'Galaxy Quest' is reportedly being adapted as an Amazon TV show

'Galaxy Quest' is a 1999 movie that stars Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman as actors on a fictional science fiction show. A TV show based on the film is reportedly in development.

Amazon is reportedly creating a TV show based on the science fiction cult classic film “Galaxy Quest.” 

The project is currently being developed and the movie’s director, Dean Parisot, is on board to direct, while its writer, Robert Gordon, will be working on the script.

The original 1999 movie starred Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, and Daryl Mitchell as actors who portrayed the crew of a spaceship in a hit TV series. Unbeknownst to them, aliens have seen the show and believe it is a documentary, and the aliens ask the actors to help them against their enemies. 

The film did fairly well with critics at the time, with reviewers calling it “mischievously clever,” “wicked fun,” and “lively… fast, light and funny.”

 A TV version of “Galaxy Quest” will add some more sci-fi flavor to Amazon’s original programming slate – its other TV shows currently include “Transparent,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” “Bosch,” and “Hand of God.” Another sci-fi program produced by the company will arrive this November – Amazon is creating a TV show titled “The Man in the High Castle” that’s based off the novel of the same name by acclaimed sci-fi author Philip K. Dick.

Why invest in a sci-fi TV adaptation? Fantasy and science fiction are more popular than ever at the moment. Comic book movies, with their fantasy and sci-fi elements, are ruling the box office, and the fantasy HBO TV show “Game of Thrones” is one of the most popular on TV right now. Another popular program, Starz’s “Outlander,” doesn’t make too much of its sci-fi plot but a central part of its story does involve time travel. Meanwhile, the network Fox is reviving its sci-fi hit “The X-Files.”

And many who watched “Galaxy Quest” noted that the fictional TV show in the film bears more than a passing resemblance to the original incarnation of “Star Trek” with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. The movies based on that TV show recently became big box office hits, with 2009’s “Star Trek” becoming the seventh-highest grossing movie of the year and “Star Trek Into Darkness” becoming the eleventh-highest-grossing movie of 2013. The moment seems right for “Galaxy Quest.”