Battlestar Is Back, Baby
It is, it really is! Also today: Matt Damon makes more plans to head behind the camera, a recent literary hit goes to TV, and something about Dallas.
- What if I told you there was going to be a Battlestar Galactica movie? What would you do? Would get out your Lee Adama and Kara Thrace action figures and make them kiss with joy? Would you start making DRADIS noises and would your spine start to glow red? Would you be really excited, is what I'm asking you. OK, so what then would you say if I told you that, oops, the movie is not going to be based on the new version of BSG, but rather the '70s version? Yeah, sorry. Bryan Singer, who is a good director so at least there's that, is moving ahead with plans to make a big screen version of the sci-fi series, as Universal has just hired a screenwriter. So I guess Starbuck will be a man again? Sorry, Kara. You will cease to exist. [Deadline]
- It seems that Matt Damon is eager to follow in his Boston buddy Ben Affleck's footsteps and direct his very own movie. Well, OK, so he has a couple other directing projects already lined up, but here's a new one that actually might be filmed before the other two. He's teamed up with fellow Bostonian John Krasinski (well, OK, neither Damon nor Krasinski are actually from Boston proper [as, ahem, I am] — Damon is from Cambridge and Krasinski is from Newton) to co-write, direct, and star in a movie about "a salesman (Damon) who arrives in a small town only to have his life changed." Krasinski originally came up with the idea with Dave Eggers, because I guess the world is small, and they later pitched it to Damon. Who agreed. And then they kissed and got married and will soon make love and Damon will give birth to a baby. A movie baby! Congrats to them. [THR]
- In case you nerds haven't gotten enough nerd news despite that Battlestar bomb, here's some more. Mitch Pileggi, who played AD Skinner on your beloved/reviled X-Files program, has been cast in a multi-episode arc on TNT's upcoming Dallas update. OK, so Dallas isn't exactly NerdNewz™, but Mitch Pileggi! He's that guy! Y'know, from that show you liked. Right? Oh forget it, you nerds are impossible to make happy. [EW]
- Here's something for the literary set. (Not nerds, exactly. Geeks? Dweebs? No, dweebs is too harsh. Dorks. This is for dorks.) HBO has decided to option Karen Russell's much-ballyhooed novel Swamplandia! as a half-hour comedy show. The novel chronicles a journey through the Everglades undertaken by a 12-year-old girl in search of her sister. My guess, though, is that the show won't concern itself so much with the trek as much as it will with the wacky island the girl is from. Could be fun! Of course, I must still hate Karen Russell, as she is only two years older than me and is like the queen of books these days. And now HBO. Curse you, Russell. [THR]
- In other curious new TV shows, FX is putting together a comedy called Drones, about "drone pilots in Nevada who commute to war." Sounds hilarious! [Deadline]