Cool News
Updated With Ken Johnson Comments!! V Remake Pilot Moves Forward At ABC!!
Merrick here...
ABC has given a pilot greenlight to V.
This is a redux of Kenneth Johnson's alien invasion/rise of the Nazis allegory which first aired on NBC back in 1983.
Written on spec by Scott Peters, the new "V" will center on a female Homeland Security agent. Peters is exec producing with HDFilms principal Jason Hall.
...says THIS ARTICLE in Hollywood Reporter.
V is one of two Warner Bros properties being developed for televised resurrection, the other being ABC's adaptation of John Updike's THE BITCHES OF EASTWICK - which George Miller directed as a movie back in 1987. Updike recently released a follow-up novel called THE WIDOWS OF EASTWICK (HERE), so I guess the timing's working out all around for this one...
Yes, I know it's really "WITCHES"...
UPDATE!!
I am – Hercules!!
James O’Ehley, editor of www.scifimoviepage.com, wrote to Kenneth Johnson to ask if he was involved in the TV remake and how ABC's efforts would affect Johnson's planned big-screen version of "V." Johnson's response:
“My involvement is zero […] but Jason and Scott are talented, nice guys and I wish them good luck. Their series does not prevent my ongoing efforts to remake my original V as a major motion picture. Hold good thoughts.”
Find all of www.scifimoviepage.com's story on the matterhere.
UPDATE!!
I am – Hercules!!
James O’Ehley, editor of www.scifimoviepage.com, wrote to Kenneth Johnson to ask if he was involved in the TV remake and how ABC's efforts would affect Johnson's planned big-screen version of "V." Johnson's response:
“My involvement is zero […] but Jason and Scott are talented, nice guys and I wish them good luck. Their series does not prevent my ongoing efforts to remake my original V as a major motion picture. Hold good thoughts.”
Find all of www.scifimoviepage.com's story on the matterhere.
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I hope they can make it good like the relaunches of Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who not bad like the relaunches of Flash Gordon and Bionic Woman.
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http://tinyurl.com/yodxgn
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I'm in! bring back the 80's hair too! i love me some V....especially clean shaven!
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seriously, what's Marc Singer up to these days?
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but the hour-long series was lame. As I recall it, they actually did two mini-series, with the first one ending in mid-revolt and the second one showing how the lizards were defeated. What's Michael Ironsides up to these days?
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Seriously is that the best you can do - reimagining something from the not too distant past ?
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Jan 26, 2009 10:29:12 PM CST
Knowing Haim from your Feldman is nothing to be proud of
by wuher da brewer
Knowing your Voight-Kampff machine from your proton pack, knowing your T-800 from your TWKE-4, knowing your Hammer from your Tygon or Amicus, knowing your Peter Lorre from your Lon Chaney Jr., knowing Bender from Nomad...
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watch it, do it: http://tinyurl.com/cxt834
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Dude, 1983 is almost as old as I am, and as they're already remaking and "re-imagining" properties from the LATE 80s this is NOT the property to be complaining about it being "too soon."
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...this is a no-brainer. Bring on the update of The Fall Guy while you're at it.
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Unless it is Lost or DH, ABC will cancel any non reality show these days. Why bother doing a pilot? Check your senses ABC, you are "broke" and you are greedy! I just met some folks that worked for PD and DSM, and you just fired them because "the shows were costly". Well, Make up cost! Why dont you start making shows with puppets instead? That will save you some bucks! Argh!
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The lad runs with a bad crowd of lizards.
Get 'em, Visitors. Kill and eat 'em all. -
You know you want it. And as for Nalapou, you should know better. Think I was born when Lost in Space, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, etc were on?
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Jan 26, 2009 10:57:44 PM CST
Given the tangled, ridiculous mess the original ended up...
by paul t. ryan
A remake was proabably the best way to go, even though I would have liked to see Johnson's sequel idea. I liked The 4400 and the original V minis, so I'll definitely tune in.
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That's a good burn. Genius.
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I would love to see that. Make Roddy Piper come back, too. It's not beyond reason that he survived after flipping off that helicopter.
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Cause he was a bad ass mofo on that show.
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I saw the original miniseries as a little kid when it first aired and it freaked me the fuck out when they tore their faces off and revealed their lizard faces.
