Richard Hatch (Captain Apollo from the original Battlestar Galactica series) has NEW Updates and brand new look to his web site. Go there now to learn more!

(http://www.richardhatch.com ).

We had our last major push of 2000 on December 2nd, 2000 called the December Deluge, thank you to all those who participated. I actually got a phone call from Paul Hardart, the VP for Specialty Films at Universal. He stated in a phone message, that he had been speaking to the Television Department and that a new BSG project was an interesting idea. However he also said that with the current merger it may have to stay on the Back-Burner for a while. Still, the fact that he responded to my December letter, and by phone, may mean that Universal is taking notice of our efforts.

48% for Richard Hatch's version of Galactica
39% for CGI Cylons
11% for r.i.p.

5,110 Votes were cast! Almost Double any other Poll.

Bonnie Hammer held a chat on Scifi.com on June 22nd, 2000 at 9PM (EST). The very first question was related to BSG and she had some interesting comments...

Stlfan: What chance is there in seeing a new Battlestar Galactica series on SCIFI?

BonnieHammer: Funny you should mention that.
BonnieHammer: It is something we have thought of and continue to think of.
BonnieHammer: We actually started some prelminary conversations...
Bonnie Hammer: ...However we never know where they are going to go.
BonnieHammer: So I don't want to start any false hopes out there.
BonnieHammer: However it is something we are looking in to. GA

I was very excited by the mention and the fact that it was the very first question. There were about 260 people on the chat at any given time. I spotted a lot of BSG related usernames (athena.., viper.., adama..). It is very promising, I just wish it were more definite. Click Here for a screenshot of the actual Question and Response.

Anybody else see the new Radio Shack commercial, the one where Terri gets Howie to go to the store because of free popcorn? Keep your eyes open for it. When they first show the store, check to see what's playing on the TVs. It's almost enough to make me end my personal boycott of Radio Shack! -Brie

Note: There are 2 commecials, both feature a shot of Cylon Raiders returning to a baseship on the TVs shown. I now have a clip of one of the commecial up in the Multimedia Section. - CF

Fans of Battlestar Galactica are mounting a letter-writing campaign in support of actor Richard Hatch's efforts to revive the 1970s SF television series as either a feature film or a new show. Battlestar Galactica: The Battlestar Galactica Fan Club entreats fans to write Universal Studios to persuade them to give Hatch the rights to develop a new Galactica. (click link for more)

John Colicos, best known as the villain "Baltar" in the TV science fiction series "Battlestar Galactica," has died at the age of 71. Colicos died Monday (3/6/200) in Toronto after a series of heart attacks.

Battlestar Galactica: The Battlestar Galactica Homepage is one of several sites which are launching a massive e-mail campaign to exeuctives at Universal to push them to work with Richard Hatch and attempt to revive the franchise on either the small or big screen. To find out details check the site, but remember the campaign is today so BG fans don't delay.

AICN corrected report on new Richard Hatch Preview Production - 1/20/00.

TV Guide BSG Revival mention in Cheers and Jeers - 01/15/00 Issue

BBoard Write up and Reaction

Battlestar Galactica: A major mailing campaign push for Richard Hatch's "Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming" movie gets underway tomorrow via the official site. Just click the link to help play a part in the campaign.

September 14, 1999
As one might imagine given what he’s accomplished so far, Richard Hatch has some real solid plans for what he intends to do with Battlestar Galactica should the property get beyond the planning stage and in front of the cameras. While talking to SFX, Hatch revealed some details of his planned movie’s story saying, "We’ve been in space for twenty years now, and a whole new generation has been born and grown up there."

"There will be a new race of Cylons chasing us - they’ve been through a Cylon War and evolved," he continues. "In the original there were the one brain, two-brain and three brain types. It was never really explored, but the cylons weren’t completely robotic, so we really go into that, who they were… I want to update them, the originals were quite clunky, owing to the laws of the time, you couldn’t have humans being killed on screen, so they weren’t a very menacing enemy."

