Click to Enlarge Via Blastr.com come these promising looking pre-production concept art shots for BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: BLOOD AND CHROME.
According to SyFy, the Universal Media Studios two-hour pilot movie will focus on “the adventures of a young William Adama during the 10th year of the first Cylon war.”
“Ensign William Adama, barely in his 20’s and a recent Academy graduate, finds himself assigned to the newest battlestar in the Colonial fleet … the Galactica. The talented but hot-headed risk-taker soon finds himself leading a dangerous top secret mission that, if successful, will turn the tide of the decade long war in favor of the desperate fleet.”
Click to Enlarge
See two more pictures at the link above.
Craig Engler, SyFy’s Digital’s General Manager and Senior Vice President announced via his Twitter page that the cable network will burn off the last five episodes of BATLLESTAR GALACTIC spin-off prequel CAPRICA on Tuesday, January 4th, 2011.
SyFynetwork will broadcast the episodes in a marathon from 6:00 Pm to 11:00 PM ET/PT.
Seems like relatively shabby treatment of the ambitious but under-performing show, but at least fans will get some kind of closure.
Another prequel series BLOOD & CHROME, featuring the future Commander Adama during the first Cylon War will begin production by Universal Media Studios next year. via Gateworld.net
Deadline.com reports that CBS is negotiating a deal to co-produce with Sony Pictures Television a new version of of the 1960’s sci-fi/spy western THE WILD WILD WEST.
Ronald D. Moore (STAR TREK, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) and Naren Shankar (CSI) are set to write and executive produce the pilot for the series.
The original show ran on CBS from 1965-1969, created by producer Michael Garrison as a kind of “James Bond on Horseback”, and filmed at the CBS Studio Center —the former home of Republic Studios, where countless westerns were shot from the 30’s through the `50’s.
WILD WILD WEST was an unusual show, mixing the 1870’s setting with high-tech gadets and outright science fictional concepts. Today it would be called Steam-Punk, but back then there was nothing else like it.
James West and Artemis Gordon were agents of the U.S. Government, Secret Service members often working directly on the orders of President Grant, in a West under constant threat of incredible subversive plots and schemes for domination, both for profit and political ends. They traveled in a luxurious private train (The Wanderer), and used the latest technology in novel and ingenious ways.
The action, made larger than life with a crack stunt team and it’s athlethic and intense star Robert Conrad, was a highlight. Ross Martin’s character provided plenty of color in a myriad of disguises. The co-stars’ onscreen chemistry and humor seemed to charm the public into accepting the outrageous situations offered up weekly.
The 1999 movie starring Will Smith and Kevin Kline failed to re-capture the spirit of the show.
Perhaps CBS will have another HAWAII 5-0 reboot success story to tell, if all goes as hoped.
CAPRICA, SyFy’s spin-off sequel to BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, will not be renewed for a second season, and in a surprising move, has also been removed from the schedule, with five more completed episodes yet to be broadcast.
From SyFy’s Release:
Please note the following change to Syfy’s broadcast schedule:
The remaining first run episodes of Caprica – airing Tuesdays at 10/9c – will be removed from the schedule as of next Tuesday, November 2. These final five episodes of the season will be re-scheduled to air at a to be announced time in the first quarter of 2011, and will conclude the run of the series.
“We appreciate all the support that fans have shown for ‘Caprica’ and are very proud of the producers, cast, writers and the rest of the amazing team that has been committed to this fine series,” said Mark Stern, Executive Vice President of Original Programming, Syfy and Co-Head of Content for Universal Cable Productions. “Unfortunately, despite its obvious quality, ‘Caprica’ has not been able to build the audience.”
Sadly, I’m not surprised at the BSG’s spin-off’s cancellation. It’s a good-looking, well-acted show, but it failed the number one requirement of a TV series: to create characters that the audience want to return to see episode to episode. Even if a show goes into dark and grim territory, viewers need to have some one to like or identify with, a reason to remain faithful through rough patches.
CAPRICA gave us complicated, intense characters that were very difficult to warm up to, and the often over-arcing sense of tragedy and despair tended to drain any excitement from the episodes. However, I must note that the production was enormously successful in creating a realistic and convincing science fiction milieu. The planet Caprica seemed like a real place, an alternate “Earth” turned just slightly askew, with the more Sci-Fi-ish elements like space-travel seeming perfectly mundane, no more exotic than say airplane travel in the 1960’s — though fraught with all the danger and security-based annoyances of the present.
A TV show about corporate criminals, mobsters, religious fanatics and terrorism is a hard sell to begin with, being stuck with out any clear heroes to root for is a near impossible situation.
Syfy has given the green light to a new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA pilot/TV Movie, BLOOD & CHROME.
