Okay, that's obviously not completely fair; after all, this last ten years have also seen things like Lost and Twilight winning over new fans, not to mention the end of the Harry Potter book series. But there's no denying that this has been a decade of recycling ideas: James Bond, Batman and Star Trek all got movie reboots (Trek also got a television one, if you count Enterprise), Star Wars gained new life as a TV show, Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica was reborn to much acclaim, unlike fellow television reboots Bionic Woman, Knight Rider and V. We even have Tron waiting in the wings for next year, along with a new Charlie's Angels TV show. The most successful "new" media franchises were Transformers and Spider-Man - based on ideas that are over two decades old (You could even argue that things like Lost and Twilight are simply mashing up old ideas into relatively new forms; they're definitely standing on the shoulders of giants, at least). So what happened?

It's easy to just say "Well, the geeks are in charge of media now," even if it's not necessarily untrue. But that doesn't explain how they got there, and why they're not making us fall in love with all manner of new things, instead of retreads of old flames (Does Fringe count as new, or just an updated X-Files?). Personally, I think the blame is shared pretty much equally between creators and the audience. For all that we may cry YARM whenever someone talks about their dream to make the ultimate Logan's Run project, it's as much a desire to succeed as creative backwards-looking that's behind it; audiences, for the most part, tend not to support the new in numbers necessary to make it a big success. Look at the most successful movies of the last ten years: Each one is based on a concept that people grew up on.

So, is it simply nostalgia? Perhaps; it's tempting to play armchair psychologist and stroke the chin, commenting on a return to childhood things following the trauma of 9/11, but it doesn't quite fit, because how does that explain the domination of 2000's The Grinch or 1999's Phantom Menace? You can see definite post-9/11 tropes throughout the pop culture that followed (A simpler morality, where good guys always won and could save us from death from above, in many cases; stories of people dealing with increasingly familiar apocalypses in others), but I don't think that the prevalence of reboots was necessarily one of them. It's not laziness, either; some reboots (Battlestar Galactica, for example) put in as much work as any original concept in terms of worldbuilding and creation.

In the end, it may simply be the result of conservatism on everyone's parts: Audiences don't want to spend time or money on something they don't know will entertain them, and studios/creators don't want to spend time or money on something that they don't know will have an audience waiting for it. Movies like District 9 or Moon, web content like Dr. Horrible and the increasing use of comic books as source material for other media back this up, to an extent; the new ideas, and new voices, now have to find new - and cheaper - outlets through which to make themselves known, and become popular and proven enough for the big time. Maybe that'll have happened by the time they've been around long enough to be nostalgic about.

Babylon 5 creator Straczynski is still at work on the screenplay for Forbidden Planet. He elaborated a bit on his earlier comment that his remake is "not exactly a prequel." He explained that, while we will witness the fate of the Bellerophon, the ship whose crew vanished on Altair IV 20 years before the events of the original movie, it will be as a counterpoint to the story of the crew of the C-57D and their encounter with Dr. Morbius and Altaira. While this new concept calls for more action than we saw in the original, Straczynski says the script's basis on The Tempest is first and foremost in his mind.

But the big news that, if Straczynski's movie takes off, we may be seeing more Forbidden Planet. Says Straczynski:

"Warners is very excited about it, thinks it's a big franchise for them and a huge budget, so they're very much oriented toward getting it done."

Babylon 5 creator reboots a sci-fi classic ... and a sequel? [SCI FI Wire]

[via Topless Robot]

We're all really excited about Ian McKellen in this role, you really couldn't ask for a better new Number Two. The miniseries premieres on AMC November 15 and lasts three nights.

Ian McKellen plays the devious Number Two, leader of "The Village" a place where retired agent Number Six (Jim Caviezel) is sent to against his will. The Village is made up of exiled a exotic collection of folk, each with a secret past with numbers for names.

Can't wait until November? Right now AMC is hosting the entire 60s show on their site. The reboot will air at 8 PM.

[Variety]

THR is reporting that director Zebediah de Soto will tackle this new story with what they are calling "an American-style anime" executed using new technology. Hopefully this will prevent the CG curse that is actors interacting with tennis ball stick monsters.

Call me pessimistic but I'm not sure I want to see a CG zombie film before my Henry Selnick claymation zombie movie ....

