EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures is closing a deal with John Orloff to write Battlestar Galactica, a feature based on the Glen Larson 1978 TV series that Bryan Singer has long wanted to direct. Orloff seems equally pumped. What is it about Battlestar Galactica that turns grown men into exuberant kids?
“I have wanted to write this movie since I was 12 years old, and built a Galactica model from scratch out of balsa wood, cardboard, old model parts and LEDs,” Orloff told Deadline. “I love BSG, and I would pass on the job rather than frak it up.”
Deal comes after Orloff scripted and exec produced Anonymous, the Roland Emmerich-directed film that Sony Pictures will platform, a drama that takes the position Shakespeare didn’t really write his great works. Orloff also scripted Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole and the Angelina Jolie-starrer A Mighty Heart, and was Emmy nominated for HBO’s Band of Brothers mini. He’s also attached to write Truckers for DreamWorks Animation. He’s repped by CAA.
This finally gets off the ground a movie that Singer has been interested in doing for at least a decade. The fanboy sites have been going warp speed with excitement after Singer indicated that Battlestar Galactica was squarely in his future once Warner Bros killed his Excalibur remake (Deadline told you during the summer Singer’s project and another King Arthur movie Guy Ritchie developed with John Hodge were over when Warner Bros paid $2 million for David Dobkin’s Arthur & Lancelot spec). With Orloff in the fold, Battlestar Galactica can now make progress. Singer tends to wait until these projects are just right, so it remains to be seen how quickly this one goes into production. But getting an A-list writer is surely a good sign. Singer’s currently directing Jack the Giant Killer, the dark revisionist fairy tale for New Line.
The original Battlestar Galactica focused on the last of a space traveling group of humans who survived a lethal surprise attack and, in one remaining warship and a ragtag group of ships, tries to navigate their way to Earth. The series was remade in 2004. Both had a big fan base.
This, like anything else, has the potential to be good, but… a reboot of Galactica so soon after the successful TV series? That’ll be a hurdle the project will have to overcome.
I disagree in this regard — as good as the “reboot” was, I don’t think there’s any issue with doing a remake of the ’78 series. Obviously this will be more effects and action intensive, less dark and brooding, and likely more aimed at a family audience — which the recent Syfy Channel series certainly wasn’t.
The recent reboot was so much its own animal, and basically did its own thing with a similar premise, that I think doing it this way is a smart move on Singer’s part. He wants to do something along the lines of the old show, and I can see it.
I MUST AGREE WITH BRINGING A HIT SERIES INTO A FILM WILL BE HARD TO MADE. MOST FAN WILL COMPARE THE MOVIE WITH THE TV VERSION. I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE HOW THE FILM WILL DEVELOPED. GOOD LUCK TO THE BATTLESTAR THE MOVIES.YOUR TRULY CHARLES DAVID HASKELL
I agree. What is the need for this so soon after the tv series ended. This has FAIL written all over it.
What hurdle is that? BSG was seen by a couple million people on sci-fi channel. It got a lot of attention because the nerd community on the Internet is very loud. Otherwise most people never saw the show (which is a shame because it was excellent). Point is, a BSG film aims to be big, blockbuster entertainment that has potential of far surpassing the most recent TV show’s very small audience.
Coming from the guy who made Legends of the Owls and the guy who made the most boring Superman movie isn’t the greatest endorsement. Plus Syfy’s Battlestar the TV reboot claimed the same young male demo that Singer’s reboot wants to grab.
You’re not going to win over Battlestar fans by insulting Battlestar fans.
100% agree. I’m a fan of Battlestar, but I am completely unenthusiastic and disappointed to discover that Bryan Singer is involved. His overall cinematic compositions remind me of the Buick Lucerne; boringly competent without personality, sex appeal or even a keen sense of the obvious.
Yes, this does have the potential to be good, but the recent reimagining is still going on.Syfy is currently working on the Battlestar Galactica prequel, Blood and Chrome.
Why would Universal want to launch a new film series with a new canon, when they’re trying to launch a spin-off of the successful reboot that has the potential to run for several seasons?
F you Hollywood! Seriously just stop the remakes of everything! There is plenty of other material out there to make a movie out of.
Lulz. Good luck with that. Especially after the masterful 2004 series.
Bryan, PLEASE don’t do this! Your last passion project (Superman Returns) was a big misfire for such a talented director.
Ron Moore and David Eck did and outstanding job re-inventing Battlestar Galactica that really transcended the genre. Going back and re-re-doing it a 3rd time, why??
Please take your considerable talents and put them to better use!
Eick.
After the creative success of the series, this doesn’t make much sense to me, nor hold much appeal. What’s left to say or do from a movie that starts at presumably the same point as the series? Bigger space battles? Maybe, but the effects in the series were pretty good, and usually supported by good stories. Ron Moore had a very strong vision, I have a hard time believing that Bryan Singer will be able to top it, or even come close – “Superman Returns” does not provide much evidence for that.
What happened to Singer?
Cocaine, poppers and botox.
Not much of a fan considering he used the remake’s way of spelling frack/frak.
Ha! I was thinking the same thing. This is going to be a mashup of the old and new TV show.
