“I have wanted to write this movie since I was 12 years old, and built a Galactica model from scratch out of balsa wood, cardboard, old model parts and LEDs,” screenwriter John Orloff told Deadline. “I love BSG, and I would pass on the job rather than frak it up.”
Well, the fans will be holding him to that last point as Orloff, the man behind Michael Winterbottom‘s “A Mighty Heart,” next weeks’ dodgy Shakespeare conspiracy movie “Anonymous” and Zack Snyder‘s stab at family entertainment “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole,” will tackle Bryan Singer‘s gestating big screen version of “Battlestar Galactica.” Heat has been building up around the project since Singer dished a few days ago that with his remake of “Excalibur” dead, he would be putting his sights on BSG. And with the hire of the Emmy nominated Orloff (he penned a couple of episodes of “Bands of Brothers“) it’s a strong step in getting the movie mounted.
The project has been one Singer has been chasing for a decade, with plans way back in 2001 to direct a pilot of a TV reboot of the show (it never got off the ground). And while the franchise has developed since on the small screen in a few different iterations, in 2009 Singer renewed his interest in “Battlestar Galactica,” signing on with Universal to direct to the film. Again, this will actually be a big screen version of the original TV show, not of any of the recent programs, so this will be going all the way back to the start. But when it actually happens remains to be seen.
Singer is currently working on “Jack the Giant Killer” for next summer and he also has a biopic of Bob Fosse over at HBO he signed on to direct. But putting a writer on BSG is the first major movement on the movie in a while and brings it one step closer to getting to the big screen, and with Orloff as enthusiastic as Singer, it seems they are a good pair for the gig.
