Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Starfighters: The Praetorian Issue

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Starfighters: The Praetorian Issue

    Can someone tell me more about this movie? Is it in production, when shooting starts, will Sci-Fi Channell air that movie/pilot?

    On the movie official site is stated that Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat), John de Lancie (Q), Carel Struycken (mr. Homn from TNG, Lurch forum Addams Family) and possible Laurence Fishburne and James Marsters take a roles in this movie.

    Plot:
    In 44 BC, on the Ides of March, Gaius Julius Caesar was assassinated! “Et tu Brutus?”

    On his way back from a long campaign in hopes of orchestrating the assassination and taking the throne in Rome, a General known by the name of “Leonius Urelius” (The Praetorian Excellency), along with an entire Roman Legion (60,000 strong) of his finest soldiers, his two sons Marcus and Tiberius, his concubines and hundreds of slaves - disappeared!

    History books will show a small gap in this timeline and the inhabitants therein, until now.

    During this period of time, monotheistic religions were quickly taking foothold throughout the known world and the Gods of Rome were loosing control over their worshipers. There seemed to be little they could do to inspire belief in the masses again. At the advice of Mars (the God of War) who pushed for a more “exciting” and “profitable” way of life somewhere else, Jupiter announced that they were leaving the Earth for greener pastures and more conquests. He continued, stating that they would no longer sit idly on their thrones and be worshiped passively. They would conquer and become worshipped across the universe for all eternity.

    However, the Gods would not go alone on this new journey. The Gods had taken a special interest in Leonius as he was the one Roman General who had always prayed to the Gods for help during his campaigns. The Gods took him and his legion to become the elite guard to the Gods. The Gods bestowed the divine right upon this army, transforming the legion into near-immortal beings to leave a path of destruction across multiple galaxies.

    Centuries passed and it became obvious to Leonius that his beloved gods were not gods at all. He found that they were actually an alien race that had made their home on Earth during the Etruscan Dynasty and positioned themselves as divine deities. The improved life that the gods had given to the Praetorian Guard was based in nano-technology, not divinity. Leonius knew he must overthrow his abductors, but must wait until the right time – and wait he did. Battle after battle, century after century, the Praetorian Guard grew in number from each battle and conquest. After two millennia, General Leonius’s made his move against his abductors. And thus with this revolt, the Praetorian Excellency was born!

    The Praetorian Excellency and his two sons (Marcus and Tiberius) attacked and killed all the “Gods”, except one. The all-powerful Jupiter put up a glorious fight, and managed to escape – infuriating the Excellency to no end! The Excellency set forth on a campaign to conquer the universe and make his way back to the ancient home he once knew – a distant world called Earth. He vowed to find and kill the last alien God and take his rightful place as “Ruler of the Universe” in his once beloved city of Rome. Anyone who stood in their way would be eliminated.

    At the same time, thousands of light years away on Earth, a scientist makes a very unique discovery deep within in the ancient Roman ruins of Palestine Hill. He unearths a small gold embroidered bag with writings in a strange dialect that he has never seen before. Inside the bag, he discovers something even more astounding – a small bone fragment that seemed to glow with a peculiar green hue. His initial findings perplex and worry him, so he takes the bag and its contents back for further investigation. His later analysis verifies his concern – the bone was from something that appeared to be very similar to human DNA, but having evolved far beyond 25th Century humans. After analyzing and deciphering the writings, he was in awe and fearful of what he had uncovered! While he could not make out much of the archaic text, he realized that this artifact was somehow directly linked to one of the Roman Gods.

    Before announcing it to the Alliance and Omega-1 (the covert organization in which he actually worked), this scientist took his discovery and hid it to the best of his abilities. He knew the significance and magnitude of what he found. Recent Intel had reported of the Praetorian increasing conquests and he believed that his findings were possibly the only way to combat the danger that was slowly and methodically making its way back towards Earth.

