More UFO-The Movie Updates

What got me thinking about the UFO-The Movie again was a little post on a forum dealing with action figures. Basically, it said the following - Hot Toys Acquires License to Eon Production's NEW "UFO" The FILM. They'll be producing the line of 1/6 Action Figures based on Gerry Anderson's classic sci-fi series. But the original poster didn't include a link to that news. I'm waiting on them to respond and when they do, I'll update this posting with the actual news link.

Here are some links relating (sort of) to the new UFO movie that is set to come out next year. Basically rehashing what everybody else has been saying. I particularly like the MWC Toys posting about the Gay Ellis action figure. Especially the last picture at the bottom with her being in an embrace with an Alien!

Forbidden Planet seems to be saying that this movie will be the start of a trilogy! Cool!

Shadowlocked.com shows off the new UFO logo and more pictures of Lt. Ellis!

Astra-incognita.com runs info and updates on this movie and other projects.

Of course, there is the official UFO movie webpage.

1. Captain Toy-Michael's Review of the Week. Product Enterprise Lt. Gay Ellis. (http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_121106b.htm).

2. Forbidden Planet.com. Matthew Gratzner discusses the new 'UFO' movie Trilogy (http://forbiddenplanet.com/pages/matthew-gratzner-new-ufo-trilogy/).

3. Shadowlocked.com. New site up for Matthew Gratzner's UFO. (http://shadowlocked.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=175:new-site-up-for-matthew-gratzners-ufo&catid=44:misc&Itemid=1).

4. Astra-incognita.com(http://astra-incognita.com/x-topic-ufo_movie.html).

5. UFO-the movie.com (http://ufo-themovie.com/UFO/Home.html).

6. Flash 255 Bunker. February 8, 2010. Just a link back to my original posting on this subject.(http://flash255bunker.blogspot.com/2010/02/ufo-to-reboot-in-2011.html).

UPDATE: April 10, 2010: False alarm, April Fools Joke on me regarding the Hot Toys announcement.

UFO to Reboot in 2011!

I'm late with this news, but it seems that a lot of effort is taking place to do a major motion picture of the 1969 sci-fi British tv program UFO by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.

This amazing team created many famous tv programs known as Supermarionation such as Fireball XL-5, Stringray, Captain Scarlet, etc. (mostally they were puppet-based, but UFO was the first Live action program that they came up with). UFO ran for 26 episodes. That was followed by the more famous Space: 1999 that ran for two seasons.

UFO is NOT for children. IT a a dark and sometimes frightening view of the then future 1980s (my god, that was 30 years ago now!). The basic premise of the program was that invading aliens are bent on kidnapping humans for body parts and taking Earth's natural resources back to their own dying world.

Earth is protected by the secret organization known as SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization). Its commander is one Commander Edward Straker. SHADO has a fully equipped moonbase with fighter interceptors, here on Earth, a fleet of submarines that can seperate into two parts - one remains submerged and the other is a flying interceptor. Finally, if a UFO manages to reach the surface, there are land-based APCs known as Mobiles to try and capture or destroy the invaders.

Plus the main characters were quite human - never quite living up 100% of the time as heroic. They had to wrestle with morality and ethics all the time. Commander Straker's personal sacrifices were some of the most moving of the series.

The ladies of the moonbase wore sexy silver suits with purple wigs for some reason. Why the guys didn't purple wigs - well, you have to guess. They had to wear the Nehru-style suits. But - there is always the lovely Lt. Gay Ellis!

Fans of the show would not let it die. When the internet came around, websites such as ufoseries.com and others kept the show alive for those who thought to look it up.

Now, it is the 21st century. And one Matthew Gratzner(director) seems to have picked up the baton to make UFO into a movie. So far, actors Joshua Jackson and Ali Larter have been picked to play Paul Foster and Virginia Lake respectively. There is even talk so far that this could turn into a trilogy of films. Scriptwriting duties by Ryan Gaudet and Joseph Kanarek have been taksed to revamp and update the concept. But they are keeping in mind the original tv fans of the show and is expected to do a better job than what JJ Abrams did with the latest telling of the Star Trek francise.

Principal photography is to begin in 2010 with a release n 2011.

The movie poster is pretty faithful to what the original moonbase interceptors looked like. In this poster version, there does appear to be a slight difference in the front missile. It may very well be a missile pod instead of the entire front end being just a nuclear tip missile.

As for sci-fi and adventure/spy films in general, this appears to be a very god year. Spacecruiser Yamato wil be a live action picture. Matt Helm will be coming back to the big screen and now this. I am a very happy camper now!

UPDATE: Found some additional websites including this one that has some concept artwork for this movie (http://www.cinemaspy.com/article.php?id=2584).

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Ref. (http://www.fanderson.org.uk/ufomovie/breakingnews.html).

(http://www.denofgeek.com/television/392179/looking_forward_to_the_ufo_reboot.html).

Matthew Gratzner interview (http://forbiddenplanet.com/pages/matthew-gratzner-new-ufo-trilogy/).

Matt Helm and UFO TV series coming back as movies

I discovered over on the Spy-Fi Channel blog this article about Steven Spielberg might be the director for a revival of the Matt Helm character. Matt Helm was the creation of author Donald Hamilton.

Its unclear if he will actually do the project. The character will be updated for the new century (no longer a government assassin from World War Two/Cold War era). There is a script by Paul Attanasio that will make this "Helm" closer to what we have seen in "The Bourne Identity." Then, for me, the actor has to be very good to make me consider someone else for the role of Matt Helm other than old Dino (aka, Dean Martin) himself.

Then, I remembered seeing a blurb about someone wanting to remake the famous Gerry Anderson "UFO" series. Variety news says that visual effects "guru" Matthew Gratzner has been wanting to make a big screen adpation of that tv series. A script has been written by Ryan Gaudet and Joseph Kanarek. Gratzner's studio, New Deal Studios, has begun work on the concept art and pre-visualizations. When this is completed, they will be shopping for financing.

Like the orignal ITV series that Gerry Anderson came up with, this film will revolve around SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization) - a secret military operation hidden beneath a Hollywood studio, whose operatives battle an alien race that has been kidnapping and killing humans for decades and using their body parts.

Quoting that article, "The story, characters and situations Mr. Anderson created in 'UFO' are timeless and engaging," Gratzner said. "My vision is to utilize visual effects as a supportive storytelling device that draws audiences into this universe."

The saying, "Whats old is new again." comes to mind. I wait with baited breath for both projects to see the light of day.

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Ref. Spy-fiChannel blog (http://spy-fichannel.blogspot.com/2009/07/spielberg-to-direct-matt-helm.html).

Ain't it Cool News (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41783).

Variety (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006352.html?categoryid=13&cs=1).