Variety is reporting that Joshua Jackson (Fringe) will star in UFO, the feature film adaptation of the British TV series to be directed by visual effects guru Matthew Gratzner. The Gerry Anderson-created series was a cult hit in the 1970s. The film, written by Ryan Gaudet and Joseph Kanarek, is scheduled to start shooting in the spring in the UK.
Jackson will star as Paul Foster, a test pilot who joins S.H.A.D.O. (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization), a covert organization built under a Hollywood studio that defends Earth against a race of aliens who have been abducting humans and using the body parts.
I believe that the original show U.F.O. was decades before its time. Hence it’s relitively short lived run time on the networks that picked it up. Much like the original Star Trek with star William Shatner this program lacked an audience that would vocalize their preference with respect to continuing the show with new episodes season after season. It’s a damn shame that the SciFi viewers of the 60s even up to this point in time lack the testicular fortitude to keep their opinions circulating in the offices of production and marketing departments associated with the production of such shows and more over movies of the genre. It seems that the SciFi faithful though being of generally above average intelligence is willing to accept the minimum just so as to be able to have something to entertian them in this type of programming.The current quality of the product comming out of the writers offices and subsequently finding it’s way to a screen is lack luster at best. I sit with high hopes upon my chesterfield that a new and revised version of the television cult wonder that was U.F.O. will be forthcomming subsequent to the release of this new movie adaptation of the show. With all due respect to the creators of Science Fiction and fantasy type movies and television programming. Pick up the pace, get me a larger volume of this type of program; and at level of quality that would keep me from commenting in the negitive due to the lack of forethought put into scripts and general lazy approch to the rendering of viable, substantive products in the SciFi genre. Make them better not hoaky. Make them believable with an element of science reality mixed in with the fiction that makes us wonder what if. Please forgive the implied tone of this comment but I believe people should communicate what they desire. I myself do have the fortitude to say I want better. Respectfully, Michael Oudshoorn.