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Where we Earthlings turn out to be the lizards and the enemy are really the humans we thought we were. Oh wait, wrong reboot...
But ya, the original Mini-Series (both of them) were awesome to watch. If you haven't seen them, you owe it to yourself. Once you get past the 80s retro-shock, it turns into a nightmarish re-warning. -
And the same ideas are coming to pass. Over and over again. Fantastic.
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I loved the original series. It gave a lot of food for thought and was unlike anything I had ever seen on TV.
However, there is a lot of room for improvement. Talk about heavy-handed cheese - I am not sure I could watch some segments without bursting into laughter these days. Not all, but quite a few. Same goes for the effects - we have come a long way since then, and even old 50s TWILIGHT ZONE episodes had better FX. Shit, the old-school DOCTOR WHO was more convincing in a lot of ways.
I put this up there with a CLASH OF THE TITANS remake for material I loved, but which I can definitely see the potential and rationale for remaking.
I'd say give this shit to Ron Moore, but he has mined a decent chunk of this territory for BSG and I am not sure he'd want to retread his thematic water. -
I don't know if you can really do V now ... V came out during the height of the cold war era of glorifying freedom fighters, equating cold war rebels with WW2 resistance movements then dressing it up as sci-fi. But we don't live the same era ... the US is, for this brief period of history we find ourselves in, the only superpower. The fear of conquest that motivated the story of V isn't there in western culture ... unless you want to retell it as a parable of the Iraqi point of view.
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Medic!!!!!!!!!!!!
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was it was sci fi back when there was practically none.
It really was a pretty crummy story.
And I watched it and loved it every week back then.
But there have been so many, far superior stories since then that V will embaress itself and everyone associated with it if this story is told now. -
Jan 27, 2009 12:30:40 AM CST
ABC: Why did you cut Kenneth Johnson out of this???????????
by snowpuff
This is a waste. We all KNOW what is going to happen. It will end up being some lukewarm piece of crap. What a waste.
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mmmm worth it to see her cougar around the Tv again
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Oh, I hope it is a laboured analogy of Bu$Hitler.
Because we really don't have enough of those.
Maybe the Visitors can but humans in a Guantanamo style camp.
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Micheal Ironsides was a total bad ass in V.
You got the feeling that he could have ended the alien threat in about 2hrs versus the multi-night miniseries.
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"But we don't live the same era ... the US is, for this brief period of history we find ourselves in, the only superpower."
Yeah, I am sure the 1 billion Chinese are thrilled to hear certain "enlightened" individuals spout the "single superpower" line.
I guess to these people China is just too full of "yellow" people to count as a superpower. Only whites need apply.
We had 3 superpowers (US, USSR, PRC) and now we have 2 (US & PRC). -
I'm just tired of that shit.
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which would make for a great Tv Series if done correctly...this not so much. Like the whole Aliens thing on earth has been done a bajillion times. Come up with something new please u fucks.
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The real news today is that RED DWARF is returning for a two part special.
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duh.
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Apparently we're getting two new episodes! Impoverished cable channel Dave is paying for it after the BBC couldn't be bothered to make any more.
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My mom.. for my 16th birthday... in 1986... made a GIANT RED "V" cake... BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! I had all the paperbacks. The DC comics series (20 something issues).. A GREAT concept. Inteligent writing can make this amazing... and should.
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Kenneth Johnson opened up with tasty FU to Reagan-era interventionism. I remember "V" fondly. But the point in remaking "V" is? "V for Vendetta" and "Children of Men" already sounded the alarm for internalized post-9/11 repression. And making the hero Homeland Security? What, will they have some forced change-of-heart like a cruel border guard in a "Babel"esque tale that suddenly grows a soul? I liked the Marc Singer "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" type of hero who is suspected and reviled by the authorities, while living in a perpetual haze of fear and paranoia, not some shitty sentimental character arc! Oh, and I did like "Babel", but its trappings are off base for allegorical science fiction. Kenneth Johnson is cut out, but these fuckers will be sorry.
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must be that time of year
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Jan 27, 2009 5:56:53 AM CST
Why do TV execs continue to believe these remakes work?
by indycollector
The track record says otherwise. Knight Rider, The Fugitive, Family Affair, 90210 (I don't know if it's doing okay ratings wise but it's no phenomenon like the original), The Twilight Zone. I'm sure there are others. Help me out. The only two I can think of that were successful are Battlestar Galactica and The Outer Limits.
