Like most of his current projects, Bryan Singer has taken his sweet frakkin’ time tooling about with his new take on Battlestar Galactica. But now, a couple of years after the news first broke, comes word that Anonymous** writer John Orloff is closing a deal to write the script for the film.
Despite the fact that Ronald D. Moore’s superbly re-imagined TV series is still fairly fresh in our minds, Singer, Orloff and Universal seem convinced they’ve got the goods to produce something fresh and new. Well, newer.
“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 tells Deadline. “I love BSG, and I would pass on the job rather than frak it up.” He’d better not, or he’ll have an awful lot of irate Battlestar fans to deal with.
And Singer’s even more passionate about it, having held on to the idea of relaunching Starbuck, Apollo and the rest for 10 years or so (he tried to get his own TV version off the ground before Moore, but September 11 scuppered his plans). He’s been busy with other things – most recently Jack The Giant Killer, which he’s now editing – and a few other projects, most of which have since dropped off the development vine. His planned reworking of Excalibur, for example, was ditched by Warners because it had another King Arthur movie in development.
Of course, Orloff, who also wrote A Mighty Heart and Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole, still has to get cracking on Battlestar, so it won’t be jumping into our cinemas just yet. But what say you? Is there scope for yet another take on BSG? Or should they leave well enough alone now?