The producer De Soto Simon West, who directed Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, gives us a little hope. He's got good C-movie cred.

Bloody Disgusting are reporting that Anderson's comments to the effect that we can expect a third X-Files movie somewhere around 2012 (Perhaps that's the terrible disaster that will spark the end of the world as promised by Roland Emmerich, countless ancient prophecies and fixed Google searches) are part of a possible reboot of the franchise that's currently being discussed by the powers that be, although they add that "[n]othing is set in stone, all should be taken as rumor until confirmed."

We're not too surprised that an X-Files reboot would be considered, considering the critical drubbing of the last movie and a remake/reboot-happy Hollywood that sees no problem in rebooting Battlestar Galactica less than a year after the last version, but it has to be asked: Doesn't Fringe already do that job pretty nicely? Do we even need any new X-Files anymore?

News Bites: Alba on 'Machete' Set, New 'Pandorum' Poster, a Third 'X-Files', New Discoveries! [Bloody Disgusting]

Hitfix is reporting that the rumored BSG movie is getting the go-ahead — and Singer, who tried to reboot the TV series back in 2001 with producer Tom DeSanto — is rumored to direct. According to DeSanto, the Sept. 11 attacks gave Universal cold feet about going forward with the dark Singer/DeSanto reboot, but now they may be getting a second crack at the property.

But here's the kicker, what do you do when a dark BSG reboot has already been executed by another creator, garnering love from critics and loyal fanbase, but never "successful" in terms of viewership. Do you take ideas created by RDM and company to appease fans, or go back to the original source material and start over?

Hitfix seems to believe it's still all up in the air saying:

Right now, my sources indicate that the big decisions haven't been made yet. Singer is the first major creative element to be approached, so once they sign him, they'll go find a writer and they'll figure out exactly which story they're telling. It seems like he'd want to get back to the ideas he originally loved about the piece, but since that was developed with another studio, I'm not sure that would work.

AICN reports that the Singer screenplay (pre-RDM) was about "genocidal Cylons [that] were secretly taking their marching orders from humans." (You can read our detailed description of the screenplay, from last year's Comic Con, here.)

The real question seems to be: would you be interested in a BSG without Six and her red dress? Are you prepared to accept Cylons that can only look like killer robots?

According to the Hollywood Reporter, "Director Neil Burger (The Illusionist) is in talks to write the screenplay, and former Walden exec Cary Granat is on board to produce."

But it gets so much worse:

It's likely the new "NIMH" would combine live-action and animation in the manner of "Alvin & the Chipmunks" and other kiddie hybrids.

So get ready for a CG rat story that will obliterate an animated classic. Granted, the original went quite astray from the original book — but it was still, at its heart, a great animated fantasy tale that still holds up today, and I don't think really needs a remake with realistic rats. What about Brian Jacques' Martin the Warrior, that still deserves a bigger Hollywood retelling with proper funding. Don't be afraid to take a risk, movie makers.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

We already know that Syfy is working on reboots for both Alien Nation and Quantum Leap, but why stop there? There are some fine dearly departed shows out there that could easily serve as the network's chance to get back into the space opera genre. Here're some of our picks - and why we think they could work.

UFO


What's that, you say? You don't think UFO is space operatic enough? Well, if you just duplicated the original series - where the secret organization SHADO worked to prevent alien invaders from harvesting human organs without anyone knowing - we'd agree... but what if you took the battle back to the aliens in addition to keeping the intergalactic Cold War going on Earth? We're seeing something not unlike Torchwood: Children of Earth mixed with BSG's silent space battles in our heads, a gritty, political take on the alien invasion idea... and we like it.

Blake's 7


Escaped convicts fighting for freedom against a fascistic government in the distant outer space future? There's nothing about the concept behind Terry Nation's 1970s BBC series that doesn't scream win, and as a plus for Syfy, the British Sky network is already working on a revival so they don't have to do everything from scratch. The potential for political allegory illustrated with impressive special effects rivals Galactica at its best, if done right, and there'd be less outcry from fans of the original - This one was always downbeat and depressing.

