Martin Campbell (director of James Bond movies GoldenEye and Casino Royale) is still attached to the project as a producer and will direct the pilot episode.
Tampilkan postingan dengan label syfy. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label syfy. Tampilkan semua postingan
Rabu, 21 Agustus 2013
BLAKE'S 7 TV reboot moves to Microsoft
SyFy has apparently declined to produce the rebooted Blake's 7 project they were presented with last year. As a result, the project has moved to Microsoft, where they are considering it as an original drama series to air through the X-Box's TV channel (alongside the Halo TV series they are currently developing).
Martin Campbell (director of James Bond movies GoldenEye and Casino Royale) is still attached to the project as a producer and will direct the pilot episode.
Martin Campbell (director of James Bond movies GoldenEye and Casino Royale) is still attached to the project as a producer and will direct the pilot episode.
Kamis, 11 April 2013
RINGWORLD and CHILDHOOD'S END coming to TV
SyFy has announced that it is producing new mini-series based on the classic SF novels Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke and Ringworld by Larry Niven.
Ringworld is set eight centuries into the future and revolves around an expedition to a vast artificial ring in the space, so huge it extends completely around its star. It was an inspiration behind the titular structures of the Halo series of computer games (although, properly speaking, the Halo rings are much closer in size and function to one of Iain M. Bank's Culture Orbitals). The novel was published in 1970 and won the triple crown of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. The novel has three sequels (The Ringworld Engineers, The Ringworld Throne and Ringworld's Children), so presumably if it's a big hit SyFy can turn this into an ongoing franchise. The four-hour mini-series is being produced by MGM TV in conjunction with Universal Cable Productions. Michael Perry (co-creator of The River and writer of Paranormal Activity 2) is helming the adaptation.
Childhood's End was originally published in 1953 and, alongside 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama, is one of Clarke's best-known novels. Its iconic opening, which huge alien ships arriving at Earth and plunging the major cities into shadow, was later echoed by both the V mini-series in 1983 and the movie Independence Day in 1996. It is noted as one of Clarke's most speculative novels, featuring paranormal elements and talkative aliens, rather unlike his later books which were driven much more by hard science and completely unknowable alien intelligences. This mini-series will be helmed by Michael DeLuca (a producer on Seven, Boogie Nights and The Social Network).
Whilst sounding promising, it's hard to forget the complete pig's ear that SyFy made of both the Earthsea and Riverworld books, and the channel's seeming difficulty in actually making SF in the last few years. Alongside the the Blake's 7 reboot, this indicates that SyFy is at least focusing on the right ideas. It remains to be seen if they can follow through with them.
Ringworld is set eight centuries into the future and revolves around an expedition to a vast artificial ring in the space, so huge it extends completely around its star. It was an inspiration behind the titular structures of the Halo series of computer games (although, properly speaking, the Halo rings are much closer in size and function to one of Iain M. Bank's Culture Orbitals). The novel was published in 1970 and won the triple crown of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. The novel has three sequels (The Ringworld Engineers, The Ringworld Throne and Ringworld's Children), so presumably if it's a big hit SyFy can turn this into an ongoing franchise. The four-hour mini-series is being produced by MGM TV in conjunction with Universal Cable Productions. Michael Perry (co-creator of The River and writer of Paranormal Activity 2) is helming the adaptation.
Childhood's End was originally published in 1953 and, alongside 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama, is one of Clarke's best-known novels. Its iconic opening, which huge alien ships arriving at Earth and plunging the major cities into shadow, was later echoed by both the V mini-series in 1983 and the movie Independence Day in 1996. It is noted as one of Clarke's most speculative novels, featuring paranormal elements and talkative aliens, rather unlike his later books which were driven much more by hard science and completely unknowable alien intelligences. This mini-series will be helmed by Michael DeLuca (a producer on Seven, Boogie Nights and The Social Network).
Whilst sounding promising, it's hard to forget the complete pig's ear that SyFy made of both the Earthsea and Riverworld books, and the channel's seeming difficulty in actually making SF in the last few years. Alongside the the Blake's 7 reboot, this indicates that SyFy is at least focusing on the right ideas. It remains to be seen if they can follow through with them.
Selasa, 09 April 2013
BLAKE'S 7 reboot greenlit
SyFy has greenlit the Blake's 7 reboot being helmed by former Heroes writer Joe Pokaski and James Bond director Martin Campbell (GoldenEye, Casino Royale). A 13-episode first season will go into production later this year.
The reboot will be set in the year 2136 and will see seven criminals - six guilty and one not - being sent into exile on a prison colony. They escape and acquire a powerful alien spacecraft, with which they can begin a fight back against the totalitarian government that rules the human worlds.
