The folks at the Star Trek: Phase II (nee "New Voyages") team have taken on a new series, this time with the copyrights secured and (gasp!) professional actors.
The story, at
Trekmovie, says:
Starting with the pilot, which is currently being written, this new Buck Rogers web series will tell the origin story as laid out in the comics, showing how Lucas ‘Buck’ Rogers was propelled from World War I, into a future Earth in the 25th Century. The plan is to use what Cawley calls a ‘retro-contemporary’ look to the show, harkening back to the old style comics, but also using modern techniques, including CGI.

I like the idea of it--I love "retro" future stuff (
Sky Captain, as I've said elsewhere, is a favorite of mine)--but I'm worried about the execution. I know he says that he won't be in it. I know he says he will cast professional actors. But what is their caliber going to be? They'll all either be just-starting-out people, like the guy pictured below as Buck, or older people who couldn't cut it in real acting. And 20 eps a year? That's going to be a pretty demanding job for the massive amount of CGI they'll need.
Unless they go -really- retro and film it all on cardboard sets, and the aliens will just be fat guys in high pants, with an occasional dog in prosthetics or something.
Since this will be streaming, wonder if it will end up on Hulu? And if so, we know that Mike and the boys can riff these...
Thoughts?