Sometimes, as the saying goes, you have to roll a hard six. Universal is doing just that with a movie version of Battlestar Galactica, a prospect that’s been bubbling under for some years and, according to Deadline, is finally coming together. Lisa Joy, writer on HBO’s new take on Westworld, is on board to write it with The Hunger Games’ Francis Lawrence likely to direct.
Battlestar Galactica, as devotees of the Ronald D. Moore’s seminal remake series will know, follows the survivors of a human civilisation through the outer reaches of space as they attempt to evade a Cylon fleet hellbent on exterminating them to reach a new home.
Originally the brainchild of Glen A. Larson in the late ‘70s, its most recent incarnation offered powerful allegories about post-9/11 America, the erosion of civil liberties and cloning, not to mention some frackin’ epic space battles with Cylon toasters. Expect any movie version worth its salt to offer plenty more.
There’s been plenty of other attempts to get the Galactica back into space in recent years. With Lawrence’s own franchise-piloting experience and hopefully a solid script in the bank, Universal will hope for big, potentially sequel-spawning things from this. Fingers crossed it lives up to the miniseries when producers Michael De Luca, Scott Stuber and Dylan Clark bring it all together.