‘Buck Rogers’ TV Reboot In The Works From George Clooney & Brian K Vaughan
George Clooney, alongside Grant Heslov, co-founder of his production company Smokehouse, has joined a reboot of classic sci-fi show ‘Buck Rogers in the 25th Century’ from writer Brian K Vaughan and Legendary Entertainment.
For those of you not old enough to have experienced the glory of the classic tv series, it was created by ‘Battlestar Galactica’s Glen A. Larson and originally ran from 1979 to 1981, starring Gil Gerard in the title role. The story followed Captain William Anthony “Buck” Rogers, a pilot who gets accidentally frozen in time for 500 years when the life support on his spacecraft malfunctions. When he awakens, he finds himself in a world rebuilt following a nuclear war and is now under the protection of the Earth Defense Directorate. As he has no personal connections or records, he finds that his unique position and “ancient” skillset place him perfectly to help Earth Defense will covert and undercover missions. He’s helped in these endeavours by on/off love interest Colonel Wilma Deering (played by Erin Gray), and a robot sidekick named Twiki (voiced by Bugs Bunny’s Mel Blanc), who is probably best remembered for his unique “biddi-biddi-biddi” noise.
The character of Buck Rogers has been around in one form or another since the 20s. Created by Philip Francis Nowlan for the novella Armageddon 2419 A.D., it was first published in Amazing Stories in 1928. By 1929 the character was adapted into a syndicated comic strip, which was then followed by a radio play in 1932, a film serial in 1939 starring ‘Flash Gordon’ actor Buster Crabbe, and then the tv series in 1979.
Clooney and Heslov would exec produce the series for Smokehouse alongside Don Murphy and Susan Montford for Angry Films (‘Transformers’ franchise) and Flint Dille, the grandson of John F. Dille who was the publisher of the original Buck Rogers comic strip.
The script will come from the acclaimed comic book and screenwriter Brian K. Vaughan, who is no stranger to massive post-apocalyptic space opera. His previous comic book work includes ‘Y: The Last Man’, which is currently being made into a tv series by FX; ‘Paper Girls’, which is currently being adapted for screen by Amazon; ‘Marvel’s Runaways’, which was adapted for Hulu; And the epic and multi-award-winning beloved space drama ‘Saga’, which is possibly unfilmable, but I would still love to see someone try! His previous tv writing credits include multiple seasons of the hit ABC drama ‘Lost’, and he created CBS series ‘Under the Dome’ based on the Stephen King novel.
There is currently no casting in place for the tv series. Early rumours suggested Clooney himself might take the lead role, however, his agent has confirmed the actor/director is only signed on in a producer capacity at the moment. There is also no broadcaster attached right now.
The ‘Buck Rogers in the 25th Century’ reboot is currently in early development, so might not make it to series, but we’ll let you know if we hear any more news!
