News: The Visitors Are Not Our Friends - V: The Movie Postponed Due To Financial Woes


The V franchise has existed since the '80s. Initially launched as a mini-series that chronicled the arrival of an alien species of humanoid lizards, it's now revered with a cult like following. Capturing the political themes of the Reagan era while also playing into Nazi-like plot points, the initial series was a major hit and spawned another episodic run called V: The Final Battle. At the time, it was a major hit for the television studio. Spun from the successes they had with their two small event series, they ended up making a weekly show out of V that saw most of the cast return. Unfortunately, the material dried up and it was ultimately cancelled. Of course, years later, the property was relaunched after Lost became such a hot commodity. The reboot only lasted 2 seasons and failed to live up to its namesake. 

Now years later, V was being given another shot by Kenneth Johnson, creator of the original show. He was working hand in hand with Desilu Productions to revamp and direct a more modernized tale of alien invasion. Unfortunately, the creator was not given the full financial rundown by the production firm and was misled about their stability. Due to their lack of proper funding for a full trilogy of films, V: The Movie is no more, at least for the time being. 

Johnson had this to say on his personal site:

“When Desilu made their splashy announcement I attached a caveat on this page making it clear that they still had to line up the full funding. They seemed to have resources and assured us it’d be only a few weeks. But after several months of unfulfilled promises we became extremely doubtful of Desilu’s ability to actually fund and mount the production.

We heard from several other filmmakers, real estate developers, etc., who had also gotten into business with Desilu, that they too were experiencing identical non-performance on all levels.

When Desilu’s option expired with us we did not pursue any further involvement — yet they hotly pursued us, promising they would “find a way.” We had no faith in them and since mid-summer we’ve been pursuing new and far more reliable funding sources.”