Timeline of Quantum Leap Movie Developments

May 5, 1993: Quantum Leap?s final episode, "Mirror Image", airs on NBC.

November 1999 (approx.): Universal reveals plans for a revival of Quantum Leap called "Quantum Leapers". It would not involve Scott Bakula nor Dean Stockwell. The cast would consist of actors the age of college freshmen. The negative reactions to these plans force Universal to shelve the project.

January 2001 (approx.): Scott Bakula approaches Paramount about obtaining the rights to Quantum Leap from Universal. Paramount, however, is not interested, and instead offers Scott a role on the newest Star Trek series.

December 28, 2001: A man by the name of Andrew posts on a Quantum Leap Yahoogroup that DPB is currently writing a script for a Quantum Leap film. He says pre-production could begin as early as February of 2002.

December 31, 2001: Andrew is asked when the official announcement will be given. He answers that it should come by the end of January.

January 8, 2002: TV Guide Online posts an article about the rumors of a Quantum Leap movie. They quote Don Bellisario as saying, "In the back of my mind I had always hoped that I could get that one going again somehow, [but] Universal, who truly owns the rights to it, has never shown an interest." Questions begin to arise about Andrew?s legitimacy. A large discussion breaks out on the Yahoogroup. It is eventually dropped.

January 24, 2002: TV Guide Online posts an article announcing that Universal is currently becoming interested in reviving Quantum Leap. This announcement seems to prove that Andrew was indeed correct about his "end of January" prediction.

March 21, 2002: It is revealed that Dean Stockwell will be guest-starring on Enterprise--Scott?s new series. We hear whisperings that this is a ruse to judge the affect of the Bakula/Stockwell team on the masses. This seems to be true, considering that Scott Bakula had mentioned in several articles in 2001 that they would not have any sort of Quantum Leap references in their first season of the show. He also seemed doubtful that Dean would end up on the show in the first season.

April 24, 2002: The episode of Enterprise titled "Detained" airs on UPN. Online Leapers discuss the episode afterward, pointing out all the subtle references to Quantum Leap that found their way into the episode.

Summer 2002: Sci-Fi Channel acquires rights to all of Universal?s properties of the genre sort. Ratings for Enterprise?s first season were quite good, and this raises interest in Scott Bakula.

July 9, 2002 at 12pm EST: Sci-Fi Channel announces that a two-hour Quantum Leap TV movie is currently in the works. They announce that Don Bellisario has signed on as producer and that there is no word on Bakula or Stockwell?s involvement.

July 2002: News continues to pour in about Sci-Fi Channel?s announcement. Articles covering it appear on such websites as TV Guide Online, Cinescape, Hollywood Reporter, and Zap2it. Direct quotes from Bonnie Hammer are used in the articles. These quotes piece together to paint an interesting portrait of the developments.


Between July 2002 and September 2002: According to certain inside sources, it is planned to have Don Bellisario produce (it turns out that the announcement of his already being signed on was premature on the part of Sci-Fi) and have Dean Stockwell, Scott Bakula, and Deborah Pratt involved in the making. It is to be a two-hour TV film that will end in such a way that it can be used as a back door to create a new series from it. Don Bellisario reportedly insists on bringing in the ENTIRE original cast and crew for the reunion movie. Sci-Fi disagrees, and negotiations are broken off. We discover that the mention of a female Leaper is because there was a possibility that Scott Bakula would not be able to be in the movie.

August 22, 2002: It is announced that several Universal TV series, including Quantum Leap, will be released on DVD.

September 2002: A trusted source named Desiree Carroll reveals the information about DPB and the negotiations Sci-Fi to a trusted Leaper--Wrong_Arturo--at Dragon*Con.

November 13, 2002: The very general release date for the Quantum Leap DVDs is confirmed as being sometime in 2003.

November 22, 2002: Joy Helvie receives a letter from Don Bellisario?s assistant, Ms. Patty Sachs. The letter is dated November 12, 2002. Ms. Sachs reveals that as of the date of the letter, the Quantum Leap movie project is only in "preliminary discussion phase and is not actually a definite project at this time." This reveals that DPB might possibly be negotiating with Sci-Fi once again.

December 13, 2002: Kip--a trusted source from the Belisarius realm--posts the following message on a JAG Yahoogroup: "DPB is writing a feature, a pilot for a series he wants to do in Australia, starting preliminary work on Quantum Leap for Sci-fi channgel and writing the spin off with Don McGill, which DPB will also direct AND he's answering all my questions coming from you. He will say no more on any of the above, so please don't ask me questions on any of it. Thank you." This reveals that Don Bellisario must truly have struck up negotiations with Sci-Fi once again and made progress. If Don Bellisario is actually doing prelim work on the Quantum Leap movie, it very well may mean that he came to some sort of agreement with Sci-Fi. This could mean that Dean Stockwell, Scott Bakula, Deborah Pratt, and any other original crew members may actually be coming back for this reunion.



Please reply to this post with any questions, comments, corrections, or additions that you may have. Thank you.

Re: Great job, Joy!

Hmmm... As far as I know, they're still in production of the movie that would serve as the pilot for a new QL series. And with the whole thing going on concerning Vivendi Universal possibly selling Sci-Fi Channel, the production of the QL movie may be halted right now.

Joy

Re: Great job, Joy!

Not necessarily. See, Universal is in the middle of negotiations with NBC for NBC to purchase all of Universal's properties... which would include Sci-Fi Channel and the rights to Quantum Leap.

Thus, it's very likely that production on any movies/shows based on Universal titles may be on hiatus until the negotiations are completed. I don't know if that's for sure, but who knows...

Apparently, if NBC wins the deal, Bonnie Hammer may be one of the first people to be "let go"... which could be either good or bad.

It could be good... if her influence on the BSG re-imagining is any indication of how a QL would turn out.

It could be bad... because she was the one to initiate the idea of a QL revival, and she herself said they wanted the original cast and crew for it.

So, we're just gonna have to wait and see. We must also not forget that DPB is working on JAG *and* its spin-off, so he has relegate a certain amount of time to both those AND the QL revival.

Joy

Yeah, I saw that on the CNN ticker last night. I couldn't help but exclaim aloud, "It's about *time*!"

I'm sorry I haven't gotten this timeline updated in quite a while. School's been keeping me really busy. But, yesterday was my very last day of high school *forever*, so within a couple of weeks, I should be more active. My graduation and party are next week, and relatives are coming in from California, so I'll be busy next week as well.

But after that, I should have time to organize my stuff for online purposes until I move out to CA around the end of June.

Joy

Re: Rights?

My guess is that when he sold the concept of the show to Universal for production, he was basically selling them the creative rights as well as the rights to distribution. If I've read right, apparently writers and other people are working to gain more control over their intellectual property.

Used to be, a writer would write a script, sell it to a company, and they'd have no more input into said script. It could change so dramatically during production that by the time the film was finished, you could go back to the original script and make another movie off that and have a completely different movie.

Nowadays, companies and directors are more into the idea of letting the writers give insight into how they'd like to see their ideas come to life. On "Pirates of the Caribbean", Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski made sure the two writers--Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio--were on-set every single day, standing beside them and giving them ideas about how they envisioned their script in action.

Hopefully such control can be given to the directors, producers, and writers on the new QL movie/series.

Joy