I will defend Larter. Her parts in Final Destination 2 and Resident Evil 3 were good acting. She looks competent with a gun in her hand. And she plays a split personality super power in Heros that spins your head. (Like Bishop, she looks good in dirt. LOL) While her actual physical attributes may look like the barbie cookie cutter, her acting ability is far better. She came across as the leader of the rag tag "normals" in RE3 very well and played off both Oded Fehr and Mila J. nicely. (Oh, heavens, is there any way to stick OF in this movie? Sorry, drool bucket time again. I sooooo missed him in the third Mummy movie. Not that Li isn't visually wonderful and kick ass on the action movie front, but I missed my tattooed desert dude. or TDD, as we referred to him on one of my other fan lists of the time. He'd make a good Alec, if you don't mind the slight accent that isn't Aussie/English  )

There is, mind you, a possibility that anyone could come across well with MJ and OF to work with. 

And if we're going to get international here, there are a lot of talented asian/Indian actors to choose from for the "minor" parts, as well as French, German, Austrian and probably Arabic/African ... A well rounded cast would be nice. <disregard grumbles about last airbender and incredibly stupid casting decisions. If they could really act, it would help and if stupid directors would do their research it would help also!> 

You're right about Portman, but I suspect she's too high profile for this movie. They're working with TV actors rather than movie actors.

I'm just kinda aghast that Paul and Virginia are the only parts that seem to have anyone attached, even peripherally, to them. UFO was, in many ways, an ensemble show, all of the parts being important on some level; not just the leads.

Oh, shoot, there I go again.

 

I could picture Jerri Ryan as Col. Lake as she had the intellgence part down well in ST Voyager. Beautiful and brainy especially with her hair down. Nice eyes too. That's what got me with Wanda!

Actually, Matt, the female actresses on ST loved their catsuits!  They were padded!  When I met Jeri Ryan at a Con, she was hilariously patting her chest and saying, 'Where'd they go?'  And Mirina Sirtis used to say it was always a downer to change into street clothes at the end of a shooting day and lose all those inches! 

directors and producers are looking at the most bang for their buck and at this point think they know what is what. Given the flops of the last decade, most of them are trying to tailor what we see to what they think is right; not what we really want to see. Most of the people with money think they know better than the rest of us what makes good movies, plays, etc. They're wrong most of the time, but that doesn't stop them.

Hmmm, wonder what Peter Jackson would do with UFO? Or the guys who did Stargate. Unfortunately, the big names are not interested. And we get a guy who's never directed???? Oh, well. I guess I'll relegate this to the Dukes of Hazard and Starsky and Hutch, non watchable.

d

After all the speculation, at this point, I just want to see this UFO movie made with the UK origins intact. It would be a welcome end to 2010 seeing it in production with principle photography well underway.

Gerry Anderson should write it imho.  Look at the debacle of Thunderbirds when helmed by Mr Frakes

I second that! But regardless of who directs it, Straker has to be the lead, and it looks like that isn't going to be the case.

You're right Denise, Frakes is very good with what he knows. I liked episodes (DS9, Voyager) that were directed by Levar Burton as well.