SyFy’s Press Release:
Syfy is readying an exciting all-new chapter in the Battlestar Galactica saga with a greenlight for Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome from Executive Producer David Eick, it was announced today by Mark Stern, Executive Vice President of Original Programming, Syfy and Co-Head of Content for Universal Cable Productions. Universal Cable Productions will produce the 2-hour pilot with Syfy utilizing cutting edge CGI and virtual technology.
Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome takes place in the 10th year of the first Cylon war. As the battle between humans and their creation, a sentient robotic race, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, a brash rookie viper pilot enters the fray. Ensign William Adama, barely in his 20’s and a recent Academy graduate, finds himself assigned to the newest battlestar in the Colonial fleet… the Galactica. The talented but hot-headed risk-taker soon finds himself leading a dangerous top secret mission that, if successful, will turn the tide of the decade long war in favor of the desperate fleet.
“The ‘Galactica’ universe as re-imagined by Ron Moore and David Eick is rich with possibilities and backstory,” said Mark Stern. “We jumped at the chance to revisit the William Adama character and explore this exciting chapter in the BSG narrative which falls between the events of the original series and the prequel, ‘Caprica,’ currently airing on Syfy.”
“While maintaining the themes of politics, social propaganda, and the timeless question: what does it mean to be human? – ‘Blood & Chrome’ will also return us to the authentic, relentless depiction of combat and the agony and ecstasy of human-Cylon war, which was the hallmark of ‘Battlestar Galactica’s’ early seasons,” said David Eick.
Michael Taylor wrote the teleplay from a story by Eick, Taylor and Bradley Thompson & David Weddle.
Nico Cortez as 'Husker' Adama in RAZOR
The pilot was originally announced as an online series, but the script apparently impressed SyFy enough that a feature length film was commisioned. It’s unknown as yet whether Nico Cortez will reprise his role of the young Adama from RAZOR.
Whether CAPRICA, the current SfyFy GALACTICA spin-off , will be renewed is still an open question.
Check out this Behind-the-Scenes clip from the shooting of the Season Six premeire of DOCTOR WHO.
In the video, a group led by actor Mark Shepard (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) corner River Song (Alex Kingston) in what looks to be a building under construction or renovation. They exchange dialog regarding some kind of invasion of America. Trapped, Song chooses to fall backwards off the structure — no doubt expecting another timely rescue by the Doctor.
Mark Shepard’s character is called Canton Everett Delaware III, according to BBC America. Some scenes in the two-part epiode will be shot in the USA. Click to Enlarge
As can be seen in the photograph from the site, River Song seems to have markings on her arms, possibly ‘tally marks’ as a record of her incarceration in Stormcage Prison, for crimes not yet made clear — although we know they include killing a man that was a “hero to millions.”
Was that man The Doctor, and was River Song ever married to the Time Lord? All we know for sure is that they have some unusally deep bond. Clip by Timeboyy, Photo by alun_vega, all via Doctor Who TV
“Things get tough for Lacy (Magda Apanowicz) when she doesn’t follow through on a bombing planned by Barnabas (James Marsters), and the Adama brothers (Esai Morales, Sasha Roiz) go after Daniel’s (Eric Stoltz) former colleagues.
Meanwhile, Amanda (Paula Malcomson) struggles to deal with all she’s lost.”
CAPRICA returned from it’s “mid-season” break last night on SyFy. Though it’s been months for the fans of the series, only three weeks have passed for the characters. I’d like to say it was worth waiting for, even though I’ve been at best a casual and inconsistent viewer. (I’d actually forgotten I’d ever watched any of it, until I started looking at material for a recent interview.) In any case, this premiere left me cold.
Cold is the operative word. Cold, bleak, depressing. As I was watching it, I realized the blunt fact about this program that I’d managed to forget: I don’t like any of the characters. I don’t really care what happens to them,they generate in me only a mild curiosity toward their actions and fates.
Make no mistake, this is a well-acted, handsomely mounted program from NBC-Universal and the producers of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. But it possesses little if any of that show’s charm and energy.
The direction, by series star Eric Stoltz, was often visually striking, not always something you see from actor/directors. There is an extended scene in which a terrorist attack by fanatical mono-theists is carried out, and that was really quite well done, the absolute high point of the slow, talky episode.
Characters seemed well drawn, even in scenes in which some rather silly “religious” costumes were worn. It was interesting to see that Meg Tilly guest as the soft-spoken “Reverend Mother” of the One God religionists/terrorists.
It seemed bit cynical and heavy-handed to see how intimately the “Soldiers of the One” and the hierarchy of the Church are connected. Save for the single semi-appealing and relatively rational guest star—who was killed off, in an entirely predictable moment— they all seemed half-mad and morally depraved.
