New Fanderson Music CD!

Hi all,

I hear that all new Fanderson members will automatically get a new
compact disc featuring Barry Gray's music from various Gerry Anderson
series! This may be for memberships starting with the NEXT issue of FAB,
not the current one... (?)

By the way, for those of you receiving the current issue of FAB (due out
this week), note that there is an interview with UFO's Antonia Ellis (Lt.
Joan Harrington). Also note that if there are any unanswered questions
you can think of after reading this interview, please let me know,
because our planned interview with Antonia in San Diego in July is still
a go!

Marc

> I hear that all new Fanderson members
> will automatically get a new
> compact disc featuring Barry Gray's
> music from various Gerry Anderson
> series! This may be for memberships
> starting with the NEXT issue of FAB,
> not the current one... (?)

Hi Marc,

yes, that's right: "Members whose current Fanderson membership
expires with this issue of FAB will be the first to receive the CD if
they renew their membership for another year - it will be mailed to
them in May with FAB 49. All other members will receive the CD when
they renew after their current membership expires, mailed with the
first issue of FAB of their new term."

For this time it was my first issue after my renewal it seems that I
have to wait a year for my CD :-(

I'll send a scan to the group.

Christian

>For this time it was my first issue after my renewal it seems that I
>have to wait a year for my CD :-(

Ahh, so you've received your issue of FAB already!

So, how's the interview with Antonia Ellis?

And is there anything new to report on the UFO remake from Trilogy
Entertainment?

Marc

<snip> So, how's the interview with Antonia Ellis?

And is there anything new to report on the UFO remake from Trilogy
Entertainment? Marc <snip>

It's a great (if not FAB.. ho ho) interview with Antonia. She's seems like a
lovely and a very pleasant person, and has very fond memories of her time in
UFO. There is also a new color photo and time has been very kind to her.

She answers many - if not all - of the questions that were raised on this
list a while back, when I asked whether she was the same Antonia Ellis that
is listed as a producer to "Sex and the City"... and I can now say with
certainty that she is not.

I do not know if I am allowed to email a transcript.. I doubt it very much,
so I will not. Sorry folks, but that's copyright, and also another FAB
reason to join Fanderson (fantastic value for money... little plug there :)

Best to all,

Griff

> I do not know if I am allowed to email a transcript..

No, don't do that... I was just asking for an impression, while I
patiently wait for my copy of FAB to arrive...

Marc

> No, don't do that... I was just
> asking for an impression, while I
> patiently wait for my copy of FAB to arrive...
>
> Marc

It's a six pages article and she was asked how she gets the role in
UFO, about the cast members, the guest stars and the directors, about
the audience, the sets, how it was to be in a TV series, the average
day on UFO and how she felt about the space tracker uniforms (and of
course the life before and after UFO).

OK, one small snippet about the cast members for our Ed fans :-)
"Ed Bishop and George Sewell were great. There was a lot of humour
there on UFO actually, we had a good time. I must admit that I had an
eye for Ed at the time. He was an amazingly attractive man. I think
we all looked good in the costumes actually."

That's for Amelia :-)

Christian

> And is there anything new to report on the UFO remake from Trilogy
> Entertainment?
>
> Marc

Extracts from the one page article:

Trilogy Entertainment has named Pen Densham and John Watson as
executive producers of the new big-budget UFO series which is
currently in development. British writer Simon Davis Barry has been
commissioned to write the pilot script which will radically revise
the UFO concept and format. "We're doing a much more contemporary
version. It really plays more towards paranoia, (...) In our show,
there are aliens already living amongst us."

It seems that they will dropping some elements like the secret HQ
hidden beneath the film studio, the purple-wigged space trackers and
the fleet of futuristic spaceships and aircraft. "I think the
hardware that you can expect to see will not be very different from
what is immediately available to us today."

The producers are keen to retain characters like Straker and Foster,
but more updated and contemporary. They want to cast actors of the
calibre of George Clooney and Colin Farrell.

