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Riker commands that THUNDERBIRDS are Go Go Go!!!
Hey folks, Harry here... Now, I'm not perturbed about Frakes directing this, but rather... Making THUNDERBIRDS as a UNDER 10 family film... Ya know, why not just make a great friggin' Thunderbirds adventure-action-sci-fi film that appeals to AUDIENCES OF ALL AGES, why deliberately set out to pander to the under 10 crowd? If you really want to get the widest audience for this, go all CG... But naaaah, that'll never happen. Besides, what's the point... those puppets frickin kicked balls!
From the BBC, keep up the good work
Regards
Julus Caeser
Star Trek actor Jonathan Frakes has signed up to direct a live-action film version of cult puppet show Thunderbirds, ending years of speculation over the project.
The 1960s series, created by Gerry Anderson, focused on the adventures of the top-secret International Rescue agency, run by retired astronaut Jeff Tracy and his five sons.
Other key characters included Lady Penelope, the agency's London representative, her chauffeur Parker, and the Tracys' houseguest Brains.
Although only 32 episodes were made, the show, first broadcast in 1964, still has a huge following. It is currently being repeated in the UK on the digital channel Boomerang.
A spin-off film, Thunderbirds Are Go, was released in 1966.
The live-action, Universal Pictures project is scheduled to begin filming early next year.
A live-action feature based on the series has been in development for some time.
British producers Working Title and director Peter Hewitt, who made the recent comedy Thunderpants, have both been attached to the project over the past few years.
Adult audiences
A number of actors have also been linked with the film including the Baldwin brothers - Alec, William, Steven and Daniel - who were once tipped to take on the roles of the Tracy siblings.
However, plans to turn the live-action version into an action-adventure aimed at adult audiences were recently scrapped, and the project has been rewritten as a family film aimed at the under-10s.
Frakes, best known for playing Commander William Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, also directed and starred in two Star Trek films, Insurrection and First Contact.
He recently directed the children's comedy Clockstoppers, and will also reprise the role of Riker in the latest Star Trek film Nemesis, which will be released in the UK in January 2003.
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Lets hope the acting isnt as wooden as the original!
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Jul 22, 2002 11:13:13 AM CDT
Bet they had to 'pull some strings' to get this project
by chilli kramer
Seriously, will this be a kitschy version where all the actors have strings attached to their limbs? If not, why bother going!
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When I saw "Thunderbirds" in the headline, I thought of Battle of the Planets, the 60's early anime cartoon that featured bird themed heroes going against a guy that had huge chihuahua ears.The whiny Cobra Commander inG.I. Joe sounded alot like chihuahua ears. Remember, it had 5 heroes, a forthright leader in white, a reckless guy in black, a hottie, a fat dude that was a technical genius and a little kid, their street clothes were all hippy-dippym it had a Speed Racer look.. remember that one?..For it's time it rocked. They actually KILLED their enemies on that show all the time. Little bird shaped shurikens were always flying into the bad guys throats. It was called something else here in America..does anyone remember the other title it had? If it was done right "Battle of the Planets" could be a fun movie...........................after scanning the memory cells, I sorta remember "Thunderbirds". It sucked as I recall, IMHO...thanks for listening
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You just know this is gonna end up like Scooby Doo. The infamous Baldwin Bros.? Jesus.
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Jul 22, 2002 11:39:21 AM CDT
A rival studio has announced plans to bring SUPERCAR to the silv
by durhay
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My 2 cents.
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Still, I kinda liked Thunderbirds. Funny how the movie got played on TCM a few months ago. Lately, that channel's been showing some weird shit(Austin Powers, Sleepless in Seattle, and Thunderbirds). What we need is a cult movie channel for stuff like this that broadcasts decent flicks 24/7. Any thoughts? Snoogans.
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You mean the Baldwins are alive? Those Canadian bombs didn't kill 'em all?
