Battlestar Galactica Movie to Be Written and Produced by Simon Kinberg

Battlestar Galactica has become a beloved part of the sci-fi lexicon — and now it looks like it’s finally headed to the big screen. On Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that X-Men: Dark Phoenix‘s Simon Kinberg will be writing and producing a Battlestar Galactica feature film, which has been in development at Universal for several years now. Dylan Clark, who has been involved with the project at Universal, will also serve as a producer.

“Battlestar Galactica is one of the holy grails in science fiction, and I couldn’t be more excited about bringing something new to the franchise, while honoring what’s made it so iconic and enduring,” Kinberg said in a statement. “I’m so grateful that Dylan and my partners at Universal have trusted me with this incredible universe.”

The franchise first got its start as a television series in 1978, and has been added to or rebooted multiple times in the decades since, most notably in SYFY’s reboot that aired from 2004 to 2009. While the franchise has earned two television films – and recut episodes of the series have been released in theaters – it has yet to get a proper film extension.

Jay Polidoro, Universal’s SVP of Production, and Director of Development Lexi Barta will both oversee the project for Universal.

Kinberg is best known for his years of work producing on Fox’s X-Men franchise of films, which culminated in him directing last year’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix. He is also writing, directing, and producing the upcoming female-led spy movie The 355, starring Jessica Chastain and Lupita Nyong’o. On the television side, he has also worked on Star Wars Rebels, The Gifted, Legion, and CBS All Access’ The Twilight Zone.

This is just the latest extension of Battlestar Galactica that is currently in development, with Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail producing a television reboot for the Peacock streaming service. The series will be showrun by Michael Lesslie, whose work includes Assassin’s Creed and The Little Drummer Girl.

“One of the reasons I even wanted to do Battlestar, was that the way Ron Moore, what he did with his remake in the early 2000s where it was this sort of hard sci-fi series with lots of action set pieces and really this exciting sci-fi adventure but purely grounded in an allegory of what was going on at the time, which was post-9/11,” Esmail explained in an interview earlier this year. “And it wasn’t that subtle, the links, I would say. But because he was also attuned to the sci-fi nature of the show, you didn’t feel it.”

“When I was approached to do Battlestar now, it has to have that same sort of dynamic. It can’t be just a retread of what he already did so masterfully back then,” Esmail continued. “What are we saying about today’s world? And Mike just had this great take, and I’m not going to go into it because obviously, I don’t want to spoil it for fans, but you kind of see it a little bit in Little Drummer Girl where politics plays a big part in it but without compromising the entertainment value, because in my opinion, you’ve got to have that. That’s number one priority. I want people to be excited and emotionally invested and on a thrill-ride but at the same time I think Mike is going to bring a lot of depth and sort of parallel and mirror what’s going on in the world right now.”

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