This premise is similar to that the original Blake's 7 - which ran for 52 episodes and four seasons from 1978 to 1981 - although there are several key differences. The original Blake's 7 was set closer to a thousand years in the future and there were only ever five or six human (or humanoid) characters, with the remaining one or two places taken by AIs. This description implies there will be seven human characters and the setting will be much closer to that of the present day.
From the sound it, then, both Zen and ORAC will be missing (which will anger fans) and the show will be asking audiences that humanity has established an interstellar civilisation in just 120 years, rather than the 800+ years of the original, which seems rather implausible. In addition, the suggestion that Blake is a soldier will also annoy a lot of fans. Blake in the original series was an engineer, a fixer whose attitude towards being a freedom fighter mixed charisma with naivete. Not being a soldier, more of a problem-solver, was a key point of his characterisation. This new version sounds altogether more cliched.
No casting information has yet been announced, although it has been confirmed that Pokaski will be writing the first episode and Campbell will be directing. Pokaski may also be writing the majority (or all) of the season, but Campbell's involvement beyond the first episode is unclear. It is also unclear at this stage who will be the showrunner.
At this stage, I am unconvinced by the project, which seems too conservative and predictably dull. With some better writers (Pokaski's heavy involvement with the second through fourth seasons of Heroes, which were terrible, is not encouraging) and the right cast, it could still turn out okay though. Maybe.
The reboot will be set in the year 2136 and will see seven criminals - six guilty and one not - being sent into exile on a prison colony. They escape and acquire a powerful alien spacecraft, with which they can begin a fight back against the totalitarian government that rules the human worlds.
FremantleMedia International today launches the eagerly anticipated remake of the cult drama Blake’s 7 to international buyers at MIPTV. In development with US cable network Syfy, the 13 x 1 hour series will be produced by Georgeville TV, the independent studio co-founded by Leon Clarance of Motion Picture Capital, the financing arm of Reliance Entertainment, and producer Marc Rosen. The science fiction classic will be written by Joe Pokaski (Heroes, CSI) and directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, GoldenEye).
The year is 2136, Blake wakes up on one side of the bed. He reaches for the other side. There’s nobody there. As reality sets in, this handsome ex-soldier sits up, and looks at a photo of his wife Rachel. Beautiful. Deceased.
A revolutionary reinvention of the long-running BBC series made in the late 1970s, Blake’s 7 tells the story of seven criminals – 6 guilty and 1 innocent – on their way to life on a prison colony in space, who together wrestle freedom from imprisonment. They acquire an alien ship which gives them a second chance at life and become the most unlikely heroes of their time.
David Ellender, CEO FremantleMedia International and Kids & Family Entertainment said, “Blake’s 7 was such a forward-thinking concept that the show continues to have resonance with audiences today. Its complex characters and gritty storylines, coupled with the highly talented team and modern production techniques are sure to appeal to both original fans of the show and new viewers.”
Leon Clarance, co-founder of Georgeville Television and CEO of Motion Picture Capital, the finance arm of Reliance Entertainment, said, “Joe Pokaski and Martin Campbell have worked tirelessly with the Georgeville TV team to create an amazeballs reboot of this classic space opera which I watched with my father when I was a child. This reimagined classic for a new generation of science fiction fans will enthrall original and new fans alike. I couldn’t be happier to have our beloved show handled internationally by the passionate team at FremantleMedia”
Blake’s 7 is one of several premium drama offerings in the FremantleMedia International scripted portfolio which includes Wentworth (10 x 1 hour), a FremantleMedia Australia production set to premiere on Australia’s Foxtel in May this year, and The Making of a Lady, a psychological event thriller produced by Runaway Fridge and which captivated UK audiences when it aired on ITV1 in December 2012.
This premise is similar to that the original Blake's 7 - which ran for 52 episodes and four seasons from 1978 to 1981 - although there are several key differences. The original Blake's 7 was set closer to a thousand years in the future and there were only ever five or six human (or humanoid) characters, with the remaining one or two places taken by AIs. This description implies there will be seven human characters and the setting will be much closer to that of the present day.
From the sound it, then, both Zen and ORAC will be missing (which will anger fans) and the show will be asking audiences that humanity has established an interstellar civilisation in just 120 years, rather than the 800+ years of the original, which seems rather implausible. In addition, the suggestion that Blake is a soldier will also annoy a lot of fans. Blake in the original series was an engineer, a fixer whose attitude towards being a freedom fighter mixed charisma with naivete. Not being a soldier, more of a problem-solver, was a key point of his characterisation. This new version sounds altogether more cliched.
