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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.
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Great…Another corporate studio Sci-Fi rehash. Maybe they should remake Sony’s version of Godzilla next…I loved that overgrown fraidy cat Iguana.NOT… and FYI Richard Hatch was in the re-imagined Ron Moore Serie…s and in fact he actually got to act and his character had a pivotal role in the series.
Yeah…because it didn’t work out for those people that did a recent STAR TREK movie in 2009. What with the measly $385,680,446 in worldwide box office and a budget of $150,000. What a fiscal waste that was.
Nothing is a bad idea until it sucks and makes little to no money.
Do it, Singer.
Do it and do it right.
$150 thousand budget? And it grossed $385 million? Wow JJ really is a miracle worker..
its a frakin tall order , after the brilliant series!
j
Let Ron Moore script it and tie the film into the tv series somehow. but really re-re-rebooting it makes no sense, especially so soon after the Moore tv version. Singer, there are plenty of sci-fi stories you can tell.
Nah, Ronnie had his chance, and in the end, God did it….
Then came Craprica. Great cast, badly shoehorned storyline, and a “producer” caught up in his own delusions of grandeur.
Bring back Galactica without all the RDM Soap Opera nonsense…
Singer WAS in fact involved in the first completely failed attempt to reboot the series, which was to go to FOX. He oversaw three lousy drafts of a tv pilot script when it was finally taken back to where it rightfully belonged – Syfy. Lets see if he fares better this time.
They tried a remade series once. Look where that went…straight to hell.
Leave the past in the past. Hollywood has proven time and again how they can fcuk up a soup sandwich, let alone continue to prove they have absolutely no creative talent whatsoever.
I wish people would stop referring to the last Battlestar Galactica series as if it was the consummate science fiction series. It was a good show; watchable. But it was hardly what made the original Galactica series great. The original series was about adventure, epic space battles, robots and mysterious, omniscient aliens. The new series was about war, religion, genocide, desperation and personal conflict. In other words, while a lot of folks may have enjoyed the rebooted series, it came nowhere close to scratching the itch left behind by the original. Sure, it would be great if Boomer was a hot Asian beauty, and Cylons had mile long legs in stilettos. But we still want to see something a little more swashbuckling than what we’ve been getting from Sci Fi in recent years. It used to be science was the frosting on the cake. Now, they want all these series to be mostly frosting.
Have you watched the 1978 episodes lately?
I loved it in 1978 too. I was 10.
It’s awful, melodramatic, poorly acted, poorly scripted. It had one good moment – “What about the Battlestar?” “What do you mean? We’ve destroyed the Battlestar!” “No, the OTHER Battlestar.”
Good effects, though. Why? Because no CGI. The one good thing about it, is the one thing the remake is guaranteed not to use.
I agree !!!
Where’s TOM DeSANTO on this? He was a major driving force (producer, writer) when Singer was originally looking at producing the TV version for FOX… before 9/11 happened, causing the production to halt. (And FOX to pick up “Serenity” instead.)
Please do justice to the original series, Mr. Singer.
I would have been happier if it was Buck Rodgers.
A remake of a failed 1978 series that’s already been remade as a successful TV series that was successful because it totally went the other way as the 1978 failed TV series.
That’s how ridiculous Hollywood is.
There are so many good reasons why this country is falling apart.
IF you’re gonna do, please do it right. Go big or don’t do it. Call JJ Abrams for a consult. If you pull this off, you could vindicate an entire generation of nerds who loved this series. And please, for the love of God, only use the first year material as a reference – that 2nd year stuff should not be seen by anyone, ever, let alone remade in any way.
Looking forward to seeing some trailers for this, so get to work!
F*** NO!
Abrams gutted STAR TREK! Keep him the hell away from GALACTICA!
Hey, let’s give it a chance. Much as I love the re-imagined show of Ronald Moore, there’s also a lot of fun and charm in the original series. Yeah, something like the kiddie version of the critically-acclaimed show. Imagine what a Bryan Singer can do with it, lots of action and explosion and metal-clanging fight scenes. Ohhhh, I’m excited already!
Here’s to hoping it’s not a heaping pile of felgercarb!! Execute it, and I will be the happiest girl in the world!
xo
WHY???