This cynicism and amoral outlook seemed to be a theme in the episode, in which formerly nominal “good guy” Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) appeared to have crossed over completely from the side of the law to the Tauron Ha’la’tha underworld. He presents Daniel Greystone with a truly grotesque choice that’s supposed to prove his sincerity about working with the Ha’la’tha, something that no sane man would do—nor would, I suggest, any member of that supposedly family-oriented mob.
Graystone refuses, and this is supposed to be a sign that he’s not worthy to work with them to regain control of his business, something the ‘Godfather’ figure appeared very much to want, leaving me utterly confused at the purpose of the charade, unless it’s simply a writer device to make us feel how intense the scene is supposed to be, rather than actually writing something that made more sense. Alessandra Torresani
Towards the end of the episode, it showed some more energy, in a scene in which the Zoe Graystone cyber-construct (Alessandra Torresani), now a ‘Dead Walker’, faces off against some bowler-hatted thugs (apparently inspired by A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) in the VR New Cap City world. A bit too little, too late, I thought.
Not that I’m pushing for an action-heavy, slam-bang show. But I do want to care about what’s going on onscreen.
Your mileage may vary, faithful fans of the show might have found it a great deal more satisfying than I did. They should enjoy it while it lasts, because based on last night’s show, I have doubts it’s going to attract enough viewers to be renewed for another season. CAPRICA: Unvanquished Directed by Eric Stoltz, screenplay by Ryan Mottesheard.
CAPRICA airs Tuesdays at 10:00 PM ET/PT on SyFy.
Here’s a lightly edited transcript of telephone Question and Answer call Cinefantasque Online took part in with Sasha Roiz, who plays Sam Adama on CAPRICA, which returns for Season 1.5 on Tuesday, October 5th at 10:00 pm ET/PT. (Parathetical notes have been inserted for clarity, some are logical guesses at Mr. Roig’s less audible responses over a sometimes noisy line, others simply to provide the reader with background information.)
I asked whether the fact that Sam Adama is a Tauron, and thus an immigrant on CAPRICA play a conscious role in his portrayal. Sasha Roiz, whose family moved to Canada from Israel when he was in his early teens, replied in some detail.
“Yes, the immigration – the immigrant status of Sam plays a very, very large role. It’s very significant to the portrayal because it’s really sort of what his outlook on Caprica, it’s how he sort of perceives himself in relationship to the Capricans.
And there’s that constant reminder that he’s a second class citizen because he’s not a purebred Caprican. And so that bitterness and that enmity is always sort of present in his everyday, you know, in my portrayal of it and certainly in Sam’s activities.
And I think it’s very true to many immigrants in our world as well. They’re part of a society that simply will not absorb them and we see that in many examples throughout the world. Then their own secondary societies and sort of play by their own rules and their own laws, and much like we did in, America back at the turn of the century.”
Asked about interacting with the Cylons, created by Daniel Graystone (Eric Stolz) on the series, Roiz has this to say:
“I think you’ll see a lot of people interacting with Cylons. I think it’s basically what we’re driving towards is the introduction of the Cylons into this world. And so it’s going to definitely cross paths with just about everybody’s storylines.
…There’s definitely some stuff coming out because Sam and Esai (Morales, who plays Joseph Adama)—Sam and Joseph they start – they negotiate a deal withthe Graystones. And so eventually that technology comes into the hands of the Ha’La’Tha (the Tauron underworld organization that Sam is a part of on CAPRICA) and there’s certainly a crossover of interest for their purpose and it’s going to be a very interesting sort of tug of war.”
Regarding whether Sam Adama’s loyalties and point of view might change, the actor repiled:
“You’ve always seen Sam as a very loyal soldier of the Ha’La’Tha and the main sort of dilemma that he’s going to be facing is a certain loyalty based on some decisions that are made. So you’re going to see his struggle with – within himself and within the organization, and his brother as well about sort of the future that he’s going to take and the future that, that the path that he’s going to go on ultimately.
So there’s going to be certainly fractions within their story lines and within their loyalties.”
L-R: Saha Roiz, Sina Najafi, Esai Morales
Questioned if he finds the part of the hitman/family man challenging, Sasha Roiz repiled:
“Challenging? Oh I mean, every role I find challenging in its own way. This one I guess I don’t really find it especially more challenging than any other role I’ve played. In fact, it kind of brings about certain elements that I’ve always kind of enjoyed playing.
I just find it really fascinating how he’s such a dynamic character. And in fact, that makes it almost easier in some ways to play because there’s so many facets to the character from, you know, the harshness that he portrays in the world to the softness that he has with his family and towards Willy (young William Adama, played by Sina Najafi).
And there’s so many various elements to him, the way he’s loyal within his organization and yet he’s such a criminal outside of that organization. So it makes the character in some ways even more fun and a little easier at times to play because there is such a balance to him. He really isn’t one dimensional and it makes it a lot of fun to play.
