Over the years, numerous television stars have successfully transitioned from the small screen to the big screen, making their mark in Hollywood. With the recent announcement of a TV spinoff of the 1999 film Galaxy Quest, it’s clear that the trend of TV actors stepping into their space characters’ shoes for real continues to gain momentum.
Galaxy Quest TV Spinoff in Development
Paramount+ and Paramount Television Studios are currently developing a TV spinoff of Galaxy Quest, a Star Trek spoof that follows a group of TV actors forced to take on a galactic villain. The show has been teased before, with Amazon Studios picking up a small-screen adaptation in 2015, but plans were put on hold following the death of Alan Rickman. In 2017, Veep and Fresh Off the Boat writer Paul Scheer were set to write the project, but it never progressed beyond the earlier stages. The new show is currently looking for a writer and details are yet to be announced.
MIPTV International Television Market
The MIPTV international television market took place in Cannes with 5,650 delegates attending in person, up 1,000 from last year’s post-pandemic event. Attendance is still down from 2019, which had 9,500 official registrations. The market has struggled to adjust to the age of rapid digital disruption, with the rise of streamers jostling national networks and causing the entire content market to contract. Fees for local-language shows have dropped to the levels of national networks.
ICE Theaters Bunker: Enhancing the Movie Experience
Located in La Rochelle, France, the ICE Theaters Bunker is a highly protected facility where ICE technicians work on 30 Hollywood productions per year. They mine visual information from each frame to design bespoke light shows for ICE immersive theaters, aiming to engage the viewer and never let them leave the film. ICE technicians align visual reverberations to the rhythms of the source text, adding additional layers and lighting effects to action scenes and enlarging the environment. Horror films present different creative challenges, and ICE technicians try to keep side panels discreet. ICE prefers to work on films formatted in scope rather than 16:9 or academy ratios.
Expansion and Future Plans
ICE is set to open a second, smaller studio to tackle 20 Bollywood projects. The tech crew is considering encoding classic films and repertory titles, further expanding the immersive movie experience for viewers. As the line between television and film continues to blur, it’s evident that TV stars and the industry as a whole are making significant strides in Hollywood.
