RustySlinky
11-07-2003, 05:47 PM
Three items of news, as snurched from the Anti-Remake Base HQ Forums at http://www.cylon.org:
FIRST ITEM:
In the Cinefantastique Dec. '03 - Jan. '04 issue, Tom Desanto talks about his Galactica Continuation Series that he was working on for the FOX network, what it was going to be about, why he thinks it died, etc.
What's interesting is the idea that the September 11th attacks killed the continuation, which maybe allowed the *Firefly* TV series to launch.
X-Men producer Tom DeSanto always loved Battlestar Galactica and had pursued the TV rights for close to four years without success. He was also keenly aware that both Hatch and Larson had mounted unsuccessful attempts at reviving the series. That all changed during an auspicious flight to New York with X-Men director Bryan Singer to promote the film. "Bryan saw I had the Galactica DVD with me, and we got to talking about the show," recalls DeSanto. "And that was how we partnered on it."
With Singer committed to directing the project and the huge success of X-Men behind them, doors suddenly swung open. DeSanto and Singer pitched the ambitious revival to Studios USA as a continuation of the original series. "I think there was a little bit of disbelief at first," DeSanto says. "It was a little like, 'You want to do what?' A lot of people were not familiar with Galactica. It was similar to X-Men; it was a sleeping giant.”
DeSanto and Singer received the green light to produce a two-hour TV movie for Fox, to be broadcast in May 2002. As with the current Sci Fi Channel production, it was hoped that the premiere would serve as a backdoor pilot for a continuing series. Writing team Dan Angel and Billy Brown (X-Files, Goosebumps) were brought in to flesh out DeSanto's concept for the premiere episode. Several visual-effects houses, including Foundation Imaging, Eden FX and the Orphanage, began work. The producers rented a massive abandoned Sears warehouse in Vancouver, where set construction began.
"We built the skeletons of two Vipers and started building the bridge set," DeSanto says. "It was going to be a true rendition of the bridge, only we were going to make it a bit larger."
The DeSanto-Singer production was set 25 years after the events of the 1978 pilot. Adama has passed. Apollo, captured by the Cylons 20 years earlier, is presumed dead, and Boxey has assumed command of the Galactica. The Cylons, silent for close to two decades, have apparently abandoned their pursuit of the Colonists. Weary from their search for Earth, the fleet establishes a new colony in a secure asteroid field. Not unexpectedly, the Cylons return and launch a massive assault.
In typical "Locutus of Borg" fashion, Apollo - controlled by Cylon technology - re-emerges to threaten the Colonials. Describing the finale, DeSanto says, "In the final shot, you go through the clouds, and you actually see the Cylon planet for the first time. It's this massive, mechanized society, and you go in through the 'Chamber of Rule' as we called it. You hear these voices talking, and you come across wave after wave of Cylons. Then you come through the shadows and you see human faces and the last face you see was Richard Hatch. It was Apollo, and as you push in on his face, in the middle of his pupil you saw a little red Cylon eye." Although updated to reflect he passage of time, the technology, spacecraft and sets for the remake remained faithful to the 1978 originals.
DeSanto also hoped to bring back key actors, including Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict, to reprise their roles in combination with new cast members. "There was communication and meetings between me and Tom talking about possibilities, but it was very general," Hatch recalls. "I think Tom genuinely wanted to use some of the original actors."
Actress Anne Lockhart recalls a conversation she had with DeSanto about reprising her role as ace-fighter pilot Sheba if the remake went to series. "Sheba was not in the pilot, but she was going to show up," Lockhart explains. "She has been lost for 20 years and is now commander of the Pegasus. I think it would have been wonderful. Apollo could have played both sides of the coin. How wonderful for him to play a bad guy, and here comes this woman he loved when he was a good guy."
DeSanto also had a series of meetings with Larson, who joined the production as a consul. "He just wanted to make sure that his child wasn't being raised by a pack of wolves," DeSanto says. "He didn't want it to be something that was being turned out to exploit its name."
Budgeted at more than $10 million, principal photography was scheduled for three months: November 2001 to January 2002. Postproduction would continue through the spring, with Galactica scheduled to debut on Fox in May 2002. After directing the pilot, Singer would immediately begin pre-production on X2: X-Men United, which was scheduled to being shooting in May as well.
But as with the rest of the world, Sept. 11, 2001, changed everything. "It was devastating," DeSanto recalls. "No one was able to function. It was difficult to focus, and we lost about a month, and that caused the schedule to shift."
With Galactica falling behind schedule and principal photography for X2 rapidly approach, Singer had no choice but to abandon the project and begin work on X2. Hoping to save Galactica, DeSanto attempted to attach a director to the project. Several, including Stephen Hopkins, Gary Fleder and Brian Henson, were brought in. Sans Singer, however, Fox withdrew support and production shut down.
