Movie News: STARGATE Officially Being Rebooted

STARGATE may not be the most popular sci-fi franchise, and as THE SIMPSONS so aptly put it it’s the third best ‘star’ series, after WARS and TREK of course, but for many it deftly combined the adventure of Indiana Jones, Discovery channel style archaeology and engaging sci-fi. As both TREK and WARS have either been rebooted (or are in the process of), it’s little surprise that STARGATE is getting the same treatment. It’s a miracle J.J. Abrams isn’t involved.

There’s a planned trilogy of movies re-imagining the 20 year old franchise, though fans can sleep a little easier as original STARGATE director and producer duo of Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, who wrote the original motion picture, are behind the reboot.

Gary Barber, MGM Chairman/CEO has commented: ‘We couldn’t be more excited to once again partner with Roland and Dean, the world-class creators of the original STARGATE, to bring their reinvigorated vision of this wildly popular property to audiences of multiple generations. Stargate is one of the biggest titles in MGM’s vast library, and we look forward to adding this great franchise to our slate.’

While in a joint statement, Devlin and Emmerich said: ‘The STARGATE universe is one that we missed terribly, and we cannot wait to get going on imagining new adventures and situations for the trilogy. This story is very close to our hearts, and getting the chance to revisit this world is in many ways like a long lost child that has found its way back home.’

SG1 ended rather unsatisfactorily after an impressive ten year run, and following multiple spin-offs including ATLANTIS (2004-09) and UNIVERSE (2009-11) the new films may very well breathe fresh life into a franchise which grew stale after Richard Dean Anderson was replaced with FARSCAPE’s Ben Browder.