September 13, 1999
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been hearing quite a bit about the two dueling Battlestar Galactica movie projects: one by Richard Hatch (Apollo on the original TV series) and the Todd Moyer (Wing Commander)/Glen Larsen (Galactica producer) version. While talking to the IGN Sci Fi website, Hatch answered questions about the public duel going on between the two parties. Particularly on the rights issue, Hatch revealed, "As far as the representations by Universal to us, we've never been told once that there was any problem or there was anybody else that had any rights to the theatrical area. We did research with Thompson and Thompson that shows the original copyright of the original show in the name of Universal. There was no change of ownership according to what we read. All my licensing deals for the books, which update the original to twenty years in the future, are all owned by Universal."

Regarding Moyer and Larsen, Hatch continues, "I would love clarification because we don't have an issue here. If the theatrical rights are not available, then fine. We'll do it as a TV movie, a TV series or a CD-ROM… They certainly have the right to do whatever they would like to do based on whatever rights that they do have, and we certainly have the rights to proceed in areas that they don't have rights to. If they want to go do their movie and it's the Commander Cain and Pegasus story, then how is doing the Battlestar Galactica story with the original cast going to conflict with that? They're two separate stories. They can do their story and we'll do ours. There's room for both of us."

Hatch explains some of the animosity he has for the Moyer/Larsen team saying, "I wish that they had come to us instead of just going behind our back knowing all the work that we had done and the relationship we had built with Universal and to Battlestar Galactica fans all over the world. I wish that they would have come to us and sat down with us and said how can we work together. You accomplish ten times more working together. You either create honesty and openness and forthrightness or you create by what you say and do fear, trepidation and lack of integrity."

Hatch does suggest though that a peace can be made between the parties saying, "I extend an olive branch. If they're open to wanting to do some kind of a partnership, how wonderful. But the truth of it is, I couldn't partner up going in the direction of the Commander Cain and Pegasus story… I would be more than open to work with them as long as they were open to going back to the original vision, story and characters that followed that line that we have done so much work on and researching the past four or five years. Working together always brings the best results and certainly would be a godsend. But it would also be important that they be open to utilizing some of the gifted, talented professionals in the industry that are willing to come on board."

September 13, 1999
Richard Hatch is earnest in his efforts towards a Battlestar: Galactica movie having already created a trailer that fans are going gaga for. Still, even though Hatch has offered up an olive branch to producers Todd Moyer and Glen Larsen, the guys with the other Galactica project, the actor and hopeful producer is somewhat taken aback by Moyer’s comments in the past. While talking to the IGN Sci Fi website, Hatch says, "Todd should just be a little bit more ingratiating and forgiving because as a producer he takes chances and risks all the time, and sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don't. It takes courage to step out on a limb and go after something you believe in or to put any project together. I would think that he more than anybody would have some kind of empathy and compassion and appreciation for me stepping out of my comfort zone, putting together some of the most talented people in the industry, and financing it with my own money. I'm stepping out there to inspire Universal and the powers that be that the world really wants to see a new Battlestar: Galactica project that honors the original story, characters and premise. I would think that he knows how courageous that is because he's been there, and I would only say that I honor his courage. I would only think that it would be appropriate for him to honor ours. If he thinks that's just absolutely stupid and idiotic, how many times has he gone after something that everybody said is impossible?"

August 24, 1999
Not only did fans in attendance at Richard Hatch’s screening of his Battlestar Galactica trailer at the San Diego ComicCon International seem to have a good time, but so did Hatch and Jack Stauffer (Bojay in the original series) as well. While talking to TV Guide online, Hatch revealed, "I don't think I've ever been through something so emotionally powerful in my life."

Regarding recent comments made by producer Todd Moyer dismissing Hatch’s efforts, Stauffer answers, "We're not going to get in a verbal war. We're just two vendors pitching a contract."

