SciFi Wire wrote surprise (and delight) that Syfy is actually moving forward with making Sharktopus.
I wasn't surprised at all. In a very lengthy conference call with about 3,400 bloggers late last year, Syfy president Dave Howe spoke of the movie and the concept made him downright giddy. In fact, in the very long transcript of the long conference call, nothing was more attention grabbing than the potential of Sharktopus so I headlined the transcript:
Transcript of Conference Call with Syfy president Dave Howe: Keep an eye out for “Sharktopus!”
I tip my hat to Karen O'Hara. When your job is to figure out what should a sharktopus look like and how many mouths it should have you have the best job at Syfy!
Sharktopus? WTF?
Holy crap!! If this will be anything like Mammoth, and I think I can fully expect that it will… I’ll pass. Mammoth at least had Summer Glau.
wow…they’re actually ripping off Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. how low can you sink?
@ Gusar
Maybe Sharktopus will have Summer Glau as well. With Dollhouse cancelled she’s probably available.
Really though with some of the strange content coming out of SyFy lately if it weren’t for shows like Eureka and dare I say it…Caprica, I think SyFy would be less and less a channel destination for me…not that it already isn’t.
This is the dumbest idea to ever come from Syfy…and I hope it comes out on DVD so I can watch it!
“How many mouths will it have”? @Jon the Mon, yeah it does sound like the child of Megashark vs. Giant Octopus.
nkinsey….you are wrong. This is not the dumbest idea ever. What would make this the dumbest idea ever? Not sharktopus……but Shaqtopus.
or shaqoctomom
I am horrified and fascinated at the same time…
Syfy’s done something genius with these original movies. The concepts are so ridiculous and absurd, you just have to give it a look.
“wow…they’re actually ripping off Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. how low can you sink?”
They’re not ripping it off. There’s a company that makes these made-to-order movies (read an article about them; can’t find the link right now). You basically indicate what kind of movie you want (“Transformers”, “a teen vampire movie”, etc.) and they rip-off -err- make a movie in the same genre and theme. They crank these things out in an incredibly short time (as if you couldn’t tell by watching them). They MADE Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus and it was one of their biggest hits. They also make many of Sci-Fi’s other movies. No doubt they’re the ones who are going to be making this one too. And it’s going to involve the King of the B movies, Roger Corman. How awesomely cheesy is this going to be?
Joseph- Did they also make Transmorphers?
NKinsey : Yes! And “Snakes On a Train”.
This type of movie has been dubbed “Mockbusters”. I found the article I read, and it’s The Asylum/Asylum Home Entertainment that makes these made-to-order direct-to-dvd/tv movies. Here’s the link (very interesting read):
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_the_asylum/
The tweet from Syfy doesn’t explicitly say The Asylum will be making Sharktopus, but it’s hard to imagine it wouldn’t be them given their relationship with Syfy.
Why?? Do people who aren’t high watch these?
Is there a demo of “baked” people that Doritos and Dominoes Pizza want to advertise to?
Syfy is not the home of schlocky original made for TV movies. Too bad Roger Corman and Ed Wood are dead, they would have been right at home there.
Im really getting sick of endless Ghost Hunter episodes. Unless I see a ghost rip a person in half or eat their head, its just a bunch of guys running around playing “Ghost Busters”. Now if they were zapping things with their Proton Packs and blasting holes in the walls that would also be interesting – especially if they cross their streams!
Actually Corman is still alive! I thought he was dead. Since he is almost 84 he probably soon will be…. stay tuned.
I’ll tell you, the next step in their goal to re-brand themselves should be to do something that lets people associate “quality” with the new name “SyFy.”
They’ve done several series I have liked over the years, but they were the rare exception rather than the rule. Can’t remember watching more than six minutes of any SyFy movie ever (and six minutes may be being generous). It’s a little strange that they are now purposely making bad MSTK300 movies. You’d think actually making good movies might draw a viewer or two.
As I recall, The Twilight Zone operated under far bigger budget constraints than SyFy ever has had. Good scripts don’t require a lot of dollars.