Thunderbirds Are Going CGI
FAB news for sci-fi fans as Thunderbirds will soon be blasting back onto our tv screens. ITV will co-produce the new series in conjunction with New Zealand-based Pukeko Pictures and the Weta Workshop (The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, King Kong) to create a new show that will combine CGI animation with live-action model sets.
ITV Studios’ UK managing director Denise O’Donoghue said: “Thunderbirds is a highly respected brand that continues to hold recognition around the world. This cult series is often credited as changing the history of animation and action-adventure, and we look forward to taking the show to another level while retaining the much-loved heritage that has endured over the past fifty years.”
Thunderbirds Are Go! will air on ITV and the CITV channel in 2015, 50 years after the original series debuted. Plans are to make 26 half-hour episodes and head writer on the new series will be Rob Hoegee, whose credits include Ben 10, Generator Rex, Teen Titans and Slugterra.
Richard Taylor, co-owner of Pukeko Pictures and Weta Workshop, said: “Thunderbirds was a hugely influential television series in my childhood. Having watched it originally in black and white, it was only years later that I discovered the full and rich world that Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, Derek Meddings, Mike Trimm and their team created.”
“It is thrilling therefore to think we have the opportunity to work with ITV on this new series inspired by this most wonderful of British shows. I personally, together with the teams here at Pukeko Pictures and Weta Workshop, look forward to designing and creating an inspirational world that will engage the imagination of a whole new generation as it did for us nearly half a century ago.”
Thunderbirds was co-created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and followed the adventures of International Rescue run by the Tracy family and helped by London secret agent Lady Penelope and her dutiful butler, Parker. A total of 32 episodes were made, along with 2 film adaptations. From there the legacy began and many years of cult status followed, including a revival of interest in the 1990s which brought the original series back to our screens. Sadly, Gerry passed away in December aged 83 but he relished the idea of a “modernised” show, revealing before his death that he intended to breathe new life into the franchise, “keeping all the main characters, all the machines and all the locations” but adding “all the mod cons”.
So is this makeover exactly what the franchise needs or is this another cult classic ruined for the sake of style over substance? Whatever happens, lets hope it’s more successful than the 2004 live-action film starring Bill Paxton and Ben Kingsley which Gerry Anderson himself described as “the biggest load of crap I have ever seen in my entire life”. So stand by for action.