Trek's Jonathan Frakes to helm Thunderbirds movie

[Bayleaf48]

True they were, so it's a problem really as 2 what nationality actors 2 use


:blush:

 

[Dave]

update

Dark Horizons website reports:

Thunderbirds: The Movie: The Guardian [British Daily Newspaper] reports that after years of delays, the big-screen live-action version of the cult 60s children's TV show has been given the official greenlight. Working Title, the company behind such hit Brit comedies as "Four Weddings & A Funeral", "Notting Hill" and "Bridget Jones' Diary", is spending a £50 million budget (their biggest film yet) to bring the adventures of the Tracy family to the big screen, and unlike the script talk a month or so back it seems all they key characters will be back - Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon, John & Brains (although young Alan will be the main character). Model Sophie Dahl is already rumoured for the part of Lady Penelope, whilst shooting under the helm of Jonathan Frakes is expected to begin in March at Pinewood. Framestore, the FX company behind the latest Bond flick and the "Working with Dinosaurs" series will create the film's visuals whilst WT's Tim Bevan commented on why it took such a long time to get this project going: "We started work five years ago on this but we could never quite get the script right, and in retrospect, thank God we didn't. The special effects and their cost in particular have moved on so much since then - you can see it between the first and second Harry Potter films. Getting the Thunderbirds craft right is as important as getting the casting right. Thunderbirds 1, 2, 3 and 4 are the heroes of the piece in many ways. We have been faithful in the new designs to Gerry Anderson's original concepts in the way that the new Volkswagen Beetle or the new Mini are to their old ones". Thanks to 'Mathieu'.

Is it me, or do the new Volkswagen Beetle and the new Mini look nothing like the original models?

 

[ray gower]

I think they mean they took the original models and attached them to a very high pressure air line, to make them large and squidgy.

That appears to be what they did to the Beetle and Mini.


Now please excuse my ignorance- Who is Sophie Dahl?

 

[Dave]

She is the daughter of Roald Dahl and a model.

You must have seen her on billboards last year:

Ananova:

Naked poster accounts for one in three complaints

A poster featuring a naked Sophie Dahl accounted for one in three complaints about billboard advertising last year.

Almost 1,000 people objected to the advert for Yves Saint Laurent Opium in which the model writhed on a bed wearing only a pair of high heels.

The poster was the most complained about advert in the past five years, according to the Advertising Standard Authority's annual report.

The ASA ordered that the posters be withdrawn because they were offensive and degrading to women.

The authority received a total of 12,262 complaints last year. Of 2,696 complaints about billboard advertising, 948 related to the Opium poster.

 

[Tabitha]

For some reason I keep thinking of this person

when I think of casting for the Thinderbirds. Although maybe he looks a little bit more like Captain Scarlet...

It is Neil McDonough - you might remember him as Lt Hawk in First Contact, or as Anderton's 2-in-C from Minority Report.

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by ray gower
I think they mean they took the original models and attached them to a very high pressure air line, to make them large and squidgy.

That appears to be what they did to the Beetle and Mini.

There is an advert in the UK for a Peugeot car. Someone takes a perfectly nice car and rams it into a wall, front and back, then has an elephant sit on it. Then he attacks it with a hammer and blowtorch. Eventually it looks a little like the Peugeot in a magazine advert.

Tabitha -- Neil McDonough -- those are his biggest roles yet.

Things you didn't know about Lt Hawk

He is in 'Timeline' (if it ever gets released)

Who would you see him as in Thunderbirds? Too young for Jeff, too old for the sons.

 

[Tabitha]

You know, I am not sure which role I could see him in. I think it is more that he reminds me of one of the marionettes than anything else. Sorry - bad reasoning I know, but that is the only reason I have, honest
That is a good link btw - I never realised they had given the dashing (but unobtainable Lt Hawk such a good backstory).


