Hewlett’s Starcrossed a no-go for Syfy

It looks like Starcrossed is as jinxed as its name might suggest.  After two years in development limbo, Syfy Channel has decided not to make the science fiction themed comedy series from Stargate Atlantis‘s David Hewlett (“Rodney McKay”).

Syfy picked up the rights to the show in 2007, intending to develop it as a half-hour comedy (story). Later, the network switched gears and hoped Starcrossed would premiere as a Web series.

Now, Hewlett told fans at his official Web site, the network has given up on the idea and returned the rights to Starcrossed to him.

“I have spent a lot of time and energy trying to make Starcrossed my follow-up to A Dog’s Breakfast and Stargate Atlantis,” Hewlett wrote. “Unfortunately, all I find myself with is a number of scripts (a feature, a 1/2-hour pilot and a number of for-the-Web episodes) and two and a half years of development hell!

“After developing Starcrossed as a 1/2-hour comedy it was then decided that a 1/2-hour comedy isn’t what the cable channel was looking for. They then became very excited about developing Starcrossed as a Web series, only to discover (after a year of humming and hawing about it) they didn’t think it would work as an advertising model.”

The show would follow the day-to-day, behind the scenes production of a science fiction soap, a la 30 Rock and The Larry Sanders Show.  A conceptual peek at the show came in Hewlett’s 2007 independent film A Dog’s Breakfast, in which the show-within-the-show co-starred characters played by fellow Atlantis alums Paul McGillion (“Carson Beckett”) and Rachel Luttrell (“Teyla Emmagan”).

Hewlett said that he hopes to return to Starcrossed in some form one day.  Meanwhile, he’s busy penning his next indy film, Design of the Dead — self-described as the actor/writer/producer’s “evil plan to become the Martha Stewart of horror!”

“Design of the Dead is a zombie film that takes a darkly comic bite out of the greed driven house-flippers of the pre-recession property market.”

Check out dgeek.com for more from David Hewlett, including his original pitch for Starcrossed.