Talk of Bryan Singer's BSG project resurfaces

[Admiral2]

DarKush wrote:

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Seeing a JJ Abrams revival of the 70's BSG would be great.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Ahem...)

As for Singer, he can do another 'boot all he likes, but I liked the old series and I liked the first reboot, so I'm not desperate for another one.

[DigificWriter]

As far as I know, this Singer-helmed BSG project is the same as the project with which Glen A. Larsen (original BSG creator) is/was involved, so it's neat to see some new information about it.

I personally have never watched the original BSG, but am all for different interpretations of the same thing existing in the collective 'ether'.

I would like to point out something that, beyond the tone of things, would set RDM and a Singer/Glen A. Larsen BSG project apart: Larsen's faith (he's a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and the extremely overt LDS doctrinal and faith-based trappings that he stuck into the original BSG and that were, for the most part, not incorporated into the RDM version of BSG.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

DigificWriter wrote:

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As far as I know, this Singer-helmed BSG project is the same as the project with which Glen A. Larsen (original BSG creator) is/was involved...

Other than Singer's involvement (and of course at the end he wasn't involved in the DeSanto project) there's no indication that it is.

In fact, the BSG continuation was pretty much DeSanto's idea and his project; Singer was attached to direct. Singer and DeSanto have not worked together since X-Men 2.

After BSG collapsed, DeSanto's career has been...minimal. He did a draft of the first Transformers movie and is listed as a producer on that film, of which the movie's director has this to say:

Now that the movie is done I get strange questions from the press. Like ‘how did Tom control the set’? What? ‘How did Tom and Don control you?’ What the fuck. ‘How was it working with Tom and Don who knew Transformers so well?’ ‘We heard Tom wrote the story – he had a 90 page treatment, right?’ Okay stop. Let me take you back in time. Tom and Don are very nice guys, but let’s get some facts straight.
Tom had one creative meeting with me for one hour and ten minutes to be exact about a year ago. He told he was the über fan boy and was going to protect me from the minefields. The type of minefields on the Net like ‘Damn you Michael Bay’ ‘You wrecked my childhood Michael Bay’ and other various web death threats I received. Tom proceeded to tell me how much he had problems with the robot designs and script issues. I realized he was worlds apart in my vision. I said thank you very much, and then showed him my office door – I never really spoke to him again other then to mutter hello. He would occasionally come to the set with guests like it was some theme park.
.
.
.
One day not too long ago, the writers of our movie Alex and Bob called me in a panic saying all of a sudden after the movie was almost finished in post that Tom was applying for writer’s or story credit. I was appalled because neither the writer’s nor I ever saw any treatment. Well, he applied for credit, but the Writer’s Guild shot him down, denied him.
But what made my blood curl was something that was on the Net with Tom at the Saturn awards on IESB.net where they interviewed him about the movie – a movie I might add he had not seen yet. He acted very much like he did. Check it out as he vamps through the questions, and how Hugo put his ‘thumb print on it’.

Other than similar credit sand essential non-involvement on the later Transformers films, he directed some sort of TV movie called Crisis: New York Underwater. Budgeted at under a million dollars, it appears to have aired somewhere in 2009.

There's no indication that DeSanto is involved with the Singer project in any way or that he and Singer will work together again in the future, and no indication of any connection between the television miniseries that DeSanto was producing in 2001 and this theatrical project in early development a decade later.

[DigificWriter]

The original announcement of Singer being involved in this BSG reboot project came only a few short months after it was announced that Glen A. Larsen and Universal were working together on developing a reboot based entirely on Larsen's original ideas. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me that Universal would announce two unrelated BSG reboot projects within months of one another, which is why I'm assuming that the Larsen project and Singer's project are in fact the same thing.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Larson has to be involved contractually because he owns a lot of BSG. He also received a credit on Ron Moore's version of BSG. He's been finding ways to try to turn a buck on this property at least since 1999 when he and Todd Moyer (producer of the Wing Commander movie) announced they would make a 40 million dollar BSG film.

Larson's involvement means that Universal will cut him a check.

[DigificWriter]

The original announcement stated that Larson - a renowned writer in his own right - would be producing and directly developing a reboot of BSG with Universal; the subsequent announcement of Singer's involvement indicated that he would be writing the script for, directing, and helping to produce and develop the project; there was no indication in the latter announcement that he was supplanting Larsen, but was merely 'joining the team'. It makes sense that Larsen, being in his mid 70s (he's 74 as of this year), would advocate bringing someone much younger in to work on the scripting duties for the project and also direct.