Gerry Anderson has and will be kept involved in the development of
the series.

Sounds a little bit like a new series :-(

Christian

Thanks for the post. I can't believe they're thinking of taking out the
secret base beneath the studios! That's the whole core of the show...!

Mary

-----Original Message-----
From: Christian J. [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 16:27
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [SHADO] Re: UFO remake news?

 
> And is there anything new to report on the UFO remake from Trilogy
> Entertainment?
>
> Marc

Extracts from the one page article:

Trilogy Entertainment has named Pen Densham and John Watson as
executive producers of the new big-budget UFO series which is
currently in development. British writer Simon Davis Barry has been
commissioned to write the pilot script which will radically revise
the UFO concept and format. "We're doing a much more contemporary
version. It really plays more towards paranoia, (...) In our show,
there are aliens already living amongst us."

It seems that they will dropping some elements like the secret HQ
hidden beneath the film studio, the purple-wigged space trackers and
the fleet of futuristic spaceships and aircraft. "I think the
hardware that you can expect to see will not be very different from
what is immediately available to us today."

The producers are keen to retain characters like Straker and Foster,
but more updated and contemporary. They want to cast actors of the
calibre of George Clooney and Colin Farrell.

Gerry Anderson has and will be kept involved in the development of
the series.

Sounds a little bit like a new series :-(

Christian



 
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> "We're doing a much more contemporary
> version. It really plays more towards paranoia, (...) In our show,
> there are aliens already living amongst us."

"Aliens already living amongst us" ?

That makes it sound like half a dozen other sci-fi shows these days.
Might as well remake Alien Nation or something... :-/

Marc

Christian J. <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Sounds a little bit like a new series :-(

Hello all, I am new here, and this sounds like interesting news, though!

Ciao from Italy,

Matteo

--

I hate it when they (the non fans)take an old series and update it.
Battlestar Galactica was awful, the new series not the old. Star Trek was the only one
who made it work. UFO without the Moonbase and underground hideout are bad.
They will find out. scott


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> I hate it when they (the non fans)take an old series and update it.
> Battlestar Galactica was awful, the new series not the old.

Note that I usually delete posts that say another series was awful,
mostly because it's not relevant in a discussion group about UFO.

But it's kind of strange that writers update old series by essentially
changing everything about the series, but leave the names of the
characters the same (as was done on Battlestar Galactica). So we'll
have a new series called "UFO", with characters named "Straker" and
"Freeman", but otherwise it will probably not even resemble our
UFO.

I looked up that writer, and it looks like he's mostly been
a camera operator. Doesn't look like he's ever written anything
that was well-reviewed.

Marc

<[hidden email]> wrote:

> UFO without the Moonbase and underground hideout are bad.
> They will find out. scott

I totally agree; seems a total non sense to me; I hope they will have
better ideas and replace the moonbase concept with something even more
exciting!

--

Sorry, i will try not to make the same mistake again. I just expected
Battlestar Galactica to be a prequel because i was exited about how the cylons and
humans became enemies. I just hope that the new UFO doesn't throw out all the
things tha BG did that made the show. It would be like making Star Trek
without star ships. scott


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

CONTENTS DELETED

>I have a whole new appreciation for Antonia Elllis now :-)

Does that mean we'll be seeing you in San Diego, Amelia? :-)

Marc

I don't want to go too overboard about this quote as I have not seen the film
yet but I wish they would take the aproach of the director of the new Starsky
& Hutch movie that is just coming out. The director told the actors to play
it like it was the pilot of the TV series but they had been pick to replace
the leads. So it seems dispite some of the ads for it they are doing it
straight. Wish the people doing UFO would use this line ot thought.

James K.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hmmm.

>>It seems that they will dropping some elements like the secret HQ
hidden beneath the film studio, the purple-wigged space trackers and
the fleet of futuristic spaceships and aircraft. "I think the
hardware that you can expect to see will not be very different from
what is immediately available to us today."<<

Is it just me? Surely these people must have done SOME homework. You only
have to look at the prices the little Konami UFO models were fetching on
eBay to see how popular the craft are. So popular that Konami are reissuing
the set! Doesn't this tell us (them) something?

