A First Look at ABC's Remake of V !!!

Although she's no Jane Badler (yes, I'm a fan of '80s hotness), Morena Baccarin could invade my planet any day of the week, and twice on Sunday. ABC.com is showing off a couple of impressive clips of its upcoming remake of the classic '80s horror/sci-fi miniseries V, featuring the former Firefly star as Diana, evil leader of the Nazi-lizard invasion force. You can officially color me pumped for this:

ABC Announces First Star for Its V Remake

The recently announced greenlit remake of the 1980s classic miniseries V now has its first officially attached star. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news yesterday that Scott Wolf of Party of Five fame--last seen on ABC's ill-fated The Nine--will play the role of a TV newscaster who turns Baltar and becomes the Visitors' propaganda tool.

The new version of V is planned as an ongoing series, and is expected to follow a somewhat different narrative from the original. Meaning, don't expect any of the characters you knew from before. I'm thinking this thing is going to be heavily BSG-influenced.

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I wanted to thank all the contributors and readers who helped make the first-ever Cyber Horror Awards a success. If you head over to the awards page, you'll be able to read some gracious words from some of the winners, including Saw V director David Hackl, who won Best Production Design for Repo! The Genetic Opera. Here's hoping that the CHAs will become even bigger and better in the coming years!

ABC Greenlights "V" Remake

This is all very reminiscent of when Battlestar Galactica returned to TV five years ago. In spite of rumors last summer that original writer-producer-director Kenneth Johnson was close to securing a new sequel series to the classic '80s mini-series, it now appears that Johnson has been pushed out.

Instead, Warner Bros. TV, which owns the rights to the alien invasion franchise, has enlisted veteran TV producer Scott Peters (The 4400, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) to develop a remake miniseries, and according to Variety, ABC is officially on board.

The original miniseries, along with its first sequel miniseries and spin-off ongoing series, aired on NBC and told a tale of deceitful extraterrestrials who hide their true selves from us while secretly plotting the downfall of the human race. Although at the time it was an allegory for Nazi Germany, Peters plans to move away from that idea, while still focusing on the dangers of blind faith in leadership.

The remake will still follow the same basic premise, although the actual details of the storyline will be completely different. None of the characters will be the same, with the main plot focusing on a Homeland Security agent and her son, who becomes enamored of the aliens, much to the chagrin of his fed mommy.

There are also plans to develop a video game based on the miniseries, and I'm assuming the door will remain tentatively open for an ongoing series. It's a good day to be a V fan, but I can't help but feel sorry for poor ol' Kenneth Johnson, who had been working on his V sequel for NBC since 2005. Maybe they'll throw him a bone just like they did for Richard Hatch, and give him a supporting role in the new show...

Englund and Other Originals Out of New "V" Project

If you can ignore the '80s-hotness of Jane Badler for just a moment, I'd like to pass along some news on everyone's favorite sci-fi/horror TV miniseries. In talking to Cinema Blend at--you guessed it!--Comic-Con, V-veteran Robert Englund stated in no uncertain terms that the proposed new miniseries NBC has been developing for the past three years (!) will in fact be a complete remake, with new actors taking the place of people like himself, Marc Singer and Ms. Badler (pant, pant).

Judging by certain bone-headed complaints raised by peacock execs, it appears some of the hold-up may be over concerns that the new V miniseries will appear to have "ripped off" Independence Day. In other news, the new Dune movie is rumored to be "ripping off" Star Wars...Sigh...