Talk of Bryan Singer's BSG project resurfaces

[Horta Burger]

I kind of doubt this will reach fruition, but there's no reason it can't. Battlestar Galactica as a story still has name recognition. It's certainly as viable a story, if not more so, than a lot of the dreck that does get made.

The idea that it's too soon since RDM's version is wrong for a very simple reason. Despite its relative acclaim or the fact that many here really liked it, not that many people actually watched the new BSG. It was sucking fumes in the ratings by the end. It made no huge commercial or cultural impact that saturated the market. For example, ask random people on the street who Grace Park is. Outside of a science fiction convention, the overwhelming answers will be "I don't know" or "Kono whats-her-name on Hawaii Five O." More people are still likely to remember Olmos from Miami Vice than BSG.

The average move goer whom a new film would target will simply think: "Huh, Battlestar Galactica, spaceships and killer robots? I wonder what the trailer looks like?" Make a good trailer and maybe you can make some money. Make a good movie and I will be pleasantly surprised.

[Horta Burger]

Temis the Bleeding Aorta wrote:

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I've thought about this a bit more, and rather than right-wing per se, I think the movie could do very well with a tribal mentality. I think that would have huge appeal globally right now, casting the Cylons and their human helpers as a purely evil "other," something audiences can use for a stand-in for their ire. No attempt should be made at understanding or coming to terms with the Cylons, or seeing their point of view. Just frakkin' kill them all. Nice and simple.

This isn't "right-wing" because for instance, I can see the Cylons and the human quislings being interpreted by audiences as analogous to evil, greedy bankers or globalism or whatever else the Occupy Wall Street types are against. Alternatively, the Cylons could be the forces of liberal humanism who are tearing down this great nation etc etc. And in other nations, the targets will be somewhat different - movies are a global business after all - so it's important to leave it very open ended just who the Cylons "really are."

How about a fantasy-casting game? Who do you see as Adama, Apollo, Starbuck, et al?

I suspect that's how a new movie would go. You need a simple through line for a summer popcorn movie.

[Temis the Vorta]

Horta Burger wrote:

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The idea that it's too soon since RDM's version is wrong for a very simple reason. Despite its relative acclaim or the fact that many here really liked it, not that many people actually watched the new BSG.

Yep. And movies are a global business. Envision the proportion of people worldwide who have ever heard of either iteration of BSG - very small. BSG is a franchise that's still to be defined, especially for movies.

I'll bet it turns out more like Transformers than anything else. That's raked in huge box office, so why wouldn't Singer use that as his lodestar? Give the world more of the simple-minded mayhem it craves.

All us RDM BSG fans can gloat about our superiority when we see the dreck that Singer produces. Of course, he'll make enough money to keep the dreck coming indefinitely. Just warning everyone so nobody will be too disillusioned.

And switching over to my Trekkie hat, I'm also pretty sure that Abrams' movies will be Shakespeare by comparison. More good news for gloating purposes.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Horta Burger wrote:

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The idea that it's too soon since RDM's version is wrong for a very simple reason. Despite its relative acclaim or the fact that many here really liked it, not that many people actually watched the new BSG.

This is true. nuBSG was a cable success, meaning that FOX would have canceled it for falling numbers after six weeks.

The series returned the trademarks to visibility and put Cylons, Starbuck, battlestars and all that jazz into pop culture circulation beyond a tiny coterie of aging nerds. It won awards and was praised as intelligent, something that oldBSG was never accused of. All of that is useful to a future BSG movie, but there's just not a big strong public attachment to memories of the show itself.

[C.E. Evans]

A brief update:
Looks like the new movie has found a writer:

Spinoff Online's Kevin Melrose wrote:

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Mere days after director Bryan Singer was quoted about turning his attention once again to Battlestar Galactica, the big-screen version of the 1970s television series has found a writer.

Heat Vision reports that John Orloff, who wrote Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole and the upcoming Anonymous, will pen the Universal Pictures movie, which has no connection to Ronald D. Moore’s acclaimed 2004 re-imagining.

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.co...inds-a-writer/

[The Wormhole]

Sindatur wrote:

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Ron Moore's BSG was very good, but, at times was rather depressing, so, I wouldn't want to see another go at BSG so dark. If this does come off (and especially if it really takes off) I'd like to see it a bit lighter in tone than Ron Moore's.

If it's based on the original, as it appears they want to do, that would likely mean no Skin Jobs and maybe even the Lizard Aliens and Lucifer type models

Thing is, BSG is about the last remnants of humanity fleeing for their lives after their homeworlds are obliterated. That's not exactly a cheerful topic. It's supposed to be dark and depressing. And while nuBSG at times got a bit too dreary, it felt much more natural than "Our homes have just been destroyed and our loved ones slaughtered. Let's hit the Space Casino."

As a summer blockbuster, I don't expect Singer's BSG to be dark and depressing. But I hope they avoid being that ridiculous. Likely we'll start off with the attack on the Colonies being one massive CG battle sequence. Battlestars getting blown up good, orbital bombardments, Cylons saying "By your command." All that sexy stuff.

[DWF]

The Wormhole wrote:

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Thing is, BSG is about the last remnants of humanity fleeing for their lives after their homeworlds are obliterated. That's not exactly a cheerful topic. It's supposed to be dark and depressing. And while nuBSG at times got a bit too dreary, it felt much more natural than "Our homes have just been destroyed and our loved ones slaughtered. Let's hit the Space Casino."

When they went there they had no idea there as a casino there nor did they do that every week.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

No, they indulged in other tacky nonsense and lame humor every week.

