Filmmaker wants to Kickstart more old-school 'Thunderbirds'
If you've seen the CGI remake of Thunderbirds, you might feel as if the glossy images have lost some of the charm of the puppet-fronted original. Filmmaker Stephen La Riviére agrees with you, which is why he's asking for our cash to produce an old-school revival of the classic action-adventure series. Thunderbirds: 1965 has a goal of producing between one and three episodes of the show, complete with puppets and models, as before. Rather than "new" material, the team will produce visuals to accompany three audio-only episodes that were recorded by the original cast as a tie-in during the original run.
If you're unfamiliar, Thunderbirds was one of several "Supermarionation" shows created by Gerry Anderson in the '60s. Each show featured puppets piloting futuristic vehicles, and served as the inspiration for plenty of imitators through the years -- most notably serving as the template for Team America: World Police's visuals. In the story, the Tracy brothers, sons of a widowed aerospace magnate, pilot five vehicles that are uniquely designed to rescue people from catastrophes. The project is asking for £75,000 ($115,500) to produce the first episode, with backers getting a Blu-ray of the episode if they kick in £30 ($46).