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I used the qualifier "this brief period of history" because it will change - but right now the US are the ones with aircraft carriers and military bases in every corner of the world, not the Chinese. And, in the context of V, I don't get the sense people are afraid of China showing up in big hardware on our doorstep.
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I love V! It's a great property that deserves a new shot. Guys, use the blue print that worked; Battlestar Galactica. Maybe get Jane Badler to work the way they worked in Richard Hatch.
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there has been talk of this for yrs, with interest picking up again when BSG relaunched....about time I say.....
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Kenneth Johnson's original 2 part mini-series was magnificent. It all got a bit silly in The Final Battle and the weekly series though. But why make the new character a homeland security worker? Keep the government out and focus on everday people.
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Would it be marginally possible to have a ass-kicking male agent be a lead character again?..I'm becoming incredulous to every 98 lb. woman with a "C" cup being able to kick everybody's asses, stare down all her bosses, and still have enough vulnrability to break down once a week due to a lost mother/father/lover/child/puppy/...
I understand it's a new age of equality, but let's rotate it up a bit, people--Or is Jack Bauer SO manly that it takes umpteen shows with female agents to offset him...
And if we're going to have *another* female hero, at least do something different with her. We don't need *another* agent Dunham from Fringe boring the audience. -
Think about it my fellow geeks...I mean, how many times are we delighted to find a "Battlestar Galactica" in the rough? (And don't forget that the large MAJORITY of you all 'hated' the new BSG back in 2003..."Starbuck a girl? No Fucking way!!!") This show, especially going to NBC, will be disgustingly awful. I can only imagine the cast: Cheery young fitness models and Rob Zombie horror movie cast-offs, running around trying to fight CGI lizards. Mmmmmm....can't wait. Can you? I mean how many times do these networks get to destroy the memories of our youth? Do you really want to see some pathetic, Jared Padalecki wanna-be like Scott Porter chew up scenery in an attempt to channel Michael Ironside’s Ham Tyler? Do you really think that (insert lame pretty boy actor here) will actually make me believe that he is a hardened merc who is out to destroy the alien invaders? “What a waste of good luggage.” No. What we have here is a ‘Night Rider’ clone. Poor CGI, worse acting and some really bad writing. And you know what? Mr. & Mrs. Trailer-Park will EAT THIS SHIT UP! And we will be left holding our proverbial dicks in our hands, wondering what the fuck is wrong with the world.
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will be out to tear up those lizzards. Their skin makes great Prada handbags...
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Remakes of BJ and The Bear, Manimal, Remington Steele and TJ Hooker all greenlit ! Ugh !
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Who needs a remake when there are so many unanswered questions?
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Did I just see a "General Hospital" promo on AICN?
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...it really hasn't held up so well. I suppose a reimagining could work in threory, but focusing it around a Homeland Security agent ruins one of the most intriguing parts of the original series, that everyday people, from all walks of life, rose up to form a resistance movement. It almost had a kind of Lost feel to it with the cast. Who are the collaborators suppose to be now? Given that ABC is coming out with a "Homeland Security" TV series as well, this just smells of desperate propaganda, ironically contravening yet another message of the original. I might be interested in the Kenneth Johnson movie or a sequel miniseries, but ABC can go choke on a mouse if they think I'm gonna watch this turd.
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No interest.
Let Kenneth Johnson do this and do it right. -
No Kenneth Johnson? And yet another law/security theme? I'll wait for the real thing.
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if it were done as a hardcore SciFi/Action/Horror...but that won't happen.
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Since he died today. http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/01/27/obit.updike/index.html?iref=topnews
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Lucky bastard!
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Lucky bastard!
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...the cookie cutter female leads is the female child or sibling that is a pissy little bitch that would be slapped and sent to her room if it were the real world...and I can guaran-fucking-tee you that they will have a character like that...probably a child, because single Mom's are WAY better than married Mom's to Hollywood.