No casting information has yet been announced, although it has been confirmed that Pokaski will be writing the first episode and Campbell will be directing. Pokaski may also be writing the majority (or all) of the season, but Campbell's involvement beyond the first episode is unclear. It is also unclear at this stage who will be the showrunner.
At this stage, I am unconvinced by the project, which seems too conservative and predictably dull. With some better writers (Pokaski's heavy involvement with the second through fourth seasons of Heroes, which were terrible, is not encouraging) and the right cast, it could still turn out okay though. Maybe.
Sabtu, 02 Februari 2013
Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome
It is the tenth year of the Cylon War. The Colonial Fleet is gradually being worn down by their former slaves turned enemies, the Cylons. Bill Adama, a newly-graduated pilot assigned to the battlestar Galactica, takes part in what should be a simple escort mission but turns into a major operation which could have important ramifications for the entire war.
Blood and Chrome started life as a proposed full spin-off series of the new(er) Battlestar Galactica. The first spin-off, Caprica, had been a failure and was cancelled after one season. Popular opinion has it that the show was too talky, too cerebral and simply too dull, having moved away from the dogfights and political infighting that made the original series so compelling. For this second spin-off, the proposal was to make a balls-to-the-wall action show, a Top Gun in space with Vipers and Cylons. Setting the show during the First Cylon War would also allow the show to resolve some storylines from Caprica - which took place about sixteen years earlier - and foreshadow some of the events of BSG itself (which starts about forty-two years later).
In the event, it never happened. Blood and Chrome - the proposed pilot episode of the spin-off - was not picked up and, unless the imminent DVD/Blu-Ray release sells like gangbusters, will not be in the future. As it stands, it is left behind as a curiosity and, it has to be said, not a particularly compelling one.
Blood and Chrome was not filmed in the traditional manner. With the existing (massive and expensive-to-maintain) Galactica sets all destroyed at the end of filming, the producers were forced to rely on greenscreens and digital scans to reproduce the original sets. In fact, they were able to adjust the sets to reflect the fact that it's forty years earlier, with less-advanced technology available. The same 'bones' of the original structures are there, but the detailing is different. This works quite well, giving the sense that this is the same ship at a different point in its lifespan. The quality of the greenscreen sets is rather variable, with most of them falling into the 'somewhat fake but you don't notice after a while' category. Some of them are pretty good: the CIC set is surprisingly well-done, though the fact that it's quite a dark set helps. On the other hand, scenes on the ice planet and inside the abandoned facility there are blatantly fake. There's also rather too much lens flare going on in the CGI scenes, which gets distracting after a while.
Other CGI is reasonable, though the decision was made to use very fast cuts. This meant both an insane number of CGI shots (this 120-minute TV movie has more than 1,800 shots, compared to 1,488 for the three-and-a-half hour cinematic film The Return of the King) and almost no time to appreciate them. Whilst the original show was guilty of fast-paced cutting at times which made it difficult to follow what was going on, Blood and Chrome takes this to a new level. The confrontation between the Colonial heavy cruiser Osiris and a Cylon basestar should be a tense, epic moment, but instead turns into a confusing melee of badly-cut CGI shots and explosions. Given that Blood and Chrome has resources available to it that Ronald Moore and his team would have killed to have on the original BSG pilot a decade ago, it's a shame to see them wasted in such a fashion.
That leaves the writing and acting to back up the effects and, unfortunately, neither are very accomplished. There's some attempts at characterisation which should be a lot stronger than it is, since the show really only has to focus on Adama, his co-pilot Coker and their civilian passenger Becca for most of its length. Instead it's all a bit half-hearted and actors Luke Pasqualino, Ben Cotton and Lili Bordan seem uninspired by the material, which is cliched and trite. A few attempts to lampshade the macho pilot genre of action films and series fall flat (as the show immediately employs many of those tropes with no sense of irony or intelligence). Later in the movie there is an attempt to discuss the rights and wrongs of the war and its immense bodycount, but it's all rather tepid compared to the issues that the original BSG raised on a regular basis. There's also a cameo appearance by a BSG regular which helps place the TV movie a bit better in the timeline, but even this misfires as it causes confusion with the flashback scenes in the BSG TV movie Razor, which supposedly happens two years after Blood and Chrome.
What we are left with, then, is a confusing morass of explosions, a ton of CGI (some impressive, most not), some cliched writing and indifferent performances, with occasional bursts of effort. What Blood and Chrome does prove, conclusively, is that BSG is at its heart about compelling characters, ethical conflicts and difficult-to-answer questions. Removing the ambiguity in favour of explosions and space dogfights clearly does not work. However, given that in a few years (when technology has improved a bit more) a lot more shows may be made this way, it's certainly worth watching as a hint of the future of TV production.