Regarding the credit that Larson received on the new BSG, it was done merely as a consideration, and actually had to be pushed for by RDM. Larson had requested that he be given a credit, but it wasn't this request that got him said credit; it was Moore coming out and siding with him (his request actually went to arbitration at the Writer's Guild of America).

[JarodRussell]

Good news. nuBSG sucked pretty much, and I like Singer's films.

[Galileo7]

JarodRussell wrote:

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Good news. nuBSG sucked pretty much, and I like Singer's films.

Agreed.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

WGA would almost certainly have sided with Larson in arbitration, since so much in terms of characters, locale, premise etc. was lifted from the pilot of oldBSG for nuBSG.

DigificWriter wrote:

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the subsequent announcement of Singer's involvement indicated that he would be writing the script for, directing, and helping to produce and develop the project.

Doesn't leave much for a 74 year-old rights holder to do. Maybe Larson can have a walk-on and pull focus?

You can put whatever kind of gloss on this you want - someone with actual modern film making experience and a track record was going to be put in charge of this thing or Universal wouldn't spend a dime on it.

[milo bloom]

Was never big on the original, and I loved the Moore version, but I wouldn't mind a tidy little film trilogy reboot that could stand on it's own also.

[DarKush]

Admiral2 wrote:

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Ahem...)

As for Singer, he can do another 'boot all he likes, but I liked the old series and I liked the first reboot, so I'm not desperate for another one.

I meant to say more of an Abrams-style reboot. Though if JJ wanted to do BSG, I wouldn't have a problem with that either. His Star Trek is more style than substance, but it was very entertaining and seemed fresher than the last two TNG movies.

[Frontier]

The nuBSG fans have to accept that our show is more or less done. We may get some drips and drabs here and there, but nothing much more of meaning.

The oldBSG fans really, honestly, need to accept that nothing new will ever come from the old show. The best you lot can hope for now is another reboot. A continuation will simply never happen due to demographics. The vast majority of fans for the old are at youngest, 30. Likely average of 45-50. And Hollywood doesn't do anything for people over 30 really. They want young money, shallow and jaded as that is. It's how they work. It sucks, but it's how it is.

If Singer does a BSG movie? Expect it to be in the vein of the nuTrek or the Star Wars prequels. Reboot done to appeal to 12-25 year olds and people not already fans. It will likely be as shallow and lacking of substance and built on FX and sex appeal as all the rest. It will be about merchandising and box-office, not much else. It may be closer to the old than the nu, but... only in pale imitation form.

If you're happy with such, if you're that much of an anti-nuBSGer to be grateful with anything else done with the property outside of such... *shrug* you'll likely get such. But I think it'll be a pretty hallow victory, imho.

Those who like the old, those who like the 'nu' will both have to accept: we've had our fun. Anything new will be directed at the kiddies.

[David cgc]

Frontier wrote:

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If Singer does a BSG movie? Expect it to be in the vein of the nuTrek or the Star Wars prequels. Reboot done to appeal to 12-25 year olds and people not already fans. It will likely be as shallow and lacking of substance and built on FX and sex appeal as all the rest. It will be about merchandising and box-office, not much else. It may be closer to the old than the nu, but... only in pale imitation form.

I don't know, that sounds pretty close to the spirit of the original show.[/cheapshot]

[DigificWriter]

My Name Is Legion wrote:

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WGA would almost certainly have sided with Larson in arbitration, since so much in terms of characters, locale, premise etc. was lifted from the pilot of oldBSG for nuBSG.

Doesn't leave much for a 74 year-old rights holder to do. Maybe Larson can have a walk-on and pull focus?

You can put whatever kind of gloss on this you want - someone with actual modern film making experience and a track record was going to be put in charge of this thing or Universal wouldn't spend a dime on it.

I expect that Larson's involvement will be largely the same as JKR's was with regards to the last two films in the HP franchise and with regards to her involvement with the franchise as a whole. He'll get EP credit, and will more than likely be as involved with the project as his health and age will allow (I don't think he has any health problems right now that would have an adverse effect on his involvement/participation). You are making it sound like they'll cut him out of the loop entirely and rely solely on Singer while simply cutting him (Larson) a check for the rights to the BSG franchise, and neither of the two announcements we got with regards to the project show any indication(s) of this whatsoever.

[Skywalker]

DarKush wrote:

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Seeing a JJ Abrams revival of the 70's BSG would be great.

[Obvious Casting Joke]Chris Pine for Starbuck and Zachary Quinto for Apollo![/Obvious Casting Joke]