…The first person I really worked with was Esai. And that chemistry was very quick. He’s such a friendly and outgoing individual and he’s such a talented actor. And we instantly found a chemistry like right back in the pilot even. And so that was very simple and that was the most important (thing) – of course with the rest of the Adama family, with – certainly with Willy there’s a chemistry.
In the world of CAPRICA, gay marriages are unremarkable and accepted. Asked how his character has been received by SF fans and the gay community, Roiz indicated he was very pleased.
“I absolutely love that facet of the character and I love that we’ve tackled it in a way that’s been completely unique to television. And it’s been nothing but a wonderful experience. People have been completely receptive. People have been incredibly supportive.
The gay community has been remarkable… And they’re incredibly strong and very cohesive and supportive community and it’s great to tap into that and I’m really, really pleased that they’re enjoying it, enjoying the portrayal.
Since Capriacan society is so accepting of the the matter, Sasha Roiz indicated that viewers shouldn’t expect the relationship to be a major story focus.
“Well the back story—I don’t know if it’s necessarily going to tackle anything as far as the sexuality because as you’ve seen, the world that we live in doesn’t really—there’s no reason to particularly delve into that because it’s a non-issue.
But you will see more of Sam and Larry. You will see a little bit more of that partnership and the kind of life that they have and the kinds of strings that they have due to obviously Sam’s involvement in the mob. So you will see more examples of that. …Sam’s going to be going through quite a bit of stuff and you’re going to see Larry there as a support for sure for some of the major blows that are about to come.”
Asked for further details about playing a character with a distinct dark side. the actor expanded on his approach.
The darker stuff is not that difficult, in a sense that when you kind of—when you kind of like truly believe the, you know, Sam’s perspective on life and he’s a very black and white character. And he doesn’t have a lot of room for doubt. And he’s very much a soldier. And so when he’s given an order, it’s very much like a soldier has to go out and perform the order.
There will be a little bit more— like I said, there’ll be doubts placed upon him for the first time, and that’ll be really interesting to see, the sort of torment he has as someone who’s always taking orders unquestionably, and then all of a sudden is arrested and has to start to question his life and his loyalties which he’s never had to do before. And that becomes very interesting to portray.
Some of the darker elements, when we play those out, I don’t really see him very differently than a soldier carrying out certain duties and missions that he has to do. And there’s really no room to question them at all.
His thoughts on co-star Eric Stolz directing an episode?
Eric Stolz in 'Unvanquished'.
Eric directs I think the very first episode, airing this Tuesday. It was great. Eric’s a (remarkably) talented director. I mean he’s been working on stuff since we wrapped as a director. And it was very interesting to watch him wear two hats so to speak, and to watch him switch from director to actor because his storyline was quite heavy at that episode and so it wasn’t easy for him.
So he was always very aware even while he was performing of what was happening behind the scenes. And it was remarkable to see him being able to switch so quickly because I think for him it was the first time he was directing himself as well.
So, that was really fun to watch. But as a director he was incredibly respectful. It’s obviously a strange transition when all of a sudden one of your co-stars is directing you. So he was very respectful and very gracious about it. And he did a great job. He was remarkably easy to work with because (when someone who) understands the show as intimately as he does all of a sudden is directing you, it really lends itself to some great work.”
Asked about the irony of the future Admiral Adama’s family being so closely invovled with the creation of the Cylons, Sasha Roiz had a well-thought-out answer.
“That’s the wonderful thing for fans of BATTLESTAR (GALACTICA) is that they get to see it on two different levels and I think it’s what makes it really interesting and compelling for the fans of BATTLESTAR is to be able to watch an entirely different saga but at the same time connecting to something that they’ve already loved and they could see certain elements playing themselves out and foreshadowing.
And so I love whenever we have a little nod, you know, cheeky little nods to CAPRICA like that. I think it always lends itself beautifully and the Internet’s always lit up right after those shows with people trying to connect the dots, you know, having a good time with it. So…it’s a lot of fun for sure.
But like (producer) David Eick always says, you know how World War II ends. You either — you’re still kind of interested in seeing this play out, or this battle play out or the different characters involved on the course.
So there’s always room for these great stories even though you may know what the outcome will be. How we get there is a whole other thing.”
Here’s a a look at what coming up in CAPRICA’s Season 1.5.
The Season Premiere is Unvanquished, in which “Clarice tries to convince Gemenon that a terrorist attack against the STO leadership is necessary and Daniel meets with the Ha’La’Tha in an effort to get support for creating a virtual afterlife.”
CAPRICA returns this Tuesday, October 5th at 10:00 PM ET/9:00 Central on SyFy.
Look for a Q&A with CAPRICA actor Sasha Roiz, who plays Sam Adama, to be posted later today.
(Description via Blastr.com)
