Legendary Pictures is acquiring the movie rights to the classic swashbuckling sci-fi hero Buck Rogers, and they have brought on Transformers producer Don Murphy to develop a series of film and TV projects.

The report explains that Legendary is “planning something along the lines of what was originally planned for Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, with a prestige television series that leads to a blockbuster film franchise along with an anime-style animated series, all designed to reintroduce the Buck Rogers Universe to modern audiences.”

The project will be based on the 1928 novella Armageddon 2419 A.D. written by Philip Francis Nowlan, which is the story that introduced Buck Rogers to the world. The story centers on a coal mine inspector who awakens from suspended animation after 500 years to find himself in the middle of a planetary war.

The Buck Rogers property has been adapted into various forms of entertainment over the years including comic strips, movies, radio and television shows. The comic strip debuted in the 1930s and was developed by John F. Dille. It ended up becoming a huge hit and was one of the world’s most popular comic strips.

I loved Buck Rogers! I was a big fan of the art style and sci-fi designs with the ray guns, rocket ships, jet packs, laser beams, costumes, and its vision of the future. The comic strip inspired so many elements of sci-fi over the years, and we are still seeing its influence today.

Following the success of Star Wars in the late ‘70s, Universal developed a feature-length Buck Rogers television pilot starring Gil Gerard. That pilot was released as a theatrical film, and then it went on to run for two seasons on NBC between September 1979 and April 1981.

I’m excited about these projects! There’s a lot of awesome potential with Buck Rogers, especially if the film and TV series really leans heavily into the designs of the original retro source material. But, we’ll see what happens.

Source: The Wrap