    Extracting DNA samples, the scientist created a “genetic map” for a new and improved human that would be physically and mentally capable of combating this new and seemingly unbeatable enemy. Fearing any outside source may leak the secret back to Omega 1, he convinced his wife to become pregnant with the genetic modifications to her unborn child.

    Nine months later a very unique baby boy was born to them. They named him Brin’AR. The only abnormality they could see, were his eyes. They were florescent green. He seemed to have the capability to see all spectrums of light. This ability was overwhelming for the child and it took time for him to focus on a single object. The father fashioned a pair of dark glasses with sensors that would help him focus, and utilize his abilities more efficiently.

    The scientist then revealed his accomplishment to one of his colleagues within the Omega-1 organization, a man named Munroe. While Munroe immediately recognized Brin’AR’s significance, he agreed to keep the secret from the Omega-1 organization for the time-being.

    Six years after the child was born, the secret had leaked back to the upper echelon of Omega-1. The scientist was called to the Omega-1 headquarters and ordered to present the boy for “training” and duty within the covert organization. When the scientist refused, the boy was forcefully taken from his home. In the attempt to take the boy, his mother tried to fight off the kidnappers but was killed. The boy was taken to a secret facility where he was groomed toward the organization’s goals. The once boy, was now a young man and has become the best assassin the Omega-1 organization has. His father manages to escape from the Omega-1 organization and disappears into the masses leaving Earth for new colonies.

    Nearly 20 years after the boy’s abduction, Munroe becomes the father of a very unique girl! She is named Cayla and is what is known as a “true mimic” - a virtual human chameleon! Rather than suffer the fate of his friend, he gladly gives over his daughter to Omega-1 to train and study. He continues to work for the organization as one of the leading recombinant DNA geneticists and has a watchful eye on his daughter’s progress.

    Another 20 years pass and Cayla begins to become more defiant with the only life she has ever known. She tries in vain a few times to escape from the organization’s reach, so she continues to study and work for the covert organization against her will. That is until a man with green eyes rescues her and they break away from from the Omega-1 organization in an explosive escape. They flee and are recruited into the ranks of the Galactic Alliance – Cayla becomes a doctor in genetics and cybernetic technology, while Brin’AR disappears for a few years working for Admiral Prescott in Special Ops.

    As the Praetorian threat increases, so does the concern of the Galactic Alliance. Diplomacy has been tried to mediate the desires of the Praetorian Senate, but to no avail. There seems to be little that can detour their impending approach. With the guidance of Admiral Prescott, Captain Brin’AR works together with a handful of specially picked officers and crew to pilot a new Star Ship, the USS King Cobra. Their mission: to defend the Galactic Alliance and the known universe against the expanding threat of Praetorian domination.

    #2
    Interview for Jonja.net
    On the last day of the 2006 Denver Starfest, we got a chance to sit down with Tim Raynor and Tracy Kimball creators of Starfighters: The Praetorian Issue.

    Starfighters is a new movie under development in Boulder, Co. You can read a short synopsis here

    We again head up to the venerable Greenroom, where we had already done a few interviews earlier that day and the previous day. We have to get an extra chair for Tracy, but after we all get settled in, I start up my recorder and start getting as much information as I can about this new movie and future TV show:


    Jonja.net: Where did you get the concept for Starfighters? How did you develop it?

    Tim: It first started out as a new T.V. pilot for Star trek. We created a whole new concept for Paramount under Brandon Bragga. He had the whole thing finished; Cardasians, Klingons and everything else in the Star Trek Universe and we were ready to pitch it to him the day they shut down Enterprise. We were lost in the dark after that. The concept he originally wanted he asked us to write was a 25th century version of the Star Trek universe. That is where we went with it. A few of the characters changed, the Dr. Cayla Munroe character would not have been in that. It was a stand alone. It would not have been that character it would have been a Star Trek universe modified character based on a character from the past. Based on the First Contact movie. We sat with our thumbs basically up some place we can’t talk about. It was like what do we do now? So we were sitting around trying to figure out what to do and looked at Tracey and said what about the Praetorians? It is a concept I had years ago and I tried to pitch it to the studio years ago about a year before Stargate came out. The studios didn’t like it, it was about a Roman legion that was abducted by aliens and turned into their warriors to cover plans. Of course the studios turned it down and then low and behold, Stargate came out a year later with basically the same thing, aliens with the Pharos. If you look at history the Romans actually conquered the Pharos anyway so they forgot about that part. So, we turned it around and created a whole new universe with the Praetorians being the bad guys coming back to earth and going to Rome. They want to come back to Rome because that is where they are from.

