The Champions set for film remake

[julian_craster]

Without Alexandra Bastedo it will not be the same.....


BBC News
Thursday, 8 November 2007



The Champions set for film remake


The Champions ran the global crime-fighting agency Nemesis

Cult British science fiction TV series The Champions is to be re-made for the big screen.
Director Guillermo del Toro has signed up to write and direct the film, which is in the early stages of development.
The series, which ran for 30 episodes in 1968-69, revolved around the adventures of three secret government agents with superhuman abilities.
Originally screened on ITV, the show has recently been aired again on digital channel ITV4.
Super powers
The Champions starred Stuart Damon, Alexandra Bastedo and William Gaunt as the agents whose lives were saved by an advanced civilisation when their plane crashed in the Himalayas.
The civilization also bestowed them with superhuman abilities, including the ability to communicate over long distances by mental telepathy and the ability to foresee events. The TV series was produced by ITC, the company behind shows like The Saint, The Prisoner and Thunderbirds. Del Toro, who directed Pan's Labyrinth and was nominated for several Oscars last year, is currently working on the production of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.

[batman]

The Champions was never one of my favourite ITC shows (except for the lovely Alexandra Bastedo) so I am not too outraged by this announcement ... and Guillermo Del Toro is certainly an interesting director. Maybe we'll get a decent movie version for once!

Bats.

[Marky B]

Maybe the three original stars might get a walk on appearance.
Ta Ta
Marky B

[Moor Larkin]

Should I believe imdb when it says that Stuart Damon advanced his career, in 1970, by consolidating his stardom in 'The Champions'......... by appearing uncredited in Steptoe and Son??

....... ...........

[batman]

Looks like poor ol' Stuart may be on the look out for more 'consolidation' roles ....

GH News | Heartbreaker: Stuart Damon's 30-Year GH Run Ends | General Hospital @ soapcentral.com

Bats.

[samkydd]

Originally Posted by julian_craster Without Alexandra Bastedo it will not be the same..... BBC News Thursday, 8 November 2007

That'll be good, people leaping over high fences using CGI instead of trampolenes then?

[DB7]

Originally Posted by batman The Champions was never one of my favourite ITC shows (except for the lovely Alexandra Bastedo) so I am not too outraged by this announcement ... and Guillermo Del Toro is certainly an interesting director. Maybe we'll get a decent movie version for once! Bats.

Same here, I could never engage with the somewhat bland trio. Is there really any point remaking it as the title will mean nothing to todays cinema audience. Or maybe they're looking to follow up the success of Heroes by putting a retro British spin on the concept.

[batman]

Originally Posted by DB7 Same here, I could never engage with the somewhat bland trio. Is there really any point remaking it as the title will mean nothing to todays cinema audience. Or maybe they're looking to follow up the success of Heroes by putting a retro British spin on the concept.

Funny you should mention Heroes, after watching a bit of the first one Mrs Bat said 'It's just a jazzed up version of The Champions' and went to bed. Can't say it inspired me either.

Bats.

[Arthur Linden-Jones]

With hindsight, maybe The Champions was ahead of its time. The concept behind the programme had limitless possibilities given the availability of special effects.

However, the lack/absence of today's technological advancements, at the time it was originally made, didn't allow for these possibilities?

[PS68060]

I always like the way the characters under-played their abilities and kept them secret. The simplicity of their extra powers might look dull next to the X-Men or Heroes but it does produce better plots.

Sadly, I don't think any of the above will be true of a remake.

[destructive dandy]

Is certainly interesting, I really loved the original, there is mileage, but wll it capture the old magic of super hero espionage or just be a crappy x men kind of affair for todays teen audience?

[christoph404]

What is intriguing about "The Champions" is the way producer Monty Bermann conceived and produced the series. Apparently Bermann had purchased a large film library of stock travalogue clips of scenes from around the world including funnily enough footage of a red single engined plane flying over the frozen Arctic! The episodes were written around the clips rather than the opposite way around and its quite entertaining to watch the series with that in mind....it puts a whole new slant on the programme and how cheaply put together the whole thing was. The convention of stock footage of cars driving around the Coliseuem in Rome for example, then cut to a cheap set of a hotel room or interior supposedly in the same locale just does not stand up today at all! It was all very international but I don't think the cast and crew went too far from Pinewood or London! Other programmes of the era were the same such as "The Saint" or "Man in a Suitcase" but at least they had a charismatic hero to make up for the shortfall in the production values.
I suppose the super hero genre is quite popular at the moment, I thought "The X Men" series was quite good so I can see the logic in wanting to make a big screen version of "The Champions", the producers are proably seeing dollar signs based on the success of X Men ,Spiderman and others, though it could just as easily come a cropper based on the performance of "The Avengers" I can't imagine it bearing too much resemblence to the original though and I would imagine it would be set in the US with the groups headquarters in a US city rather than Geneva! What about remaking "Departement S " ? Another Monty Berman classic using the same tired old film library of stock footage to pad out the episodes. Who would play Jason King though?.......

[batman]

Originally Posted by christoph404 Another Monty Berman classic using the same tired old film library of stock footage to pad out the episodes. Who would play Jason King though?.......

Rupert Everett .....



Bats.

[christoph404]

yep, nice photo there of Rupert Everett out shopping I think Eddie Izzard would be quite good too in the role of JK.

[silverwhistle]

Originally Posted by batman Rupert Everett ..... Bats.

For a minute, I thought that was one of my older female relatives…