FOUNDATION movie becomes a TV series

Roland Emmerich's Foundation project has moved from the big screen to television, with the director confirming that his next film will instead be the unasked-for Independence Day sequel.

According to Emmerich:

"We're trying to do it as a big mini-series, but even there you would have to change the story itself and set it in a time when the galaxy has fallen apart - and then you're pretty much making a TV show with all these characters and playing all the scenes out. You can [do that] and we'll see what happens. We tried so hard [to make it into a movie], honestly, because it's one of my most favourite books. I just love it."

Here's a thought. If you love the book so much, why not just do an adaptation rather than arse around with it? If anything, the episodic structure of the books (the first three 'novels' in the series are actually linked collections of short stories and novellas) would map onto a TV series very well.

This is still early in development, with no writer or studio yet attached.

Guillermo Del Toro's TV series greenlit

Guillermo Del Toro is executive producing a new TV series, The Strain (which depicts an infection of New York by creatures that are somewhere between vampires and zombies), based on a trilogy of novels he co-authored with Chuck Hogan. The project originally began as a TV series and became a book series when the original network passed on the project, so it's come full circle.

A non-broadcast pilot was produced last year, directed by Del Toro, with John Hurt starring as Professor Abraham Setrakian. Sadly, Hurt elected not to play the role full-time in the series and will be recast. The other castmembers, most notably Corey Stoll as protagonist Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, will be retained. Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings's Sam Gamgee) will also have a recurring role alongside Kevin Durand (Keamy from Lost).

The series has been picked up for a 13-episode first season by FX. Apparently they envisage the show running for either three or five seasons, depending on ratings. On top the normal series budget, FX are also dedicating $500,000 to the creation of the creatures that will be needed for the series.

Del Toro's day-to-day involvement in the show is likely to be limited, especially if the Pacific Rim sequel is greenlit, so the show will be primarily run by Carlton Cuse, the former co-showrunner on Lost.

The books aren't great, but they are serviceable popcorn entertainment. Hopefully the TV series will be a bit better.

WARCRAFT movie will not be based on WORLD OF WARCRAFT

Director Duncan Jones has revealed some information about the upcoming WarCraft movie at the recent BlizzCon event in California. The most notable is that the movie will not be based on World of WarCraft, but will instead reach back to the origins of the WarCraft franchise.

Concept art for the WarCraft movie. Clockwise from top-left: Draenor, Dalaran, Stormwind and Ironforge.

The film will pit humans and orcs against one another. The human faction will be led by Anduin Lothar, whilst Durotan (father of Thrall) will command the orcs. Those savvy with WarCraft lore will recognise these names from the 1995 game WarCraft II, in which they played important roles. According to Jones, the movie will present the POV of both the orcs and humans rather than suggesting that one is good and the other evil.

Draenor, Dalaran, Ironforge and Stormwind are the locations for which Jones showed off concept art. Bill Westenhofer, the head of effects, is a regular World of WarCraft player and says that he often logs into the game to drawn on actual locations and environments for inspiration. There is also an urge to do as much as possible in-camera rather than using CGI: the preference at the moment is to use prosthetics for the orcs, for example.

The WarCraft film is currently in active pre-production and will start shooting in Vancouver in early 2014. The film will be released on 18 December 2015, when it will face off against Star Wars: Episode VII.

Blizzard have also confirmed that they are working on new versions of WarCraft: Orcs and Humans, WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness and WarCraft II's expansion pack, Beyond the Dark Portal, which will be compatible with modern PCs.

STAR WARS EPISODE VII hits development bumps

Production of the new Star Wars film, Episode VII, has hit a series of bumps in the road. Scriptwriter Michael Arndt has quit, with director J.J. Abrams moving to co-writing duties alongside veteran Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan. Abrams's own status on the film has also recently been in doubt, with rumours circulating that Abrams was keen on leaving the project. Production has also been delayed by several months, with filming expected to now start in the 'spring' rather than January 2014. What impact this has on the film's release date remains to be seen.

The first signs of trouble on the project appeared shortly after J.J. Abrams was confirmed as director. Abrams apparently began moves to delay the film's release to 2016. The need to start filming in early 2014 to hit the May 2015 release date meant that the pre-production window would be far shorter than Abrams was used to or comfortable with. Rumours began circulating in July that Abrams was unhappy with the relatively short (for a film of this magnitude) production timetable and was also not keen on relocating his young family to London for the shooting period. Abrams clearly decided to stay, but the fan rumour-mill is working overtime with speculation that greater script control may have been a condition of his remaining on the project; Abrams leaving and having to be replaced would have been a huge blow to the project.

Disney and Lucsfilm shot the 2016 idea down almost immediately. More recently there have been rumours that the film will need to be delayed anyway, to at least the end of 2015. Allegedly, these rumours have been coming from the Disney and Lucasfilm camp itself and may be a reflection of more crowded spring/summer 2015 release schedule (The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Man of Steel II and Pirates of the Caribbean 5 are all pencilled in for that time period) as well as giving the production more time. However, officially spring/summer 2015 remains the target date for the film.