    Jonja.net: What can you tell me about Captain Brin’ar?

    Tim: He is a fully functional human, genetically enhanced in the womb. What happen was the supposed aliens, the gods of Olympus, they were aliens and they abducted this entire Roman Legion and when they did this, they left behind their DNA and a certain scientists discovered this. The Scientist found out about the Praetorians coming back and what they needed to do was to find something or have somebody to fight these Praetorians because the Alliance is at the end of this major conflict. They have finally stopped fighting, they created a new alliance, but they had a lot of losses and their ships are not up to speed. So this one scientist decided to take this DNA and used it on his own unborn child and the child becomes Captain Brin’ar. He was super strength, he’s an expert martial artist because he learns very fast, the only problem he has is his vision. His eyes are totally florescent green and he can see the whole spectrum of the Universe, but it takes him a lot time to focus on one single object. So they created special glasses, dark glasses, like I am wearing right now (Tim is wearing dark sun glasses) that helps him focus in on anything instantaneously through cybernetic technology. That’s his character; he was created in the womb. But another scientists took the same DNA and his wife decided she was gonna take it before she got pregnant in the hopes that something would happen. She became pregnant and that developed Dr. Cayla Monroe. Who is actually a true mutant with a chameleon like ability; She can walk into walls and become part of the wall.

    Tracy: But the only difference with her is that she is trying to resist her abilities because from her earliest memories as a girl, her mom was killed by some bad people that were trying to use her for new technology. So she is t trying to resist her abilities. She just wants to live a normal life and of course she ends up having to use her abilities.

    Tim: There’s a physical attraction between Brin’ar and her, well to expand on that a little bit. Commander Rish who is seven foot tall reptiloid and he is all green a very iguana like creature. Captain Brin’ar, Dr. Monroe and Rish have a very Kirk, Spock, McCoy relationship (alliance) where they would all die for each other, but there is that bickering back and forth.

    Tracy: Or it can be very emotional, most of the time the Dr. Monroe character is very emotional where as Rish is more like Spock, very logical and would say we shouldn’t just go in fighting, we should be talking to them.

    Tim: And Captain Brin’ar has the Kirk attitude that is like no they fired at us, we are going to blow them out of the water it’s that simple and that’s the kind of guy Captain Brin’ar is, he is no more Mr. Nice guy, no more negotiating.

    Tracy: There will be times when Dr. Munroe will have to be logical because Commander Rish is going to experience like what Spock experienced during Pon Far. Where his entire logical system goes down. So Rish who is more like a snake or reptilian like creature is going through a very bad couple of days and his logical is gonna go down and its gonna take everyone else to keep him from killing someone because he is in a bad mood.

    Tim: I have studied herpetology and paleontology and Captain Brin’ar is not just a mindless brute, he has intelligence, he loves herpetology and paleontology He sometimes gets away to study this. He also tinkers with mechanics and combustible engines 20th century. He does a lot of things a normal person would do but he is highly intelligent. With Rish, we create a character who like a reptile sheds its skin, He gets a little irritated he doesn’t like that and even though he is a vegetarian and he says mess with me and I am gonna eat you just because I am mad!” Even though he is a reptiloid he is a playboy, he also loves video games VR games 22 century.

    Jonja.net: Now, you have Mark Alaimo (Gul Dukat from DS9) on board.