Hatch, though, doesn’t hold back commenting on Moyer’s most recent project, Wing Commander, saying that fans "who loved the Wing Commander game thought [about the movie], ‘This is the most God-awful thing to hit the face of the Earth.’ And Todd said, ‘I'm going to do the same thing to Battlestar.’ So this is a fan war. The fight started with the fans."

August 16, 1999
Producer Todd Moyer (Wing Commander) is moving ahead on his Battlestar Galactica film and says that series veteran Richard Hatch has no rights to it. While talking to the IGN SciFi website, Moyer declared, "[Hatch] doesn't have the rights. He can't do anything. We [Moyer and producer Glen Larsen] own the rights. He can waste all his time. If he wants to waste his own money, he can do whatever he wants, but he's not allowed to do anything with the franchise. We own it." Moyers adds, though, that the publicity coming from the seeming feud between the two parties is helping him saying, "Right now, if anything helps to stir up more interest in getting people talking about Battlestar Galactica, I'm happy about it."

Moyer also revealed to the site that the film’s budget will be in the $45-50M range with effects taking up at least $15-17M of that. Production of the film was scheduled to start next month with hopes of hitting a Christmas 2000 release, though Moyer revealed the prod start has been rescheduled because "the size of the production is huge."

Responses from fans to the IGN Moyer interview, Letters1, Letters2, and Letters3.

August 14, 1999
Richard Hatch passionately addressed a wide number of issues regarding his Battlestar Galactica revival series plans in front of an enthusiastic audience Friday at the San Diego Comic Con. Here is a quick breakdown of some of his comments:

On Talk of Galactica Being A Star Wars Ripoff:
"Everything, in a way, is a little bit of a ripoff, because we're inspired by great things, are we not? When you saw Star Wars didn't you start writing something or reading other books? Didn't you come up with ideas that inspired you to do something? When you love something it makes you want to do something.

"Now is that a ripoff if you take an idea that you get from something that you see? I'm sure George Lucas didn't just live in a little hole and get this idea for Star Wars. He was inspired by many, many, many, many books that he read. You know, [Disney's animated ducks] Huey, Dewey and Louie kind of remind me a little bit of Artoo Detoo. The point is [that there's nothing wrong with] taking ideas and being inspired and going and evolving it and developing it into something new, something fresh. I don't care what anybody says Battlestar was something fresh."

On The Importance Of Including The Old Cast:
"Billy Mumy wanted to bring back Lost In Space [a few years ago]. For two years, three years he kept going to the studios, going everywhere, to bring back that show. Well, he finally got them excited, finally woke them up, shook them out of their lethargy, got them really excited about [the project] and then the went and made it. Without him. Now the problem is, as with all things, nobody wants to think something was successful because of what was. Nobody wants to think their project was successful because of the cast or the story. They want to think that something was successful because it came from them. They made it over in their own image and likeness. It's their thing. So that's fine. I think somebody should do their thing and be successful at it and be proud of it. But you cannot sit there and [discard] the wonderful things that we all love ... it's like ripping the heart out of a story and then making it over in your own image and likeness and putting the same title on it and then you, the fan, comes and sees a remake of a movie and you feel ripped off, do you not? When you see the very thing that you loved about that show destroyed?"

On His Right To Revive Galactica:
"Now nobody has the quintessential vision for anything. There are so many people, thank God, so many wonderful writers and creative artists have seen the show and they have their own ideas and their own visions and their own way of looking at it. And every single one of them is right. Nobody is right [in claiming] one of them has only THE way.

"Who am I to step up and do this? I've had people say that, 'Who are you, Richard Hatch? Who are you?' I say back to them, 'You know who I am? I am you. And you have the right to step out and go after something you believe in. You have the right to embrace your ideas, your vision, and go for it. You have the right to step up, and when you do that everybody who is not stepping out after their vision, everyone that doesn't have the courage to go forth, is going to try to shoot you down. They are going to try to level you because it is scary when anybody breaks out of the status quo and goes for their dream.

"The biggest thing I have learned is that you think everyone is going to support you and then you find out that everyone is ready to try to take a potshot at you. And friends are doing it. Everybody is coming at you with their fear, with their own fear of failure."

