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Sci-Fi on the Cheap

Posted by timothy on from the zombies-are-after-us dept.

lowbudgetfun writes "NYTimes.com is reporting on the Sci-Fi channel's huge investment (28 films for $21 million) for original B movies. Includes quotes from B Movie hero, Bruce Campbell." I especially liked this line from the article: "Shot on budgets ranging from $1 million to $2 million, Sci Fi's movies are made in money-saving locales like Bulgaria, Romania and Missouri."

3 of 353 comments (clear)

  1. I Wish by FS1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wish they would focus on producing more original series to replace the ones they dropped. I also think they should pick up popular sci-fi shows dropped by other networks. Farscape was one of the best Scifi shows on TV. While I didn't really care for Firefly, it has a proven audience. Scifi should be all over this property once the movie is released.

    I also wish that they would throw some of that money at JMS, and let him make "The Memory of Shadows" for TV.

    They should also focus less on topic such as ghosts and horror movies. IMHO these do not qualify as real scifi.

    --
    A Fatal OE Exception has occurred, Sig will now reboot.
  2. This is not exactly a good thing by Y-Crate · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here you have one very good reason why SciFi as a genre, is not taken seriously by most people over the age of 12.

    I enjoy a good number of B-Movies (and even a few C and D-list films), but I get worried when the predominant type of movie being produced is deliberately low-brow and sets the bar so low in fact, a first year film student could trip over it.

    The idea that SciFi can be well-written and produced with some care is hard for many people to accept these days, as all they see is schlock put together on the cheap as fast as humanly possible to give the channel in question a quick cash infusion

    In a day when even comic books and fantasy novels are taken seriously by the masses due to the amount of effort put into adapting them to the screen, it nearly brings a tear to my eye to consider that the bargain-bin product coming from The SciFi Channel is pretty much the cream of the crop these days.

    I really don't know what I would do if a studio announced they were hiring an extremely adept filmmaker and screenwriter to put The Foundation series into theatres.

    Probably cry.

  3. I smell a rat! and It'll be on budget for 1.5M by MrLint · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Every time I see a commercial for one of these cinematic disasters (and I don't just mean the actual disaster films) I cringe, and ask myself why are they wasting money on this crap. To this say I miss 'The Invisible Man' the series. I donno if they ran out of money or budget, but it was clever deep and well written, instead we get another snake of the week movie.

    On top of this, SciFi is cutting out the Stargate opening credits to get more advert time. I know *I* want sci fi to stay 'on air' so i can keep watching Stargate and BSG, but I feel like I'm getting the poo from a 1 million Genetically modified monkeys on typewriters thrown at me with these movies.

    PS. Dear SciFi. the idea of mutant screenwriting monkeys is available for a modest sum.