"Space Command"

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Okay, so here's an interesting, apparently "micro-budget" film series that's starting up:

Space Command

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCKnVSDggXk&feature=player_embedded[/yt]

SPACE COMMAND will be a series of new and original feature films by STAR TREK writer Marc Zicree, GALACTICA FX whiz Doug Drexler, director Neil Johnson and other Sci-Fi luminaries.

Inspired by classic science fiction TV & Film of the 1950s, this dream team is set to bring to life “Bold Adventures in the Far Reaches of Space.”

Beginning May 16th, the filmmakers will bypass the Studios and Networks, going straight to the fans for funding to greenlight their project.
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Marc Scott Zicree has written for virtually every major network and studio, with hundreds of hours of produced credits including Star Trek – The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5 and Sliders, and bestsellers including The Twilight Zone Companion and Magic Time trilogy of novels. He has been nominated for the American Book Award, Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Humanitas Prize and Diane Thomas A ward, and won the Saturn A ward, TV Guide A ward, Rondo Award and prestigious Hamptons Prize.

Doug Drexler is an Oscar and Emmy award winner. His credits include Star Trek -- The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, four Star Trek feature films, Battlestar Galactica, and currently Defiance. He has also won the British Academy Award, a Saturn Award, a Visual Effects Society Award and is also a Peabody Award recipient.

Neil Johnson’s credits include 8 Sci-Fi films including Alien Armageddon, Battlespace and Humanity's End. He has directed over 500 music videos for such bands as U2 and Manowar. Neil's feature film debut in 1997 is reputed to be the first digital film ever made.

It'll be interesting to see how this progresses. Everyone involved are professionals with long experience in the business.

 

[timothy]

So is this going to be a movie series or a tv series?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

They appear to be presenting it as a series of four movies. Given their budget range they're probably not aiming at wide theatrical distribution but whether they're looking at cable, VOD or something else isn't clear.

Hopefully they're planning to release more information about the show's premise, characters and setting over the several months of their Kickstarter campaign.

 

[Pingfah]

Looks interesting, I think we'll be seeing a lot more of this sort of thing in the next few years.

Dennis, if you haven't already seen it, there's a crowd funded sci-fi show called L5. They only managed one episode so far, and the production values are pretty spiffy. I'd say there must be some very experienced professionals involved.

Here's a trailer:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtHgj8Z-F_Y[/yt]

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

That is pretty impressive. Thanks.

 

[Tom]

Looks good! In 2010 when I invited Marc and Doug and several others to Hollywood Xpo, I know Marc was talking to Doug extensivly about some new project he wanted to do, I wonder if this was it.

 

[Psion]

This thread gives me grins.

 

[RAMA]

Another "retro-series" when sci fi should be breaking new ground...oh well, I do like the WAY its being produced though. Hell, if the studios produce 90% crap, we'll make our own stuff!!

RAMA

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Television and movie sci fi has never broken "new ground" thematically or in terms of ideas - period. It lags prose sf by twenty to thirty years at best (even 2001 was based on adapting ideas that Clarke had been writing about for a generation), and even then is limited to genres of storytelling that have mass appeal.

 

[RAMA]

Television and movie sci fi has never broken "new ground" thematically or in terms of ideas - period. It lags prose sf by twenty to thirty years at best (even 2001 was based on adapting ideas that Clarke had been writing about for a generation), and even then is limited to genres of storytelling that have mass appeal.

I believe I said just this in the Future of ST thread a week ago, however for our definition, we'll have to use SF that breaks ground in terms of the screen...a handful of such movies exist: 2001, Blade Runner, The Matrix series, Inception, Star Wars, Avatar, District 9...

On TV both TOS and STNG broke ground on many levels, adapting what worked in SF literature or science for the previous 20-25 years for modern audiences. Lost changed the face of SF/genre TV for years to come. Heroes was as good as any superhero movie for it's first season. Max Headroom was years ahead of it's time.

What I'd like to see is NEW SF that explores speculation on what's happening in the next 30 years...running out of food, virus outbreaks, or natural disaster movies are pretty lacking these days, they take the easy way out by going extreme and don't take the brave road to explore worlds where possibilites lead in other directions. While Space Command could be fun, it's somewhat disheartening seeing a 50s era rocket with 21st century FX.

