father was a dissident. "Beyond a doubt it reinforced the normalization era."

The 30 Cases of Major Zeman start in 1945 with Zeman investigating the mysterious murder of his communist father by locals who collaborated with Germans. The show follows him year-by-year through communist Czechoslovak history.

Many real-life criminal, political and espionage cases — such as a police crackdown on the "decadent" avant-garde rock band Plastic People of the Universe — were dramatized on the show in a pro-government light.

The Zeman screenplay has languished for five years, Bulín said. Past efforts to shoot it failed when the TV show's screenwriter and director, Jiří Sequens, refused to sell the rights.

Bulín says he gained the rights to the character in an agreement in June with Oldřich Železný, who he says created the Zeman character. A series of printed short stories led to the TV series but Železný's copyright is in dispute.

Now Bulín is attempting to cobble together rights to the show's most famous side characters, such as Zeman's wife Blanka, in deals with the authors of the short stories.

Funding for the film, as well as its budget, is still to be negotiated. "We have about six people we need to reach agreements with," said Bulín. "After that we can begin shooting."