BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is being rebooted as a movie

Ron Moore’s 2003 reimagining of classically cheesy) 1970’s sci-fi show Battlestar Galactica was a bit of a game changer, prompting every other sci-fi show and his dog to suddenly get all gritty. The reason why they all wanted to copy BSG is because it was just that damn good. For 4 seasons we were all gripped as the remnants of the remaining 12 colonies of humans were infiltrated, decimated and chased across the galaxy by the robot Cylons, as they tried to reach the mythical 13th colony: Earth.

It was a show filled with action, drama, romance, mystery, mythology, memorable characters and even a classic rock song. It was epic. It was brilliant. And now it’s being rebooted as a movie.

According to Variety, Universal Pictures and producer Glen A. Larson, creator of the original 1970’s show, wants to redo the whole concept, but in a condensed feature length version. Based on just how sprawling BSG‘s story actually is, I’m not entirely sure how this could even work in a 2-hour long film. But that’s because I don’t get paid the big bucks like Jack Paglen does (hopefully). Paglen, who has just penned Wally Pfister’s sci-fi directorial debut, Transcendence, and is probably going to be the guy who writes Prometheus 2 for Ridley Scott, has been tapped by Universal to provide the script to this BSG movie. Ron Moore is apparently not involved in any way.

Now clearly, based on what is on his plate, Paglen has a thing for sci-fi stories, but we’ve yet to actually see any of his scripts on screen, so I have no idea just how good he is. And really, he is going to have be good to be able to distill everything that made BSG such a success into a feature length film. It’s not that it cannot be done, just the opposite, in fact. It’s just that so much – all the character development, the expanding mystery, the sense of paranoia – may be lost to hit that running time mark, that you have to wonder about the wisdom of doing it in this format.

The one advantage of doing a movie though, is that they will have access to a much bigger budget and better resources (which have also been much improved in the 5 years since the show ended), meaning they can really push the scope and quality to levels we never saw on TV.

It’s still early days for this production though, with no directors or cast even being attached yet, so a lot can still happen. For all we know, they may just get some more suits (and their money) on board, and maybe announce this to be a trilogy – which would certainly allow for a much better pacing to the narrative. Or they could all just come to their senses and realize they’re rebooting a very much loved show THAT ENDED JUST 5 FRAKKING YEARS AGO!

Last Updated: April 9, 2014