Rumors also circulated that Fox had shelved Galactica in favor of Joss Whedon's Firefly. DeSanto responds, "Some people came up to me and said Joss had wanted to do Firefly, and Fox realized they couldn't do both sci-fi shows, so they had to sort of pick a child. But those were just rumors. I know the history of it, and it was just Brian's availability."
Although still contractually attached to the new Galactica as a consulting producer, DeSanto has no direct involvement in it. "Studios USA had approached me and said they'd like to continue. Then they decided to go
in a different direction, which wasn't a continuation. It was something that wasn't in sync with the vision I had for the show."
Disappointed that he was unable to bring his plans to fruition, DeSanto adds, "I love the show. I was trying to fight to bring the show back and stay true to its memory and stay true to Glen and the great actors who worked on it. When you talk about Galactica, people's faces always light up. Galactica was great middle-America science fiction."
Link to the cylon.org thread here at: http://www.cylon.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1644
-----
SECOND:
On November 5th, Ron D Moore (of the Remake) chatted with www.cylon.org.
For those who want the short synopsis of it, please check here:
http://www.syfyportal.com/article.php?id=1180
For those who want the entire 66 question chat, please check here:
http://www.cylon.org/bsg2003/bsg03QA-RDM02.html
Excerpts:
64. CA Chat: Most fans feel that there is too much sex in the miniseries.
It has a lot of sex now. Where did the idea to "make Galactica sexy"
originate?
Ron Moore: BG's sex appeal can be "laid" at my doorstep. Science fiction seems to squirm at anything sexual or sexy in nature and I just wanted to make some changes in that regard. I've always found it interesting that science fiction audiences can't get enough of blood and violence but tend to freak out at the merest hint of sex.
65. CA Chat: We generally feel that the "freak out" is not so much sex in any Sci-Fi show but rather a fundamental change in what was once a family show. Its no longer a show you can watch with your kids.
Ron Moore: You may have put your finger on it. By treating BG's situation more realistically, I chose to make the sexual nature of the characters more realistic as well. You'll note that there are none of the usual sniggering and smirking about sex that is so common in TV and movies now.
66. CA Chat: The problem is that spaceships and space battles appeal to very much to young boys. When you have sex scenes mixed with this, you tend to freak the parents out.
Ron Moore: Well, again I have to question why its perfectly acceptable to show death, violence, and blood to the kids (and I have kids) but sex is somehow out of bounds. If anything, I'd rather have my kids watch two people making love than two people blowing their brains out, but that's just me. . .
------
THIRD:
Due to the intricacies of who holds title to which parts of the Galactica Franchise, some Continuation and Remake Fans are now debating that they must join together in order for them to both succeed in their seemingly conflicting goals:
Those In Favor: Helping the Mini will Help DeSanto
. . . Glen Larson holds the movie rights. Universal holds the television rights. DeSanto apparently wants to do a movie that will prompt another television series (or at least that's the rumor). To do this, he will have to make a movie that can be used as a legal basis for the new series. As Michael pointed out, there are other webs to clear since DeSanto has some contract ties that may hinder him.
Larson/DeSanto need to sell their idea to an entirely different set of folks than those whose future are tied to the minseries. To do this, they are in a better position to sell their concept if they can hop onto the copycat band wagon. Studio execs want to see success before they invest. A demonstration that the miniseries has produced interest will help that.
In reality, it doesn't matter to the miniseries folks if a movie continuation is a hit or not. Once the project is greenlit, it doesn't matter to the contination folks if the minseries is a hit or not.
However, during this narrow window, interest in the minseries will help Larson/DeSanto convince those with cash to invest. . .
-----
Those Against: Helping the Mini will NOT Help DeSanto
Dawg's logic is the same as mine from the beginning. I have to agree with him. All the way back to my SciFi board days....my thought was and remains, the best thing for a Continuation/True BSG is for the first night of the mini to be a big success and the second night to fail. The reasoning being that the mini would fail but it would demonstrate that BSG could draw an audience to it; but this BSG couldn't hold that audience.
I can kinda see that if the mini is a success it helping. But here is the rub: if the mini is a success and is capable of drawing an audience on a weekly basis for a series....there are going to be more of them than there are of us! When a BSG continuation (or whatever) is made, those fans are not going to want it. They are going to have the same reaction to that, that you guys have to RDM's Galactica. You might even get complaints that Starbuck isn't a man.
What are DeSanto/Larson/whoever going to do when the larger general fanbase is now weighted with those people? They are going to decide that thier plans are a wash and not do it.
Therefore I cannot envison this working. Sandy has more inside knowledge than I. If I'm in error...please show me the light. . .