My day job is creating animated TV series and I see companies selling
live-action drama at the same markets I attend. Making the production costs
work is always tricky and the possibility of extra revenue from licensed
merchandise is normally something people get excited about, not throw out.

What a shame. I look forward to watching the new pilot show, but I no longer
have high hope for this series.

Kevin

I know it's very unfair to judge a film before it's shown or even made, but
as Marc mentioned, without an underground base (under a film studio), and
just keeping a few names from the original series completely undermines the
whole concept of the new UFO for me. I get a feeling I am going to loath the
new Thunderbirds film, whereas the original series "Blew my mind", and the
puppets (even with strings, and the limitations of Supermarionation - which
you forget about after viewing for a few minutes) have more charm, humour,
and cohesiveness with the sets, craft, concepts and explosions than I
believe will happen with Big Budget Films (which lets face it are just being
made 'on the back' of the success of the DVD's...

I cannot understand for the life of me why these people do this... they test
the market by making a few DVD sets of the original series, get a great
response, then produce DVD sets of pretty much all of the Gerry Anderson
productions, then get word that the DVDs (of the original series) sell well
(i.e. Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, UFO etc.)

The production bosses obviously see that there is enough interest (a big
market) 'out there' to warrant the production of a remake given this
interest... ...and then totally 'blow it' by going away from the very thing
"the very essence" of what made the shows so popular and 'cult' (do not
really like the word) for the core of the very public that bought the DVD's
in the first place... ...and I bet that the majority of the DVD's were
purchased not by children (new generation), but by the same people who saw
the series first time round, and are now able to see that series again as
they were meant to be shown, and with the convenience and quality that only
DVD's can provide.

The 'only' reason that Star Trek TNG really made it, was that Gene
Roddenberry kept an iron-like grip on the production concepts, values and
vision that he created and envisioned in the first place. He was vilified by
the 'powers that be' at the time, and under massive pressure to do to the
series in a way that others are now attempting to do with Thunderbirds and
UFO... these films will be launched with great publicity and will be
forgotten after a few months, and will doubtless be somehow 'divorced' from
the originals as some weird semblance of the same by the very public that
made the success of the DVD's in the first place. But then, I'm sure the
studios will make money out of it, so it their terms I suppose that is some
kind of success. I just hope 'remakeitus' dies out soon, before all of our
beloved GA productions suffer from a rash of 'weird doppelgangers' that are
merely pretenders and mere shadows (SHADO's) of the originals.

Even Gerry Anderson's CG Captain Scarlet will possibly suffer, but is the
ONLY GA remake that stands a chance of recreating any of the imagination and
charm of the original (even if Captain Scarlet the series was a little
ascetic and dry) but that's what I like about it, compared to some of the
other GA productions.

As you may be able to discern, I feel quite sad about all of this.

Best to all,

Griff

I think it's getting pretty obvious that the biggest concern of the
production team so far is that the show not be too expensive. "...aliens
among us..." probably translates as "...we really can't afford special
makeups for that many actors, so it'll be easier to just have them be able
to assume normal (non-blue tinted) human form". The GALACTICA remake went
the same way. New mechanical Cylons do make a brief appearance, but the ones
that got the most airtime were, of course, human-looking.

Also, the idea of using "available" technology seems to point to the fact
that it would be cheaper to lease a regular helicopter and/or plane than to
go to the trouble to build miniatures (or CG) and then have to build sets
for them as well.

I know that the show hasn't even been done yet and here I am already putting
it down, but it seems that all the people involved saw was that the title
was a known property, so we take that and character names and graft them to
an entirely new and possibly very different series. Again, I offer up the
GALACTICA remake as an example.

I will be interested in seeing the new show, but I can't say at present that
I'm looking forward to it, for what that's worth.

Brian

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