'V' Plans Return Invasion on ABC

Friday's Variety is reporting that the iconic 1980's sci-fi television mini-series V will return to television on ABC courtesy of Warner Bros. TV, the producer of the original property.

Written by Emmy-nominated The 4400 co-creator and executive producer Scott Peters, the new V was sold to ABC as a spec script.

The original NBC television mini-series, produced during the golden age of that format and later leading to a second mini-series and a short-lived spin-off weekly series in the '84-'85 season, centered on a race of lizard-like aliens who come to Earth disguised as humans with seemingly with friendly intentions, but literally and figuratively masking a hidden agenda. The original series' story very bluntly served as allegory to Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, going so far as to have characters that lived through that era recognize the aliens' methods and intentions.

Peters told Variety he won’t duplicate that concept, but that the new V will still focus on what happens when "the masses have blind faith in their leaders".

The new V will focus on a female Homeland Security agent with an aimless, problematic son who "gloms" to aliens upon their arrival — causing tension within the family. But as in the original V, several storylines will be featured.

Some of the original's familiar elements will remain, however. As in the ’80s version, the show will open "with an enormous army of spaceships hovering over the world’s major cities. The visitors say they’ve come to help Earth, but their motives are nefarious (in the original, they wanted to steal the world’s water supply)."

Peters told the Hollywood trade he was not looking to do another sci-fi property, but changed his mind when Warner Bros. TV approached him about "reinventing" the franchise.

"Whenever I mention ‘V’ to anybody, they still have a lot of good memories about the original movie and series," Peters said. "Everybody has that imagery of their uniforms, or the visitor eating a hamster. It’s a science fiction icon and too good to pass up."

The original V scored a 40 share for its finale episode in 1983, blockbuster rating for the era and nearly unheard of on network TV today aside from events such as the Superbowl. The property also spawned an 18 issue comic book series published by DC Comics.

Original V writer-producer-director Kenneth Johnson recently attempted to revive the property as V: The Second Generation, but he is not involved in the Peters version, Variety reports.