Apple buys original space drama TV series from 'Battlestar Galactica' creator
Ronald D. Moore, the brain behind the critically acclaimed remake of "Battlestar Galactica," will pen a new space drama for Apple, as the company continues its push into original TV content to compete with the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu.
The untitled show is created and written by Moore, and imagines a world in which the space race never ended, according to Deadline. It boasts "Fargo" producers Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, and comes from Sony Pictures Television and Tall Ship Productions.
The win for Apple comes thanks to their hiring of former Sony Pictures Television executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, who joined the company back in June. Erlicht and Van Amburg were responsible for programming like "Breaking Bad" and "The Goldbergs," but also had a previous relationship with Moore, working with him on shows like Starz's "Outlander and Amazon's upcoming "Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams."
Apple is allegedly planning to spend beyond a previously-reported $1 billion budget on original video, and Erlicht and Van Amburg are said to be tasked with securing "around a dozen" original TV shows.
The new show from Moore marks the third in production at Apple. The first is a reboot of Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories" anthology, while the second is a morning show drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.
Apple Worldwide Video is based in the company's Culver City office located near Sony Pictures and the La Cienega Expo facility that Apple is rumored to be leasing for video production. Culver City is south of Hollywood, between Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles.
The untitled show is created and written by Moore, and imagines a world in which the space race never ended, according to Deadline. It boasts "Fargo" producers Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, and comes from Sony Pictures Television and Tall Ship Productions.
The win for Apple comes thanks to their hiring of former Sony Pictures Television executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, who joined the company back in June. Erlicht and Van Amburg were responsible for programming like "Breaking Bad" and "The Goldbergs," but also had a previous relationship with Moore, working with him on shows like Starz's "Outlander and Amazon's upcoming "Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams."
Apple is allegedly planning to spend beyond a previously-reported $1 billion budget on original video, and Erlicht and Van Amburg are said to be tasked with securing "around a dozen" original TV shows.
The new show from Moore marks the third in production at Apple. The first is a reboot of Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories" anthology, while the second is a morning show drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.
Apple Worldwide Video is based in the company's Culver City office located near Sony Pictures and the La Cienega Expo facility that Apple is rumored to be leasing for video production. Culver City is south of Hollywood, between Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles.
Comments
The Liberator was the best looking starship ever to grace the small screen.
Re: good endings, the decline of the final half-season was due to three things: [1] the writer's strike, which derailed production and led to [2] the loss of Callum Keith Rennie (and thus his character Leoben), completely screwing over the storyline for Starbuck, and [3] the lack of an overall plan for the finale. As I understand it, the writers (including Moore, and always under his direction) basically made the story up as they went along. Only one of these [#3] was within Moore's control, and we can only hope he learned from that experience.
There is evidence that he did, and not just Outlander. Caprica was cancelled during production of the second half of its first (and only) season, but it was well-organized and had an overall plan -- as seen in the "shape of things to come" overview the producers aired at the end, to give the audience some closure. That cancellation isn't quite on par with that of Firefly in terms of cosmic injustice, but in my mind it is close. Caprica was unique, and could have grown into something quite beautiful.
Sounds like this is going to be an alternate-history future series -- the history of NASA and the Soviet space program is rich soil for that.
I think Sky was talking about rebooting it.
Blake's 7 was an incredibly low budget series and some of the acting and dialogues were cheesy by today's adult standards but it was a kid's programme mainly that was actually quite broad in intellectual scope for the audience it was aimed at. Far more than Star Trek. It was never going to age well but that's why remakes work if the story and characters have appeal.
Its magic was in appealing to what we were imagining in those days. It hit the sweet spot just like Star Wars did the first time a kid saw it.
It's a story we see over and over again and never tires if its done right. Films like The Magnificent Seven, Star Wars and series like Blake's Seven, Battlestar Galactica and (to a lesser degree) the A-Team all had the same raw attraction. That appeal is timeless if you get the casting right.
I thought I was the only kid traumatised by the film Trilogy of Terror which I didn't even realise was shot in colour (I watched it secretly in my bedroom on an old black and white TV).
After reading hundreds of reviews on Amazon, I realised half of America had also been marked by that stupid African wooden doll with knashing teeth, LOL.
It hasn't aged well at all but its impact at the time seemed universal.
So, if any Apple execs are reading this :-), and looking for ideas for content, zip over to blighty and snap up the rights to B7 and bring us a rip roaring, 21st Century remake, tuned to the times. No expense spared on sets and stage props. I'd even accept Zen being renamed to Mac.