Blood and Chrome (**½) will be available in the UK (DVD, Blu-Ray) and USA (DVD, Blu-Ray) on 19 February. Or you can watch the whole thing (split into 10 smaller chunks) - legally - on YouTube.
Blood and Chrome started life as a proposed full spin-off series of the new(er) Battlestar Galactica. The first spin-off, Caprica, had been a failure and was cancelled after one season. Popular opinion has it that the show was too talky, too cerebral and simply too dull, having moved away from the dogfights and political infighting that made the original series so compelling. For this second spin-off, the proposal was to make a balls-to-the-wall action show, a Top Gun in space with Vipers and Cylons. Setting the show during the First Cylon War would also allow the show to resolve some storylines from Caprica - which took place about sixteen years earlier - and foreshadow some of the events of BSG itself (which starts about forty-two years later).
In the event, it never happened. Blood and Chrome - the proposed pilot episode of the spin-off - was not picked up and, unless the imminent DVD/Blu-Ray release sells like gangbusters, will not be in the future. As it stands, it is left behind as a curiosity and, it has to be said, not a particularly compelling one.
Blood and Chrome was not filmed in the traditional manner. With the existing (massive and expensive-to-maintain) Galactica sets all destroyed at the end of filming, the producers were forced to rely on greenscreens and digital scans to reproduce the original sets. In fact, they were able to adjust the sets to reflect the fact that it's forty years earlier, with less-advanced technology available. The same 'bones' of the original structures are there, but the detailing is different. This works quite well, giving the sense that this is the same ship at a different point in its lifespan. The quality of the greenscreen sets is rather variable, with most of them falling into the 'somewhat fake but you don't notice after a while' category. Some of them are pretty good: the CIC set is surprisingly well-done, though the fact that it's quite a dark set helps. On the other hand, scenes on the ice planet and inside the abandoned facility there are blatantly fake. There's also rather too much lens flare going on in the CGI scenes, which gets distracting after a while.
Other CGI is reasonable, though the decision was made to use very fast cuts. This meant both an insane number of CGI shots (this 120-minute TV movie has more than 1,800 shots, compared to 1,488 for the three-and-a-half hour cinematic film The Return of the King) and almost no time to appreciate them. Whilst the original show was guilty of fast-paced cutting at times which made it difficult to follow what was going on, Blood and Chrome takes this to a new level. The confrontation between the Colonial heavy cruiser Osiris and a Cylon basestar should be a tense, epic moment, but instead turns into a confusing melee of badly-cut CGI shots and explosions. Given that Blood and Chrome has resources available to it that Ronald Moore and his team would have killed to have on the original BSG pilot a decade ago, it's a shame to see them wasted in such a fashion.
That leaves the writing and acting to back up the effects and, unfortunately, neither are very accomplished. There's some attempts at characterisation which should be a lot stronger than it is, since the show really only has to focus on Adama, his co-pilot Coker and their civilian passenger Becca for most of its length. Instead it's all a bit half-hearted and actors Luke Pasqualino, Ben Cotton and Lili Bordan seem uninspired by the material, which is cliched and trite. A few attempts to lampshade the macho pilot genre of action films and series fall flat (as the show immediately employs many of those tropes with no sense of irony or intelligence). Later in the movie there is an attempt to discuss the rights and wrongs of the war and its immense bodycount, but it's all rather tepid compared to the issues that the original BSG raised on a regular basis. There's also a cameo appearance by a BSG regular which helps place the TV movie a bit better in the timeline, but even this misfires as it causes confusion with the flashback scenes in the BSG TV movie Razor, which supposedly happens two years after Blood and Chrome.
What we are left with, then, is a confusing morass of explosions, a ton of CGI (some impressive, most not), some cliched writing and indifferent performances, with occasional bursts of effort. What Blood and Chrome does prove, conclusively, is that BSG is at its heart about compelling characters, ethical conflicts and difficult-to-answer questions. Removing the ambiguity in favour of explosions and space dogfights clearly does not work. However, given that in a few years (when technology has improved a bit more) a lot more shows may be made this way, it's certainly worth watching as a hint of the future of TV production.
Blood and Chrome (**½) will be available in the UK (DVD, Blu-Ray) and USA (DVD, Blu-Ray) on 19 February. Or you can watch the whole thing (split into 10 smaller chunks) - legally - on YouTube.
Jumat, 23 November 2012
Episodes 5-6 of BSG: BLOOD AND CHROME
The fifth and sixth webisodes of the Battlestar Galactica spin-off pilot, Blood and Chrome:
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