United Artists has signed up Guillermo del Toro to write and direct a big screen remake of the cult ’60s SF show The Champions, reports Variety , which may mean that work on 3993, the director’s Spanish language follow up to Pan’s Labyrinth, will have to wait.
Sergio G Sánchez the scriptwriter of 3993, had told Sci Fi Wire that he expected the fantasy film, set against the background of the Spanish civil war, and completing the trilogy begun with The Devil’s Backbone and Labyrinth, to go into production when del Torro had finished work on Hellboy 2. He did, however, add, “Who knows when he'll shoot it? Because he has something like 10 different projects developing.”
And it seems one of those projects has taken precedence with the announcement about the Champions. The original series, produced by ITC, featured three agents saved from a plane crash by members of an advanced civilisation who give them special super powers. Set in Geneva and featuring international storylines, it was, like its stable mate The Saint, filmed mostly outside London with copious help from stock footage and captions.
This time round, wanna bet it’ll mostly filmed in some East European capital with copious help from captions and green screen?
