The 1999 film ‘Galaxy Quest’ was a box office dud, but the sci fi comedy found new life on home video and in the ensuing years has blossomed into a true cult phenomenon, which is appropriate considering that it was a spoof of the biggest cult phenom of them all, ‘Star Trek,’ and its fandom. Now, Amazon is looking to adapt the film into a streaming series. Paramount, which also owns ‘Star Trek’ began shopping the concept around last April and it looks like Amazon, which is attempting to establish itself as a streaming entertainment outlet akin to Netflix, bit.
The movie starred sitcom heavy weight Tim Allen as William Shatner Jason Nesmith, an egomaniac down-on-his-luck actor struggling to leave behind his defining role on a cheesy 80s space adventure show. His ego has estranged him from his fellow castmembers, headed by Sigourney Weaver as eternal pinup Gwen DeMarco and Alan Rickman as serious British thespian Alexander Dane, whose respectable work is overshadowed by his performance as a prosthetically disguised alien commander a la Mister Spock.
The movie really kicks off when the cast, reduced to appearing at fan cons to make ends meet, is shanghaied into space by a peaceful alien race who believe their televised adventures were real and expect them to become the heroes they played in order to save them from an evil alien overlord named Sarris.
The original film was directed by Dean Parisot and was written by David Howard and Robert Gordon. Gordon is penning the script for the pilot, while Parisot will direct, and both are executive producing along with original exec producers Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein.
It’s still early in the process, so there is no casting news, but it’s probably too much to hope for a reunion of the amazing original cast which also included Sam Rockwell, Tony Shalhoub, Daryl Mitchell and Missi Pyle.
Also, considering this is a show based on a movie based on a fictitious show that later became a new fictitious show– I think that’s right– it’s not actually clear what the plot will be. Most likely, I’d imagine that it will depict the events of the beginning of the movie with the rest of the series taking place in the middle of the movie, with these actors pretending to be real action heroes and fumbling around dangerous alien worlds. But that’s just a guess.
Previously, Amazon attempted to adapt another cult favorite movie, ‘Zombieland’ into a series, but its pilot didn’t score with viewers and Amazon decided not to pick it up beyond that. It’s unknown what process Amazon will take with ‘Galaxy Quest’ but hopefully with so many original creators behind the scenes, we’ll get a product that is faithful to the movie that will prove appealing to new and old viewers.
What would you like to see out of a ‘Galaxy Quest’ series?
Source: Entertainment Weekly
