Together with original screenwriter Jonathan Betuel, Gary Whitta has been working on a sequel to The Last Starfighter for a number of years, and it would seem that the project is now very close to the finish line. The original 1984 film follows Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) as he becomes embarrassingly good at an arcade game called Starfighter and is approached by the game's creator who reveals that the game is actually a recruiting tool for a real intergalactic conflict.
Gary Whitta released a sizzle reel for The Last Starfighter sequel (titled The Last Starfighters) full of concept art from Matt Allsopp and featuring a new version of the original theme from Chris Tilton. Check it out below!
While speaking during a Twitch stream yesterday, Gary Whitta said that they are "right on the one-yard line. After pushing the boulder uphill for years, we are very, very close… I believe it will happen." Whitta added that they "weren't interested in re-inventing or rebooting or remaking the movie," saying that they wanted to "do a sequel that kept the original in canon; which kept the original storyline and honored the original. The idea was to pass the torch to a new generation of heroes in the same way that The Force Awakens does." As the sequel hasn't received the greenlight, Whitta is hoping that the sizzle reel will do a lot to generate interest.
Jonathan and I are working really, really hard to try and make this movie a reality … Maybe it'll help. Like I said, I think we're already very close, but anytime that there's social media buzz and people get excited about, it helps other people get excited as well. Hopefully, one day you'll see it in a movie theater. It might look and sound a little bit like that. That's the movie Jonathan and I are excited about making.
What are your thoughts on the sizzle reel for The Last Starfighters? Would you be down to see this sequel fully realized?