Crew members who have seen a close-to-final cut of the new Thunderbirds movie, due out in the UK on July 23, say that it is a “terrible film” and could cause its producers, London’s Working Title Films, headaches in the future. “We all saw what happened to FilmFour when they tried to bankroll a couple of big-budget flops”, says someone working on post production of the film right now, but who would rather remain unidentified, “and this looks like WT’s big failure. Everything about the movie is wrong – not least the acting, which is either over-hammy or more wooden than the original puppet version!” Another source adds: “They’ve tried to give it a 60s retro look, but it looks like a really bad attempt. I saw a completed shot of Thunderbird 1 landing, and it looks like they spent about £8 [roughly $5] on the special effects. It looks ‘home made’ – an amateur dramatics version of Thunderbirds. Not retro cool, just retro camp in a bad way”. The film has been getting negative buzz for a while in the industry, and the lack of any major teaser advertising materials so far does sound like it’s a film that won’t be easy to market (even with only four months to go, there’s no mention of it on distributor UIP’s webpage, though there is a flashy-graphics QuickTime trailer buried in there). “It’s been in the making for too long; they’re tinkering too much with it”, an insider remarks. “Look for an okay opening, followed by a quick drop off once word of mouth spreads. It’ll be interesting if it even manages that by the time it comes to America”. Thunderbirds, directed by Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Jonathan Frakes, is set for a US bow on August 6.