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Paramount+ Turns ’90s Comedy Classic ‘Galaxy Quest’ into TV Series
By Shubhendu Vatsa - News Published:
The cult classic Galaxy Quest is returning back to Earth. Paramount+ is currently hard at work on a new live-action adaptation based on DreamWorks’ 1999 sci-fi comedy, bringing our beat-up group of actors from the space-centric cancelled TV show back for another bout. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount+ has begun work on a new Galaxy Quest TV series, with the project being “in the early development stages” and will be executive produced by the original film’s producer Mark Johnson via his Gran Via Productions.
The original film boasted an all-star cast including Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Daryl Mitchell and Enrico Colantoni. While we think it’s highly unlikely, it’s currently unclear if this new series will bring the film’s original cast back.
RELATED: ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Spinoff is Heading to Paramount+
The sci-fi comedy is a parody of and homage to Star Trek and its fandom and depicts the cast of not-so-successful actors from a now-cancelled sci-fi series who spend most of their time attending fan conventions and making promotional appearances.
Things get mucky when aliens pick up transmissions of the series from Earth, thinking it to be a real-life documentary. The aliens take on humanoid forms and ask the actors for help as their planet is on the verge of extinction. The cast ultimately finds itself ferried to outer space, where they unwillingly face the danger and ultimately learn to match their TV personas. Despite its somewhat slow start, Galaxy Quest was a critical and commercial hit, accumulating more than USD$90 million at the box office and ultimately achieving its cult-classic repute.
The new in-development Galaxy Quest series has no concept or a writer as of now and the studio is actively looking for a writer to pair with Mark Johnson. Johnson and his Gran Via Productions banner are currently the only ones linked to the project. This isn’t the first time Paramount TV Studios is attempting to adapt the film into a TV series. The studio first tried to develop a new adaptation of the beloved flick back in 2015 and it was supposed to be a follow-up to the original film. However, the project never made it beyond the development stage and was ultimately scrapped.
Then, some two years later, Paul Scheer was brought on to write the screenplay but the plans were again put on hold following the death of star Alan Rickman in 2016. “We were ready to sign up, and (then) Alan Rickman passed away and Tim Allen wasn’t available — he (had Last Man Standing) — and everybody’s schedule was all weird. It was going to shoot, like, right now. And how do you fill that void of Alan Rickman? That’s a hard void to fill,” Rockwell said in April 2016.
Sir Alan Rickman in ‘Galaxy Quest’ | Image: Image: DreamWorks Pictures
