Syfy has been looking for a way into film for years, ever since NBC merged with Vivendi Universal Entertainment in 2004. That marriage provided Syfy — known as Sci Fi Channel until a 2009 brand makeover — with access to Universal Pictures’ vast trove of intellectual property.11
“Having a theatrical film label is not only a natural fit for Syfy,” says Dave Howe, the network’s president. “It’s also a gap in the marketplace.”
In Hollywood, “science fiction” is virtually synonymous with “megabudget CGI-laden summer action movie.” Howe and his team at Syfy saw an opportunity for a different kind of science fiction film, one driven less by expensive stars and special effects than by storytelling.
They started pitching the idea of a Syfy Films slate shortly after the merger and revisited the idea every year or so, but met with little interest from the Universal side. “They’ve always been polite and responsive, but that lower-budget movie hasn’t been something they wanted to explore,” says Howe.
But in late 2009, Universal Pictures got a new management team. A year later, Syfy Films was a reality, with both companies putting money into a joint development fund. Initially, it announced plans to release its first movies in 2012, although the horizon has been pushed back somewhat. Howe says Syfy Films is “actively developing scripts.”
“Waterworld” isn’t an obvious candidate, considering that the original was exactly the kind of grossly overbudgeted Hollywood monstrosity that Howe proposes to avoid. Its $235 million cost reportedly made it the most expensive movie ever at the time, a title since usurped by “Titantic,” and it only avoided losing money through home video sales.
Yet Howe sees it as an underexploited piece of intellectual property. That’s because every time it airs on Syfy, it attracts a surprisingly large viewership. (Around 400,000 viewers watched the last airing.11
While a theatrical sequel of “Waterworld” was “never really on the cards,” according to Howe, a series inspired by the film is something that has been “talked about endlessly” and remains a possibility, he says.
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Source-Forbes
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