Syfy launches Syfy Films, but won't catapult 'Mega Shark' to the big screen. Aw, why not?
As an unyielding fan of all Syfy films, no matter how insufferable they may be (Megaquake, Ice Twisters, the list goes on… ), I became inappropriately excited when I read this morning that the network would be teaming with Universal to create Syfy Films. The new company, according to Variety, would “develop Syfy-branded content for the big screen.”
Great! thought optimistic me. There are too few films in the multiplex like Piranha 3D, so it would be beyond fun to watch a film like Mega Piranha battle the Alexandre Aja flick for bad-movie supremacy in the theaters. But it seems it was too much to ask for what could be, oh, the greatest scene in all TV movies to jump onto big screens. Because, apparently, Syfy films will support a higher breed of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror films. “The budget for these films would be higher than our TV movies, so [they will ] not [be] of the same ilk,” a rep from the network told EW.
According to a Wall Street Journal article about the new production company, the budget on any given SyFy Film flick could reach as high as $25 million (or as low as $5 million). And we can indeed expect something more highbrow than Sharktopus: Syfy President Dave Howe told the WSJ that the production arm intends to produce films akin to the low-budget-yet-highly-successful District 9. After all, the network is home to plenty of quality programming that doesn’t involve monstrous, blood-thirsty creatures whose only weakness appears to be bad CGI. (See: Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Caprica… )
Okay, I could settle for a District 9-esque feature. But can it involve at least one prehistoric lizard brought to life? Please?!
As an unyielding fan of all Syfy films, no matter how insufferable they may be (Megaquake, Ice Twisters, the list goes on… ), I became inappropriately excited when I read this morning that the network would be teaming with Universal to create Syfy Films. The new company, according to Variety, would “develop Syfy-branded content for the big screen.”
Great! thought optimistic me. There are too few films in the multiplex like Piranha 3D, so it would be beyond fun to watch a film like Mega Piranha battle the Alexandre Aja flick for bad-movie supremacy in the theaters. But it seems it was too much to ask for what could be, oh, the greatest scene in all TV movies to jump onto big screens. Because, apparently, Syfy films will support a higher breed of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror films. “The budget for these films would be higher than our TV movies, so [they will ] not [be] of the same ilk,” a rep from the network told EW.
According to a Wall Street Journal article about the new production company, the budget on any given SyFy Film flick could reach as high as $25 million (or as low as $5 million). And we can indeed expect something more highbrow than Sharktopus: Syfy President Dave Howe told the WSJ that the production arm intends to produce films akin to the low-budget-yet-highly-successful District 9. After all, the network is home to plenty of quality programming that doesn’t involve monstrous, blood-thirsty creatures whose only weakness appears to be bad CGI. (See: Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Caprica… )
Okay, I could settle for a District 9-esque feature. But can it involve at least one prehistoric lizard brought to life? Please?!
