Back in the summer of 2016 it was announced that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingjay director Francis Lawrence had signed on to develop a big screen reboot of the classic sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica.
Since then, we’ve heard nothing in the way of movement on the project, but speaking to Coming Soon to promote the release of his new movie Red Sparrow [read our reviews here and here], the filmmaker has confirmed that the film remains in development.
“I’m working on that, that’s something I’m developing,” said Lawrence. “I’m working on that with Lisa Joy, who is one of the creators of Westworld. The original series was actually one of the first sets that I ever went on. I remember being a kid and loving that show and they were filming near my house and my mom took me down there and I got to try on a Cylon helmet. I loved that show as a kid. I loved the Ron Moore show too.”
“There will definitely be visual nods [to the original show],” he continued. “We’re all fans of both series so there will definitely be nods, but for it to be worth doing for us we have to have our own take on it. Without getting into too much detail, there is thematic kind of stuff to make it relevant today. What makes something interesting to do is if there’s a relevance to the world we live in now… I also think it has to be about more than the A.I. of it all, as well. That’s an element, but I think we’ve found something else to say with it too, which I think is pretty cool.”
Battlestar Galactica tells the story of humanity on the verge of extinction after an attack by the Cylons, a race of machines. The remnants of humanity struggle to find the mythological planet Earth, the home of their ancestors, while being chased across the galaxy by the Cylons. The franchise originally launched in 1978 with the original TV series, which was followed by the sequel series Galactica 1980, a reboot which launched in 2003, and the 2010 spinoff Caprica.