I really don’t see why the recent RDM Battlestar is an issue. As someone else already noted, whether one liked it or not, the RDM TV series was seen by a very small audience, downright miniscule compared to the audience a feature film can potentially tap. I would be more concerned with trying to fit some segment of the basic story into two hours.
This is a complete JOKE. Ron Moore did THE definitive BSG with his reboot series. To reboot AGAIN can only be a FAIL. What will they do in a 2 hour movie that Moore couldn’t accomplish over 100+ brilliantly written 1-hr’s????
Singer needs to go back and do a Usual Suspects 2 and stop ruining franchises (Superman).
so we can look forward to a gay Apollo then
Why does some moron always say something stupid like this, on every announced Singer project?
I really wonder what universe people are living in when I hear words like “fun” and “charm” bandied about as good parts of the original BSG. The series was never more than camp silliness because that “fun” and “charming” tone never matched the premise — which was the remnants of an entire species fleeing their homes after a freaking attempted genocide.
The whole reason the RDM series worked so well is because it did match the premise to the tone — namely, dark.
In our modern, post-911 world, is anyone really up for a fun, happy romp about an attempted genocide? Really?
Which is exactly why the 2004 series was so much better. Because it at least attempted to try to look at what maybe happens the day AFTER a society is virtually annihilated……..and then the day after that, and so on.
The 1978 series is completely devoid of that but if people want something simple and superficial then sure, campaign for a remake in the tone of the first series.
Although the effects on the second series were superb……….excellent for TV.
This is great news, as long as this is a continuation/reboot and not a ‘reimagining’ like the turgid Skiffy offering.
Something akin to the proposed DeSanto project.
Real Cylons, and for fracks sake, as many of the original cast as want to be in it!
I’d love to see how the fleet managed to survive 30 years on from the 78 series concllusion.
OH, and two things that mustn’t have ANYTHING to do with it!
1: Galactica 1980
2: Ron Moore
I’m not a sci-fi fan, but I adored BSG on TV. It’s gonna be awfully hard to beat Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell as Adama and Roslin no matter what sort of plot is in this big screen version. Good luck to them; I hope they don’t frak it up.
You nerds, the reboot sucked! Oooh Starbuck and Boomer are chicks, ooh we’re all descended from a combination of Cylon and human DNA mixed with the indigenous population, ooh well we had technology but sent it into the sun because we’d rather live in caves? F that, I’d want my damn microwave. The only cool thing about that show creatively was Cylon spies, but seriously not enough action like the original had. As campy as some of it was (not nearly as bad as Larson’s Buck Rodgers follow up) it was exciting. There were dogfights, battles with lasers (seriously, an advanced race that can figure out FTL drives but still uses gunpowder like the reboots??) and yet there were still themes ahead of its time in 78 like I dunno, female pilots (Sheeba was HOT) and black characters with roles of responsibility (the REAL Col Tye is not a crusty one-eyed cracker with a penchant for booze).
Singer’s last few have been flops but the guy gave us Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil, X 1&2 plus this slightly successful medical drama on Fox. More than most directors can hope for in a career. Orloff did Band of Brothers, and we saw how awful that was, right?
And I don’t blame him for Superman, you should hear about how Warner screwed with Kevin Smith and how the studio heads screwed with the story. It was doomed before principal began shooting.
Going back to the 78′ version is what most of us wanted in the first place, not some uber serious dark and depressing monstrosity with a retarded unrealistic ending.
If those are the best you can muster as being ‘ahead of it’s time’ themes you should probably head back under the ’78 Battlestar Galactica duvet cover.
I think the writer should take a hint from the BSG’04 series.
“this has all happened before and will happen again”
Kobol. The home planet of the “final five.”
Same story, just set it in a different timeline.
I actually like the idea of going all the way back to Kobol. The 12 tribes leave to settle what become the colonies.
I hope he sticks to the original BSG if there is such a need for another reboot. Don’t make it dark and DO NOT MAKE STARBUCK A WOMAN! Call Richard Hatch and let him write the script. He did a great job continuing the BSG story & characters in his books!
Yo dawg… I heard you liked reboots… So we put a reboot in your reboot so you can reboot while you reboot.
Dirk & Richard where are you? We want you back! Please bring Boomer & Tigh with you!!