Word is spreading around the world that Gerry Anderson is looking to buy back the rights to Thunderbirds! As many of you will know, Gerry sold his interest in Thunderbirds a while ago. He now wants to buy them back and make a new series. This time it will be CGI (ugh), but it may be a combination of puppets and CGI. This would be similar to the way the Brains Drench TV ad (see earlier post) was done. That could be interesting.
Details are sketchy at the moment, mostly consisting of brief news articles in papers around the world. The Sun in the UK, ThaIndian (Thailand) and the Melbourne Herald Sun paper in Australia have all reported on this.
They all appear to say the same thing, with little details. Gerry Anderson is the only person who can do Thunderbirds right (take that Jonathan Frakes, et al). Although I'm sure he can buy the rights, its unknown how long it will take and then how long it will take to decide on the show format and produce it. Remember how long New Captain Scarlet took from initial concept?
The sixth issue of the fan magazine Andersonic is now available. The UK-based magazine is in colour and is 40 pages long. It includes articles, photos and more. Although I am yet to see an issue (on order), the current issue looks quite interesting with the following content:
The Art of Ron Embleton - the work of TV21's Scarlet and Stingray artist.
Lord Parker's 'Oliday - Bingo! A classic episode reviewed.
Alpha Incident Log - Strange goings on with glowing rocks and Irish Cowboys...
Faith in Science - The contributions of Barry Morse and Johnny Byrne to Space:1999.
Identified Retrospective - Seven different writers share their thoughts on UFO's opener.
SHADO Test Paper - Ed and Alec's Fun Page.
Interview - Gerry Anderson discusses UFO, New Captain Scarlet... and lemmings.
Writing the Tracys - exploring Thunderbirds' popularity with writers.
Winged Assassins - what makes Captain Scarlet the odd one out?
Mission of the Darians - Mutant! Classic Space:1999 episode reviewed.
The Fall of Troy - Stingray's Forbidden Shakespearian roots.
Watching the Watchers - the arrival of the 21st Century in our living rooms.
Trap for a Rhino - New Captain Scarlet episode appraised.
The latest issue sells for the amazingly reasonable price of £2.25. Postage to UK is included. You need to add shipping if you live somewhere else.
Its Deja Vu time again folks. This time, the Doppleganger/Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun DVD release for the UK/Region 2 crowd. Looks like an identical release to the US version, in that it has no extras. However it does have a different cover. The most interesting thing is that apparently the UK studio has given up on the UK title of Doppleganger and just named it Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun as in the US release title.
Not the most catchy of movie titles, but I guess it does explain the basic premise, whereas Doppleganger is a bit more mysterious. Oh well, it was a good run while it lasted. Running time is listed as 98 minutes.
Although not the best thing Gerry Anderson ever did, it was a decent attempt at a live action "big screen movie" with pretty decent special effects and a reasonably well known cast including Roy Thinnes (TV Show The Invaders) as well as Patrick Wymark and Herbert Lom. Of course, much of this movie was a precursor to UFO, as it featured several prominent cast members including Ed Bishop and Ian Hendry. Some props and vehicles featured in the movie also ended up in UFO. Great late-night TV fare, and a pretty decent Barry Gray soundtrack.
This UK release hits store shelves 8 September 2008 for about £6.98.
While we wait for the pricey Thunderbirds Blu-Ray set to be published in the UK, a new Thunderbirds novel has been published in the US. The softcover book is entitled "Countdown to Action!" and is written by Joan Marie Verba. Although Joan is new to the world of Gerry Anderson, this marks the fifth (at least) book she has available at Amazon. I think the title is dangerously generic, especially for Anderson fare, but time will tell how good the story itself is. The book appears to focus on the formation of Internatonal Rescue, rather than on missions for IR. I just ordered the book, and will post details later, but the synopsis is as follows:
After his wife dies in a tragic accident, astronaut Jeff Tracy is left with five young sons to raise. But he turns his grief into a dream: to create an organization which will rescue people that no one else can reach. He builds a business which creates the new technology that the organization will require and earns the billions he needs to finance it. At last, he is ready to put it all together. He enlists the services of a genius to design aircraft and supporting machinery far beyond the standards of his time. Together, they find a Pacific island to use as the base for their operations. Jeff asks his five sons, now grown, to give up promising careers to build the base, operate the machines, and serve in his organization. But he finds that in order to make his dream a reality, it will require sacrifice, courage, and determination...far beyond what he, or his sons, ever expected. Can they make International Rescue a reality, and what will it take to make the fantastic Thunderbird machines go?
I guess it was inevitable, but Thunderbirds is coming to Blu-Ray disc on 15 September 2008. This will be in the UK only for now, but if past history is any indication, this will be the first of many Blu-Ray releases for Anderson productions. Right now details are very sparse, but it appears to be a box set of the entire series. Probably will be 16:9 which will inevitably mean that something gets lost. See the Stingray HD broadcast article to see what I mean.
Although its a fairly obvious first release, I was actually expecting to see the New Captain Scarlet show get the first high-definition DVD release, as it was produced in high-def and 5.1 sound. That would be an ideal candidate, as would the Thunderbirds movies. Expect little in the way of extras this time round though. One question that does come to mind is will they attempt to 'hide' the strings, now that the show is going to be high definition?
Price on this is a bit steep, too: £90.75.Pre-order it now from Amazon. That reminds me, are there any region-free Blu-Ray players yet?
Tickets for the much anticipated Barry Gray Centenary Concert are now available. The event will be held in London at the Royal Festival Hall on Saturday, 8th November 2008. Guest of honour will be Gerry Anderson, ably assisted by the ever low-key Brian Blessed who will compere the event. Full details are in the complete press release, after the jump.
A remastered version of the 1969 movie 'Journey to the Far Side of the Sun' (aka Doppleganger) was released on June 24 2008 in the US. Contrary to original reports, this DVD is Region 1 encoded. According to reports, the movie itself is remastered, or at least cleaned up from the prior release. However, no additional features of extras are included on the disc. There is nothing extra on the disc with the exception of subtitles. No commentary or trailers.
A Region 2 disc should be coming out later this year.As there is a likelyhood this was remastered, perhaps we can look forward to a high-def Blu-Ray DVD release sometime in the future...
This DVD is widescreen 1.85:1 and runs 102 minutes, NTSC.