Farscape


Yes, we know that people have gotten mad when we suggested remaking Farscape before, and to them - and to those keeping the dream alive with the current Farscape comics - we'll suggest this: How about we don't reboot the series entirely, but relaunch it and find a new focus without undoing everything that's come before? If nothing else, that's got to be better than waiting for the perennially-forthcoming webisode sequels, right?

Lost In Space


It's a classic for a reason, people. Don't let memories of William Hurt and Matt LeBlanc put you off, Lost In Space is ready for a revival. What other show offers the chance for family drama, fantastic aliens and cowardly scientists hamming it up on a weekly basis? Take the Buffy route of using genre staples as metaphors for familiar problems, add a generous helping of humor, and voila: A Space Opera for all the family. Hell, just get Josh Friedman onboard as showrunner and you'll be set.

Star Trek


When you think of Space Opera TV, you can't help but think of Trek... and with the success of the new movie relaunching the franchise, and Bryan Fuller (under contract to Syfy's parent company NBC/Universal to come up with new shows) constantly talking about his desire to create a new Trek TV show, it almost seems like fate. TrekMovie even made the case for Syfy launching a new Trek, leading the network's Craig Engler to respond "A good, new, affordable Trek would be great on Syfy." Take note of "affordable," though; as we've pointed out before, the rights issues involved alone may make this idea financially a bad idea.

What do you think? Would you watch any of the above, or are you aghast at the very idea of yet another remake? Use the poll below to let us know just how wrong we are.

We don't know who is behind Reboot, but we're definitely going to tune in again next week for the new episode promised for July 14th. [YouTube]

Syfy Creative Director of Original Programming Mark Stern sat with us and talked about the new reboot we're all eagerly awaiting, which is the Tim Minear (Angel, Dollhouse, Firefly) reboot of Alien Nation. And as it turns out, they're still trying to get Quantum Leap back on the air as well.

You just announced Syfy's plans to reboot Alien Nation, was it your idea to go after that series?

Alien Nation has been [one of] three or four shows that I want to do. I want to do those shows, at least one of them. And yet again, if you're going to go and do Alien Nation, you'd better do it the right way, same as with Battlestar. We've been talking to a number of writers, since I got here, about Alien Nation. What's the right approach, how do you do it so it feels relevant? And Tim Minear came in with a great approach to it, that really felt like it didn't just tell the same story again, and it was still really true to what Alien Nation was about.

So that worked. I would love to find our time travel show — whether it's literally Quantum Leap — and we've been talking to Don Bellisario [show creator] about [doing] that as a possibility, because what is the next really great time travel series.

Where are you with that what are you pitching at Bellisario a darker take or a Eureka-esque whimsical time travel series, it really could go either way?

I honestly don't know. Every three or four months, we take Don out to lunch and see how he's doing and where his head's at. Whether he's ready to kind of go into that world again. It's a process, and the same is true with Alien Nation. You need to gestate and take time. What you don't want to do is rush into them and just say "okay, it's out version of this," and it's not good. We definitely always have our eye on the great shows from the past. But really our focus is on what the new stuff is.

When it was mentioned that Tim Minear was going to dabble with the Starsky and Hutch feel to Alien Nation, people were a bit surprised. They thought the show would be going darker. Can you give our readers an idea what you and Tim have in mind for Alien Nation?

You know it's very early, but I do think what Tim wants to do, which is very much what Ron Moore and David Eick did with Battlestar, is take what was great about that franchise, which was obviously the relationship between these two different people and these two different cultures, and find a way to make it relevant to the things we care about today. Is it going to be darker? I don't know what the tone is going to be yet, honestly. Tim is not a dark writer, he comes from a very different place. He wants it to be more than just frivolous and silly. It's going to have to attack a lot of the same themes that the original series and the movie did. But it really has to feel like there's something new there, like this isn't the same old. I wish I could give you more specifics, but we really just had that first pitch meeting with him where he said, "This is what we want to do," and we said, "That sounds fantastic. Let's do it." Now it's really about him pulling it together.

And I have to ask, will aliens still have the spotted skulls?

Man, I have no idea. I really don't. I'm sure, you know there's no Battlestar without cylons. They'll definitely be our version of cylons, I don't know what that will be yet. The thing is that's the challenge of all of those. Hold on to what's really great, what's cool about it, what makes you want to watch it, what you remember about it, and update it. It's a very fine line you're treading.

