Thunderbirds

By: Corona's Coming Attractions
Date: Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Genre:
Family/Adventure/Science Fiction.

Studio:
Universal Pictures.

Production Company:
Working Title Films.

Project Phase:
In the Can.

Who's Voices Are In It:
Bill Paxton (Jeff Tracy); Ben Kingsley (The Hood); Anthony Edwards (Brains); Sophia Myles (Lady Penelope); Philip Winchester (Scott Tracy); Lex Shrapnel (John Tracy); Dominic Colenso (Virgil Tracy); Ben Torgenson (Gordon Tracy); Ron Cook (Parker).

Who's Making It:
Jonathan Frakes (Director); Will Osbourne (Screenwriter); Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Mark Huffam (Producers); based on the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson television series, Thunderbirds.

Premise:
Outfitted with cutting-edge technology, a family of adevnturers place themselves in harm's way at trouble spots around the globe. Known as 'International Rescue', the Tracy family is on-call at anytime to assist the world's nations when disaster strikes, or to avert criminal activity. They are known to the world as the Thunderbirds. Now they must prevent a villain from taking the Earth's atmosphere away.

Release Date:
Summer 2004.

Comments:
Filmed in 'supermarionation', the Thunderbirds originated from the mind of Gerry Anderson. Utilizing extensive miniature models and marionettes instead of 60's special effects and live actors, the show offered a different alternative to other action-adventure fare on your telly. While the kids loved it, the show quickly assembled a legion of older fans who got as much a kick out of trying to figure out how the show's designers made those really cool looking models week after week, only to have them get pyro'ed near the episode's conclusion. (Well ok -- that and tuning in to watch Lady Penelope get involved in the melee, too.)

Scoop Feedback:

November 26, 1997... We get a major break in the latest development with this project: a consortium of digital artists are planning to release an updated, all-digital version of Gerry Andersons' Thunderbirds puppet TV series. The plan is to utilize computer generated imagery (CGI) to update the story into the twenty first century. The consortium, composed of British, Japanese and Italian designers, are negotiating rights with the current owners, Channel 5 Video/ITC. Although Gerry Anderson is no longer involved with the series, it is hoped he will be brought in as a consultant. The voice talents of some of the original Thunderbirds (Shane Rimmer, Sylvia Anderson and David Graham) are hoped to reprise their original roles.

It has not been decided whether to make it for TV or film, as ultimately the decision resides on the financial backing of the investors, but they hope to produce a 90-minute feature using the latest digital effects. CA was told that, until recently, CGI was not of high enough quality to adapt the classic TV series characters into believable digital images, but the success of Toy Story has persuaded a number of serious financiers that now is the time to pursue such a venture.

Although the plotline is still sketchy, one idea proposed at this stage places the Thunderbirds organization twenty years on from the one we remember in the series. New, sleeker craft, and possibly a couple of new ones, are now used by the Tracy family to assist in world disaster relief. The leader of the series Thunderbirds, Jeff Tracey, has died, leaving his son Scott to run the "family business". Again, this is just one idea being toyed around with at this early stage of the process, and it may not wind up being the final plotline at all. [Thanks to 'Tryptych' for the ultra cool information - SIG!]

January - November, 1997... Rumors that actress Kristen Scott Thomas (The English Patient, Four Weddings and a Funeral) has been 'cast' to portray the live-action role of Thunderbird Lady Penelope are totally false, but we keep getting 'em.
Also mentioned is that the rights reside with Working Title Films, but we haven't been able to confirm that.

December 3, 1997... Our latest rumor places director Peter Hewitt (whose next film is The Borrowers) as the man chosen to helm the big screen debut of supermarionation starting in spring '98. [Thanks to an anonymous chap.]

January 6 - 17, 1998... While trying to pin down some of the things we've heard from a scooper, Variety beats us to the punch...kinda. The industry magazine reports today that Kristen Scott Thomas is considering the Thunderbirds movie as her next project, which goes against what we were hearing all last year. But Variety did confirm director Peter Hewitt's involvement.

But, we've been privy to some more info that Variety doesn't know about. Our scooper 'Miranda' tells us that Thomas' role is actually the voice of the daughter of Lady Penelope, and not the original character. With a budget of $45 million, the team assembling the project want to push the envelope with the new revitalized Thunderbirds: by making everything, including backgrounds and vehicles CGI, they'll be able to bring the team into some new situations, including as 'Miranda' said, "Real-looking daytime situations. This new movie is meant to make the series known to Americans and other viewers who know knothing about the series." She signed off with the promise that in addition to Thomas' involvement, other well-known American actors are being courted for the other voice roles. [Clearance given by 'Miranda'.]

