It was just a few days ago that we reported that Bryan Singer can now work on a ‘Battlestar Galactica’ movie since Warner Bros. passed on his ‘Excaliber’ reboot. Well, it looks like this project is on the fast track as it has been announced that Universal has signed  John Orloff to pen the screenplay.

John Orloff is best known for his writing skills on the Angelina Jolie movie ‘A Mighty Heart’, the animated feature ‘Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole’ and the soon to be released film ‘Anonymous.’ How did he get the job? According to Hitflix, Orloff got the gig because Singer happened to see ‘Anonymous’ and enjoyed it. He contacted Orloff and spoke about how BSG was similar to a Shakespearean story but set in an interstellar atmosphere. As they spoke, Orloff gave his take on the story which he called “pretty ballsy” and apparently Singer was sold.

Orloff told Deadline,“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. I love BSG, and I would pass on the job rather than frak it up.”

Although his resume doesn’t exude sci-fi, Orloff is a self-proclaimed sci-fi geek:

“I’m actually a science fiction geek more than anything. I just sort of got type cast as sort of a non-fiction screenwriter. That’s because the first thing I ever wrote was ‘Anonymous’ and then my first job was ‘Band of Brothers,’ and that led to ‘A Mighty Heart.’ But I’m a total ‘Star Wars’ geek. I was a huge ‘Star Trek’ nut. ‘2001’ is probably my favorite film. Stanley Kubrick is my favorite director; every movie is like a novel in the sense of the metaphoric depths of his thinking. And so my whole life I’ve always wanted to write a space epic. So to finally get a chance to write in the genre that I wanted to write basically forever is really cool.”

So what can we expect from his version of ‘Battlestar Galactica?’ As revealed by Hitflix, Orloff says:

“I’m a huge fan of the original series and of the second show, too. But I always thought the first show was a little too heavily reliant on ‘Star Wars,’ you know? Whereas I think the second show was really original and really cool. And I think I’ve come up with a way to write this movie that won’t (mess) any of that up. I’m not sure how much they want me to talk about it. Let’s just say it’s not what you expect. It will all work in the universe that exists. It will not conflict with anything Ron Moore has done. I don’t think you can compete with what he’s done.”

So for those of you who were concerned of this reboot film of the ‘BSG’ series, it looks like Orloff is going to tread very carefully to what has already been done in the franchise. Maybe similar to what Abrams version of ‘Star Trek’ did for that franchise? All in all, everything seems to be pointing to a ‘Battlestar Galactica’ movie coming out very soon.

Does the news of Orloff writing the script put your mind at ease or do you still think another ‘BSG’ movie is all frakked up? Let me know below! I’d love to hear your thoughts!