Arndt's departure is a new blow for the project. Arndt, who worked on Toy Story 3 and wrote Little Miss Sunshine, brought some artistic credibility to what could have been seen as a shameless cash-in film. Apparently Arndt's outline treatment was so good that it got both Lucasfilm and Disney really excited about the film, and got him hired as scriptwriter for Episode VII itself. The combination of Arndt writing and Abrams directing was regarded as promising: Abrams is noted for his visual flair but the quality of his own scriptwriting and that of his regular team (Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci) can charitably be described as 'variable'. The news that Arndt is out and Abrams will now be writing himself is likely not to be welcomed with open arms by fans.

Lawrence Kasdan, who was already advising on the project and was tapped to co-write Episode VIII and possibly one of the planned prequel side-films, will also be stepping up to co-write VII with Abrams. There is some reason for cautious optimism here, as Kasdan co-wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. However, much of his work since Star Wars has been patchy (The Bodyguard is his only notable film since then) and Empire also had script input from veteran SF author Leigh Brackett (who is sadly no longer with us) as well as a fair bit of on-set improvisation from the cast and director Irvin Kershner.

Despite personnel issues, the film is still expected to begin shooting in early 2014. Rumours are also gathering that Lucasfilm and Disney may have announcements to make about the film (possibly including casting information) on 30 October.

New DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS movie in development

Warner Brothers have acquired the movie rights to the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game and are developing a new, big-budget movie project.

This will be the fifth D&D film, though only the second to get a theatrical release. Courtney Solomon directed a much-derided film, simply called Dungeons and Dragons, in 2000. Starring Jeremy Irons, the movie was a box office bomb. Two low-budget, direct-to-DVD and considerably worse sequels have followed, Wrath of the Dragon God (2005) and Book of Vile Darkness (2012). An animated straight-to-DVD movie, Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, was released in 2008 to indifference.

Solomon remains a producer on the new film, which will work from a script by Wrath of the Titans/Red Riding Hood scribe David Leslie Johnson. No director is on board yet, but Warner Brothers are apparently planning to expend a lot of effort on the film.

However, Warner Brothers are limited in what they can do. Most notably, the film rights are only for the D&D races and spells, effectively whatever is in the core rulebooks of the first three editions. The rights to the various world settings, such as Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk and Dark Sun, remain with Wizards of the Coast and their parent company, Hasbro, as do the rights to the various popular novel lines and characters. It's been occasionally rumoured that Hasbro, enriched by the movie success of properties such as Transformers, has been looking at a movie series based on the popular Drizzt Do'Urden character and novels, but has not been able to come to a deal with the existing movie rights-holders (a Drizzt movie would require the use of the drow race, which is almost certainly part of the existing film rights, as well as core D&D spells and creatures). The previous Dragonlance animated film appears to have been possible only by not using core D&D spell names, but this would be a bigger stretch for other projects.

I have little hope for this movie project. Rather, Warner Brothers joining forces with Hasbro and developing a Drizzt film or a live-action Dragonlance project would be much more likely to have success. Those novels have actually considerably outsold the actual D&D game and would be much more likely to draw in a large, international fanbase than a simply generically-branded D&D movie would.

HOMEWORLD IP bought by Gearbox

Redoubtable shooter developers Gearbox have, for reasons still not yet adequately explained, bought the rights to the Homeworld series of space-based strategy games for a cool $1.35 million. They outbid strategy specialists Stardock and Paradox to get the rights. Given Gearbox's recent mishandling of the Alien licence and their release of the terrible Duke Nuke'Em Forever, the news generated the following reaction amongst the Homeworld fanbase:

Once the initial shock wore off, it appeared that Gearbox are primarily interested in updating the existing games for re-release on modern PCs (and possibly other formats). Whilst the money spent indicates they will be pursuing a fourth game in the series, they have also indicated a willingness to talk to other companies about it. There is some hope that they might talk to Blackbird Interactive, where quite a few of the original Homeworld developers ended up to work on a new strategy game called Hardware. Another company, Team Pixel, had also put a lot of work into a possible iOS-based version of the game, which I imagine Gearbox would be very interested in.

Confusingly, the purchase only includes the rights to Homeworld and Homeworld 2. The fate of the rights to Homeworld: Cataclysm (the best of the three games in the series) seems to be unknown at present.

Update: The original Homeworld creators at Blackbird have congratulated Gearbox and released some unseen concept art about the game. Blackbird also indicated they would be open to talking to Gearbox about any future project. Gearbox outsourcing a Homeworld 3 to Blackbird (the same way that Bethesda outsourced Fallout: New Vegas to Obsidian, where most of the original Fallout creators had ended up) would be a very smart move indeed.

Microsoft and NBC may resurrect HEROES

There are many TV shows that have ended before their time and fans want to see them back. Squarely not amongst that number is NBC's Heroes. Airing for four seasons in 2006-10, Heroes was infamous for having an excellent first season and then suffering a catastrophic collapse in quality. When the show finally slinked off the air, few people cared.

However, Microsoft and NBC are in discussions to resurrect the show. The thinking is to bring it back as a Netflix-style on-demand series, a bit like House of Cards, but which will air exclusively on Microsoft's download service. This service will launch with the next X-Box (but will probably also be available via the existing X-Box 360) and form part of Microsoft's multimedia-device strategy for their new machine.

Whilst a nice idea, I don't think a new Heroes - even one with a mostly new cast and possibly new producers - is the show to do it with. The show's reputation is in shambles and its return would not really excite that many people. Microsoft would be better off partnering with, say, SyFy and maybe trying to bring a different type of superhero show to the screen...

Now that might work.

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.

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.