The original show was written for children - badly.

[Sharr Khan]

New Battlestar Galactica Film From Bryan Singer And John Orloff To Co-Exist In TV Show’s Universe

I’m a huge fan of the original series and of the second show, too. But I always thought the first show was a little too heavily reliant on Star Wars, you know? Whereas I think the second show was really original and really cool.

And I think I’ve come up with a way to write this movie that won’t fuck any of that up. I’m not sure how much they want me to talk about it. Let’s just say it’s not what you expect. It will all work in the universe that exists. It will not conflict with anything Ron Moore has done.

OK I want to know how that's going to work out exactly? That's a fairly strong statement there. Sounds almost as if they're shooting more for a Big Screen version of nuBSG then TOSBSG... almost.

[WeAreTheBorg]

It could be a first Cylon war movie. Or maybe it's a remake but in the sense of "all this has happened before" and it's the next cycle, or something. Or maybe he just means it will be very different from both series so as to not step on any toes, but just it's own thing.

[Frontier]

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/in-conte...lactica-reboot

The whole quote:

"I'm a huge fan of the original series and of the second show, too. But I always thought the first show was a little too heavily reliant on 'Star Wars,' you know? Whereas I think the second show was really original and really cool. And I think I've come up with a way to write this movie that won't fuck any of that up. I'm not sure how much they want me to talk about it. Let's just say it's not what you expect. It will all work in the universe that exists. It will not conflict with anything Ron Moore has done. I don't think you can compete with what he's done.

"I'm actually a science fiction geek more than anything. I just sort of got type cast as sort of a non-fiction screenwriter. That's because the first thing I ever wrote was 'Anonymous' and then my first job was 'Band of Brothers,' and that led to 'A Mighty Heart.' But I'm a total 'Star Wars' geek. I was a huge 'Star Trek' nut. '2001' is probably my favorite film. Stanley Kubrick is my favorite director; every movie is like a novel in the sense of the metaphoric depths of his thinking. And so my whole life I've always wanted to write a space epic. So to finally get a chance to write in the genre that I wanted to write basically forever is really cool."

That quote right there, I really don't think bodes well for you old guard hoping for an old show reboot. As much as he says he loved the old show and the new, he then goes on to fawn all over the new show as if it's wank material for him.

I have no idea what it means for the new guard, but... it certainly intrigues me a bit more than anything else I've yet heard about this.

That said, I'm of the firm belief that whatever is done will be a reboot with no connection to either show. It won't be the old show continued, it won't be the new show continued. It will, at best, be an amalgamation of both. Designed to produce broad appeal from the masses unaware of Battlestar.

[Takeru]

All they have to do is reveal at the end that the movies took place in our future, get Tricia Helfer to do a cameo hanging around on future earth and people who know the character realize the colonists were descendants of survivors left behind in the last cycle, people who don't know the character just see a blond extra.

Just make sure you don't screw up the dates, don't have characters talking about Kobol 4000 years ago etc., have a priest or someone else tell of two angels, a male and a female one, appearing to a prophet and telling him of the ancient planet Kobol and that there's another tribe of humans on a colony called earth (no mention of the first cycle etc., the angels just did it to introduce the idea of earth into the society) For the longest time this was thought to be nothing but a legend, but a few years before the movie scientists discoverd through DNA that human life did not evolve on Caprica or any other colony. After the colonies are blown up this should be enough to get them to search for Earth, their species has to come from somewhere, so maybe the stories are true, blablabla.

They can still do their own thing, the movie's style can be totally different and still be part of the nuBSG universe, just a few lines of carefully worded exposition and you're set.

[N-121973]

WeAreTheBorg wrote:

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It could be a first Cylon war movie. Or maybe it's a remake but in the sense of "all this has happened before" and it's the next cycle, or something. Or maybe he just means it will be very different from both series so as to not step on any toes, but just it's own thing.

My God that was exactly my intepretation as well, right down to 'the next cycle' in the neverending story. In fact I wondered once whether or not TOS BSG could have been just that.

[Skywalker]

N-121973 wrote:

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My God that was exactly my intepretation as well, right down to 'the next cycle' in the neverending story. In fact I wondered once whether or not TOS BSG could have been just that.

I always figured that whole "all of this has happened before" thing in nuBSG was their way of acknowledging the original show while maintaining the reboot as a separate story.

[23skidoo]

The Wormhole wrote:

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Oh, I don't know. BSG itself ended two years ago, Caprica ended last year, and it doesn't look like Blood and Chrome is going to happen. Moore's BSG is pretty much done.

It's still too soon. It's still like saying let's do Avatar again, or Stargate. And Blood & Chrome isn't necessarily dead and, anyway, the pilot has been filmed - you tell me it won't end up on DVD or airing as a special.

I just find a do-over so soon is disrespectful to "nuBSG". And it's more proof that Hollywood is devoid of original ideas. What's stopping Singer from creating a new space opera saga - one worthy of being remade itself a generation from now?

If Singer was doing Larson and Hatch's plan, which was a continuation of the original series, then I'd be OK with that, but does the world really need another "radical take" on BSG? I mean, as this thread proves, all the acclaim nuBSG got doesn't seem to make a difference in terms of some people's attitudes towards the property. Will a 2-hour film from the guy who gave us Superman Returns really fare much better?

There are plenty of other TV properties that have been away long enough that doing new movie versions now would seem like fresh ideas. Babylon 5 and Farscape come immediately to mind.

Alex