Link to the discussion thread at cylon.com:
http://www.cylon.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1531
FIRST ITEM:
In the Cinefantastique Dec. '03 - Jan. '04 issue, Tom Desanto talks about his Galactica Continuation Series that he was working on for the FOX network, what it was going to be about, why he thinks it died, etc.
What's interesting is the idea that the September 11th attacks killed the continuation, which maybe allowed the *Firefly* TV series to launch.
X-Men producer Tom DeSanto always loved Battlestar Galactica and had pursued the TV rights for close to four years without success. He was also keenly aware that both Hatch and Larson had mounted unsuccessful attempts at reviving the series. That all changed during an auspicious flight to New York with X-Men director Bryan Singer to promote the film. "Bryan saw I had the Galactica DVD with me, and we got to talking about the show," recalls DeSanto. "And that was how we partnered on it."
With Singer committed to directing the project and the huge success of X-Men behind them, doors suddenly swung open. DeSanto and Singer pitched the ambitious revival to Studios USA as a continuation of the original series. "I think there was a little bit of disbelief at first," DeSanto says. "It was a little like, 'You want to do what?' A lot of people were not familiar with Galactica. It was similar to X-Men; it was a sleeping giant.”
DeSanto and Singer received the green light to produce a two-hour TV movie for Fox, to be broadcast in May 2002. As with the current Sci Fi Channel production, it was hoped that the premiere would serve as a backdoor pilot for a continuing series. Writing team Dan Angel and Billy Brown (X-Files, Goosebumps) were brought in to flesh out DeSanto's concept for the premiere episode. Several visual-effects houses, including Foundation Imaging, Eden FX and the Orphanage, began work. The producers rented a massive abandoned Sears warehouse in Vancouver, where set construction began.
"We built the skeletons of two Vipers and started building the bridge set," DeSanto says. "It was going to be a true rendition of the bridge, only we were going to make it a bit larger."
The DeSanto-Singer production was set 25 years after the events of the 1978 pilot. Adama has passed. Apollo, captured by the Cylons 20 years earlier, is presumed dead, and Boxey has assumed command of the Galactica. The Cylons, silent for close to two decades, have apparently abandoned their pursuit of the Colonists. Weary from their search for Earth, the fleet establishes a new colony in a secure asteroid field. Not unexpectedly, the Cylons return and launch a massive assault.
In typical "Locutus of Borg" fashion, Apollo - controlled by Cylon technology - re-emerges to threaten the Colonials. Describing the finale, DeSanto says, "In the final shot, you go through the clouds, and you actually see the Cylon planet for the first time. It's this massive, mechanized society, and you go in through the 'Chamber of Rule' as we called it. You hear these voices talking, and you come across wave after wave of Cylons. Then you come through the shadows and you see human faces and the last face you see was Richard Hatch. It was Apollo, and as you push in on his face, in the middle of his pupil you saw a little red Cylon eye." Although updated to reflect he passage of time, the technology, spacecraft and sets for the remake remained faithful to the 1978 originals.
DeSanto also hoped to bring back key actors, including Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict, to reprise their roles in combination with new cast members. "There was communication and meetings between me and Tom talking about possibilities, but it was very general," Hatch recalls. "I think Tom genuinely wanted to use some of the original actors."
Actress Anne Lockhart recalls a conversation she had with DeSanto about reprising her role as ace-fighter pilot Sheba if the remake went to series. "Sheba was not in the pilot, but she was going to show up," Lockhart explains. "She has been lost for 20 years and is now commander of the Pegasus. I think it would have been wonderful. Apollo could have played both sides of the coin. How wonderful for him to play a bad guy, and here comes this woman he loved when he was a good guy."
DeSanto also had a series of meetings with Larson, who joined the production as a consul. "He just wanted to make sure that his child wasn't being raised by a pack of wolves," DeSanto says. "He didn't want it to be something that was being turned out to exploit its name."
Budgeted at more than $10 million, principal photography was scheduled for three months: November 2001 to January 2002. Postproduction would continue through the spring, with Galactica scheduled to debut on Fox in May 2002. After directing the pilot, Singer would immediately begin pre-production on X2: X-Men United, which was scheduled to being shooting in May as well.
But as with the rest of the world, Sept. 11, 2001, changed everything. "It was devastating," DeSanto recalls. "No one was able to function. It was difficult to focus, and we lost about a month, and that caused the schedule to shift."
With Galactica falling behind schedule and principal photography for X2 rapidly approach, Singer had no choice but to abandon the project and begin work on X2. Hoping to save Galactica, DeSanto attempted to attach a director to the project. Several, including Stephen Hopkins, Gary Fleder and Brian Henson, were brought in. Sans Singer, however, Fox withdrew support and production shut down.
