The US Syfy channel is set to make a "revolutionary reinvention" ’70s BBC sci-fi classic Blake’s 7 with Casino Royale and Green Lantern’s director Martin Campbell behind the camera (clearly he wants another stab at space opera after the disaster that was Green Lantern ).
FremantleMedia International and Georgeville TV will make 13 hour-long episodes for the channel, written by Joe Pokaski ( Heroes ).
The original show ran for four seasons between 1978 and 1981, and was about a political prisoner in an authoritarian society who escapes with a bunch of convicts in a mysterious alien spaceship, and set themselves up as rebels against the Federation.
In the original show, it was always fun trying to work out who constituted the “seven" (was Blake one of them, or was it him and his seven? Did the various computers count? There seemed to be different rules for different occasions…). But the press release for the new show seems to suggest the new grouping will be less vague, mentioning the core group features “six guilty and one innocent.”
So, do you think Syfy can do for Blake’s 7 what it did for Battlestar Galactica . And can Campbell claw some sci-fi brownie points back? Tell us what you think.
[via Digital Spy ]
