Spaced… American style

If you’re reading this in the United States and you are not a friend of mine or work at Galaxy Cinema (those aren’t two exclusive groups, mind you) chances are you have no idea what Spaced is.

Possibly the most brilliant comedy to come from the BBC, Spaced is a celebration of the awkward late 20’s geek-obsessed culture from 1999. A brilliant tour-de-force by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg who went on to create Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Well… Fox TV has bought the rights and hired the director of the ‘Wassup?’ Budweiser ads to helm the project. They have cast an Aussie hottie in Simon Pegg’s role and are ready to gear up the terrible sitcom tank to roll over the dreams and warm memories that Spaced fans still have.

Co-star of Spaced Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson) has released a statement on the remake that I find quite beautiful:

Jessica’s Official statement on US Spaced.

Spaced in America by Jessica Hynes. March 4th 2008

Things have really hotted up in the last few days -
‘Simon Pegg vs Mc.G!’ ‘Mc.G is a fat douche bag!’
‘It’s a f***ing travesty!’ (that’s fucking). I felt
a tear come to my eye when I went on www.pinkraygun.com,
because she kind of said it for me. When someone else
fights your corner and feels your injustice for you it
rocks, let me tell you. So can I just say thank you
for that. You know who you are. x

It might make everyone feel better to know that I am
planning a counter attack; A British re-make of
‘Charlies Angels’ called ‘Charlies Angles’ – about three
female architects who love to design buildings make
biscuits, and wear button up cardigans. That’s gonna
hurt you Mc.G huh?- a remake of one of YOUR films
with no titties?? Huh??! HUH!!!

Anyway I’m going to keep it short – just wanted again
to reiterate that Simon, Edgar and I were not approached
- at any stage or consulted in anyway. In fact I approached
THEM in a very English way wondering if, you know
I’d been in the garden when they called, but have been
politely told that no official, meaningful involvement
( save wheeling us out to placate the fans) is possible.

So don’t watch it, don’t think about it – buy our
D.V.D coming out in America in the summer and
SAVE YOUR SOUL!!!!

Excuse her French, but that is a creator outraged at her work being turned into a travesty. To those not in the know (but a good region free DVD player lads), Spaced is a wholly British affair which will frankly not translate to American TV.

But if you look through the potty language in Hynes‘ post above you’ll see a silver lining to this cloud, a US DVD release? Apparently so. When I worked at Rykodisc I was told the project was just too pricey to release on DVD because of the royalties for the many pop songs included. So either the DVD will be butchered (see the Young Ones DVD release which omitted the music acts) or it will be a very expensive box set.

See- region free dvd player.