Ever since the merger of NBC with Universal put Syfy under that same intellectual property umbrella, the place where former pop stars are eaten by poorly rendered mutant fish has been looking for a way to class up its reputation by developing theatrical films and capitalizing on Universal's vast movie library. Its current strategy for demonstrating that it should be considered a serious contender in the film industry: Revisiting Waterworld, most likely as a TV series, an idea that Syfy president Dave Howe says has been "talked about endlessly" in between discussions of how they can possibly spin yet another show about paranormal investigators. ("Are there ghost animals?" someone will always say, answered by the awkward sound of a ticking clock.)
Syfy's reasoning is that Waterworld continues to be a decent performer every time they air it—and as Nielsen boxes are not currently capable of measuring ironic and/or drunk viewing, it's considered a big enough hit to think about revisiting Kevin Costner's postapocalyptic panorama of pee-drinking and jet skis on a weekly basis, despite it being one of the most legendary flops of all time. Of course, people were skeptical about remaking Battlestar Galactica too, some executive is no doubt arguing repeatedly to drown out the very rational protests that Waterworld is only, by Howe's reckoning, "an underexploited piece of intellectual property" because its very name is synonymous with disaster. Still, this is Syfy and Waterworld. There's really nothing to lose.
