Battlestar Galactica is Heading to the Big Screen for Real(?)

After 15 long years of thrills, chills, spills, and way too many heartbreaking disappointments, it looks as though the Battlestar Galactica  movies are going to be A Thing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Michael De Luca is joining Scott Stuber and Dylan Clark of Bluegrass Films as producers for the movie under Universal. Pretty much everyone who’s written about the matter is saying that Universal is aiming to make it the “next massive movie franchise”.

For those of you who have only heard about Battlestar Galactica in passing, the original version – created by Glen A. Larson – was a “short-lived but impactful series” that aired on ABC  from 1978 to 1979. The 2004 reimagining on Syfy was an entirely different creature. Spanning for five full seasons, it was reimagined for a post-9/11 world, and received critical acclaim for the actors’ performances, the politically charged themes, and the production techniques involved in putting the series together.

News of a Battlestar Galactica movie first surfaced in 2014, with Bryan Singer named as its director. From the looks of it, though, he won’t be involved with this one… a shame, in my opinion, given his recent success with X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. That said, no director or writers have been named for this run yet.

Our friends over at io9 have a pretty incisive report on previous Hollywood attempts at rebooting, and I don’t blame them for feeling that way at all. On my end, though, I’m wondering how good this franchise will end up being if it DOES push through. Stuber’s a vet with a number of movies under his name (my favorite being Battleship in its glorious B-movie level of stupid fun, fight me); Dylan Clark is the man behind The Planet of the Apes reimaginings for the silver screen. They SEEM to know how to treat science fiction stories right, but the glory of Syfy’s run of Battlestar Galactica has left them with huge shoes to fill. At this point, it could depend on who they will end up picking as writers.

There is, as well, that not-so-small factor about them going for a movie franchise. Producing the series as a television show gives them more opportunities to explore the internal worlds of the characters and the vision they might have for the Battlestar Galactica universe, especially since – if things go well – they can go for multiple seasons. A movie franchise means having to chop things up into several 2-3 hour feature films. Will they be able to achieve the same depth? Will they even be able to get actors who can match the awesome of the 2004 run’s cast?

I’ll be keeping an eye out for more deets. Part of me really wants this to happen. The OTHER part of me is wondering whether they should just let things lie.

How do you guys feel about this news? Do you share our take on the matter? Comment below!