Battlestar Galactica movie in pipeline

The TV show's original creator is on board to produce the film version

Jamie Barber and Mary Mcdonnell in the 2004 series of Battlestar Galactica (Rex Features)

A film version of TV series Battlestar Galactica is being developed by Universal, it has been reported.

The studio is said to have signed Transcendence writer Jack Paglen to write the screenplay, with original series creator Glen Larson on board to produce the film, Variety reports.

Unlike previous plans for a film adaptation, which seemed to take Ronald D Moore’s cult early Noughties series into consideration, the new film will be a complete reimagining of the story.

Moore’s series, which ran for four seasons from 2003, opened up the universe to explore deeper concepts of faith, morality and politics.

Paglen’s script is reported to be partly based on the original 1978 version, in which humans battled deadly cybernetic Cylons while also looking for planet Earth.

Created by Glen A Larson, the original science fiction franchise ran for a year and was later followed by a short-run sequel series called Galactica 1980.

There have been three different Battlestar Galactica series, but all share the premise that a human civilisation in the extended galaxy are at war with a cybernetic race known as the Cylons.