Just yesterday, we got an update on the adaptation of Ernest Cline's Armada. That book (and presumably the movie based on it) owes a lot to The Last Starfighter, a 1984 sci-fi adventure about a teenager from Earth who winds up a pilot in an intergalactic space war due to his skill with an arcade game. Not only is the plot of Armada similar, but Cline's novel makes direct acknowledgment of this fact.
Well, coincidentally enough, today we got an update on a possible new Last Starfighter movie. Rumblings of a sequel starting production a decade ago has only led to questions over ownership of the rights, between studios Universal and Warner Bros. and also creator Jonathan R. Beutel. Steven Spielberg tried to make it happen and couldn't. Seth Rogen had the same experience. Since then, we also heard Beutel was developing a Starfighter spin-off series for television, but that never happened either.
Now Gary Whitta is actually working with Beutel, who was the main obstacle for everyone else in the past. Today, the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story screenwriter shared a hint that he was doing something involving Starfighter and named Beutel as his co-writer and Rogue One artist Matt Allsopp as having done up the shared concept designs.
Okay, probably shouldn’t show you this so early but here’s a little something I’ve been tinkering on with my co-writer Jonathan Betuel. You might recognize the ships. Thanks to the amazing Matt Allsopp (lead concept artist on ROGUE ONE) for creating these images for us. pic.twitter.com/CIobLYYRHk
— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) April 4, 2018
After he tweeted that out, io9 got ahold of Whitta for some clarification. Apparently there's nothing official to report other than he and Beutel are indeed collaborating on a reboot of some kind. Whitta told the site:
All I know is, we’re trying really hard to make this a reality. It’s a passion project for Jon and me both. And I know we have a great movie here. But we still need to deal with some remaining biz stuff before we can really move forward. We’ve had a lot of talks with Universal. We’re determined, one way or another, to make this happen. Trying to create in Hollywood is always like pushing a boulder uphill, particularly when there are archaic rights issues involved, but we’re going to keep trying. That’s the lesson of Starfighter... when you get your chance you’ve got to grab it with both hands, and hold on tight.
Whitta also talks about how he grew up a huge fan of the movie, along with Star Wars (which he's already gotten to dip his hands in), and admits he wants to loop Rogen in somehow, perhaps for a role. He said having Beutel on board is a big step and said this of their collaboration:
I happened to track Jon down, and after I was done pestering him with all my fanboy questions about the original film we started to talk about what a new version might look like. Since then we’ve spent so many hours working on it I’ve long since lost count, but right now we have a fully developed story that is a combination of reboot and sequel that we both think honors the legacy of the original film while passing the torch to a new generation. We’re both very excited about it creatively.
If the reboot really happens, perhaps they can also get the original's director, Nick Castle, to join in some fashion. He returned to his iconic role as Michael Myers for the upcoming Halloween reboot this year, which suggests he's down for revisiting past projects. But the other big question is, how would a Starfighter reboot work in connection with the big love letter to the original that is Armada?
"Victory or death!"