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It was also known as "G Force". They edited the bloody violence out for American standards for childrens' programming. They had to cut out so much violence--three to five minutes an episode--that they created the robot character 7-Zark-7 to fill the time. This is why the episodes would always start and end with scenes of Zark in a control room somewhere talking to or about the characters but never on screen with them--he was bogus and tacked on. The animation didn't even really match. Also, the youngest and skinniest character, who at least in the American version was a twitchy little stuttering spaz played for laughs, was the template for all the silly little sidekicks shows had back in the day. Cases in point would be whoever the team mascot was for "Silverhawks" as well as Snarf from "Thundercats". If you go to your local comic book store this week, you'll find issue one (which came out a couple weeks ago) of a new series of "BOTP" which was developed by Alex Ross. Don't get too exited, though; he does the cover art (for one of the three covers) but not the interior art. The book is being produced by a team of creators here in Chicago. That's really all the useless trivia I can summon at this point.
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Yip dee fuckin' do!
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Jul 22, 2002 12:09:41 PM CDT
Make a PG family adventure film, not a kids movie. Men in Black
by wesley snipes
I hope they mean that they are making an adventure film that is 'safe' for the kids more or less, but will still appeal to everybody. eg, Men In Black. With really exciting action and a fairly simple but not stupid story. It's not like the Thunderbirds were about killing anyway. But you do need the big stunts and special effects. If you do it as one of those extremely goofy kids movies that has adults rolling their eyes, then it's going to bomb and you'll have missed a chance for a really huge, Men In Black style hit. BOTTOMLINE: Don't make something that your average adult will be embarrassed to go into!
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Both them and the Arquettes remain standing.
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Jul 22, 2002 12:29:07 PM CDT
Oh yes, Frakes and the Baldwins - that's fucking awesome
by weedymcsmokey
For sure a project like this needs that kind of role call - All them Baldwins and Frakes at the helm. Man, that is too rich. I can't stop laughing - oh god I hope they make it so I can point to it on the shelf at the video store with my sister and say - "See, this is why Los Angeles needs to be swallowed into the earth". Not that I am some kind of freak who needs this Fireball thing to be "pure" and "true to the source" - does cult classic now ONLY refer to the shows that guys will watch six bong hits in at 2:30 in the morning?
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That guy looks exactly like a Thunderbirds puppet.
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good god, the original thunderbirds was an excruciating show to watch, as with any show that jumped on the "serious" puppet show bandwagon. ever watch Captain Scarlet? no? truly you are blessed. A science fiction/action show should never, and I repeat NEVER be done with marionettes. characters barely moved- and when they needed to make any sudden moves it turned into some twisted parody of Howdy Doody. Don't even get me started on the vehicle scenes. This is one of those things that british people love and Americans can't understand why, I guess.
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Though if he gets much fatter, Alec will need high-tensile cables to hold him up.
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He looks like the character and can act. Eddie Deezen as "Brains." Honor Blackman as "Lady Penelope." John Vernon as "The Mayor."
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I have a statement to make to whoever the numb nuts is responsible for this movie. Jonathan Frake I believe is his name. Look Jonathan, I don't care what you learned from your days playing Chewbacca or whoever you play in star trek. Motherfucker, don't do this to the puppeteers. Do you know how bad the economy is right now? And you bastards are trying to throw puppeteers on the streets. I bet it gives you a boner to see the art of puppetry thrown out in the trash like so much trash, being thrown in the trash. Don't get me wrong, the computer Yoda was okay. But still. BRING BACK THE FUCKIN PUPPETS. The whole point of Thunderbirds is that it's a bland as hell sci-fi show, but done with creepy lookin puppets. It is great to see those stupid big headed puppets dreaming about a flying car in space and a restaraunt with a band of puppets singing. There was nothing "super" about the "marionation", those puppets had no expression at all. AND THAT IS WHY THEY ARE LOVED THE WORLD OVER. If anybody thinks anybody would ever watch a complete episode or movie if it wasn't made with ridiculous lookin puppets, they are seriously deluded. THE WHOLE POINT IS THE PUPPETS. It's like makin a "live action" Charlie McCarthy movie. Charlie McCarthy is a puppet by the way, kids. That is why he should always be a pupet. Not a Baldwin. VIVA LOS PUPPETS!
