Why Bryan Singer doing a Battlestar Galactica Redux Is A Bad Idea

Bryan Singer is attached to direct and produce Universal’s big-screen version of “Battlestar Galactica.”

What ‘other interpretation’ could there be?

There have already been two runs of the original series that ultimately ended in the early 1980s. Then in 2004 we saw the complete redo by Ronald Moore and David Eick leading to a complete, critically acclaimed 4 season run of the series, a TV movie special (BSG:Razor) and another in the can coming soon (BSG:The Plan), and even an entire TV series spin-off in Caprica. There have been volumes of books and comics, by Richard Hatch and Greg Pak amongst others, extending both the classic and new series universes.

I’m a fan of Glen A Larson‘s original Battlestar, but it is sorely dated and just wouldn’t work today. The heavy christian overtones, the specifics of the overall story make little sense in retrospect, and the character archetypes aren’t exactly anything special anymore. I know Singer was planning on doing a big screen treatment of BSG a decade ago (stopped by the events of 9/11), but that was before the entire new series and its spin-offs. What other story could there be to tell?

Apparently this one.

Who exactly are they making this for?

Fans of the original 1970s series have either already been won over by Moore & Eick’s BSG, or have been so set in their ways that they never accepted it. Doing another remake or reboot is bound to deter fans of the original 70s series (as they vocally expressed when the new series was announced), at the same time it would alienate fans of the new series for doing something completely different unnecessarily.

This isn’t Star Trek; an almost dead franchise begging for a reboot. If you are going to attempt something like this, why not any of the other science-fiction franchises that have either never been made, or been done poorly? Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Andromeda, and countless others have wonderful premises and stories that have yet to be given the attention they deserve.

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Singer’s Track Record

I really am a huge fan of Bryan Singer, but he has shown that his reverence for the source material can overshadow his good sense of what makes a good movie. Superman Returns, the sequel to Richard Donner’s cut of Superman 2 (that nobody really saw until after Superman Returns came out) was a franchise killer. What could have been a new series of Superman movies (much like Christopher Nolan’s epic reboot of the Batman franchise) was stopped dead in its tracks by a campy Lex Luthor and his maniacal real estate scheme, Brandon Routh doing his best Reeve as Clark Kent impression but an unimpressive Supes, and an anti-climactic end fight of the Man of Steel vs a giant rock.

Superman Returns was a well-made flick. It looked great and was well shot, overall the performances were good, and the effects were amazing (especially the 13minutes in IMAX 3D), the problem is that the premise was so fundamentally flawed it was doomed before it even began. For whatever reason his non-involvement in X3:X-Men – The Last Stand let Brett Ratner completely kill that series, and forced us into bad spin-offs instead of a lucrative X-franchise. Choosing instead to do not his version of Superman, but a flawed addition to Donner’s franchise (which had already killed itself off 2 decades ago thanks to Superman 4: The Quest for Peace).

A Better Plan

Give that fat Hollywood cash to Moore, Eick, writer Jane Espenson, and director & star Edward James Olmos to continue that series or make a full feature length movie. They’ve already expressed interest and intent to do more specials and TV movies on their series as recently as San Diego Comic-Con 2009. If you doubt their credibility, their fantastic work on the human condition and struggles with racism, resource scarcity and class struggles led to them being invited to speak to the United Nations. This meeting brought about change in the frakking UN charter because of their moving sentiments.

It would make more sense to reunite Singer with writer Chris McQuarrie who has been hired to write the next Wolverine pic, a mythic team-up that brought us the immortal Usual Suspects. Thus putting the guy who established the amazing X-Men franchise back into something he’s already proven he can do so very well, and that there is a significant demand for.

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Bottom Line

I just worry that this could be another franchise killer and just an all-around bad move. If it fails at the box office it would send the wrong message that the whole Battlestar Galactica franchise isn’t in demand and effectively quelling future works on Moore & Eick’s BSG. While Bryan Singer is an incredible director, I doubt his reputation would be able to sustain another big budget box office flop. This isn’t guaranteed to be bad, it just doesn’t make any sense to me at all.

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