Meanwhile, to add to the confustion (and buzz, we suppose), the January 11th edition of London's Express newspaper reported Joanna Lumley (Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous) was up for the Lady Penelope role. [Filed by 'xibalba'.]

February 5, 1998... On Simon Wickes' TV Century 21: The Gerry Anderson Homepage, Wickes has posted a rumor that Pete Postlethwaithe will voice Lady Penelope's chauffer Parker in the movie version. The page also credits Karey Kilpatrick as the screenwriter working on the project right now. [Sent in by Eric;
information originally appeared on 'TV Century 21'.]

April 19, 1998... The April 11th Financial Times ran a story about this project -- which legitimizes it in our books. The Times article states the film's budget at $75 million (cool!) which places it as one of the United Kingdom's most expensive films ever. Production is scheduled to begin this summer with Working Title Films awaiting a final approval from PolyGram to go full speed ahead. A revised version of the script has been tendered to Michael Kuhn, President of PolyGram's Filmed Entertainment division; in the script International Rescue must prevent a diabolical villain from stealing the planet's atmosphere. Once any requested script revisions have been completed the project's greenlight will be issued.

Here's an interesting point any CGI FX employees reading this might be especially interested in. According to the Times, there's insufficient CGI resources in the UK to handle the demand this production requires; one of the possibilities is PolyGram setting up its own in-house CGI division.

On a side note of interest, PolyGram aquired the rights to the property when it bought out ITC Entertainment in 1995 for $165 million. Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the show's creators, sold their rights to ITC's former owner, Lord Grade. [A very cool scoop by informed Times reader 'lutzifer'.]

May 2, 1998... We've been told that the film won't be CGI animation but instead live action. No casting decisions have been made yet. [Thanks to 'kelleyc'.]

May 20, 2002... According to an article in the Australian Herald-Sun newspaper dated Friday, May 10 2002: "Lady Penelope - Go for Australia. Thunderbirds may be go, and Australia-bound. Britain's Working Title film production company is considering shooting the live action version of the famous 1960s TV puppet show in Queensland.

"Working Title co-chairman Tim Bevan, who was in Melbourne to oversee filming for The Kelly Gang, said Australia's favourable exchange rate made it a good chance for several coming Working Title features, including Thunderbirds. 'We're looking at three or four others, one of them a very big movie... bringing them here strictly because you get more bang for your buck,' he said. 'Thunderbirds for instance: we could create a Tracy Island up in the north and you could go to
the studios in Brisbane.'"

[Sent in by anonymous; first appeared in the Herald-Sun newspaper.]

July 18, 2002... It sometimes happens at CA, and when it does nobody kicks themselves harder in the ass than we do: we were beaten to the scoop by Friday's Variety that director/actor Jonathan Frakes (better known as Commander Will Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation) will helm the live-action Thunderbirds movie.

This past Monday a new scooper by the name of 'Dr. Confoundo' told us that Frakes had just signed on to direct this project. Since we had no way to confirm the news or check out Confoundo, the scoop sat until today's story appeared on Variety this evening. The positive thing to emerge from all of this is that now we know the good Doctor can be trusted.

Variety also revealed that the movie's script was written by Will Osbourne, and that Working Title Films is hoping to make Thunderbirds a go for early 2003. The movie has also been reconfigured to be more of a family oriented film rather than an adult action-adventure ride. Also, it sounds like the idea of making the film using CGI has been dropped in favor of live-action.

['Dr. Confoundo' nailed it first.]

January 30, 2003... The Hollywood Reporter states that Bill Paxton (Titanic, Twister) is in discussions to star as the "billionaire former astronaut who is the patriarch of the family and leads the Thunderbirds during their missions to save the world." Although the Reporter never mentions the name of the character Paxton would be playing, in the TV series he was called Jeff Tracy. Filming is slated to commence this March. [Source: The Hollywood Reporter.]

February 4, 2003... Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast) has stepped up to play The Hood, the main villain in the live-action Thunderbirds film. Sometime during the movie The Hood will invade Tracy Island and try to utilize the Thunderbirds technology and resources. [Source: The Hollywood Reporter.]

Also, the BBC News website was the first to list off the actors who will play three of the remainding four Tracy brothers. All have had minor roles in films in the past.

The BBC lists: Philip Winchester (The Patriot as Scott Tracy; Lex Shrapnel (K-19: The Widowmaker) as John Tracy; Dominic Colenso (who appeared in the British series The Lost Prince) will play Virgil; and Ben Torgenson will play Gordon Tracy. The part of Alan has yet to be filled.

The site also reports Ron Cook (24 Hour Party People) has been tapped to play Parker, Lady Penelope's chauffer. [Thanks to the Beeb but first it was reported by 'Jimcalagon'.]

