Thunderbirds
The Thunderbirds 1965 project on Kickstarter is doing very well. It has passed it's initial goal, met its second stretch task goal and now is within sight of the final goal. As you may know, the project is to film the visuals for the sound-only record EPs which were released in 1965. The first goal was to produce visuals for "The Abominable Snowman", the second is for "Introducing Thunderbirds" and the third and final goal is for "The Stately Homes Robberies".
Stephen La Riviere, the man behind the book/documentary "Filmed in Supermarionation" wants to create the visuals using the exact same techniques and sets as the original show. Its like getting 3 brand new episodes of classic Thunderbirds. Some original items are going to be used, this includes some puppets. The sets and most of the models will be lovingly recreated for the production.
There are some very good awards for people who fund the project, which of course includes a DVD or BluRay of the finished productions.
They are so close to meeting their goals, but only 3 days remain. If you can help in any way, I'm sure they will appreciate it, and you will feel good too. The second episode will be directed by none other than David Elliott, who directed some of the original episodes, so you know they are going to a totally authentic look.
The project can be found here: Thunderbirds 1965.
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Documentation producer Stephen La Riviere, the man behind the documentaries "Full Boost Vertical" and "Filmed in Supermarionation" is at it again. This time, its a project to produce filmed versions of the Thunderbird Century 21 EP stories from the 1960s. The basic idea is to retain the audio from the recordings, but film new Thunderbirds footage in the style of the original show. This means puppets and practical effects. Rather than try to fund it himself, or go to a distributor, he has taken the bold move to go directly to the fans and has created a Kickstarter project with the goal of funding the making of the first three EPs as mini-episodes.
From the kickstarter project page:
"To celebrate its 50th anniversary we want to make a new, classic style episode of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's legendary puppet series Thunderbirds using original audio-only stories recorded in the 1960s.
Technology has moved on in five decades, but our goal is to produce an unashamedly retro episode made with many of the same 'Supermarionation' techniques used to bring the puppets and models to life in the 1960s."
The project has the goal of reaching £ 75,000 ($115,000 USD) and is almost there. need an incentive to fund it? The only way you can get hold of the shows (for now) is to back the project on kickstarter. I fully expect this project to reach funding by August, if not the middle of July. Hopefully that will mean later episodes can be made from the later EPs.
Stephen even put together a short introductory video to explain the project.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1558089494/thunderbirds-1965-new-episodes-from-1960s-recordin
Read all about the project and then fund it. You know its the right thing to do.
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The new series of Thunderbirds will be named "Thunderbirds are Go!". In has also been announced that an advance purchase of the new show has been made by Nine Channel in Australia and is set to air in the spring of 2015.
The show will be a combination of live action and CGI special effects. In addition to screening in the spring in Australia, it will air shortly before that in the UK.
The revised version of the show will still feature the wonderful vehicles and the familiar names, and is being produced in New Zealand by ITV Studios and Pukeko Pictures with Weta Workshop, using CGI animation and live-action model sets, which will update the special effects while (hopefully) keeping the legacy of original series intact.
It appears that the show will not feature a live action cast however, as all the credits name the cast using voices.
The Thunderbirds Are Go! cast is led by Rosamund Pike (The World’s End, Gone Girl) as Lady Penelope and David Graham, who is reprising his role as chauffeur and International Rescue agent Parker. Brains will be voiced by Kayvan Novak (Fonejacker, Facejacker). Tracy brothers Alan and Scott are voiced by Rasmus Hardiker (Saxondale, Lead Balloon), while David Menkin will voice both Virgil and Gordon Tracy. The fifth Tracy brother, John, will be played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Love Actually, Game of Thrones).
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It appears that ITV in the UK is working on a new production of Thunderbirds.
Very little is known right now other than it will potentially air in 2015.
Production is at least in part being done by WETA in New Zealand. Yes, I think the folks behind the special effects on the LOTR movies...
The image to the right is from a website for broadcasters, but the image appears to have vanished.
The original page is still there though.
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If you have a mobile device, ROKU, PS3 XBOX, or Google TV device and get the yearning to watch Thunderbirds without getting the DVDs or BluRays out, you can now watch the entire series for free on Crackle.com.
You can even watch it in your web browser, but obviously with a set top box of some kind you can watch it on a real TV.
The quality isn't high def, in fact, its rather poor, but the price is right!
They also have the entire series of The Prisoner. No other Anderson shows as yet though...
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Details are sketchy at the moment, mostly consisting of brief news articles in papers around the world. The Sun in the UK, ThaIndian (Thailand) and the Melbourne Herald Sun paper in Australia have all reported on this.
They all appear to say the same thing, with little details. Gerry Anderson is the only person who can do Thunderbirds right (take that Jonathan Frakes, et al). Although I'm sure he can buy the rights, its unknown how long it will take and then how long it will take to decide on the show format and produce it. Remember how long New Captain Scarlet took from initial concept?
As usual, we'll keep you posted.
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A drink company by the name of "Drench" just did a TV advert for the UK featuring a very animated Brains puppet. Its quite fun to watch and certainly shows some of Brains' hidden talents.
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Another bit of somewhat old news, but I keep getting emails, so I'm doing a post about it. A couple of years ago, some work was done on a test (not a pilot as previously stated) for a new version of Thunderbirds. This one was to be a combination of computer animation and physical puppets/models. Certainly an intriguing idea. Sadly the project was put on hold when the Granada /Carlton merger took place.
One of the production team has a blog post online here which talks about the production and even includes a short quicktime trailer. Interestingly, the blog is by the man who was to be the Executive Producer of the show. Seems weird to have someone else as the producer of a Thunderbirds show. But then again, it has happened before. Sadly, this one looks like it had some potential.
His main site can be found here .
If anyone knows any more about this, please drop me a line...
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