Rumors also circulated that Fox had shelved Galactica in favor of Joss Whedon's Firefly. DeSanto responds, "Some people came up to me and said Joss had wanted to do Firefly, and Fox realized they couldn't do both sci-fi shows, so they had to sort of pick a child. But those were just rumors. I know the history of it, and it was just Brian's availability."
Although still contractually attached to the new Galactica as a consulting producer, DeSanto has no direct involvement in it. "Studios USA had approached me and said they'd like to continue. Then they decided to go
in a different direction, which wasn't a continuation. It was something that wasn't in sync with the vision I had for the show."
Disappointed that he was unable to bring his plans to fruition, DeSanto adds, "I love the show. I was trying to fight to bring the show back and stay true to its memory and stay true to Glen and the great actors who worked on it. When you talk about Galactica, people's faces always light up. Galactica was great middle-America science fiction."
Link to the cylon.org thread here at: http://www.cylon.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1644
-----
SECOND:
On November 5th, Ron D Moore (of the Remake) chatted with www.cylon.org.
For those who want the short synopsis of it, please check here:
http://www.syfyportal.com/article.php?id=1180
For those who want the entire 66 question chat, please check here:
http://www.cylon.org/bsg2003/bsg03QA-RDM02.html
Excerpts:
64. CA Chat: Most fans feel that there is too much sex in the miniseries.
It has a lot of sex now. Where did the idea to "make Galactica sexy"
originate?
Ron Moore: BG's sex appeal can be "laid" at my doorstep. Science fiction seems to squirm at anything sexual or sexy in nature and I just wanted to make some changes in that regard. I've always found it interesting that science fiction audiences can't get enough of blood and violence but tend to freak out at the merest hint of sex.
65. CA Chat: We generally feel that the "freak out" is not so much sex in any Sci-Fi show but rather a fundamental change in what was once a family show. Its no longer a show you can watch with your kids.
Ron Moore: You may have put your finger on it. By treating BG's situation more realistically, I chose to make the sexual nature of the characters more realistic as well. You'll note that there are none of the usual sniggering and smirking about sex that is so common in TV and movies now.
66. CA Chat: The problem is that spaceships and space battles appeal to very much to young boys. When you have sex scenes mixed with this, you tend to freak the parents out.
Ron Moore: Well, again I have to question why its perfectly acceptable to show death, violence, and blood to the kids (and I have kids) but sex is somehow out of bounds. If anything, I'd rather have my kids watch two people making love than two people blowing their brains out, but that's just me. . .
------
THIRD:
Due to the intricacies of who holds title to which parts of the Galactica Franchise, some Continuation and Remake Fans are now debating that they must join together in order for them to both succeed in their seemingly conflicting goals:
Those In Favor: Helping the Mini will Help DeSanto
. . . Glen Larson holds the movie rights. Universal holds the television rights. DeSanto apparently wants to do a movie that will prompt another television series (or at least that's the rumor). To do this, he will have to make a movie that can be used as a legal basis for the new series. As Michael pointed out, there are other webs to clear since DeSanto has some contract ties that may hinder him.
Larson/DeSanto need to sell their idea to an entirely different set of folks than those whose future are tied to the minseries. To do this, they are in a better position to sell their concept if they can hop onto the copycat band wagon. Studio execs want to see success before they invest. A demonstration that the miniseries has produced interest will help that.
In reality, it doesn't matter to the miniseries folks if a movie continuation is a hit or not. Once the project is greenlit, it doesn't matter to the contination folks if the minseries is a hit or not.
However, during this narrow window, interest in the minseries will help Larson/DeSanto convince those with cash to invest. . .
-----
Those Against: Helping the Mini will NOT Help DeSanto
Dawg's logic is the same as mine from the beginning. I have to agree with him. All the way back to my SciFi board days....my thought was and remains, the best thing for a Continuation/True BSG is for the first night of the mini to be a big success and the second night to fail. The reasoning being that the mini would fail but it would demonstrate that BSG could draw an audience to it; but this BSG couldn't hold that audience.
I can kinda see that if the mini is a success it helping. But here is the rub: if the mini is a success and is capable of drawing an audience on a weekly basis for a series....there are going to be more of them than there are of us! When a BSG continuation (or whatever) is made, those fans are not going to want it. They are going to have the same reaction to that, that you guys have to RDM's Galactica. You might even get complaints that Starbuck isn't a man.
What are DeSanto/Larson/whoever going to do when the larger general fanbase is now weighted with those people? They are going to decide that thier plans are a wash and not do it.
Therefore I cannot envison this working. Sandy has more inside knowledge than I. If I'm in error...please show me the light. . .
Link to the discussion thread at cylon.com:
http://www.cylon.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1531