An MGM spokesman told us the project is still on track — though not for a 2010 release, as reports initially suggested. The rep said that the studio had told distributors at an event a couple weeks ago to expect the movie in 2011. He said director Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, The Fountain) and screenwriter David Self (Road to Perdition) were still working on the script, and that no casting had been completed.

The new Dynamite Comics Robocop title announced this week is only the latest of many Robocomics, so Robologists shouldn't pore over its pages expecting details about the plot of Aronofsky's movie, the MGM spokesman said, though he added that he wouldn't be surprised to see another comic tie-in once the movie is released. He didn't have anything else to add about the movie, only that "Darren and David are working on it now, and we look forward to seeing it in 2011." And so do we.

McFarlane tells MTV News that he'd like to cast DiCaprio in his remake-that's-not-a-remake. Not that DiCaprio would play the undead antihero. "The main character isn't Spawn, per se, it's the guy chasing Spawn," McFarlane told MTV News. That is, DiCaprio would play a detective — but a new character, not fan faves Sam or Twitch. McFarlane said the film would play as a Godfather-like crime drama in which DiCaprio's character would come to discover that something supernatural and diabolical is going on beyond the usual cops-and-robbers stuff.

Why DiCaprio, who McFarlane says was always in the back of his mind for the role? "It's a big wish, but his dad was a big fan of underground comic books and he came from that," McFarlane told MTV. "It's not a big special-effects movie, it's a character movie, so I could shoot it in 40-50 days and you don't have to budget that much time."

No word, of course, on whether DiCaprio is actually interested or available, or whether comic book readers might not prefer to see someone a little more, um, rugged hunting down Spawn. Still, given the shift in focus, we won't be the first to holler, "YARM!" Your mileage, however, may vary.

Wimmer's also worked on highly praised films such as The Thomas Crown Affair, and I'm imagining the gritty, dark mutant-strewn Mars our young protagonist will have to search through, now that he's got a new set of vacation memories. But I'm still not sure this needed to be made.

This original film, based on Philip K Dick's We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, is such a classic, it's almost blasphemous to consider an Arnold-free remake. All we know from the studio is that they're planning on making it a "contemporized adaptation." (Shudder.) Does this mean no more three-breasted lady and eye-popping prosthetics? Will the ending be more like the story? All important questions we put out there to you, Hollywood, as your audience and the people who will picket outside the premiere unless the three-breasted lady gets her cameo.

[Hollywood Reporter]

Verbinski made a name for himself with The Ring, a smart, scary take on the Japanese horror flick (and novel) called Ringu, about a videocassette haunted by the vengeful spirit of a murdered girl. There are no giant monsters in The Ring, but the ghost was visually terrifying - as were the flickering images on that deadly tape. Can Verbinski do it? Maybe, if he enlists the help of San Francisco special effects house The Orphanage, the same group that brought Hostie to magnificent life in The Host.

A more interesting question to me is whether we're going to see more of these localized reboots and sequels of popular franchises. Could be a good source of revenue for Warners if they were to let Chinese studios do their own versions of Dark Knight and the sequels to it. Plus who doesn't want to see Batman in Hong Kong - but done right?

Universal Remaking the Host [via Dread Central] Thanks, Avery "Friend of Kaiju" Guerra!

Even though Peters was hesitant to do another scifi project, he couldn't resist remaking V when Warner Brother's approached him, and who could blame him this show is too ridiculous not to redo.

As opposed to following the Nazi Germany metaphor in the original V, Peters explained that this V will show what happens when the masses have blind faith in their leaders:

In this case, the new V will center on Erica Evans, a Homeland Security agent with an aimless son who’s got problems. When the aliens arrive, her son gloms on to them — causing tension within the family. As in the original V, several storylines will unfold simultaneously.

Jace Hall, former head of the WB, "will help expand V into other platforms, including gaming." Just, please, no MMO.

Peters also promises tons of spaceships and other soon-to-be made toys. Throw in another alien birth, and you've got me hook, line and sinker.

