A new Battlestar Galactica by Brian Singer

From SlashFilm.com
Update by Editor Peter Sciretta: Entertainment Weekly has confirmed this report with Universal Pictures — Bryan Singer is signed on to direct a feature film version of Battlestar Galactica, which isn’t expected to be a continuation of the most recent Ron Moore Sci-Fi channel television show, but instead a complete re-imagining of the original 1970’s series. Original report follows below.

According to HitFix, Universal appear to be on the verge of engaging Bryan Singer to produce and also maybe direct a new Battlestar Galactica feature film. Quite a surprise, huh?

You may recall that before the Ron Moore TV series of recent years, Singer was working on a pilot for a reboot of the show himself (some Cylon concept art from their efforts is at the head of this post). That one was halted by in the aftermath of September 11th, 2001 after the Sci-Fi network became sensitive to similarities between the planned plot and real-life tragedy. Would Singer be looking to return to a similar storyline here? I think we can be pretty certain his film won’t be in any way tied into the recent series.

McWeeny is rather skeptical that Singer would sign up to direct a film based upon a premise still so fresh in the public consciousness, but I’m not so doubtful, personally. Would Universal really be the driving force here? I’d expect a conservative cautious studio to take some convincing that there was money here. Or maybe they just want some of that Star Trek dollar?

Read entire article here.

Bryan Singer returns to X-Men in class

Avatar continues to spread holiday joy to the nerd universe.
At the premiere of Avatar a couple of days ago, Bryan Singer finally confirmed rumors that he will return to the X-Men franchise. He has in fact just signed the deal with Fox to direct the next “Origins” film, which will reportedly look at the early days of Cyclops, Jean Grey and others at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Singer helped launched a new era in superhero films with the wildly succesful X-Men and X-Men 2. He then brought the man of steel back to the big screen with Superman Returns. While X-Men 3: Last Stand (directed by Brett Ratner) was financially successful, fans missed Singers vision for the genre and will surely welcome him back with open mutant arms.

Producer Lauren Shuler Donner said this about X-Men Origins First Class:

So it’s young Scott, young Jean, young Beast and that’ll be really fun. I think (the plan) is to follow some of the characters into their own stories, and weave them back into the X-Men world. And hopefully First Class will become its own franchise and we can follow them as they grow up.