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Jul 22, 2002 1:43:07 PM CDT
Blank Generation, if you'd like to discover the epic storyli
by scorpio2nd
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Jul 22, 2002 1:53:49 PM CDT
I always thought that Thunderbirds only did appeal to the very y
by scorpio2nd
All together now, bom bom bom bom bom bom boooooom. Anyways, why is Thunderbirds being explored when the similar sounding Thundercats, which would probably be cheaper to make and appeal to a much wider audience (even the kids who've never heard of them would think they look cool), left in the lurch. Anyone seen that mock TCats poster at brutesquad.com/movies, it rocks, hooooooooooooooo.
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Jul 22, 2002 1:55:27 PM CDT
Anyone ever seen Thunderbirds 2086, what was up with that?
by scorpio2nd
I didn't like the show but i loved the music, so eighties.
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Jul 22, 2002 2:04:24 PM CDT
One last comment, Arnlod Vosloo is the Hood, no doubt about it,
by scorpio2nd
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They do. Only marginally more than those Claymation figures....::Shudder:: Freaks me out man.
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Maybe now someone will greenlight my Clutch Cargo update, starring George Clooney's lips in the title role! sk
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here guys jonathan frakes is a good director all of his films are at least well directed, (if you didn't like the stories i'm guesing you're thinking of insurrection), that aint his fault. what he has proved is he can direct f/x movies on a tight budget, with no small amount of style. and clockstoppers made the amount of money it did because it was well directed. relative to it's budget it didn't "tank". as for thunderbirds, good luck to jonathan, but i hope he manages to aim the movie a little older, any decent disneyesqe animated movie is primarily for the under 10's but the best of them lion king, beauty & the beast, toy story 1 & 2, antz, shrek. they are all made in a more "adult way and benifit from this. but truely thunderbirds was great when i was a kid and i hope it works out but like the guy before me said, are you really gonna bitch bout it? get some sex people.....
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Especially if they get Cate Blanchett or Gwyneth Paltrow to play Lady Penelope! Sam Donaldson would make a great Parker.
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. by the way when are we gonna get some news on the descent movie directed? or just written by goyer? now that was a damn fine book
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I dunno ... seeing t-birds 1 thru 5 could be fun live action, however, I doubt that the project will be up to how I enjoyed the shows as a kid. Personally, I'd rather see FireBall XL5. And what about Gigantor? lol, I know, Iron Giant covered that, and damned well too! I could gripe and say ... "Hey, what about something new?" ... but that would be shovelling against the tide.
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On the plus side we've got Frakes. The Next Gen movies he's done are the best since Khan: he knows his sci-fi/action.
One the minus....if he screws this up it could be another Thomas and the Magic Railroad (hey, wasn't Alec Baldwin in that, spooky).
I for one like the idea of aiming at kids, after all isn't that what Lucas did with the first Star Wars?
If he has any sense he'll stick as close as he can to the original premise, maybe see if any of the original tech staff will come on board.
If this is done right, this could be very good. -
The DVDs of "Battle of the Planets" or "G-Force" or "Gotchaman" as they were known in Japan, are pretty cool. They show you, in great detail, how quality anime has its fun and exciting elements surgically removed before playing to American audiences. Yes, it would be cool to see a live action film involving these characters. I can just see the TB freaks going nuts about how the characters flying around and kicking ass doesn't seem "human" enough on the screen. If you'd like to see something cool involving "Battle of the Planets" run to your local comic shop and pick up some Alex Ross artwork featuring the five characters. Their new comics are pretty awesome too.
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That show creeped the hell out of me when I was a little kid. Who the hell created that and why did they have to make the villains those disgusting Martian androids? If I'm not mistaken, all of the characters were puppets (very similar to 'Thunderbirds') and the story had something to do with humans battling these bizarre mutants in deep space. I remember the mutants gave birth to this androgynous little beast named Birlgoy,.... does anyone remember this at all? I couldn't dream up something this bizarre!!!
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Hmmm, terrahawks. Didn't every episode end with a game of Noughts and Crosses (Tic-Tac-Toe).