On Why People Still Love The Show:
"It makes perfect sense to me. Because this show had a heart. It had a spirit. It wasn't just special effects. It really tapped in to the human spirit; overcoming incredible odds to do incredible things. We are asked to do incredible things in this world and face our fear. So I finally said, 'This show deserves a real second chance. It deserves a chance, a terrain, a topography that now is receptive to science fiction.'"

On Glen Larsen's Galactica Project:
"There's very sensitive negotiations going on right now. There's a lot of confusion at Universal in terms of the legalities, the rights. You have no idea of the position that Universal is in right now. I don't think they ever expected to do anything with Battlestar.

"When we started bringing this back three years ago nobody was interested in Battlestar. We went from meeting to meeting to meeting to meeting talking about it, pitching it. I met with so many people at Universal, but you finally realize that you are meeting with a lot of people but it's like leading you in Alice In Wonderland. You wonder where it's going and who has the final decision making power.

"And then we discovered that Universal was not even clear on their rights. It was not clear about who had what [rights]. There's a relationship between [USA network/Sci-Fi Channel honcho] Barry Diller's company and Universal in terms of the old show being possibly the auspices of Universal and the new show being the auspices of Barry Diller's company for TV. Theatrically, the information that we got -- we don't know if it is definitive -- was basically that Universal has the rights to the theatrical [version].

"Then Glen Larsen and Todd Moyer enter the picture in about February. And the funny part of it is that Glen had met with me a year earlier and I told him about what we were doing and he had told me from his heart, sitting there having a wonderful dinner after we did a thing for the Sci-Fi Channel ... he told me that, 'I sold all my rights to Universal' and he told me that he was not in a position to do it at that time. Now, I don't know what that meant. All I know is that he was not in a position to go forward at that time. We were willing and ready to go forward at that time and then about several months later Todd Moyer came to me, sent me a fax, said to me, 'I did Wing Commander, I did a project in Luxembourg and it's coming out in three months and it's this great movie, Wing Commander, and I can do this and this and this', he says, 'I can open doors for you at Universal. I can put the deal together, the money, everything.' After listening to him, I said, 'Okay, fine, I'll have a meeting with you Monday or Tuesday.' I was a little bit, just a little, nervous because it sounded like he was more interested in the deal then in the heart of the show. But I was still willing to meet with him because you need a strong business relationship ... so I wanted to meet with him but I never got the phone call. Never got the meeting. Never heard any more from Todd Moyer until three months later and there was a big ad in the trades saying that Glen Larsen and Todd Moyer were doing a new Battlestar Galactica movie.

"I will say I'm not in competition with anybody. I think there's room for everybody in this universe and world. As far as I know they are doing the Commander Cain and Pegasus story, and what I really want to do is I want to bring back the heart of Battlestar with the original Battlestar Galactica cast and crew."

August 14, 1999
Richard Hatch, who played Commander Apollo on the Battlestar Galactica series and is now spearheading an effort to breathe live back into the show, screened a new extended version of the trailer for his Battlestar Galactica: Second Coming project in San Diego Friday. Much to their surprise, Cinescape staffers in attendance were quiet impressed with what Hatch and his crew put together. Though the acting seemed a bit over the top and the CGI at times was a bit cheesy, I'm told the teaser effectively evokes a sense of nostalgia for the old show while at the same time whetting the appetite for further adventures. Considering the quality of some of the genre shows on TV today, the Cinescape staffers at the viewing came away with the feeling that Hatch's concept deserves a serious shot at development. Hopefully it will be uploaded to the Battlestar Galactica site sometime in the future, but for now it was explained that issues involving the Screen Actor's Guild have made distribution of the teaser impossible.