Ok then, here we go - this is who Mr McDonough really looks like. Not Thunderbirds I know, but I think it is this marionette that I am reminded of.

found on this website:

http://members.tripod.com/chris_bishop_ca/captain_blue.html

 

[ray gower]

I wonder if, given a wig, he might make a reasonable Gordon Tracey.

http://freespace.virgin.net/anthony.clark2/characte.htm

 

[Tabitha]

Oh, good link Ray, I could seem him as Gordon. He definitely has the marionette-look!

On a related casting note, how about Noel Gallagher (s******) of Oasis for Parker. And Burt Kwok as Kyrano? I would watch Burt Kwok in just about anything, but he does actually look quite like the piccy on that site.

I guess it depends what age group of actors they are going to go for. With mention of Sophie Dahl, no doubt it will be another rake of miscast early-twentysomethings.

ANy other casting suggestions? Dwight Shultz (Barclay from Trek, Murdoch in the A Team) as Brains? Some Baldwins as Virgil and Scott?

 

[Dave]

SciFi Wire -- Paxton Mulls T-Birds

Bill Paxton (Frailty) is in talks to star in the proposed live-action film version of the 1960s cult U.K. TV show Thunderbirds, to be directed by Jonathan Frakes for Working Title Films and Universal Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Shooting begins in March on location in the Seychelles, with studio work at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom, the trade paper reported.

William Osbourne wrote the script, about a 12-year-old boy who must save his father (Paxton) and four brothers from imminent death and save the world from the hands of the evil Aristotle Spode, the trade paper reported. Paxton's character is a billionaire former astronaut who is the patriarch of the family and leads the Thunderbirds during their missions to save the world.

I've heard elsewhere that the film plot centres on Alan Tracey, so presumably, Alan is the 12-year-old boy who must save his father and four brothers.

Aristotle Spode??? (That wasn't the Hood's real name. I'm sure Bayleaf48 would know.)

Who is William Osbourne? (He's not related to Ozzy and Kelly is he?) "Dad Thunderbird 2 is stuck, Oh ****!"

 

[ray gower]

Originally posted by Dave


I've heard elsewhere that the film plot centres on Alan Tracey, so presumably, Alan is the 12-year-old boy who must save his father and four brothers.

Aristotle Spode??? (That wasn't the Hood's real name. I'm sure Bayleaf48 would know.)

Who is William Osbourne? (He's not related to Ozzy and Kelly is he?) "Dad Thunderbird 2 is stuck, Oh ****!"

That bit scared the SH1 out of me!

So I went on a search.
William Osborne has a bit of a mixed writing history mostly with "comedy's" like Twins (Schwarzenegger and De Vito) and Stop or My Mom will Shoot, plus some pseudo horrors like Ghost in the Machine and Scorpion King, none of which I recall equalling must see's.

Spoiler Warning













There is also an IMDB entry for Thunderbirds

Spoiler

Having narrowly averted a major disaster on an oil rig, the Thunderbirds have just returned home to their secret base when TB5, their space based station, is critically damaged in a suspected meteor strike. Unbeknown to them, the attack on TB5 is a deliberate ploy by international master criminal Aristotle Spode to get them off the island. He takes over the island and drugs Brains into submission. But Spode has overlooked one key factor: Alan, Fermat and Tin Tin are still on the island.

Fortunately, I think the 12 year old boy is out, unless they are playing some serious flashbacks, though I have no idea who Fermat is.
There is also a problem in there. Alan is the astronaut

If there is any good news in this, it does look as if the Andersons are involved with the writing!

 

[Tabitha]

Didn't Fermat have some theorem


No, seriously, something mathematic - looky here:
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Fermat.html
And kudos to you if you can make sense of any of that

 

[Dave]

I thought that Fermat seems like a good name for an android robot. Though Brains already made one of these called Braman. So I did some digging:

We are well behind with the gossip on this. Ain't Cool had hold of a script last year, and it is all over the FAB site. This site has some interesting news on Gerry Anderson's involvement. If he is involved then it must be a quite recent development.

from sci-fi-online
Thunderbirds still going strong(22/10/02)

There are lots of rumours about the live action Thunderbirds movie currently in pre-production at Pinewood Studios - some good, some bad.