The good robots were spherical and the bad guy ones were cubes with X's on them. The excitment was tremendous. Really. -
Frakes is a perfect subconcious choice to direct the Thunderbirds movie. Why? Because in '94, when I saw that hokey Enterprise crash in Star Trek Generations, I left the theatre saying, "That crash was straight out of Thunderbirds."
So there it is. Hollywood thought radar picked that up. Just like they made Cop and a Half after Christopher Guest made fun of the premise in The Big Picture. -
I guess has started reading CNN.com as well since this was there three days ago.
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...last I heard, anyway. Misc.MAYHEM Productions is doing a new Supercar comic book series (as well as Fireball XL5 and UFO). Go Figure. Go Thunderbirds.
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I never caught the Thunderbirds bug, I thought Gerry Anderson's Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was much better. Making a film of Thunderbirds seems to follow the recent trend of making films out of old tv shows so why not? Hollywood has been unoriginal for years. It'll different that's for sure. The whole attraction to the tv series was that it was marionettes. The premise of the series wasn't that interesting, so I guess it'll have to be fairly heavy on action and FX, but that's OK too, right? Captain Scarlet, on the other hand, had a far more interesting premise. I wish Anderson would make another puppet series. Also, Thunderbirds ran at 50 minutes, instead of the usual 25, and it was way way way too long winded.
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I am so sick and tired of geek boys complaining about films that *should* be marketed to a family audience. As much as I am tired of films like Spider-Man and MIB II that could very eaily tone down the violence and be acceptable for any audience. (For the record, I saw and enjoyed Spder-Man, haven't seen MIB II. If it was PG I probably would have gone to see it with my kids.) It is difficult enough for a parent to find movies that they can enjoy and also bring their kids to. In general, I will not bring my kids to PG-13 films because, in general, I don't think they're appropriate. And to all those out there are are going to give that knee-jerk "why don't you see the films first" crap, I say this. First, I do see the films first. But you know what? I work full time, and I don't have a lot of time to waste going to movies twice because I want to see if it's appropriate for my kid. I need to know that I can take them to a movie and there will not be anything inappropriate. And I DON'T know that uless the movie is G or PG. That's just a statements of fact. I know a lot of parents with kids my kid's ages routinely take them to PG-13 and even R movies - well, that's them but it's not me. So give it a rest. Thunderbirds IS and SHOULD BE a family film - even one aimed at younger kids. You've got enough movies aimed at an adult audience that SHOULD be aimed at a younger audience - don't complain about a movie that IS being aimed at a young audience that SHOULD be aimed at that audience.
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This film is destined for greatness. it will be a new benchmark, in the same vein as Battlefield Earth. As for Jonathan Frakes, what better material to turn his considerable skills to then the craft of handpuppets and high drama. Yes, my friends, every generation has its GYMKATA, its KRULL. and now Jonnie boy is going to birth for us his baby, as his testament to the 21st century. this talkback is pretty fantastic too, i've got to tell you boys. it's up there with the DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS talkback. remember that one? i almost lost my job over that one, i was laughing so hard at my desk reading it. (http://www.aintitcool.com/tb_display.cgi?id=7617#233868)
and while we're at it, don't forget harry's now iconic BATMAN SCOOP (GORDON HAS A BEER AND CHEETS ON HIS WIFE). (http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=9819)
it might survive for posterity as well. -
Whether you're a fan of comic books or not, they just relaunched a comic book version of G-Force (aka Battle of the Planets aka Gatcheman). So far it's true to the spirit of the original cartoon. I'd love to see a feature film made of it - but only if they stayed true to the manga influences. Ideally, they should get the same director who did Princess Mononoke - Miyazaki - and do an animated version. I'm doubtful an American director could really do justice to a live action version.
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As far as the Thunderbirds go, there's nothing more hilarious than the SNL parody of them on T.V. Funhouse. I admit I had a fascination with the hilariously freakish puppetry, but it wasn't worth watching for any other reason. Frakes has proven that he's a competent director. He just hasn't had a good script to work with. He's also my boy because he was the voice of Xanatos in Disney's Gargoyles cartoon, which deserves to be made into a live-action film. Now give Frakes THAT to direct, with a great script, and good FX budget and I think we'd have a nice franchise on our hands.
