Tim Allen Recalls How He Won Alan Rickman Over: "I Don't Think He Liked Me All That Much"
by Tim Allen 1/19/2016 2:17pm PST

I don’t think he liked me all that much when we first started shooting Galaxy Quest. I was a stage performer, a concert comic, and I was coming into this group of very polished thespians — Sigourney Weaver and Sam Rockwell and Tony Shalhoub and then Alan adding his English roots.

All of them had this process and method — voice stretching and all that kind of prep — and it was so different from mine. I was doing penis jokes right up to action.

I went to a very different school, shitty clubs and basements and big arenas. But then, one day on the set, Alan came to me and apologized. He said he mistook my behavior for lack of commitment. And we became very fast friends.

I used to joke he had studied with Uta Hagen. I’m just bullshitting like I know any of this. I said well that’s where I went. I went to the Uta Haagen Dazs School. On the day we turned into friends he came to my house with a bottle wine and chocolate Haagen Dazs as a peace offering and said, "This is for you because whoever taught you taught you very well."

He was just an amazing person and an amazing actor. We had these dinner parties [during the Galaxy Quest production] and Alan always brought gifts whenever he came to the house. He was that kind of guy — he had class and style and manners. But he was also gentle and funny and wonderful.

Galaxy Quest probably wasn’t his best work from his point of view because he was a classically trained actor and had a huge repertoire of information and here he was playing a guy who’s got to wear a rubber head. But he played that very well.

He was very serious about his craft. I’m not supposed to say anything — I’m speaking way out of turn here — but Galaxy Quest is really close to being resurrected in a very creative way. It’s closer than I can tell you but I can’t say more than that. The real kicker is that Alan now has to be left out. It’s been a big shock on many levels.

Amazon's Galaxy Quest TV revival is back on track.

Writer-actor-comedian Paul Scheer (The League) has been tapped to pen the script for the Paramount Television-produced series. Scheer takes over for the feature film's original scribe, Robert Gordon, who was on board to pen the script for the Amazon reboot.

The Amazon series is described as a new take on the cult movie that starred Tim Allen, the late Alan Rickman as well as Sigourney Weaver. It remains unclear if any of the original stars, which also included Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Daryl Mitchell and Enrico Colantoni will return. The original 1999 movie centered on the cast of a since-canceled beloved sci-fi show that was forced to reunite to save the planet after aliens believe their show was real.

Mark Johnson, who produced the movie, is still attached to exec produce via his Gran Via Productions banner partner Melissa Bernstein. It's unclear if Galaxy Quest director Dean Parisot is still attached. Gordon is still attached to exec produce.

Plans for the Amazon series were put on hold after Rickman's passing. "We were ready to sign up, and [then] Alan Rickman passed away and Tim Allen wasn’t available — he ha[d] [Last Man Standing] — and everybody’s schedule was all weird. It was going to shoot, like, right now. And how do you fill that void of Alan Rickman? That’s a hard void to fill," Rockwell said in April 2016.

Rickman died of cancer in January 2016 at 69. Shortly after his co-star's passing, Allen talked with The Hollywood Reporter about the revival: "Galaxy Quest is really close to being resurrected in a very creative way. It’s closer than I can tell you, but I can’t say more than that. The real kicker is that Alan now has to be left out. It’s been a big shock on many levels."

For his part, Allen is now available for the Galaxy Quest project after ABC canceled Last Man Standing.

Scheer, repped by UTA and Schreck Rose, counts acting credits including Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, Childrens Hospital, Veep and Fresh Off the Boat. On the writing side, his work includes NTSF:SD:SUV, Childrens Hospital and The League, among others.

Paul Scheer says his “Galaxy Quest” TV series will be “what ‘The Force Awakens’ is to ‘Star Wars.'” But he also says the project is “in a little bit of a hold pattern.”

Scheer, best known for “The League” and “The Disaster Artist,” spoke to us about “Galaxy Quest” near the end of our latest “Shoot This Now” podcast, which you can listen on Apple or right here.

Scheer said the firing of Paramount TV president Amy Powell has slowed the momentum on his update of the beloved 1999 sci-fi comedy, a meta “Star Trek” homage starring Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver. Amazon plans to stream Scheer’s new “Galaxy Quest” series, which comes from Gran Via Productions.

“We currently are in a little bit of a hold pattern because our executive at Paramount, Amy Powell, was fired for some insensitive comments,” Scheer said. (Powell has said the accusations against her are “baseless.”)

When it does lift off, Scheer’s planned update will honor not just “Star Trek” but “Star Wars.”

“We want to create this kind of thing that feels like this epic sequel, but a continuation. I compared it to what ‘The Force Awakens’ is to ‘Star Wars.’ It is continuing a story but bringing in new characters,” he said.

Scheer said he wants to create the same delight that “Galaxy Quest” brought him when he was a teen. As a young “Star Trek” fan, he appreciated that someone would so affectionately send up something he loved.

“One of my big fears is, what is so great about ‘Galaxy Quest’ is it’s a fish-out-of-water story, and I hate when you just go back to the same fish in the same pond. We need to kind of change it up,” he said.