Early morning, February 7, 2003... Coming Attractions was recently contacted by a longtime source who gave us a very surprising and cool image to look at: take a look at what the live-action version of Lady Penelope's FAB 1 Rolls-Royce will look like!

Fans of the classic Thunderbirds series will now see that while the movie version of Penny's wheels has been updated to give the vehicle a slightly futuristic appearance, it's still that same recognizable shade of pink. As well, further similarities between the TV version of the car (seen on right) and its movie counterpart are that both vehicles use six wheels (with two pairs up at the vehicle's front), the use of a "bubble top" window and recessed headlights.
One feature noticeably absent from the classic Rolls is the front chrome grill and the Rolls-Royce headmount. Still, there's the promise of new additions to this iteration of Thunderbirds leading lady's vehicle: are those the tips of missiles we see poking out where the fog lights would be?

To get a better idea of the capabilities of Lady Penelope's custom made FAB 1 Rolls-Royce, the Supermarionation website has an extensive dossier on the vehicle's specs (and that's where we got out image of TV's FAB 1.) As for the car you'll see in the movie, we're told that builders are busy at work right now constructing Lady Penelope's car somewhere inside Pinewood Studios.

[Our very special thanks to our secret friend somewhere on Tracy Island for showing us the goods!]

Afternoon, February 7, 2003... After reading this morning's scoop and seeing the production drawing of Lady Penelope's FAB 1 vehicle, a number of readers have written in to CA to say that the car may not be a Rolls-Royce at all. Our savvy scoopers point out that there are clues in the details of the FAB 1 sketch that indicate the movie car may in fact be...wait for it...a Ford Thunderbird.

As some pointed out to us, take a peek at Ford Motor's Thunderbird website. Now take a closer look at the style of the hood ornament and compare it to what's seen in the sketch for FAB 1. Pretty similar, aren't they?

Instead of Lady Penelope owning a Rolls-Royce in the Thunderbirds movie she might be sitting inside a modified Ford Thunderbird. Our readers might have uncovered the first product placement for this film.

[Our thanks to anonymous, Robert McNay, Adam, Joe Allen, Kevin and 'Packy McCracken' for being better auto buffs.]

February 25, 2003... Paging Dr. Green, Thunderbirds are go! The former leading man for NBC's ER has been cast in the role of Brains, the brilliant scientific mind behind the Thunderbirds rescue team. [Source: The Hollywood Reporter.]

April 3, 2003... The British

tabloid newspaper The Sun is the first to publish a photo of the live-action FAB 1 from the Thunderbirds movie. The six-wheeled car was shown to members of the British press yesterday.

The car in the photo matches exactly with the production concept sketch that was sent to Coming Attractions last February from an insider working on the production. Unlike the car from the TV series, the live-action vehicle is a concept car designed by the Ford Motor Company and is not a Rolls-Royce.

November 24, 2003... The trailer for next summer's live-action THUNDERBIRDS movie is go! Working Title Films, the production company making the picture, is hosting the trailer on their website. The trailer shows that director Jonathan Frakes has done a pretty decent job at making the live-action Tracy family and their space age vehicles look remarkably faithful to their marionette counterparts (strings not included.) [Working Title Films website.]

December 3, 2003... Back when we first scooped about Ford Motor Company's involvement with Lady Penelope's pink set of wheels from the THUNDERBIRDS movie, our informant showed us an early concept design sketch of the car. As the days tick by until the THUNDERBIRDS trailer starts to appear in theaters, Ford has released three photos of Penelope's six-wheeled limousine, two of which are brand new to our eyes.

Click on any of the three photos to see Penny's 27-foot FAB 1 in detail. The car was designed in tandem by Ford Design Europe and led by the movie's production designer, John Beard. "We had a concept that updated the original, 1960's-designed pink, six wheeled, glass topped limousine for the 21st century," explains Beard. "Ford's designers, who coincidently were also re-inventing design classics for the future, came on board and successfully perfected the concept and gave it the Thunderbird identity."

THUNDERBIRDS blasts into theaters next summer. [Ford Motor Company.]

December 10, 2003...

Coming Soon scored two new images from the live-action THUNDERBIRDS movie, one showing our first look at Ben Kingsley as the film's villain, The Hood. The other new shot is of Lady Penelope (Sophia Myles) sipping a cup of tea in a pink-themed bubblebath. Naturally we're showing you the latter image; hit Coming Soon for a look at The Hood. [Coming Soon.]

March 29, 2004... Yahoo Movies has the new trailer for THUNDERBIRDS available for download in either Real Player of Windows Media formats. Set for release on August 6, the new trailers plays up the kids-to-the-rescue angle moreso than anything we've seen so far. Will the live-action THUNDERBIRDS movie be more SPY KIDS rather than Supermarionation? Download the trailer and judge for yourself!