A Reboot Of The Last Starfighter Is In The Works And I Don't Know How To Feel
Hello nerds!
Very few films hold a place as large in my heart as does 1984's sci-fi classic, The Last Starfighter, so this news stings a tad. The long-awaited sequel isn't happening. Not really. This near perfect film will be getting more of a reboot than a sequel. It feels kind of shitty just to type it out, but there is a slight glimmer of hope. The movie will be written by one of the writers of Star Wars: Rogue One, Gary Whitta and the writer of the original Starfighter, Jonathan Betuel.
Whitta shared some details of the project in an interview with io9, and while he sounds fairly enthused about the movie happening, that wasn't always the case. As the story tends to go in Hollywood, the rights to whom owns what have been the roadblock to any progress being made. Specifically, Jonathan Betuel owns enough of the rights to halt any project from getting off the ground without him. However, Whitta seems to have won Betuel over with genuine adoration for the 1984 movie.
“...it’s impossible because the rights are a mess. It’s true that it’s not simple, but part of the key to it is, as I understand it (and I’m not a lawyer), Jon still retains some piece of ownership of the original IP, so no one can make a new movie without his participation. I happened to track Jon down, and after I was done pestering him with all my fanboy questions about the original film we started to talk about what a new version might look like. Since then we’ve spent so many hours working on it I’ve long since lost count, but right now we have a fully developed story that is a combination of reboot and sequel that we both think honors the legacy of the original film while passing the torch to a new generation. We’re both very excited about it creatively.”
As an appetizer, Whitta took to Twitter to share some concept art for the project and as another welcomed surprise, one of the concept artists from Rogue One, Matt Allsopp, was the one responsible for the images. Thankfully, the concepts for the Gunstar and Rylos are truly great. They're updated for today's audience and yet the remain faithful to the original look from the 1984 movie. So far, so good.
I mean, if done right, The Last Starfighter reboot could be pretty good. Great, in fact. If there was ever a candidate primed for another go, it's Starfighter. The very early days of CGI were on full display in the original and at the time they were fucking unbelievable. By today's standards, not so much. So, an updated CGI could really serve the movie well. Still, the apprehension looms.
I don't know, maybe I should pump my emotional brakes a bit until the project gains a bit more traction. After all, they've only released some concept art. On Twitter. So, it's not like this fucker is ready to go into principal photography or anything. And to be fair, the original Starfighter's writer and some of the creative forces from the fucking fantastic Rogue One do make for an intriguing team. Let's hope they snag a few members of the original cast for roles in the reboot, if it happens. Personally, I would love to see Lance Guest as Centauri.
