Excellent news! GalCiv was very good, although a little bit too "dry" for my taste to prevent it being absolutely perfect IMO. But it was a great game nevertheless, and it had one of the best AI I ever encountered in the strategic game, and I have played a lot.
If they will take MoM1, add nice graphic and great AI, and perhaps add few interesting features into it, it'll be THE GAME in my book.
We will have to wait and see how it'll go, but these news are certanly sound very promising.