Slingers Sizzle Reel: A Massively Stylish '60s Heist Movie, In Space, On TV

I'm sure someone else has thought of setting a 1960's style heist story in the '60s of the future — the 2260s, say — but I'm not sure anyone has done it with this much raw style. What we've got here is the sizzle reel for a proposed TV show called Slingers, the pilot for which hopes to shoot next year. Sean Pertwee stars, Mike Sizemore writes and Steve Barron directs. I want to see this. Now. Check the reel after the break.

The show takes place in 2263, and this reel sees the characters aboard the Raja Pleasure Ship, a deep space cruiser. A deeper rundown, dated from July of this year, follows the embedded reel. Some of the details have changed, but I'll give you the basic idea. I pulled it from Sizemore's blog, which has a wealth of other material, images and ruminations. Adrian Bower, Tom Mison, Margo Stilley, Haruka Abe, GUN and JUNIOR also star. Who are GUN and JUNIOR? Check the blog for more info, and watch and listen carefully.

There's not much about this that doesn't make me grin. Love the voice over. Love the 'cocktail as spacescape' opening shot. Love the photography, which look fantastic despite obvious budget limitations; the overall style; the Prisoner-like blazer on the security guard; the hologram displays (a Dead Space influence?); the dimly heard "you wanker!" as the guy runs up the stairs. Love the use of 'Theme de Yoyo' by the Art Ensemble of Chicago to score much of the reel.

With all the love out of the way, the question is: can this be anything more than an Ocean's 11 imitation remixed with sci-fi tropes? That is, will it just be the heist show that might be watched by characters on other sci-fi shows as contemporary TV, or will it actually push ideas in the way that a show like Battlestar Galactica managed? Not that pushing significant ideas is necessarily even the point, but what would make me really, truly dig this is if it were more than a shiny, spiffy reflection of heist movies from years gone by.

[via Warren Ellis]

Slingers is set in the year 2960 A.D., following mankind's first interplanetary war. Humanity is now clustered into a finite, but still vast section of the universe known as Enclosed Space. Humanity won the war with an aggressive alien enemy, but at a cost. The way back to Earth is now cut off by an impassable barrier – a side effect of the blast that finally pushed the enemy back.

The show takes its name from a group of people thrown together on board an experimental spacecraft that is capable of Slinging itself to any point in space. In theory it's the only craft capable of getting home. In reality the crew are using it to carry out a series of high tech heists and get even with those who are now exploiting their positions in the post war hierarchy.

Dominic 'DM' Monroe, a special ops war veteran becomes the de facto leader of this small team of thieves who rail against the decision by military command to just 'stay where they are and make the best of it'. They're determined to get home and if that means breaking a few rules and picking up a lot of enemies along the way then so be it.