I just heard this. What do you think? Further, who would you have cast?

My choice:

Bryan Cranston of Malcolm in the Middle



BTW, this is my first poll. Be gentle.

David Duchovny

It's has a nice circular feel to it. Besides, he's not exactly busy anyway.

more like Devin Townsend

...or Pete Townsend

Stuart Townsend?!? An outrage!

But seriously, who is Kolchak?

Actually, it's not a bad pick at all...there's something off-center about Towsend that will probably work for the role. It certainly shouldn't have gone to a "leading man" type of performer, and I think Towsend fits the bill.

I would like to know who Kolchak is too.

Darren McGavin was in his early 50s when he played Kolchak. Townsend is only 33. Maybe I'm crazy, but an essential part of the character was the fact that he was a washed out failure that wasn't all that far from the end of his career. Having an updated Kolchak that's only in his early 30s, one that's basically just starting his career. ..

I don't have anything against Townsend, actually I haven't seen a single film he's been in according to IMDB. Cranston would have been a decent choice, the character really needs an actor that is just approaching his 50s and, as Shannon said, "off-center". From just the publicity photos I saw of Townsend, he looks pretty straight-laced.

Regardless of actors, I'm afraid any update of Kolchak is destined to failure, or at least not coming close to capturing the essence of the original.

After the X-Files, I think the core of the show is going to be shifted away from the blend of sci-fi and humor of Kolchak to the pure sci-fi of the X-Files in a hopes of catching more viewers. Between that and the fact the cast of Kolchak will be hard to "replace"; who could ever replace Simon Oakland as Vincenzo?

Who is Kolchak? Surely you jest....

Anyway, Darren McGavin played Carl Kolchak in THE NIGHT STALKER and THE NIGHT STRANGLER, two very well received TV movies from the early 70s. An ABC series followed a couple of years later but lasted just one season.

According to Chris Carlter, this very cool show was the inspiration for "The X-Files".

Stewart Townsend? Maybe...but what seems really lame is they are giving Kolchak a female partner! Why rip off "The X-Files" when that show was inspired by "Kolchak" in the first place?

I think they should make it a sequel and say Townsend is Carl's nephew or something.

In any case, if it helps the original series make it to DVD, bring the remake on. I bet it won't last though....

Heh. To think I wanted a new movie, with Steve Buscemi.

Stuart Little would be better than Stuart Townsend.

There was a presentation of the series at Comic-Con this past weekend. They show like 20' of it. It got more applauses when a CGI Darren McGavin as Kolchak appeared at the front desk of the newspaper where the new Kolchak works. The new Kolchak has a partner. So it's a two lead show, not Kolchak show... I don't think this will have an audience after the first episode.

Warren Ellis posted a review of the pilot on AICN. It was not favorable. He did put forth an interesting idea - picture Michael Madsen as the new Kolchak. That'd be sweet, actually.

They've already trashed the premise, so casting a forgettable generic young actor just adds more reasons to avoid this lame remake of a classic show.

well he is charlize theorn's boyfriend, isn't he?

The Futon Critic has a early review of the show also.

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/rant.cgi?id=20050719

Who is KOLCHAK????

Post #9 summed it up nicely.