Here's your backstory on our lead, divorced single Mom with a bitch of a daughter (who has Daddy issues of course) who just got a new partner who she was once romantically attached to back in highschool or college. Can I have my check now? -
but he's able to talk to the animals, also the lizardmen are not really aliens but reptoids
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With real shape shifting reptoids secretly controlling society. Take kookie shit people actually believe and exploit is just like Emerich is doing with 2012.
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Have humans land on the lizard planet.
Dressed in a full-lizard pimp suit, complete with lizard shoes and hat.
Matching lizard wallets and wristbands would give it that complete effect.
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Sort of?
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Dunno if she'd accept a TV Star salary, but if she does climb down from her high horse to do it it would be well worth a watch. Didn't like what Alan Moore said though, I'm paraphrasing here, but I think it went something like "those fucking cunts ain't got a clue about where I'm coming from, first they shit all over my highly original Jack the Ripper theory, which by the way was in no way 'ripped' off the Michael Caine TV movie or the one with Sherlock Holmes and Donald Sutherland, and then they fuck me over with my beloved Watchmen, by not having my fuck off monster squid in the film at all!!!! Grrrrrr!!!!! oh (laughs) and now they tell me that they intend to cheapen V, my uber brain stroking, social commentary on 80's Britain - which by ironic coincidence is more relevant today than it was in 1983- fuck I'm that good - by turning it into a Science Fiction Invasion flick!!!! I can feel my hairy nuts twisting in their sack. At this rate they'll try and turn my precious Swamp Thing into a cheap made for TV Movie, as well... wait a minute." Any, way you get the jist of where the beardy old fool is coming from I'm sure. But just think of it Natalie Portman naked, licking out a lesbian lizard bitch from outer space's. I'm sold.
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Don't be dissing MANIMAL - along with STREET HAWK, that'd be THE 80s properties I'd love to see back! FALL GUY is a possibility, but no theme tune = no Spud in the seat watching. I loves me some Lee Majors singing the feem tune.
No Kenneth Johnson, Marc Singer, Jane Badler or continuation of original series = EPIC FAIL. This will be the next BIONIC WOMAN - promising, but useless in the final analysis.
thecomedian has the right idea. A lone conspiracy nut who sees something real that confirms the conspiracy - and runs for his/her life while trying to get the info out there. At the risk of sounding Browncoat, Nathan Fillion for Mike Donovan. Play him like Mel Gibson in CONSPIRACY THEORY, play it relatively like the original series, and throw in Jane Badler as his mole in the Senate / Congress / wherever (maybe a Republican from Bush's staff, so you'd have a reason why everyone else hates her) who he tries to convince - BUT WHO HAS BEEN A COLLABORATOR ALL ALONG! And who - in the last episode of the mini-series - IS REVEALED TO BE A LIZARD!!!
Hail to the Spud, baby. -
Yes, but better written, smarter, and with much more character development.
Though in fairness to ID4, it lacked enough high-octane action and a speech by a gravelly-voiced American President that would make a Taliban fighter salute the American flag! God bless America!!! -
Jan 27, 2009 5:10:55 PM CST
Nice (and not at all surprising) to hear Johnson's gracious comm
by paul t. ryan
He's a top bloke, and I do hope he get his project going eventually.
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Sorry Bill, but there it is.And ScriptGirl - you don't count. On both 'counts'!
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In the original the V graffiti was passed down from the Holocaust-survivor grandparents. Who do we have now, great-grandparents? Is this still going to be space Nazis or what?
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V was one of my favorite movies as a kid. And now it's tainted with propaganda for the tyrannical Homeland Security? Fuck that shit. Bring back Mike Donovan!
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After Kenneth Johnson took some other people's properties(Hulk, Steel), barely kept them faithful to the original sources(he had to be talked out of making the Hulk red after already changing his name, origin, and ability to speak), and gave us crap(although I did like Hulk as a kid watching the reruns), ABC will probably do the same to his precious V.
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When the baby came out and flicked its toungue I shat repeatedly until by asshole dry-heaved.
When the lizard baby came out I sprouted hemmroids the size of tootsie rolls.
Thank you V. -
yup.
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I thought he was doing a SEQUEL - 20 years later?
yes the original may not hold up all that well to, say, Gen-Y eyes with all those practical effects and what-not, but dammit we don't need COMPETING remakes!
seriously - anyone out there LIKE the idea ABC is floating? show of hands?