According to SFX magazine, design work for the six Thunderbirds vehicles that will appear in the movie is being finalised and its interview with director Jonathan Frakes revealed some other interesting details. "One of the keys to the success of this movie has been the production design," said Frakes. "We need to honour the look of the series. We've got to make sure the ships resemble very closely the ships from the show. And the palm trees will fold down."

Frakes told Dreamwatch magazine that he has yet to meet Gerry Anderson but would "not be surprised if he appeared in a cameo role in the film". So far, so good. But don't be getting too excited.

To date, Anderson has not been contacted by anyone connected to the film's production and a purported review on the Ain't It Cool web site of the Will Osborne script, the man behind The Scorpion King, suggests that the movie will anger fans. It could all be a particularly nasty hoax but if it's not... Anyway, here's a sample of the review.

Spoiler

"The story revolves around a young Alan Tracy, his friend Fermat (the son of Brains - I don't really know how he came about, Brains doesn't have a wife or girlfriend in the script) and the young Tintin.

"The kids are left stranded on the island when Jeff and the older boys Scott, Virgil and Gordon (main characters in the TV show, who seem to have about 15 minutes screentime in the whole movie!) fly up into space in Thunderbird 3 in a panic after an explosion on TB5, (leaving the island somewhat stupidly deserted), and are then are stranded, floating about on the station in outer space for pretty much the whole movie...

"Of course, it's all a trap by a ridiculously camp bad guy - 'super criminal' Aristotle Spode and his stupid henchmen who wants to steal the Thunderbirds machines to commit super crimes."

Other alleged details include some snatches of dialogue which read as if they've been made up on the spot so there's every possibility that the posted 'review' is nothing more than a hoax. But you never can tell...

And in a strange twist of fate Anderson is also currently based at Pinewood Studios. According to the web site run by the Gerry Anderson fan club, Fanderson, he's there preparing to make a live-action Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons feature film. Previous quotes from Gerry clearly indicated he was working on a CGI TV series so this is all very strange. And to add to the CGI puzzle copyright holder Carlton has been previewing its plan for a CGI Thunderbirds TV series for broadcast in 2005, the show's 40th anniversary.

So is it two movies and two computer animated series? If so, we could be in for a bumper crop of excitement if everything's properly handled. Now who's for a remake of The Secret Service?

So, Fermat is Brain's love child.

 

[ray gower]

Why do I feel a Battlestar Galactica style ire rising?

Seriously, this appears to be becoming anything but a Thunderbirds film.
How can they have a young Alan Tracy. if they have the equipment?- He was supposed to be in his late twenties when they started!

I do hope it is all a hoax!

Should I start worrying about the 600 explosions and bedroom scene again?

 

[Tabitha]

At least there are still Tracy BROTHERS, not re-imaged sisters, or even sistas

 

[ray gower]

Originally posted by Tabitha
At least there are still Tracy BROTHERS, not re-imaged sisters, or even sistas

I rather wish they had, then I could seriously stop taking it seriously!

As it is we just know that at some point Tin-Tin is going to rise from a bush with an Uzi, fire off a lorry load of bullets and do nothing more productive than trim a few folding palm trees!

Thunderbirds is a quintessential British story led action/adventure.
By the time they've added 600 explosions, a bedroom scene with Lady Penelope in her NY apartment, a couple of fisticuffs, updated the shape of TB2 etc, there won't be a lot left of story or the original Thunderbirds.

Ray the Cynic july 2002

Perhaps they ought to make the writers and production team watch a few episodes first?

 

[ray gower]

To stop this thread getting too convuluted and contrived, there are now two new threads available for story and actor news.

Please help keep things neatish