    Tim: He is a wonderful unbelievable guy, we talked for an hour and a half on the phone about home improvement, and we didn’t talk about any acting. As soon as we asked him to take the part he said “I love it” he came out of retirement for us. He is Italian and I talked to him about the whole thing and he said “You know the Romans conquered the Pharos” He gave me a history lesson. He is a very personable loveable guy. The Praetorian Excellency was actually a general of a Roman legion who was faithful to the Gods of Roman mythology more so than others of the Roman empire and that is why he was taken to become the fore guard of the aliens conquering army as they expanded from the far side of the universe. Zeus or Juno (which ever), they are basically the same, and the rest of the gods (aliens) liked being worshipped this is the reason they settled on Earth at this time because of the undeveloped people and culture. They thrived on the attention but with the rise of other faiths/religion (Christianity…) the attention they sought started to diminish and they felt betrayed and then wanted to destroy earth. However, Gaea, mother earth, stood up to Zeus/Juno and said you can’t destroy it. It is my planet and you can’t destroy it! So that’s when Zeus decided to take this Roman legion, along with this General, and leave. However, in doing so and possibly foreseeing the future, as no one else could, left behind traces of his DNA. Gaea, with an ability of her own to foresee the future mixed her DNA with his and that’s the DNA which was used to create Dr Cayla Munroe. Marc’s(Alaimo) character, after 2000 years of being used he became stronger and stronger because they are nano enhanced and he can absorb other nanites from other warriors(of the Praetorians) and at the end of their reign he takes on the gods of Olympus and destroys all of them but Zeus. He is not only coming back to earth but he has this one thing he wants to do, but I can’t tell you about that yet. Along the way he has two sons and they both want to rule. The youngest one he doesn’t think, he just jumps in (Michael Adamwaite) the other one is Keith Neubert and he is very level headed (he plays centurion Marcus) and uses his charm and wit against Kayla Monroe. He annoys Capt. Brin’ar to no end. There is a little jealousy going on there. He is sitting back watching all this going on and gets into a few good fights scenes. We have an amazing cast and crew we put together for this. We have one major cast member Admiral Prescott that we can’t reveal yet. But you already know and we can’t tell can we?

    Jonja.net: (smiling) No

    Jonja.net: When do you plan on getting filming started?

    Tim: Right now this whole concept is being taken to Cannes taking the actors and everything else to Cannes and we should know May 21st. Then we would do 6 to 8 weeks of training all of summer. That is one thing we wanted to do because we want all the fight scenes to look real. Training is paramount to us, the weapons are real, they are not plastic and with the Martial Arts, the wire work and special effects, we want to make sure that no one gets hurt. We have right now, the possibility to get the guy who did the set design for the Chronicles of Riddick.

    Jonja.net: How about a Director?

    Tim: That is up in the air right now. I won’t be a big factor right now but it needs to be someone who understands fighting and that they are fighters and their method is personable. The Praetorians have energy weapons, but their favorite method of fighting is personable, they want to get in your face with sword work. They want to fight hand to hand with you. That’s honor to them. My character and the Praetorians will fight hand to hand. The other female characters including Admiral Prescott are all strong characters not like Star Trek, I love Star Trek but you never saw Dr. Crusher that much it was played down. Our Tactical Officer “LT. VELAZQUEZ” (played by Isabel Ramirez) is a weapons and demolitions expert that loves to blow things up loves to get in there fight hand to hand. Our Chief Engineer (played by Peggy K. Chang) is a former martial arts student of Brin’AR and is constantly trying to “keep up with him”. There is a storyline where we visit a planet of ancient Samurai (This will be explained how they got on this planet) But Brin’ar has to pit himself against the upper echelon of the martial artist. My hope is that we can get true Martial arts Masters from around the world and have them guest star on the show and showcase all their great martial arts abilities. Not just a single martial art but every martial art from around the world; that is what I want to do!

    Jonja.net: So after the movie comes out you want to get into a pilot?

    Tim:That was the whole thing with the plan; I want to do a movie first and then cut it down and make it in to a TV pilot. You are getting two birds with one stone.

    Jonja.net: Will all the same actors be in the show?

    .

    Comment

    Working...
    X