There seems to be a slow and steady drive towards remaking everything that ever appeared on British television. I suppose that's all right (they do have fantastic shows and made-for-television movies in the United Kingdom) but what happens on that dark day when Hollywood runs out of British productions? Yikes. Let's not think about that, and turn instead to the dark version of 1980 that's being remade for the modern viewer, as Variety reports that British favorite UFO is being re-imagined for the big screen. UFO will be helmed by Matthew Gratzner, and will star Joshua Jackson. The British premise for UFO was set in the near future (ten years in their case -- the show aired in 1970 and took place in 1980) where aliens had conquered Earth. Naturally, they didn't do so with altruistic means, but to use us as an organ harvesting ground. Humanity's future lay with SHADO, (Supreme Headquarters Aliens Defense Organization), a covert organization pretending to be a movie studio, who defend against the alien horde. Many have tried to remake UFO and failed, the last evolved into Space: 1999. (I can't find any reference as to V took any inspiration from it. The timing screams that it wasn't a coincidence.)
Jackson will play Paul Foster, a test pilot who joins SHADO. Foster is one of the original characters, and had an interesting little conflict after he became involved with the enemy. Since Gratzner praises his ability to show Foster's "inner conflict," the movie will undoubtedly take that and run with it. The movie is aiming to begin filming in the spring.
1. I would hardly describe the aliens in UFO as having "conquered" Earth, in fact far from it, they normally made raids, or struck targets, in one or two spacecraft at most. I can only really recall one episode in which there were a significant number of craft, even then, the ships invariably disappeared into deep space out beyond the moon's orbit.
As to Space:1999 being a remake, that's a bit of a misnomer, again. Both shows were Gerry Anderson productions, he tried to relaunch UFO as a continuation, but found it was easier to propose an entirely new show instead.
Posted at 12:05PM on Nov 23rd 2009 by YenRug