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Thunderbirds are go! Again!


Guest San Don
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Guest San Don

Well, from 2015. New tv series announced.

 

F.A.B?

 

ITV has announced that Thunderbirds will be back on air in 2015, 50 years after its debut. The children’s series, called Thunderbirds Are Go!, will be a digital re-invention of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s iconic version, which became famous for its “Supermarionation” puppetry technique.

 

ITV Studios is working with Pukeko Pictures and Weta Workshop (Avatar, King Kong and The Lord of the Rings) on the new Thunderbirds series to combine computer generated imagery (CGI) with live-action model sets. The new production will see a nod to the models used in the original series.

 

Richard Taylor, co-owner of Pukeko Pictures and Weta Workshop, spoke of his childhood love of the programme: “Thunderbirds was hugely influential in my childhood. Having watched it originally in black and white, it was only years later that I discovered full and rich world that Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and their team created.”

 

A film inspired by the series, called Thunderbirds, was released in 2004. Starring live actors Vanessa Hudgens and Ben Kingsley instead of marionettes, the film was poorly received and had very low box office takings.

 

The announcement of the series has come after years of discussion over rights to Thunderbirds between Gerry Anderson and ITV. In 2009, Mr Anderson was reported as having his interest in remaking the show using CGI dismissed by ITV’s then-executive chairman Michael Grade. Anderson died aged 83 on Boxing Day, 2012 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2010.

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1288937_Terry-Leahy.jpg

 

"Of clourse we all remember and love the old puppet shows, but CGI gives more realistic movement and expressions. Peopole have to understand that this is progress. By the way, speaking of puppets my good friend and theatre impresario, Billy Kenwright, introduced me to one of his favourites the other day, who he's named David...."

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Guest davelfc

I loved Thunderbirds when I was a kid, same with Stingray and Captain Scarlett.

 

Well they fucked up Scarlett and I can see them doing the same here, they'll make two of the pilots female and lady Penelope a man, just watch them do it.

 

I still have nightmares about the fucking shit film they made a while ago with Ben Kingsley, the puppets had more life in them than that film.

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Guest davelfc
What was wrong with the Scarlett remake? I thought it was okay, although I didn't see a lot of it.

 

Well I'm a lot older for one thing.

 

Plus

 

cy_grant_dies_lieutenant_green.jpg

 

female_green.jpg

 

They're never going to make it like the old ones, very few people would watch it. Just like they'll never make Ealing Comedies like the originals. I suppose I'm being picky but I'd rather they just didn't bother.

 

I won't be watching any remake Thunderbirds anyway.

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Well I'm a lot older for one thing.

 

Plus

 

cy_grant_dies_lieutenant_green.jpg

 

female_green.jpg

 

They're never going to make it like the old ones, very few people would watch it. Just like they'll never make Ealing Comedies like the originals. I suppose I'm being picky but I'd rather they just didn't bother.

 

I won't be watching any remake Thunderbirds anyway.

 

I preferred Scarlett to Thunderbirds, thought it was a much darker story. No one's ever happy when stuff from their childhood gets redone though. All depends how much you love it and how set in stone you have it in your head. I would agree that sometimes they don't need to remake things.

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Guest davelfc

I think the magic of the puppet shows was that you were a kid and suspended belief. You could see the wires but as a kid you just didn't bother examining the show in fine detail.

 

Sure it looks dated now but so do my school pics, the problem comes when they remake it and modernise it and then it breaks some of the magic of the originals.

 

Personally I think they would be better just creating something new and not bothering, unless they're going to aim it at the people that are now in their 40s and 50s which would be daft anyway.

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Thunderbirds is my guilty nerd pleasure which ive took too far, ive been to a few meet ups of fans and the old guys who worked on the shows and ive studied it in detail, ive built replicas of the models used in the shows and had them displayed at these events.

its the only science fiction series I really like.

 

It fascianted me because when I watched it, my dad would say look theres a lemon squeezer or a bit from an airfix kit stuck on the side of a building and so I was intreagued to know how it was made.

it wasnt till years later I got hold of a rare book by Derek Meddings which had lots of behind the scenes shots and was a fascinating insite into how they pioneered lots of effects camera work which went on to be used for other things.

It was Derek Meddings who made it in my opinion.

 

I had a chat once with an old guy called John Blundall who sculpted Parker and a lot of the more charicature puppets, he left when Captain Scarlet was being made as he didnt like the way the puppets where getting more realistic but lifeless.

 

in Thunderbirds you hardly notice the puppet wires, you do in the earlier shows Stingray and Fireball xl5, but even after a while your eye gets drawn from them like the way the bad animation in South park, even in team america after a while you dont notice the wires.

the actors where great, Shane Rimmer had a great voice and so did David Graham who did Parker.

to me Thunderbirds and captain scarlet havent really dated that much so that kids today wont watch it, my nephew and other kids will watch it.

It has that 60s charm which I love, the puppets all smoke, they drink, thats not going to be done in the new one.

the music was brilliant.

 

but for me tho it was always the special effects, the fact they used little models, cars and planes, usually airfix kits or toys desguised and blew them up or crashed them. A cgi explosion never looks the same as a real one.

 

the only reason it will be cgi is its a lot cheaper and easier, Thunderbirds was one of the most expensive tv series when it was made and was so for a long time.

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one of my best memories was one friday night when I was 8 in 1992, I hadnt missed an episode but my uncle was going to look after me and took me to another uncles rough arse pub in Seaforth.

he put the small telly in the corner of the lounge on for me and I sat in the corner with my lemonade and crisps and watched this episode. 6 o clock and the pub was chocker.

 

when it got to this scene with the giant car stacker approx 2mins in here, I looked round and the pub had gone quiet and everyone was standing round watching it.

 

[YOUTUBE]q68kNVn9gQ8[/YOUTUBE]

Edited by Mike D
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Wholeheartedly agree with the majority on the thread. Any remake will only be similar in name. It will not be the same programme, how can it be in this day and age? With CGI, it will be like a videogame cutscene.

 

Like fellow Andersonphile Mike D, the main man responsible for the whole look and feel of Anderson's shows was Meddings and his understudy Mike Trim.

 

Brilliant designs.

 

Less said about the recent movie the better.

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totally agree with Mike Trim

I got in touch with him via his website and chatted to him, spoke on the phone and then later met him at a show, he was very helpful to me when I was asking him obscure detail questions and has a brilliant memory considering it was 50 years ago.

one of the model vehicles I built a replica of, he designed it so was enthusiastic about it.

he is a brilliant artist and still working today, for those who dont know one famous bit of work he did was the Jeff Wayne War of the worlds albulm cover.

got his book full of his artwork that he signed for me.

 

heres Mike's designs, apart from the main Thunderbirds which Derek designed everything here was drawn up by him...

[YOUTUBE]87gMzod2Rq8[/YOUTUBE]

 

here another great bit of behind the scenes footage with Derek Meddings being interviewed. starts at 6mins 50...

[YOUTUBE]lsfNRYbcld4[/YOUTUBE]

Edited by Mike D
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regards the films, apart from the awful remade film, I never thought the 2 films they made really worked,it has to be a tv series, you tune in each week to see what they are going to rescue and what new machine they have to do it with and with the films you had to be familiar with the tv series first, the films where dragged out a bit.

 

they didnt show Thunderbird 3 or 4 for weeks and I remember my dad saying they launch Thunderbird 4 by dropping it in the water and I couldnt wait to see how they did it.

 

[YOUTUBE]---1WSwwN6A[/YOUTUBE]

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