George Lucas was inspired, among other things, by the adventures of the sci-fi hero Buck Rogers for “Star Wars”. A new series is now being planned, in which superstar George Clooney may play the leading role.
Buck Rogers may be largely forgotten today, but his adventures inspired the better-known Flash Gordon and the much better-known Luke Skywalker. Rogers made his debut in the US magazine Amazing Stories in 1928, followed by comic strips, a radio play, cinema series and, after the success of “Star Wars” from 1979, a TV series. Now Buck Rogers is about to return to television.
Clooney als Buck Rogers?
The pulpy stories about a man who has been put into deep sleep for 500 years and wakes up in a significantly different world is now apparently intended to become a high-quality, prestigious TV series.
Comic book artist and “Lost” author Brian K. Vaughan will write the scripts for the new “Buck Rogers” series, superstar George Clooney is on board as executive producer – and could be loud Hollywood Reporter take on the main role, even if no corresponding contract has yet been signed.
Franchise-Potential
“Buck Rogers” should be a limited series and would therefore be limited to one season. Studio Legendary, however, is planning to postpone a film and / or an animated spin-off if it is successful, as is always the case with current projects relating to big brands, so a whole series of ideas is being considered (such planning is, so to speak, good form in Hollywood, but its realization is still pure music of the future).
It remains to be seen how the old Buck Rogers stories will be modernized anyway. Rogers himself appeared in different incarnations, he inspired contemporaries with futuristic technology and with battles against space pirates as well as tiger people from Mars, but such a thing alone is no longer enough in the 21st century to bind viewers.
One thing is certain: Roger’s fight against the Asian occupiers of America, which he waged in early stories, should definitely not be reopened.
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