THE BIG BUZZ: SLINGERS-Selling Sci-Fi Sizzle

Okay folks, a few days ago during the PLANET GRIFFIN WEEKEND EDTION, I posted a Vimeo clip for a sci-fi show called SLINGERS, coming from a small UK production house known as Sleepy Dog. Slingers is a smashgenre of OCEAN'S 11, COWBOY BEBOP, FIREFLY, and M*A*S*H; making the buzz on this sci-fi property '... one of the hottest tickets since the arrival of Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams!'

This show does not exist. Yet.

The video clip is actually a Sizzle Reel (A two minute pitch to network investors to build show potential. If successful, it moves into production) the production house scraped together using independent investments in hopes of taking it to the next level. So far, the interest has been well received in the U.K., but upon releasing the clip online, the America response is taking off faster than a runaway freight train! Writer/Creator Mike Sizemore explains the Slingers plot like this:

2263 A.D. After surviving mankind's first interplanetary war, humanity is now confined into an area of the universe known as Enclosed Space, seeing as how the way back to Earth is blocked off by an impassable barrier--- inadvertently created by mankind's efforts to defeat it's alien enemy. The title of the show derives from the ragtag crew of thieves flying an experimental spacecraft capable of 'slinging' itself to any point in space, making it (theoretically) the only craft able to return home. In reality, the crew utilizes the ship to pull off a series of high tech, high risk heists in an attempt to get payback on members within the post war hierarchy.
The De Facto leader of this group, former Spec Ops soldier DOMINIC 'DM' MONROE (played by the stoic SEAN PERTWEE), is determined to get home regardless of the outcome!

Enemies to make and Laws to break... So be it if it means saying goodbye to Enclosed Space!

Sizemore further emphasizes that the sci-fi elements are merely the trappings of the genre. The real story has more in common with the style and feel of classic heist movies and the heyday of Sinatra's Rat Pack, making for an exciting and visually stunning cocktail that easily puts this conceptual show above most of the 'pap' that passes for sci-fi! He's already written an overall story arc that, if successful, would run well into 3 seasons, allowing for full development of the characters, much like the already classic BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

So far, the Sizzle Reel has won over critics and investors during the recent MIPCOM distributors show (the Comic Con for new show pitches to the networks), allowing enough buzz to move into Pre-production and filming of the Pilot. Depending on who picks up the show, the first season of Slingers may hit boob tube screens by Fall 2010 or Spring 2011. With the blogosphere already hailing it as 'the Next Big Thing', it now falls to the studios who may or may not give this show the shot it deserves... Which would suck, cuz' I personally think this project ROCKS!
This is PLANET GRIFFIN and THE BIG BUZZ!