Here, I’ll tell you what he’s going to do. Make Starbuck a man again. Make Tigh or Boomer a woman. Put cyclones back into their metal form. Add back in annoying kid and robot bear to attract families. Have the home planet get attacked, great space battles, but ultimate defeat. They end of the movie ends as they start their trek as space vagrants. And voila, we got a BSG reboot!
Great!! Another remake/reboot! Why not do a remake/reboot of a remake/reboot! When this is done Bryan Singer should reboot his remake/reboot of the remake/reboot for ABC… *takes out gun, puts bullet in chamber, puts gun to head, cocks hammer, pulls trigger*
And Hollywood wonders why nobody is going to the movies anymore….
Nobody goes to the movies anymore because they charge an arm, a leg, and a left testicle (or ovary) to walk through the door. People love movies, they just don’t love paying through the nose for two hours of entertainment when they can either wait til it’s on Netflix, or get their misdemeanor on and download it illegally.
How can you beat 4 seasons of the best serial science fiction made in a 2 hour film?
I concur with “S” above. There was a large fan base from the 1978 series (cheesy though it was, in retrospect), and there was at least one theatrically-released BSG movie back then as well (cobbled together from two episodes of the old program).
The 2004 version was darker and much different from the original, but still had its own set of loyal fans. I enjoyed both versions, though the 2004 reboot was definitely a better-produced program.
Now comes a new big-screen BSG? Is this a retcon, reboot, or something in-between? It seems too soon from the end of the newer BSG to reinvent the story yet again.
Bryan Singer is the biggest jerk in the industry. He likes the Galactica because it’s shaped like a giant penis. The town keeps giving this pos money to make movies. I can just hear the crappy score by John Ottman now.
Sounds very similar to the Buffy movie reboot that was going to have nothing to do with the original film or the series… whatever happened to that?
This project, if ever completed, will be a disaster. After watching the highly successful Ronald Moore tome, it is very unlikely this franchise can be revisited. Is Universal so bereft of ideas?
This is the idea that was almost a FOX TV show before Eick & Moore began their version. The rights are divided between the show’s creator, Glen Larson, who controls film & Universal, who controls TV. Larson has said repeatedly he wanted a feature version & it seems he’s now going to get it.
look forward to seeing the twins he casts in this one!
What is it about Battlestar Galactica that turns grown men into exuberant kids?
Because it’s fracking awesome.
I think that doing Galactica as a feature is a lousy idea, especially coming so soon after the last incarnation. There’s just too much story to cram into a two hour movie, it’s a t.v. concept, what are we going to have to wait three or four years for the next “episode?” Plus I just think there is no way it will be as good as the last series was.
Interesting that there is no reference to the revisionist SyFy series, one of the best shows on television of the last decade. It sets a pretty high bar for a new feature since it was better than a vast majority of syfy features. If their only inspiration is the original series it will most likely suck.
Great choice, as a Battlestar fan, I can’t wait to see this come out.
That’s cool, congratulations to Orloff.
But.
One piece of advice.
Never, ever again, mention that you had anything to do with the Owls of Ga’Hoole.
Never.
ahahahahahaahahahaha
I don’t like this… Especially so soon after the RDM version. So now we are gonna take one of the best sci-fi shows of our generation and re-vamp it? Someone explain to me how this does not spite RDM’s version.
Will Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict and other orginals stars be in it?
I want to know where SyFy’s BSG: Blood & Chrome pilot is at. Haven’t heard anything about it lately.
Supposedly the pilot episode will be shown on SyFy sometime in December 2011. Then the series will take off feb 2012…SO SAY WE ALL!
So say we all!
Tigh, only the “pilot” has been ordered by Skiffy. If they don’t order more before December, at best, Blood and Chrome will be a mid season entry, maybe Summer or Fall of 2012
What’s the problem, there is the film & TV Series that was released & broadcast within a year of each other.
Sherlock Holmes (2009 film), starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the 2011 sequel + the Sherlock (TV series), a 2010 BBC TV series & the second season should start sometime in 2012
No one is complaining about this??
Nobody in America had heard of the BBC Sherlock series until recently, and even now it’s mainly Dr Who fans (I say that as someone who frequently recommends Sherlock, seemingly nobody stateside is aware of it).
Also the Sherlock movie came first, it is completely normal for tv shows to follow successful blockbusters. Original BSG followed Star Wars’ success. TV spinoffs are standard – Buffy, Highlander, et all. Movies are a different animal, they usually only work as a development of the tv show (ST:TNG), and even then they have a troubled track record – Serenity, X Files Fight The Future, etc.
…uhm, no! I’d heard of & watched SHERLOCK, because it’s brilliant, a year ago. While I AM a Whovian, that wasn’t why I watched SHERLOCK.
The writer of ANONYMOUS is an A-lister?
ha! that’s hilarious!! :-D the guy’s barely written anything credible, and what he has written (which seem to be…what…2 things?) has been nearly unwatchable.
It’s not really the writer of ANONYMOUS, they’re just using his name.
This isnt a reboot, it’s a sequel to the original series which will feature original cast members.
…unless he & DeSanto have changed it entirely.
I’m going to wait and pass judgement after I hear what Languatron has to say. I will bow to his wisdom concerning this recent development.