Stargate reboot incoming - it will be a trilogy

[The Romulan Republic]

I think this would be a good thing in theory... if Emerich wasn't running things.

[bilateralrope]

A reboot that takes the property being rebooted in a completely different direction is a good thing in my opinion.

...yeah....right...

You do know what Emmerich's original vision was...there were a few novels...be afraid, very afraid.

Please elaborate on what that vision was. I've forgotten what I did see of it.

[PREDATOR490]

I suppose if we are going with the latest trend in fucking over franchises for new directions - They could make the new Stargate team all women.

Yes, because its such a terrible thing to have a predominantly female cast, and lord knows what made all those franchises great was that it was men in the lead roles.

Seriously, I'm not sure how much this is misogyny vs generic "they changed it so its ruined" fan whining, but since you went out of your way to make a jab at predominantly female casting in remakes, without it having anything to do with the rest of the conversation as far as I can see, it looks like you have an ax to grind on this issue.

...

I wouldn't particularly buy an all-female team here, because its the US military which is a) still mostly male and b) to my knowledge does not use gender segregated teams. But I wouldn't mind seeing them play with the casting a bit.

It was a reference to how 'New Direction' often translates into modernisation to fit the latest trends even when it adds or even subtracts from the actual content of the film. Ghostbusters being the latest example.
If they want to do an all female cast - fair enough but I would rather not sit through a Stargate remake of Emancipation just because the cast is female. Just as much as I do not want to see the film being turned into a poster for gun control or any other 'message' a 'new direction' wants to pursue so that the movie can somehow try to remain culturally relevant with a premise that does not need it in the attempt to tick more demographic boxes.

[The Romulan Republic]

I don't think that casting more women is just a trend (I certainly hope not), or just to "tick more demographic boxes". Some people may do it for those reasons, but their are plenty of other reasons to do it.

Most obviously, there is, and has historically been even more so, a deficit of good and diverse female roles in Hollywood, outside of "love interest" and "damsel in distress". So I don't begrudge some effort to balance that out. Its not to me so much about sending a message (though it certainly has that effect) as it is simple fairness, which shouldn't be a political issue, even though it has been made so. That and a preference for realism in film, which means reflecting the complexity and diversity of the actual world unless there's a reason why it wouldn't be applicable (for example, a realistic historical film set on a WWII submarine would be expected to have a heavily male cast).

However, I would agree that a reboot should probably be more than "Just the same, except with women instead of men". That sounds like lazy, hack writing.

For the most part, though, my preference, in theory, would actually be to cast without regard to race or gender where possible (if there's a role that can be played by both men and women, allow both to audition and go with whoever seems best, etc.). Or, otherwise, to go for maximum realism. For example, take the classic science fiction movie Forbidden Planet- in that film, the space ship crew is all white male. This would have been entirely believable when the film was made in the 50s, but if you did that now, it would imply that the future society had actively regressed backward from the present, if out of a crew of 20-odd astronauts every single one was a white man. So keeping the composition of the crew the same would create a very different impression now, and a hypothetical remake might do well to shake up the casting on that basis. Likewise, a military team sent through the Stargate today might be more diverse in composition than on sent through in the early to mid '90s, when the original Stargate film was made.

[Mlenk]

I'm admittedly too much of a fanboy of SG1 to have much real interest on a reboot based on the IMO shitty movie.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'm admittedly too much of a fanboy of SG1 to have much real interest on a reboot based on the IMO shitty movie.

I don't know which I would say is better overall- I don't feel that I've watched enough SG-1 to pass judgement on that.

But certainly the show surpassed the film in scope, influence, longevity, and probably popularity.

Its fairly rare for a show to surpass a film it was based on, isn't it? Truth be told, Buffy is the only other example I can think of.

Though I don't see why one must measure one against the other. If one doesn't like the film, fine, but I'm quite comfortable with the idea of multiple continuities of a franchise existing side by side.

