Director Bryan Singer, the boy wonder behind 1995's hard-boiled crime caper The Usual Suspects and last summer's mutants-are-us blockbuster X-Men, has signed on to launch an updated version of the '70s cult sci-fi TV series Battlestar Galactica.

In a just-announced deal with Studios USA, Singer and partner Tom DeSanto will function as executive producers on the project, hoping to do for Battlestar what Paramount did for the original Star Trek--introduce the series to a younger generation by reinventing and expanding the franchise.

"The lesson I learned on X-Men is to have a healthy respect for the fan base of sci-fi fantasy franchises, and I'm confident that the Galactica brand is a sleeping giant," Singer tells Daily Variety. "It was a show I watched during its initial run, from the pilot to the final episode. The essence and the brand name is quite potent in a climate where there's a great deficit of sci-fi programming."

It is unclear whether the new TV series signals the end for a movie version that was reported to be in the works in 1999.

Battlestar Galactica, or BSG as it's known to the faithful, was created by TV vet Glen A. Larson in 1978 to capitalize on (some say rip off) the Star Wars vibe.

The story followed the interstellar spaceship the Galactica and its crew of refugees searching for the mythical planet known as Earth while pursued by the evil Cylons. Starring Richard Hatch (Apollo), the A-Team's Dirk Benedict (Starbuck) and Lorne Greene (Captain Adama), BSG ran for two seasons on ABC and was the network's most expensive drama at the time, with a budget of $1 million an episode. It attracted a sizable cult following before being canceled in 1980.

Singer climbed aboard Battlestar after financing for what was supposed to be his next film project, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, fell through at the last minute.

Studios USA Production Group president David Kissinger, whose company inherited the rights to the series from original owner Universal Television, says what impressed him most about Singer was the director's desire to live up to the spirit of Battlestar--having grown up with a genuine love for the show.

"I never dreamed a filmmaker of Bryan's stature would be enough of a hard-core fan that he saw this as a franchise that could be reinvented," Kissinger tells Variety. "In the initial meeting, I was wary that he might be hust another feature guy looking to slap his name on a TV project, but it was immediately clear this wasn't so. He's got a whole mythology and arc for the series already worked out."

That's both good and bad news for fans.

Led by series star Hatch (don't confuse him with that Survivor guy), a group of diehard BSG fans has for years been lobbying Universal Studios and Studios USA to bring Battlestar back as a TV show and/or feature, even going so far as putting together a pitch in the form of a trailer.

But now that Singer's at the helm, Hatch's group faces the prospect that their vision for the show might not ultimately come to pass.

Still, Hatch congratulated Singer and DeSanto and threw his support behind the new series in a letter on BattlestarGalactica.com that almost sounded like a concession speech.

"I was very pleased to find out that Tom and Bryan have a genuine love for the show and that they care about the fans and preserving the integrity of the show. I have no idea what they have in mind, but I feel that we should all support them in their quest and give them time to develop their own unique vision," read the letter from Hatch. "If my team had been given the chance to produce Battlestar Galactica, I would have asked for the same courtesy."

The erstwhile Apollo said he hoped the new series would honor the old characters and original premise of the show while "building a bridge to the future with a whole new generation born in space."

In addition to prepping Battlestar, Singer's also gearing up to shoot X-Men 2 for 20th Century Fox, which is due to hit theaters sometime during the 2002 holiday season. But Singer says if he can work around the sequel's impending shoot, he'd like to direct the pilot for the new series.