Genre: Comedy/Science Fiction.
Studio:
Unknown.
Production Company:
Unknown.
Project Phase: Movies Rumored.
Who's In It:
Unknown.
Who's Making It:
Ed Bye (Director, rumored). Based upon the BBC television series Red Dwarf.
Premise: Three million years in the future, the crew of the mining vessel Red Dwarf make their way back to Earth. The thing is, nobody has warned Earth about it.
Release Date: Possibly 1999.
Comments: None.
Rumors: Unknown.
September 20, 1996... "Howdy!. Just picked this up in the Red Dwarf News Group:
Without giving too much away as spoilers, Robert Llewellyn was in Oxford last night, reading from his new book, which is set in Oxford, and answering questions [from the audience.]
Without even being asked the question, though, he said that there was a new series of Red Dwarf that had just been filmed, to be shown in January, of eight episodes, with Chris Barrie in half of them, and a new character.
He was really enthuasiastic about it as well; I mean REALLY enthuasiatic. Not just in the sense that it was his job to be. He said it's going to be a classic Dwarf series. Not necessarily the funniest, but extremely well made and written and produced.
The eighth series has also been commisioned, also to be of eight episodes, supposedly with Chris Barrie in all of them.
This will mean that they then have 52 episodes, which they are going to sell to FOX in the USA. This will give them lots of money which they are going to use to make TWO Red Dwarf feature films. These will have the original casts, phenomenal (by RD standards) budgets, and real proper American actors as the baddies, who will, therefore, get killed.
Does this mean that Red Dwarf is going to become like Star Trek? Can we expect Red Dwarf:- The Next Posse?" Wow. Red Dwarf: The Movie? With the Mr. Bean movie in production, it certainly is possible. [Project announcement and scoop information submitted by 'GASoLENE'.]
October 13, 1996... As this scooper points out, there are currently 36 Red Dwarf episodes. 8 more wouldn't equal 52 but 44 - which doesn't merit regular syndication packaging. "Plus, what with the recent failure of the Doctor Who movie, one would think that Fox would shy off from British sci-fi for a bit," the scooper comments. [Scoop reported by 'roscoe'.]
November 16, 1996... Actually, there are 52 episodes of the Red Dwarf television series if you count the two new comissioned series - instant syndication! Thankfully, about 300 'Dwarfies' out there sent in mail to correct Roscoe's scoop. [Thanks goes out to numerous scoopers - you know who you are!]
June - July, 1997... Craig Charles (Lister) and Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) appeared on the Seattle, San Jose and San Francisco PBS stations as part of a Red Dwarf marathon/money drive. During their appearances, they were continually asked about the development of the proposed feature film. Both said that plans are still afoot for a movie with "big American stars" as supporting characters ("to get blown up", they said) to be started after the eighth season in 1999. The script is being written, and if it's well-received they'd like to do a movie once a year. Already the money for the Red Dwarf feature is being lined up. However, they are going to test out some of the comedic material with live audiences during a stage tour sometime in the next year; the gags that worked would be put into the movie, and the ones that bombed would be dropped. [Scoops sent in by 'gojira95', 'n9644411', '94221214dab', 'TigerLor', 'mmcalees', 'brynph', 'dburrell', 'rwalter', 'bdecker', 'Vertigo', 'Boneyard0', 'Mbosn', 'CKL' and 'bstage'.]
Doug Naylor, the driving force behind Red Dwarf, has said that the addition of Chloe Annette as new regular Kristine Kochanski was also to add a female dynamic to the feature film, which may follow Red Dwarf VIII. [Sent in by 'theo'.]
August 4, 1997... Craig Charles stated in an interview that the feature film would be directed by Ed Bye, who directed most (or all) episodes of the TV series. "My cynical opinion is this will go the way of the Absolutely Fabulous film," the scooper who reported this to us commented. "Funding falls through because the film will be staying so close to the obscure (in the states) TV series, then the film turns up as a TV special on the BBC at some point." [Sent in by Mike Gambit.]
August 19, 1997... British screenwriter Ross Tregaskis read in the UK magazine Cult TV that the proposed Red Dwarf film has been greenlighted for a January 1998 start. The budget has been set at ú20 million (that's about $28 mil or so US buckarooskis), and veteran Dwarf director Ed Bye will also helm the big screen outing. [Sent in by Ross Tregaskis.]