[Axton]

A reboot that takes the property being rebooted in a completely different direction is a good thing in my opinion.

Indeed.

To me, the whole point of a reboot, creatively, is to take an interesting concept and have the freedom to run with it in a different direction.

A reboot that just rehashes the same old stuff is hack work- at best, it'll be a cash-in on nostalgia, in all likelihood.

I take a dim view of reboots in toto.

If you're going to rehash what's already been done, you're a lazy butthole who can't be arsed to do something new.

If you're going to grab a pre-sold marquee and then 'take it in a whole new direction', you're a cowardly butthole who doesn't think your 'new direction' can stand on its own merits.

[The Romulan Republic]

A reboot that takes the property being rebooted in a completely different direction is a good thing in my opinion.

Indeed.

To me, the whole point of a reboot, creatively, is to take an interesting concept and have the freedom to run with it in a different direction.

A reboot that just rehashes the same old stuff is hack work- at best, it'll be a cash-in on nostalgia, in all likelihood.

I take a dim view of reboots in toto.

If you're going to rehash what's already been done, you're a lazy butthole who can't be arsed to do something new.

If you're going to grab a pre-sold marquee and then 'take it in a whole new direction', you're a cowardly butthole who doesn't think your 'new direction' can stand on its own merits.

Or you find that specific premise appealing in some way, but have your own ideas on its implications that you want to explore. That is neither lazy, as it requires inventively playing with the existing framework, nor is it cowardly or piggybacking your idea on someone else's work.

You can make bad reboots. You can make good reboots (see Nolan's Batman, Craig's Bond).

Edit: Also, sometimes a franchise gets irreparably cocked up by some moron's bad ideas or mismanagement and just needs to start over with a cleanish slate. For example, would Star Trek really be worse off if, say, Enterprise was purged from canon?

[Gandalf]

Or you find that specific premise appealing in some way, but have your own ideas on its implications that you want to explore. That is neither lazy, as it requires inventively playing with the existing framework, nor is it cowardly or piggybacking your idea on someone else's work.

You can make bad reboots. You can make good reboots (see Nolan's Batman, Craig's Bond).

Edit: Also, sometimes a franchise gets irreparably cocked up by some moron's bad ideas or mismanagement and just needs to start over with a cleanish slate. For example, would Star Trek really be worse off if, say, Enterprise was purged from canon?

Another good reason for the existence of reboots is to be able to relate a story to a new audience who may not appreciate the story's original form. For example, Seven Samurai is an amazing film, but hard to screen to western audiences. However, if one remakes that film into something more Magnificent Seven shaped, it allows a retelling of the same story using a more understandable language.* There's nothing inherently wrong with either film, but it's part of the long tradition of humanity retelling and adapting the same stories but changing them a little each time.

*I don't mean just English as opposed to Japanese, but also wider cultural concepts and filmic storytelling language. As example being that a fifties western filmgoer might not understand the nuances of a samurai, but they'll understand an old west gunslinger.

[Themightytom]

One of the most insanely tedious / ludicrous aspects of SG-1 was the consistent requirement for Earth to be the centre of attention to the point that everything from King Arthur to the Pyramids to Atlantis etc. were all aliens.

I don't see how this makes Earth the centre of attention. If anything, it says "we're this little backwater that's constantly having our fate dictated by outside forces we're not even aware of". Its not like aliens didn't do shit to other worlds in Stargate, and all the big power blocs were off Earth, at least initially.

In any case, you're talking SG-1, not the original film. In that film, I don't recall anything establishing Earth as particularly important except insofar as it happened to be the world Ra visited way back when, and it happened to be one of the worlds with a Stargate on it.

Well with SG-1 I kind of have the same gripe. In the movie, Earth was so important Ra never bothered to go back in the ship he arrived in, in the first place, after he was kicked off by the locals, so yeah not really a big deal there.