RAMA

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ 2001 was based on Arthur C. CLarke's novel, Blade Runner was based on a Philip K Dick story, The Matrix borrowed heavily from cyberpunk and Grant Morrison, Star Wars was influenced by 1930s cliffhanger serials and Joseph Campbell's writings on the power of myth, Avatar had much the same story as Dances With Wolves or A Man Called Horse. The likes of Dreamscape covered similar ground to Inception.

What made all of the movies you name classics (and I accept that they all were/ are) was the execution, not the concept. As yet, we know nothing about how Space Command will be executed. It could be taking an old idea and putting a whole new spin on it.

 

[Admiral2]

^ 2001 was based on Arthur C. CLarke's novel,

People keep getting this wrong.

2001 was not based on Clarke's novel. Clarke wrote the novelization of Stanley Kubricks's movie, while the movie was being produced. They collaborated certainly, but Clarke contributed material to an initial idea by Kubrick.

 

[Kegg]

What little is shown looks nice. Never really stuck through one of the Star Trek fan films, but given space opera's niche audience a low budget high concept may be the way to go.

As far as 'the influence of lit SF' goes, one thing that was nice about TOS is that it did have a fair number of contemporary sci-fi writers submit scripts, often resulting in the best episodes of the series, like Theodore Sturgeon's "Amok Time" and Norman Spinrad's "The Doomsday Machine", and, of course, Harlan Ellison's "The City on the Edge of Forever" (even with the caveats about revisions, etc.)

The one thing I liked about JMS' Star Trek reboot is he wanted to try and bring that back, which is admirable in theory even if in practice I wondered if he'd actually have got Kurt Vonnegut to return his calls.

^ 2001 was based on Arthur C. CLarke's novel,

People keep getting this wrong.

2001 was not based on Clarke's novel. Clarke wrote the novelization of Stanley Kubricks's movie, while the movie was being produced. They collaborated certainly, but Clarke contributed material to an initial idea by Kubrick.

2001 was actually based on around five Arthur C. Clark short stories, chiefly "The Sentinel" (which contributes basically to the Moon Monolith segment of the film). Another story whose name escapes me was used partly for the Discovery subplot (and loosely for the design), while the remaining three had a pretty minimal impact on the film.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Avatar had much the same story as Dances With Wolves or A Man Called Horse.

The story is actually much, much older than the existence of movies.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

^ 2001 was based on Arthur C. CLarke's novel,

People keep getting this wrong.

2001 was not based on Clarke's novel. Clarke wrote the novelization of Stanley Kubricks's movie, while the movie was being produced. They collaborated certainly, but Clarke contributed material to an initial idea by Kubrick.

This is true, but my original point was that 2001 was based on ideas and premises that Clarke had written about for decades - the original versions of Childhood's End and Against The Fall Of Night are just two examples. The essential notions actually go back at least to Stapledon.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Avatar had much the same story as Dances With Wolves or A Man Called Horse.

The story is actually much, much older than the existence of movies.

Indeed. But the basic point remains - that one need not have an entirely original idea (if such a thing even exists any more) to make great cinema or tv.

 

[Maurice]

Am I the only one who's tired of these pitch reels that offer no substance? Not a hint about the show's format? We gets lot of "he's so talented" and "we have this amazing person" and nothing much about what the show is.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Am I the only one who's tired of these pitch reels that offer no substance? Not a hint about the show's format? We gets lot of "he's so talented" and "we have this amazing person" and nothing much about what the show is.

You're not the only one, no. What they are selling here, though, is the industry experience of the people putting the show together - and they're selling that to potential financial supporters rather than primarily creating a come-on to their assumed-to-be eventual audience.

They've picked up about 15 percent of their fundraising goal in the first day of their campaign. I'm going to watch the progress of the Kickstarter effort pretty closely. Is what they've displayed so far everything that they have to show in the next two months, or are they (one would hope) going to keep new information coming throughout the campaign?

 

[Maurice]

I get that, but industry experience alone doesn't sell me on contributing to anything. Is the project interesting, AND does it have the right people? That's what I want to see.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I'd like to see one of these take off, it seems that you either end up with an end product that never works as well as the concept trailers or the final product never materializes (like Buck Rogers). I'm glad to see fan film type projects moving past existing properties and like the spirit involved.