April 8, 1999
Battlestar Galactica star Richard Hatch is shooting down recent stories of a new movie based on the ‘70s TV series. In a press release issued days after the announcement of the movie in Variety, Hatch’s website dismissed the Todd Moyer (Wing Commander) project saying, "Rumors like the one that circulated within the last few days have been part of the Galactica reality for years. I’ve been privy to many including this one, they seem to have a life of their own. Once in awhile they are the result of some scrap of truth but not often. My contacts at Universal have stated that Galactica is still owned by Universal and that no other deal has been consummated."

Hatch continues, "I strongly believe that the most powerful way to keep the legend alive into the new millennium is to infuse the original concept, story, and characters with a fresh new generation of actors; modern effects and visuals; and solid, thoughtful scripts."

Hatch’s press release also quotes an unnamed producer saying, "When I heard today the rumor (of another Galactica film in production) it was during lunch with one of two investors interested in backing the entire project. As far as Richard is concerned, the only missing piece needed for a green light is how will distribution be handled. The other purported group has not contacted any of the actors or creatives from the original series. The cache value of having most of the original cast in a film remake is priceless. To create the film otherwise would trivialize it and would yield something entirely different from what the fans are asking for. Any project of this sort needs to pay more than passing homage to the original, if not, I know I would feel cheated. Richard IS, without question, the current heart and soul of Galactica as ANY of the show’s followers can tell you. His drive and love of the project is infectious."

The Mr. Showbiz website reports that Moyer’s take on the TV concept is said to be based on a concept that Galactica producer Glen Larsen may have the rights to, in part, that would deal with the tangential character Commander Cain and his Battlestar Pegasus spacecraft.

March 18, 1999
Sounds like the Battlestar: Galactica movie might not be exactly like the old TV series. What plans does producer Todd Moyer (Wing Commander) have for a new big screen version of the ‘70s TV series? While talking to the New York Post, Moyer gave some tantalizing details of Galactica to come... and when we'll see it.

Moyer revealed that the new movie would have similar ideas and themes as the original series including some old characters, though he doesn’t say who would be playing those parts. In addition, Moyer also said the film would introduce new characters as well as the discovery of another "lost" Battlestar ship called Atlantis. "We just think the [story] has to be re-invented," explains the producer.

Moyer also revealed that he hopes to have the film ready in time to hit theaters for Christmas 2000.

March 10, 1999
It is fitting that the re-birth of Battlestar Galactica, which was spawned in the wake of Star Wars, has been announced only months before the premiere of The Phantom Menace. Confirming recent rumors, Variety reports today that a $40 million big screen version of Galactica will start filming in Luxembourg come September.

The premise was of the show was basic: In the far-off reaches of space, humans are on the run from an evil, robotic race called "The Cylons," who are led by an organic, shadowy Imperious Leader. The remnants of humanity load up all the spacecraft they have and head off into space to find a fabled promised land: Earth. On the way, they do battle with Cylon forces that are always nipping at their heels, though they do occasionally encounter other alien lifeforms as well. The movie will not be a remake of the TV series, but will instead pick up where Battlestar left off, telling the tale of Commander Cain's (played by the late Lloyd Bridges on the show) quest to locate the Galactica as well as find the lost tribe of humans who are said to have fled to a distant, mythical planet called Earth.

Series creator Glen A. Larson will produce with Wing Commander's Todd Moyer, from a script by Mike Finch, one of the Wing Commander scribes. No studio is attached to the project as yet.

Older article from "Cinefantastique":
"In March, Glen Larson, Creator-Producer of the original series (Battlestar Galactica, of course!...my note.), & Todd Moyer, producer of Wing Commander, issued a press release regarding a planned Movie. (PS: It now appears Larson is pushing for an IMAX project (Come on)).

The article went on to say that Richard has a finished script, a completed promo film, current relations with Universal Studios, strong ties to the fan community, & links to to the original series stars...

There's more to the article than that...but those are the highlights! (P.S. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace's Darth Maul is on the cover!)

Also try Coming Attractions at: http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/galactica.html. This will take you to the Battlestar Galactica listing. There are more article(s) at the bottom of the page.

Now more than ever... support the return of the original cast & themes!