UFO's return to the US?

This was in today's NATPE newsletter:

Carlton to export more British shows to U.S.
Carlton America is adapting "Soldier, Soldier" and
"UFO" and other ITV programs that have aired in the
U.K. for the U.S. market.

To read the whole story go here:
http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=1&article=17956



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> Carlton to export more British shows to U.S.
> Carlton America is adapting "Soldier, Soldier" and
> "UFO" and other ITV programs that have aired in the
> U.K. for the U.S. market.

Ugh -- that's from the creators of last year's updated
TWILIGHT ZONE... a horrible update, in my opinion...

Marc

This was the report in Reuters
(http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?
type=entertainmentNews&storyID=395156&section=news)and a similar one
is in Variety.

Gerry Anderson's "UFO" may cross Atlantic
Tue 28 October, 2003 09:19

By Steve Brennan

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Two popular British TV
dramas, "UFO" and "Soldier, Soldier" might be headed Stateside as new
U.S.-produced series.



"Soldier, Soldier", based on factual research into the lives of
British soldiers, deals with the conflicts that military people can
experience in balancing their professional and personal lives.

"UFO," the first live-action sci-fi series from "Thunderbirds"
and "Joe 90" creator Gerry Anderson, aired in 1970 and was set in
1985.

The U.S.-based television arm of the shows' producer, Carlton
Communications, has partnered with leading U.S. creatives to develop
them for the States.

Talks are "actively under way" with the major networks, said Carlton
America president and CEO Stephen Davis.

"Soldier, Soldier" will be developed by writer-producer-director John
Sacret Young ("The West Wing", "China Beach"), while Pen Densham,
Neil Kaplan and John Watson of Trilogy Entertainment Group ("The
Outer Limits", "The Twilight Zone") will work on "UFO".

Adam

--- In [hidden email], Jeff Rhind <jeffrhind@y...> wrote:

Anyone subscribe to "The Hollywood Reporter"?

They're covering this story too, but you need to be a subscriber to see the full version.
Here's the brief version:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2011626

Marc

Is there anyway for us as a group to have input to this project?
Marc maybe they could hire you as a consultant! While it would be
great to have a new series, this could go terribly wrong without the
proper guidance. We need a fan as an insider.

Ralph

--- In [hidden email], Marc Martin <marc@u...> wrote:
> Anyone subscribe to "The Hollywood Reporter"?
>
> They're covering this story too, but you need to be a subscriber to
see the full version.
> Here's the brief version:
>
> http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?
vnu_content_id=2011626
>
> Marc

We need a gun to the producer's heads.
I just read that the collective geniuses behind the new movie version of "The
Six Million Dollar Man" now to be called "The Six Billion Dollar Man" have
decided to cast Jim Carrey as Steve Austin. In other words they are going to
turn it into a spoof. I can see their thought process. Well all the other
movies of old series have failed at the boxoffice except The Brady Bunch. So we
do what they did make a spoof of it. Of course it did not occur to these
mental giants that the reason those other movies failed was because they got way
too far away from the original concepts and the reason the Brady Bunch made
money was they were spoofing a series that was already a comedy.

This is going to be like a traffic accident. You want to look away but
can't!

James


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

[hidden email] wrote:
James,

Have you seen an episode of 'The Six Million Dollar Man' recently?
I admit I used to love it as a kid, but my TiVo picked one up a
couple of months ago and watching as an adult, I have to say it was
pretty embarrassing - just comically bad. It made Reflections In
The Water look like intelligent drama.

The two Mission Impossible films were pretty successful, and didn't
stray very far away from the original concept - and they were
reasonably successful. So I grant you, it's perfectly possible to
make a non-spoof version of an old TV classic, and I'm sure that
the Six Million Dollar Man concept would support a serious
treatment.

But I'm equally sure that it would lend itself very well to a
comedy, exactly like the Brady Bunch did and I don't think it's
unreasonable to use it as a vehicle for a spoof. It's certainly
eminently spoofable .. if that's not your thing fine but in all
humility, I don't think it's fair to cast aspersions on the mental
faculties of the producers of 'The Six Billion Dollar Man' just
because they have decided to make it a spoof. It's probably a very
good idea, after all the Austin Powers films are essentially spoofs
of the 007 franchise and they work very well indeed, in my opinion,
and I say that as a big fan of the Bond films. Well, apart from
the Roger Moore ones ;)

I have to admit though, we'd all be livid if someone made a
spoof UFO, probably me included .. :)

Oh Lord - a spoof of the 6 Million $ Man? Just shoot me now. Of better yet,
shoot the producers? More proof of H'wood's creative bankruptcy. I have to
agree with James that the failure of other movies based on former TV series
is that they diverged so widely away from the original program, that nobody
wanted to see them.

Mission Impossible? I wanted Peter Graves and company, not Tom Cruise and a
plot which made Jim Phelps the bad guy. I didn't even bother with Lost in
Space. I HATED the Brady Bunch series with such passion that I wouldn't have
bothered with the movie anyway. When will these a**holes wake up and smell
the raktachino? Enterprise is just sagging into oblivion (not that it
doesn't deserve it - it sucks!) and it's dragging the whole trek franchise
down with it. I read just the other day that Patrick Stewart thought Nemesis
was the BEST Trek film made to date. In his freakin' dreams! The man is on
something. The BEST Trek films were those made with the TOS cast of course.

All this augers badly for the idea of a renewed UFO in the hands of American
(sorry Yanks) producers. Many people are not holding out much hope for the
upcoming Thunderbirds movie, and if it sucks, well, that's hardly
surprising. You cannot take the story apart and expect original fans to even
want to see it. I'm getting to the point now where the very idea of a "new
and improved" UFO bugs me. The only people (other than GA) who could do the
concept justice, are the FANS - not the H'wood moguls. I bet people like
Jessica Ramage or Denise Felt could write a good UFO script - better than
the California noodleheads.

'Nuff said! Pam

> I just read that the collective geniuses behind the new movie version
> of "The Six Million Dollar Man" now to be called "The Six Billion
> Dollar Man"

Staying on-topic, here are the credits of producer Pen Desham, who
apparently one of the folks in charge of this new UFO remake:

http://imdb.com/name/nm0219720/

It says he's from England, which I guess is a good point. I can't
say that I'm familiar with most of these productions however.
I did see some episodes of THE OUTER LIMITS and the latest
TWILIGHT ZONE, but it appears that he was only one of many
producers, so it's hard to say how much influence he had.

Marc

> Staying on-topic, here are the credits of producer Pen Densham, who
> apparently one of the folks in charge of this new UFO remake:

Here's some more links on Pen Densham:

http://www.geocities.com/mrs_goddard/densham.html
http://www.fame-la.com/who/production/trilogy.html
http://mrvideo.vidiot.com/TwilightZone/PDF/PenDenshamBio.pdf
http://www.canoe.ca/JamMoviesArtistsD/densham_pen.html

Marc