Topic: New Buck Rogers movie in the works?

[Nemesis]

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IGN Movies has learned from a longtime reliable source that classic science fiction hero Buck Rogers will return to theaters courtesy of Nu Image/Millennium Films, the outfit behind the recent revivals of Rambo and Conan.

Not only that but we were told that none other than comic book icon-turned-filmmaker Frank Miller will direct it! Miller co-directed Sin City with Robert Rodriguez and is currently making his solo directorial debut with a big-screen adaptation of another pulp hero, Will Eisner's

I would actually like a series that stuck to the original novel.  They might have trouble over accusations of racism against orientals though.

[Dash Jones]

there was an original novel?

I don't know much about the history, there was a comic book series in the 40's if I recall, and then there was a serial.  Later there were more serials and more comicbooks in the 50s.  I think it sort of died down then, overall, until Glen Larson ressurrected it into a 1 year (or was it two year) long TV show along the lines of Battlestar Galactica later (actually, now I think it was two seasons, and in the second season was a rather wierd way of trying to connect the two series as they looked for the lost tribes or something whilst wandering through space).

PS:  Almost forgot, it sounds cool that they are making a movie, I wonder which Buck Rogers series or what they will base it off of as a remake?  Or if there was an original novel, maybe they'll do it off that.

[Sirgod]

There was a tv series that predated your 40's comics

It came out about the same time as the old Flash gordons did, and featured Buster Crab as Buck rogers.

In the novel, buck is frozen in a cave, and comes to 500 years later. great read to be honest.

Stephen

[Vipre]

There was a tv series that predated your 40's comics

It came out about the same time as the old Flash gordons did, and featured Buster Crab as Buck rogers.

In the novel, buck is frozen in a cave, and comes to 500 years later. great read to be honest.

Stephen

It was a film serial not a tv show, though it was re-released in 1965 as Destination Saturn for television.

[Sirgod]

There was a tv series that predated your 40's comics

It came out about the same time as the old Flash gordons did, and featured Buster Crab as Buck rogers.

In the novel, buck is frozen in a cave, and comes to 500 years later. great read to be honest.

Stephen

It was a film serial not a tv show, though it was re-released in 1965 as Destination Saturn for television.

Doh! that's right. Serial. my bad. I'm so used to watching the serials one after the other (flash Gordon) that I always think movie.

Stephen

[Vipre]

I have a John Wayne serial from 1933 "The Three Musketeers (12-part serial)" on VHS which I received for Christmas from my uncle. They cut the tape itself too short during manufacture and it plays right up until JW is about to reveal the villain and then cuts off and begins rewinding. Talk about a climax killer. 

[Nemesis]

there was an original novel?

Of course.

The back story:

Some undefined disaster had occurred and destroyed civilization.  Out of Asia came the Han Airlords with a number of advanced technologies and destroyed all other emerging civilizations they encountered.  In the U.S. the survivors organized into gangs and made hidden settlements and underground factories.  Each gang was independent and they didn't coordinate together. 

Anthony Rodgers had been inspecting a mine in the 1920's and had been trapped.  It was assumed that a freak natural combination of gases and radiation put him in suspended animation.  Then when another land shift allowed in fresh air he awoke to a new world and encountered Wilma Deering who took him into the Deering Gang.  After a series of events he coordinates the gangs of the U.S. and leads them in defeating the Han.

At the end of the book they find indications that the Han were hybrid Human/Aliens not a new Chinese civilization.

Han Airlord Technologies

[/u][/color]

Rep Rays - pressor beams that they used to carry their "airships"

Dis - disintegrator beams which are also used as "walls" around their cities

Wall sized TVs that were used for virtual reality (remember this was published in the 1920's!) communications, telecommuting to work (factory workers included with teleoperated equipment) and entertainment (TV)

Human Technologies

[/u][/color]

Inertron - synthetic metal resistant to Dis and it is repelled by gravity (and attracted by Rep Rays).   They used this to shield some things from Dis but also to make travelling easier.  If you weighed 200#s you would carry slightly less than that in inertron and "weigh" only a few ounces, you would still have full inertia of the total mass including inertron.

"Long guns" - rifles and pistols but with rocket shells (bazookas essentially though they hadn't been invented yet).

Note: this is all from memory so I may forgotten some things or made mistakes in detail. 

About later novells

[/color]

Later there were more novels written by other authors based on outlines by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.  They extended things including making the disaster that ended 20th Century civilization be the events of their novel "Lucifer's Hammer".  They also had Rodgers in suspended animation because he was taken in by an alien life support mechanism, repaired (to standards closer to the alien warriors levels than to human) and stored until the environment was habitable.  He was not conscious when entering or leaving the concealled machinery and had no knowledge of it.

These novels cover various events decades after the original starting with an elderly Rodgers and Han resurgences from their own hidden cities.

I purposefully left things out of this to avoid "spoilers" for those whom may wish to read them.

[Age]

Oh Gawd No please.

[Nemesis]

Oh Gawd No please.

Why not?  Buck Rogers is a classic that likely helped spur the interest in space flight and science in general when it was written.  It became a comic strip, movie serial, TV Show and had sequels written decades later by other authors, it even spawned a role playing game at one point.  The original serials though by modern standards poorly made and acted if you consider the technology they had to work with were pretty well done for the time.  The sequel novels fleshed things out, explained the Han and their technology.

If you want to complain about the 1970s TV show then I advise you NOT to dis Wilma Deering as some here (GDA-S'Cipio among others) might be offended by your complaining about their Goddess and take extreme action. 

For those who may be interested in the original novel I have discovered (on a site pointed out by Stephen/Sirgod) an on line version of the original story (broken into two parts).  The book version I read included both parts and was still a fairly thin book.

The links below are to the HTML versions if you want the text versions they are easily findable on the site.

Part One : Armageddon 2419 AD

Part Two: The Airlords of Han

[Age]

Oh.I don't know possibly that the twiki thing in the show and the fact is I miss Andromeda me like Rommi on more personal note though I like Nicole deBoar (Ezri Dax) being lefty.I miss Stargate as well.I am  doing my darndest to get into this new BSG.It feels like a soap opera to me.

[Nemesis]

Oh.I don't know possibly that the twiki thing in the show and the fact is I miss Andromeda me like Rommi on more personal note though I like Nicole deBoar (Ezri Dax) being lefty.I miss Stargate as well.I am  doing my darndest to get into this new BSG.It feels like a soap opera to me.

I only saw a little of Andromeda, I couldn't stand it.  The new BSG I haven't seen yet (though my gift to my brother-in-law last Christmas addicted him to it ).

Do you really think that a new Buck Rogers would be like the 70's version of the show?  That version of the show and the old serials were very different from each other and both were different from the original novel.   All they shared in common was "Captain" Rogers spending about 500 years in suspended animation and Wilma Deering.  A new movie or series has a lot of room for originality.

[Age]

I guess another Scifi wouldn't hurt as long as no twiki and for all the crime drama it might be break from Law and Order.I miss my Andromeda someone shoulddo an Andromeda mod with lots of drones.