The trailer for Space Station 76 sold me…on the idea that I never need to see this movie.
Its slogan might have been “Yes, this is your grandfather’s space station!” because the film’s a send-up of 1970s sf. That could be a funny premise for original humor. However, you can see from the trailer that Space Station 76 covers much the same ground as Quark, an sf parody acually made in the 1970s. Quark bombed and went off the air two months after it premiered, something the producers of Space Station 76 ought to have taken as a warning.
Someone who worked on the new movie accidentally revealed the bottom line to the Los Angeles Times:
“It’s like ‘Peyton Place’ in outer space,” offers production designer Seth Reed, who only had four weeks to prep the low-budget film and found inspiration in everything from midcentury architects like Pierre Koenig to the 1971 “The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement” (a few sets are still available on Amazon).
Well, that would explain a great deal of what you see in the trailer.
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It doesn’t remind me of Quark at all: Quark was made with actual affection for the source material by people who genuinely liked Star Trek. This trailer makes this film looks like they just wanted to do a lame rehash of Anchorman but neglected to write any funny parts, and figured setting it someplace different was enough.
Who are those actors? About all I can say with any certainty is that the casting call wasn’t held in Calcutta, about the only cheaper source of unknown actors I can imagine.
Mike: It COULD be worse. It could be…SPACE STATION 666! Martin
Not all of the actors are unknown. Jerry O’Connell has been in some real movies, (Stand by Me, Jerry Maguire, et al.) and was a star of the sf tv series Sliders for a few seasons.
A minuscule budget, or a compressed schedule, does not necessarily doom a film, if the production designer is plucky and pure of heart. My favorite example, with bargain-basement sets and props that look pretty good to my eye, is 1974’s Dark Star.
Many another 1970s movie costing far, far more than sixty thousand dollars failed to be a better SF film than Dark Star. (Your taste may vary.)
So, Taral, just curious, how many films have you cast? And where?
This trailer might get the bad taste out of the mouth, both depressing and uplifting at the same time:
Nice to see “Quark” get a mention. It’s possibly my favorite sf tv show (I don’t have a high opinion of sf tv shows) yet I’ve never encountered anyone else who has ever heard of it, let alone seen it. That Buck Henry!
As a huge 70s anything fan (I’m at that nostalgic age, alas), I am looking forward to this dreckfest. The art direction seems a little “Solaris” meets “2001” with a dash of “Buck Rogers” for mouth feel.
“Dark Star” is my favorite sf movie. If only all sf movies were half as good as it is… I agree that “Dark Star” also demonstrates that good sf not only doesn’t need sacks of money, it shouldn’t get sacks of money. The money encourages the wrong parts. Where do sacks of money lead? Guardians of the Galaxy, that’s where.