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Some of my fondest memories of childhood came from this series. Please god, don't let them fuck it up.
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And no, it's not a freakin crap video game or spinoff film featuring BobOskins. Anyone who makes a mess of any Gerry Anderson series will die horribly.Terrahawks ? Japanese cartoons ? Shi*te. Forget all that.
Ask Riker one question;- who is going to play Parker, and will he get the accent right?
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The premise of Captain Scarlet was far superior, than the corn-bred, half-Aryan boys of Thunderbirds - but the show was limited to about 25 minutes - no time at all to get a decent storyline in. Thunderbirds got the full 50 minutes, even allowing time for crap jokes and seeing Thunderbird 2 take four minutes to take off every episode. Rejoice though, Captain Scarlet is being made into a new series - all CGI. Now the indestructable man can do the one thing he never could do - walk. P.S. Terrahawks was the most fucked up piece of child scaring television ever...
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Look, Thundebirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray and Joe 90 were made in the mid-60s - even before 2001:A Space Oddity redefined how things should look on the big sceen.
They were made for a pitance of a budget, hence, in order to get the level of sfx Gerry Anderson wanted, he HAD to use puppets - he *HATED* doing that - he was *EMBARRASSED*! (He did go on to make Space 1999 which did offer some glimmer of a bigger budget)
Why were the Thunderbirds story lines so s l o wwwwww...Well, they are of their time - it was childrens television (hence the minimal budget) and in the 1960s, childern tended to be patronised when it came to TV programmes - hell, the BBC still had "Listen/Watch with Mother" and Muffin the Mule (please - no jokes about it still being illegal) ruled the (air)waves...
Life was slower then no internet, no global satellite communication s and no mobile phones - today things have to happen at an ever increasing pace, with ever bigger explosions etc etc - we have lost something along the way - the balance between feeding a childs imagination and feeding the coffers of the TV networks keen to put mindless eye-candy up so that can get the maximum advertising revenue.
Think - when was the last time you watched something on TV that genuinely informed, educated and entertained you (Lord Reith - the foundations of the BBC) - The West Wing (perhaps ER) is probably the ONLY intelligent US show in production - the rest is eye candy - fast paced, gun/wooden stake fights, explosions and a new dolly bird each week..(Yes - sexist but I think you get the point)
Gerry Anderson wanted to try and expand the imaginations of children and he did so in the best way he could given the resources he had.
Captain Scarlet was made for the US market, and GA had seen the way US television was going, hence the faster pace and glorious explosions - but it is still a relic of it's time.
Bring them back, bring them out of the time warp, but don't just go for the lowest common denominator - try and make something intelligent out of it. -
Thunderbirds,was,at the time one of the most expensive shows out,as was ufo.Space 1999 was THE most expensive show EVER in 1974/5
I think Frakes is a good choice,Thunderbirds was always exciting,the explosions quite superb and it had Thunderbird 2[favorite episode,SUNPROBE,MAN,DID THOSE PUPPETS SWEAT]ufo was really a re-hash of the premise of Scarlet and a far superior show,apparently a German business man is trying to get a movie off the ground.We shall see.
[ I hope the costumes dont include those burger king hats,and Pete Postlethwaite IS Parker!]
F.A.B! -
Jul 23, 2002 8:44:13 AM CDT
How can you people think Cap Scarlet was better than t birds?
by northerner82
Thunderbirds was THE single best kids show I ever watched when I was younger.
Come on lets get that movie up and running...I'm happy with a kids movie as long as it has adult appeal, somewhere along the lines of Tarzan, Shrek, even The Mummy. But for the love of God don't ruin the show like the uber lame inspector Gadget! -
Jul 23, 2002 10:52:59 AM CDT
When are they going to do Land of the Lost for crying out loud!!
by enik1138
CG Sleestaks would rock!
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