The Reunion Is On!

I've noticed this interesting phenomenon: from time to time there are outpourings of support for aRoswell movie from tweeters to the actors of the show. Although not in the habit of doing that myself, I've blogged about the Roswell movie petition and the possibility of a movie a while back. 

But things have changed a lot since my last post about a Roswell movie. Information is now official that the reunion that the fans have been waiting for many years is in place at ATX Television Fest in June. 

According to TheWrap, Shiri Appleby, Nick Wechsler, Brendan Fehr and show creator Jason Katims (“Friday Night Lights,” “Parenthood”) will be reuniting during a session at the TV festival held in Austin, Texas from June 5-8. From now to June, every fan hopes that more actors will join the panel. This reunion alone is a dream come true for many.

Who know what can happen after this?

I think the movie is but one option – what I would really like is to have Roswell back, in any capacity – a motion picture, a forth season, a mini-series, or even a documentary. 

But all of these (haha, pardon the Freudian slip), I mean, any of these possibilities could only be viable if the original cast was involved. Yes, even Emilie de Ravin. (What!? Ava is not dead!) Absent that, I wouldn't look forward to any possibility. 

Since I don't work in the medium, I am clueless about which of these possibilities is more viable than the other. Or the most expensive, for that matter. But I can muse about it, free of charge. 

As I'm writing this, all of the actors are involved in projects of their own. This is important on the list of priorities, if we wish to have the main cast involved in any Roswell-related endeavor. 

Assuming that the main players would all be willing to work together again, which of those options would be most likely?

Let's see... A movie takes a relatively short time to shoot (compared to a full season) so I think it would be possible to reunite the cast around such a project. But what script could bring the actors back? Turning Pursuit and Turnabout into a script could be a good idea for a feature film, since the books are considered part of the canon. Of course, Roswell is not short of great stories to tell, if the scriptwriters turn their imagination loose. 

A full Tv season that has 22-24 episodes takes about ten months to shoot. Anyone familiar with the routine of a tv actor knows how demanding the shooting schedule is for everybody. I'm talking about very long workdays. Unless all the actors were sitting on their hands and desperate for work, I think it's very difficult getting them all together again like this. If there was no problem getting the team back together, there would be no shortage of stories to tell in a fourth season. Jason Katims' original plan seems pretty good – the kids on the road doing good deeds and avoiding the law. 

One way of making all of this a lil' bit more actor friendly, could be making a mini-series, rather than a full season. You don't really need more than ten episodes to tell a terrific story and the schedule is almost certainly more accessible to our cast. I don't know which project takes more time – whether the movie or the mini-series – but I think either one would be a great idea!

Of course, there's another possibility, as remote as it may sound – the documentary. As I have said before, the show left many gaps in the narrative and there was so much happening behind the scenes that a documentary about the making-of the show could be welcomed by the fans. The advantage of this type of project is that the schedule would be minimal for the actors, the show-runners and "the suits" – it could be done individually and at their convenience, which would be good for them and good for the fans. It would be funny if a Roswell documentary could be directed by Shiri Appleby – since she's been 'warming up' for the task for a while now.

Anyway, let's focus on our long-awaited reunion for now. There will be plenty of time to dream later.

WE WANTTO BELIEVE!