Actually - and don't hate me here - i was brought in for a meeting for this 2 years ago and got the job on my pitch - then passed on it because something else came up.
I pitched that Xur and the Kodan discovered Earth and attacked it, Alex returns and recruits a bunch of kids from different places who hold scores on old Starfighter games that are still knocking around on college campuses and arcade museums. Xur demands Alex turn himself over or he'll destroy the Earth so Alex does, but it's actually a Beta Unit - Alex and Grig have to sneak these guys off of Earth and back to Rylos where Lewis is already a Starfighter mechanic finishing up a brand new batch of ships. i remember i had a Russian girl who was even better than Alex a being a Starfighter and that Maggie and Alex have a son who ends up becoming a Starfighter. Earth was also going to join the Star League at then end of my script. i should have done it but it didn't pay that much because it was going to be straight to video and that kinda turned me off.
That actually sounds kind of fun, but as a direct-to-video product, you know it would've been butchered.
Of course! It's always got to be a son who fills in daddy's shoes! Daughters have no reason to exist at all. STOP THE FREAKING CLICHE TROEP %*@*&(@)(#!
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Command: *system reboot*
I am so fraking tired of all these past heroes only spawning sons who fill in their shoes. It happened with Superman Returns, it happened with Indiana Jones (Who actually had a daughter originally before they retconned her out for Shia Labugfudge) We're already getting something like that with Tron Legacy. Geez, this father/son dynamic is getting boring really fast.
Don't forget the rather ridiculous notion that Alex and Maggie would still be together after all this time.
Side note:
I've come to the decision that film/TV is the wrong venue for many of these continuations/reboots of 80s franchises. Most of the time, the actors involved are getting too old to play the original parts in interesting ways, or at least ways that the studios will allow. The TRON thing is an exception, I think, and Jet Beetle's potential story idea would've likely also been an exception.
Regardless, I think most of the time the issue is that the magic is gone, and that the studio would be far too focused on "rebooting" the franchise so as to create NEW fans rather than give the OLD fans another fun romp. Thus, you end up with forced "hot young actors" in roles that just don't fit, and films that lack the feel of the originals in any significant way, and which are far more aimed at an entirely different demographic (tweens -- where the money is) than the original fans, which ends up with a film that doesn't really focus on the characters the original fans love, ignores the "feel" of the original film, and is basically just slapping branding overtop of an otherwise generic story.
As a result, I've decided that there are two acceptable venues for such continuations:
1.) Comic books
2.) Video games.
In the realm of comics, we have the various Joss Whedon projects which were continued or expanded upon in comic form (Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity). With videogames, look no further than the Ghostbusters game that came out a little while back. Fantastic game that really grabbed the feel of the films.
With games, you have the added bonus of being able to use the original cast members' voices (if they're alive), and still be able to depict them visually as if only a little time has passed. Moreover, you get the bonus of making the story interactive, and can focus on a more narrow audience (the fans) instead of trying to grow your audience. Granted, video games ain't cheap to produce, but I think there's more wiggle room with them than with films.
And come on. It's a friggin' no-brainer to have a videogame continuation of The Last Starfighter. You can do all the crazy CGI stuff you want, age your characters to whatever point you like, and it's still probably cheaper than doing another film. With The Last Starfighter, you could even give the dual experience of getting people to become good at the cabinet game, and then sticking them in the cockpit of an actual fighter (or external view, etc.).
Finally, I think fans give the games more of a "pass" to deviate from the "lightning in a bottle" quality of the films than they would with a sequel film. No Ghostbusters sequel will compare to the original. At all. Yet people still chase it relentlessly. With games, I think partially because of the different medium, and partially because you get to actually BE in the world (instead of just watching).
