The Last Starfighter TV Reboot In The Works

After years of waiting, it looks as though The Last Starfighter might be coming back...but this time, as a TV series.

That's according to Variety, who also say the series titled The Starfighter Chronicles will feature virtual reality sequences, likely an update of the cabinet arcade game around which much of the original film centered.

"It's a very interesting blend," said Betuel. "The otherworldiness of it lends itself to VR."

The project isn't going to follow up directly on The Last Starfighter, which told the story of a human recruited to become a soldier in an interstellar war as a result of his mad video game skills. Rather, this one will take the Starfighters out of the war and see them acting as essentially space cops, lending itself somewhat more to serialization and the kind of open-ended storytelling on which TV thrives.

The VR segments will apparently be optional for those who have the hardware and will allow viewers to interact with elements like rooms, ships and other fairly mundane objects rendered fascinating by the fact that they're in the world of Starfighter.

This isn't the first time rumors have swirled around the project.

"There are a lot of things going on that will see the light of day," screenwriter and creator Jonathan Betuel said back in May.

At other times, Betuel, who controls the rights, has said that he would not surrender them, so it would be unlikely to see the property make a return in Hollywood's current state.

Gary Whitta, Steven Spielberg and Seth Rogen have all expressed interest in reworking the concept, which came out in 1984 from Betuel and director Nick Castle.

Rogen tried for years to free them up and, when he told Spielberg about his attempts, Spielberg reportedly told him that even he couldn't convince Betuel to give them up.

Back in 2008, a reports emerged that a script titled simply Starfighter had been completed, but story details were fuzzy. All indications were that its story revolved around the son of the Last Starfighter, Alex Rogan, and that surviving actors from the original would reprise their roles.