Xena movie news: same old song, just slightly revised new lyrics

Rob Tapert figured the first question would be about the movie. Now, I’ve heard different things from different people. One site says there’s a potential direct-to-DVD release, while another doesn’t mention it.

I’ve heard from one source, who didn’t hear it, but another who did who gave a different take on it. It boils down to what people heard, what they thought they heard, and just plain old misunderstanding or mishearing what was said.

So, this is what I do know. It appears that Universal is in interested in making a feature film without the original cast and not for about ten years.

One site is reporting that Lucy is willing to do a direct-to-DVD release. This is new news, because a direct-to-DVD release has never been mentioned before.

While the direct-to-DVD route doesn’t mean what it once meant, the results are still pretty cheesy in the end because of the limited budget. Although, Rob is definitely the guy to pull things off on a shoestring budget.

In 2005 it was mentioned they “kinda have a story.” Now, it appears that the story seems to be the biggest question and if they can tell the story that be “great entertainment.” Rob also keeps wondering about whether or not bringing Xena back is the best way, or just doing a story and not worry about where it fits in the grander scheme of things.

The following was pulled from a blog (link) so I’m not sure on the accuracy of the comment:

"It's a matter of what's a story, what would happen, what would they do? One thing that keeps the people very interested is doing something that would enable them to it "outside the box" - computer etc. I'm only concerned with, is there a good story to tell... two hours of great entertainment."

I’m not sure what “outside of the box” and the “computer” reference means, none of my two sources have a clue and the collective thought on the XOC is, they don’t know either.

Rob does acknowledge that there’s a lot of baggage involved with bringing Xena back and it all boils down to telling that is both good and entertaining and appeals the broader audience.

Renee O’Connor also mentioned when asked that she’d be willing to do a movie. Lucy wasn’t asked about the movie at all to my knowledge.

In the final analysis, we are no further now than what we were two years ago. The only difference is, is that they’ve set their sights lower to possibly doing a direct-to-DVD. Rob’s comment about something “going to happen” is no more concrete that Lucy’s 50/50 comment from late last year. The reality check is that we won’t hear anything for a while and it’ll still be a “we’re still working in it” comment. Time will tell just what will come out of all of this. Time will tell.