Ryan Phillippe and Val Kilmer sign up for Macgruber spoof

A spoof of the 1980s series MacGyver is set to hit the big screen at the same time – or even before – a film version of the TV show premieres.

MacGruber – which is based on a Saturday Night Live (SNL) comedy sketch – is one step closer to becoming a movie.

Actors Ryan Phillippe and Val Kilmer are in talks to join the cast.

Will Forte of SNL will also play the lead role in the big-screen version.

In the original series, Richard Dean Anderson played MacGyver – a secret agent who used his science skills to get himself out of tricky situations.

But the film version heads a different way, with MacGruber being pulled out of retirement, as a monk in Ecuador, by a colonel who wants him to fight on behalf of his country.

Phillippe will play a US Army officer forced to pair with MacGruber, while Kilmer is being recruited as the evil warlord villain, Cunth.