Frank Miller To Direct Buck Rogers?
A few years ago Frank Miller was a virtual unknown outside of the world of comic books. Sin City certainly changed everything. Miller's adaptation of The Spirit hits theaters later this year, but what next? IGN reports that Miller will climb back into the directors chair to tackle a remake of Buck Rogers. Miller will supposedly tackle the project when he's finished on The Spirit, however Nu Image have shot back with claims that no deal is yet in place.
Nu Image/Millennium Films plans to develop a $40 million film with genre veteran Flint Dille, who penned a Buck Rogers graphic novel in the 1990s, attached to write and produce. The current plan is to turn "the cheapness of the low-budget effects will be a running joke in the movie, which will retain the campiness of the 1980s TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century starring Gil Gerard." My hope is that this approach doesn't result in a slapstick tone.
For those of you who were born post-Back to the Future (I find a lot of generational entertainment is lost in people born of the internet generation), Buck Rogers was created in 1928 by Philip Nowlan. The basic premise is as follows: Rogers, a pilot/astronaut who falls into a coma, only to awaken in the twenty-fifth century. Best known from the long-running syndicated newspaper comic strip, Rogers also appeared in a 12-part 1939 movie serial, a 1979 television series, and in many other incarnations. The development of space technology in the twentieth century launched Buck Rogers into American pop culture.
Discuss: Do you want to see Frank Miller remake Buck Rogers? If not, which director do you think would be better for the job?