“My pitch for ‘Galaxy Quest’ was, ‘How can we kind of blow this out and pay off things for the fans that love ‘Galaxy Quest,’ but more importantly — and the thing that I really wanted to do is — appeal to the ‘me’ of now. Who’s the 18-year-old version of me that loved ‘Galaxy Quest’ now? What would they want to see? Because I think that that is a movie that we haven’t really made yet: the ‘Tropic Thunder’ in the world of modern-day science fiction,” Scheer added. “When ‘Galaxy Quest’ came out, it was a niche thing, ‘Star Trek’ fandom is a niche thing. Now it is selling out Hall H in Comic-Con, so that’s kind of the impetus for the continuation.”

Scheer previously told IndieWire that his TV update of “Galaxy Quest” would mix two casts and acknowledge the triumphant rise of nerd culture since the original “Galaxy Quest” premiered nearly 20 years ago.

James Hibberd
January 15, 2021 at 02:01 PM ESTGalaxy Quest fans have never given up and never surrendered on the prospect of a sequel to the beloved 1999 sci-fi comedy – and neither has star Tim Allen.

The project had been gaining momentum toward a greenlight when the project's costar Alan Rickman died in 2016. As fans know, Allen played hammy actor Jason Nesmith (a.k.a. the Kirk-esque Commander Peter Quincy Taggart) and Rickman played the Shakespearian-trained Alexander Dane (a.k.a. the Spock-like Dr. Lazarus) in the Star Trek spoof.

"It's a fabulous script," Allen tells EW, "but it had a hiccup because the wonderful Alan Rickman passed. So it all got very sad and dark because [the script] was all about [Lazrus] and Taggart. It was all about their story. It doesn't mean they can't reboot the idea, and the underlying story was hysterical and fun."


Credit: Everett Collection

"I haven't reached out to anybody in the last week, but we talk about it all the time," Allen adds. "There is constantly a little flicker of a butane torch that we could reboot it with. Without giving too much away, a member of Alan's Galaxy Quest family could step in and the idea would still work."

Allen also revealed that in the draft script, light-speed space travel time dilation could play a role, with the NSEA Protectorcrew being out-of-sync with the rest of the planet.

"[The sequel] could happen now or in five years and it doesn't matter at all because when you travel at light speed, when you come back it can be like only 20 minutes, but 20 years have passed, right?" he says. "That part is wonderful for the sci-fi freak in me. But right now it's in a holding pattern."

The original film's director Dean Parisot (Bill & Ted Face the Music) has likewise said that the sequel idea continues to come up, and at one point Amazon Studios was developing a series spin-off that likewise was shelved.

Doing a sequel without Rickman would indeed be a challenge, as the Harry Potter star's performance as a bitter actor who felt trapped by a corny TV's show's success was a fan-favorite element of the film. While the role was obviously based on Leonard Nimoy's Mr. Spock, Parisot has said Rickman was able to relate to the character. "He felt he had been typecast in Die Hard and was this Shakespearean trained actor who was only known for that," Parisot said. "So he was playing out something that happened to him in real life."

In the meantime, Galaxy Quest reportedly had several deleted scenes – including ones with Rickman – that DreamWorks felt were too risque and were cut against Parisot's wishes. If there's not a Galaxy Quest sequel, perhaps one day we can at least get the full original cut of the film, complete with more Dr. Lazarus. "I would buy Galaxy Quest with the cut scenes added back just to see Alan doing some of those scenes," costar Sigourney Weaver told THR in 2019. This was a very sophisticated picture, and they could have had a wider audience with the more adult-take on the Star Trek of it."

A “Galaxy Quest” series is in early development, this time at Paramount+.

Variety has learned that Paramount+ and Paramount Television Studios are in the nascent stages of adapting the cult classic comedy film into a television show. At this time, the only member of the creative team officially attached is Mark Johnson, who produced the original film and would serve as an executive producer on the potential series.

Paramount Television Studios and Paramount+ declined to comment.

This is the latest attempt to adapt “Galaxy Quest” for the small screen. It was previously reported in 2015 that Amazon was developing a series version that would have reunited the film’s cast, but those plans ended upon the death of Alan Rickman. There have since been various writers attached to the project, though none of their versions have ultimately gone forward.

“Galaxy Quest” was originally released in 1999. The film parodied franchises like “Star Trek” (and their fandoms). It told the story of the cast of a cult classic sci-fi show who are shocked to learn that aliens from a distant galaxy have not only seen the show, but think it is real. They are recruited by the aliens to assist in a real interstellar conflict.

The film starred Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Daryl Mitchell, Enrico Colantoni, and Robin Sachs. Dean Parisot directed with the screenplay written by David Howard and Robert Gordon, with the story by Howard.

The film was financially successful upon its release, earning a little over $90 million at the box office against a reported budget of $45 million. It was well-received by critics as well, but gained a more significant following over the years. It has been particularly praised by “Star Trek” fans, as well, who voted it one of the best “Star Trek” films of all time in 2013.