British film and TV director Peter Hoar is spearheading a reboot of cult of 1970s British sci-fi classic “Blake’s 7” with his newly launched production company Multitude Productions getting behind the project.
Terry Nation, who created the Daleks on “Doctor Who,” created the series which followed the exploits of Roj Blake (Gareth Thomas) as he led a band of escaped prisoners onboard a stolen spaceship against the forces of the totalitarian Terran Federation and its Supreme Commander Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce).
This isn’t a happy crew – rather it’s a dysfunctional group of cynical thieves, murderers and dissidents forced to work together but always furthering their own agendas.
While production values were limited by its incredibly threadbare budget, the show was well ahead of its time in other ways – morally ambiguous, political, often brutal, filled with complex characters (many of which got killed off randomly to ensure suspense), dark and pessimistic themes, and employed serial storylines and seasonal cliffhangers. It forged a path the likes of “Farscape,” “Firefly,” “Battlestar Galactica” and even “Andor” followed.
Hoar, Matthew Bouch and Jason Haigh-Ellery are behind the company and have reportedly “snapped up a wealth of IP” which includes the “Blake’s 7” rights. Hoar intends to direct the project, which will go out to buyers soon and will likely see co-production funding.
Hoar scored an Emmy nomination for his work directing the highly acclaimed ‘Bill & Frank’ third episode of the first season of HBO’s “The Last of Us”. He also helmed the pilots of “The Umbrella Academy” and “Boots” for Netflix and did episodes of “Daredevil,” “Da Vinci’s Demons,” “Doctor Who,” “The Defenders,” “Altered Carbon”, and “It’s a Sin”.
Several attempts have been made to reboot the property over the years, none ever really coming to fruition. Bouch says: “We’re driven by our passions but also seeing that there is a gap in the market in the UK – particularly with the well-publicised dropping off of Doctor Who – for genre-based British IP.”
Other projects on the slate include TV series adaptations of novels like Luke Rhinehart’s “The Search for the Dice Man,” Rikako Akiyoshi’s “The Dark Maidens”, and Patrick Carman’s “Skeleton Creek” book series, a crime series called “Scammers,” and a “well-known video game and a sci-fi series” at ITV.
Source: Deadline