I'm not talking general "let's redo it" - specifically the idea they're going with - Homeland Milf etc...
fucking LAME
I dunno what trip Johnson is on these days but his idea of continuing the story (ignoring the Tv-series) was a good one, and allows for the world to have moved on as well, instead of trying to shoe-horn in the original concept into the modern world...
yeah that works SO well every other time they do it, right?
Day the Earth Stood Still anyone?? -
in an "Alien Nation" remake.
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In my opinion.
I don't like that a cabinet department is named that.
I don't know what I'd re-name it though. -
I'm in the camp that would much prefer Kenneth Johnson's 20 years later concept as a series rather than this remake. And if he manages to get a big-screen treatment made, I'm there.
With this being made, though, Singer should get a role like Hatch got on BSG. Only this time, he should be one of the top Visitors. -
Johnson might not have adhered to the origins and mythos of the Hulk, but no one can deny that the show had an integral part in informing the character and also for developing the popularity and the large following for ol' Greenjeans.
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He was okay in his day...but none of it holds up.
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It's going to be called A2uoman and will be bad ass. To be followed on the East coast by a re-imagined "The Master" starring Jet Li.
Hey, it could happen! -
V is a movie that Sci Fi would have made if they had been around back in the day*. Is it any wonder NBC has some stake in SciFi programming?
*Except witout the Canadians. -
it had to be centered around a woman, but really? It would actually be a novelty to have a man be the lead of a Sci-Fi show these days.
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because of the characters in the resistance. The premise was the height of silliness though. Lifting water out of Earth's gravity well, for a start - they could just grab Enceladus, which doesn't have any pesky apes to shoot back at them.
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I believe some of the appeal of the original is that it was about normal people who became freedom fighters. Yes some of them were cops and later mercenaries was added, but I liked the fact the two leads weren't really military people. The idea of homeland security, I believe, is kind of what the entire show is against. It was an allegory for fascism and the resistance to fight fascism. Just a thought.
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Agreed, I'm surprised they even managed to sell the name Homeland Security. It sounds just like fatherland or motherland. I suppose it doesn't help that they hired the former Stasi chief Markus Wolfe and former head of the KGB General Yevgeni Primakov to help run it. So many Americans just don't get it.
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I think the best thing to happen here would be for the pilot to NOT get picked up by ABC. I think Warner Brothers could develop V into another "tent-pole" movie franchise if executed properly. On TV, it would languish in modern network vapidity. At the very least, it needs to be developed at a network that understands and believes in Sci-Fi. And before the Lost fans dig in, I believe the majority of execs responsible for Lost (and Housewives) were let go shortly before the shows hit.
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then it ain't worth a bag of dicks...
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A V remake would be sweet if they use just a tenth of what has come to pass in our current events.The wars, Bush, Gas prices, the big three bail out, stem cell research... oh the list goes on and on.Would make it quite plausible of the idea of humankind greeting the aliens as the next best thing.As to the resistance... think of what the make up of the groups would be; young people who are hackers supreme,ex military who are the walking wounded... and of course my pick for devilish fun - our home grown survivalists, with networks, supplies and access to everything!!!!
Oh if they would only be perverse and do this remake the way it deserves to be done! -
Mmmm. Guinea Pig.
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He also did the same with Total Recall where he basically played the same character and even wore the same leather jacket. And...didn't that fat bloke who was Michael Ironside's side-kick make a cameo in Total Recall. Yeah. I'm sure it was him. Arnie was on the train on Mars and turned to a fat bloke and said "Where is Kohagan baztard!" or something else, to which the fat guy said "Yeah. I was in V with my old buddy, my old pal Micky Irons." Then he winked at the camera. Or I might have imagined it. But not all of it.
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got it at a Dollar General for like 5 bucks but i think it was only one disc (haven't watched it yet) but i kinda wonder if it was truncated for time. I guess an entire mini-series could fit on one disc. i'll have to check. still even truncated you can't beat a fiver..
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There were two miniseries, you probably have the first. The second miniseries, "V: The Final Battle" is what introduces Ham Tyler, so you're likely missing that half. Although apart from Michael Ironsides, the first miniseries was better.
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....that will last 4 episodes before being cancelled and completely forgotten. Can't wait for the M*A*S*H remake!
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