Cult TV Mini-Series V Big-Budget Film Adaptation Announced
The Visitors are looking to return to the big screen and they will continue to not be our friends. Friendship is universal and so is rebooting 1980’s cult classics so here comes V The Movie!
V debuted in 1983 as a highly rated, hugely popular NBC miniseries. It would spawn a highly rated but less popular three-part follow-up a year later entitled V: The Final Battle (Star child, ugh!), which would then lead to a very short lived 1985 TV series. ABC already tried reviving it as another short-lived series in 2009 with a slick reboot that never quite captured the magic of the original or fully established itself as its own thing.
For the uninitiated (Spoilers ahoy!), V was initially designed as a War of the Worlds-style Nazi allegory about humanoid aliens in snazzy red jumpsuits and sunglasses that arrive on earth in giant motherships (zero doubt ID4 copied this visual aspect a decade later) claiming to be our friends and looking to make our world a better place in exchange for some water and hospitality. As much of the human race falls under their influence and those that resist get secretly rounded up by their stormtroopers, a smarmy TV news cameraman becomes the unlikely human resistance leader after he records video evidence that the “Visitors” are actually reptilian creature hiding behind human flesh facades and that their real goal is to enslave mankind to use as food.
In a time when Eighties nostalgia is all the rage and various forms of fascism seem to be rising up around the globe it seems only fitting and timely that a cult property with loads of potential like V would also see a resurgence.
Deadline reports “V the Miniseries” is set to be revived for the big screen as V The Movie as the first project from the recently revived studio Desilu.
Again, for those unaware, Desilu was a major production studio for decades founded in 1950 by “I Love Lucy” duo Lucille Ball and her then husband Desi Arnaz. No stranger to sci-fi; Desilu helped bring us a little something called “Star Trek”. The mostly defunct company was purchased last year and is currently being brought back. While CBS owns most of the Desilu library, looks like they still own a few of the properties and what better way to relaunch than with a relaunch?
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this news is that V The Movie is set to be written and directed by Kenneth Johnson, the writer of the original two miniseries. He hasn’t been involved with anything “V” since 1984 but did write a follow-up novel before going on to help create the TV version of “Alien Nation”, which, ironically, is another property currently in the process of being rebooted.
No casting or release date at the moment but Desilu Executive Vice President Steven Posen sounds not just confident in the guaranteed success of V The Movie, he might actually be a tad overconfident:
“V is a multi-billion dollar film franchise and merchandising juggernaut. We couldn’t be more excited and honored to bring this film to the millions of devoted fans worldwide.”
Okay, but as fan of the original miniseries, the Visitors better still be wearing the snazzy red jumpsuits or I’m going to protest by spray painting a big red V on the movie posters. Now that I think about it spray painting a big red V on a poster that’s already guaranteed to have a big red V probably isn’t the best way to protest.
