Hollywood Is Trying To Make A Battlestar Galactica Movie—Again

Battlestar Galactica is a beloved space opera franchise, but many people are only slightly familiar with its premise, beyond killer robots and spaceships. That combination of name recognition and an empty page makes it perfect for Hollywood development. So it’s unsurprising that producers are trying to make a BSG movie yet again.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of this new film adaptation. This time around, producer Michael DeLuca (The Social Network) is teaming up with Bluegrass Films (Ted, Battleship) to mold the property into a franchise starter at Universal Pictures. However, they’re so early in the process there aren’t even any writers on board.

Battlestar has had a twisted journey over the past 15 years. Bryan Singer almost made a Battlestar TV show in 2001, until the 9/11 attacks spooked execs because it begins with a terrorist attack. Singer later tried to make a movie version that would unite the original 1970s show and the Syfy version. And meanwhile Syfy’s television version made huge waves, but Syfy’s attempts to follow it up—with TV movies, a prequel called Caprica, and another prequel called Blood and Chrome—fell flat.

Back in 2013, we broke the news that Syfy was done with BSG, and that Singer’s movie appeared to be so long on the back burner as to be ice cold. Then Universal decided to start over from scratch with a new writer (Transcendence’s Jack Paglen), but that effort apparently went nowhere.

As evidenced by the original 1970s TV show and especially the reboot from the 2000s, Battlestar comes with a great premise and infinite story possibilities. That premise, of course, is that humans are forced to leave their home planet when an alien race, the Cylons, destroys the bulk of humanity. The only ship remaining, the Galactica, is tasked with finding a place for the now endangered human race to continue life—preferably the mythic planet named Earth.

If this film is just going into development now, best case scenario the movie wouldn’t be out for at least three or four years. Or, in three or four years, we link back to this story, when another attempt to make a BSG movie is launched.

[Hollywood Reporter]

Contact the author at germain@io9.com.