[Variety]

Coolness of the old Farscape:

What made the original Farscape interesting was its vision of a human stranded among aliens. Unlike your typical ensemble space opera, humans were in the minority and we had a lot of chances to explore weird alien worlds. With Brian Hensen's production house behind its alien creatures, Farscape pretty much always had lovely concept design. We see this world through the eyes of John Crichton (Ben Browder), an astronaut accidentally sucked through a wormhole and deposited on the far side of the universe among warring alien factions. He takes refuge on a sentient ship called Moya, among escaped convicts.

How to Reboot:

A rebooted show could play up the criminal backgrounds of Moya's crew. Who can be trusted? Have alliances shifted? The tut-tutting little puppet Rygel once ruled 600 billion subjects of the Hynerian empire, but was sold out to the evil Peacekeepers by his cousin. Maybe we could give him a more ambiguous history — perhaps he was a cruel dictator, and we can see his cousin's side of the story. Meanwhile, we know the zen yoga lady Zhaan assassinated her lover because he helped the Peacekeepers take over her home planet. Let's make her more of a ninja assassin type: Let her use those powers of invisibility more, and do more explosives work. And let's make the anarchist thief Chiana into more of a Warren Ellis-style character who spouts political opinions between bursts of ass-kickery.

Cooness of the old Farscape:

One of the central issues in Farscape was the nature of Crichton's identity. Stranded among aliens, of course he begins to lose his humanness. More importantly, one of the big issues for Crichton throughout seasons two and three was whether he could control his own actions and thoughts after the evil Scorpius puts a chip in his brain. We've got shades of Battlestar here already, since Scorpius would often appear as a vision in his head. Because the old Farscape was often a little goofy, Crichton nicknames his head Scorpius "Harvey" (after the invisible bunny in the movie Harvey).

How to reboot:

Get rid of the silliness with this plot and make it dark as pitch, with some real gothic horror elements. Crichton is losing his mind and being enslaved by a chip that can't be removed. Also, let's give Scorpius a makeover — no more campy leatherboy zombie guy. Instead of making his wormhole technology into his "take over the universe" technology, make the killer app his mind-control chips. He should be a smooth, scary politician who wants to gain power by "changing people's minds" — literally. That way the Peacekeepers really can keep people peaceful, by chipping them all. The crew of Moya is fighting not just to free Crichton's mind, but to keep everyone's minds free.

Coolness of the old Farscape:

Browder was perfect as Crichton, who is both a himbo and a smartass. He was always getting mixed up in sexytime with various aliens, but not in a Captain Kirk way — Crichton is led astray by sex, and gets his heart broken. When he does swagger, it's always with a bit of irony. As his shipmate and love interest Aeryn Sun, Claudia Black was the perfect pre-Sarah Connor Chronicles beautiful, hard-bitten hero. She's feminine, smart, and tough — and she would never wear high heels to a fight.

How to Reboot:

Keep Browder and Black together, but give them new roles and a tragic past that's made them bitter. Perhaps their son was killed by the Peacekeepers and they adopted Moya in his place. Now the spaceship is their "child," and the two of them share duties as "pilot." So we have a new dynamic in place right away, one that makes the ship even more of a character than in the original series. And we can bring in a new person to play the Crichton role, plus recreate the original characters while adding some new ones. Since two of the characters in the original series were anarchists, and all of them were rebels, the reboot needs to foreground this cosmo-political side of the series to make for a more sophisticated tale.

In Summary:

What the original Farscape had going for it was that it was story about how a team of outcasts overcome obstacles that are both political and psychological in order to defeat an oppressive police state. This left a lot of room for space battles, as well as character development. A new, darker show might touch a nerve by delving deeper into the violence caused by political factions and splinter groups. And by focusing on the brain chip technology, instead of the wormhole technology, we open up space for genuinely scary episodes with a texture of conspiracy (who is controlling who? are our minds our own?). Plus, we get a chance to reinvent the cool aliens and sentient spaceships of the old show, using better special effects technology. As long as the new show tweaks the old show's tone by replacing camp with bitter irony, and goofy sex with danger sex, I think we've got a potential hit on our hands.

And if that doesn't persuade you, how about a little gratuitous squee . . .

The surface of the house has a double-curved space frame for structure, vaporized skin, insular foam, and solar cell paint to top it all off—any energy it doesn't generate on its own is supplemented by wind turbines in the backyard, which also help operate a hydraulic elevator.

Here are some blueprints of the interior.

Victor Vetterlein main page via Dezeen