In SG-1 though, Earth was the center of the ancient civilization in our galaxy pretty firmly established by the time of Stargate Universe, where the address for Destiny had to use Earth's point of origin even when they weren't on Earth. After the ancients, the GIANT ALIENS, the Asgard, and the Goa'uld all took up residence at one point or another, couldn't they have picked Chulak or Kelowna? All the second wave of humans after the ancients died out were descended from Earth, so apparently the ancients never seeded them anywhere else. Earth became the center piece of the Jaffa/Tokra uprising, because we have guns and they have sticks, and we blow things up while the Tokra plot, etc. When Atlantis was losing to the wraith and it was time to evacuate, they went to Earth's ice caps, nowhere else, Like tantalus, or the giant temple where O'Neil got facehugged, or anywhere with like a building to move into? Unless there was a settlement not really shown on screen that disappeared never to be seen again when the SGC started digging around the outpost.

I'm excited about a reboot, I'm obviously dismayed that we'll never REALLY see the end of Universe, and some of the ideas for movies sounded good, but I think the actors for the most part have moved on and the series relied on the "secret world" premise, which after a decade of building space ships seems unlikely to still be secret. By rebooting, you still get the whole "stepping through the looking glass" premise where some ordinary guy can discover a whole new world.

If they took the stargate out of the hands of the military though, that might be really interesting, maybe an illuminati style secret society, has kept it under wraps, or a cult of devoted worshippers has discovered it and wants to open it for an invasion, or maaaybe even the grad students find a thing and get in way over their heads. The original movie's airforce controlled secret base was just a very nineties idea. Maybe it started it, or maybe it drew off of it, but it will be interesting to see where they go. I thought Universe was an Altantis rip off when it first aired but it kind of grew on me more than Atlantis ever did.

[Borgholio]

or maaaybe even the grad students find a thing and get in way over their heads.

There was an episode of SG-1 where a civilization on par with early 20th century Earth had the Stargate in a museum and it scared the hell out of people when SG-1 stepped through. Having the Stargate be revealed in public first would be an interesting twist, even if it is whisked away to a military bunker for security reasons after the fact.

[Themightytom]

or maaaybe even the grad students find a thing and get in way over their heads.

There was an episode of SG-1 where a civilization on par with early 20th century Earth had the Stargate in a museum and it scared the hell out of people when SG-1 stepped through. Having the Stargate be revealed in public first would be an interesting twist, even if it is whisked away to a military bunker for security reasons after the fact.

Was the stargate revealed in that, or was it just the accidental hostage situation, I can't recall. I remember now there was one where students DID find the stargate but the military stepped in and blinded Teal'c? Both scenarios could start a very different trilogy. I'd almost like to see them ditch the one way travel gimmick though too and avoid the temptation of a "We're trapped and need to study runes to dial back" thing.

[Elheru Aran]

SG1 had a few different situations like that. Honestly the show ran long enough they managed to cover quite a few variations of the "world discovers a stargate" thing...

[Lord Insanity]

There are two things the original movie did that SG-1 ignored. The planet they first went to was estimated to be halfway across the known universe. Ra was very clearly depicted as a "grey alien" wearing a human suit. Also the creature SG-1 used as the "god parasite" was just a random alien critter fossil found near the stargate in the movie.

I enjoyed SG-1 even though I haven't seen seasons 9 & 10. I never watched Atlantis but I did like Universe. I never watched any of the TV movies either. (Screwy I know.)

I must admit I am curious to see what the original story was supposed to be. This is one of the few times a remake makes sense. (Kind of like what would James Cameron have done in Terminator 3.) If the stargate movie remake is crap I still have 7 seasons and a few movies of the TV continuity to watch eventually.

[Themightytom]

I must admit I am curious to see what the original story was supposed to be. This is one of the few times a remake makes sense. (Kind of like what would James Cameron have done in Terminator 3.) If the stargate movie remake is crap I still have 7 seasons and a few movies of the TV continuity to watch eventually.

Ah a fellow skipper of Fargate.