Kennedy is a familiar face to fans of the genre. He played Cosmic Boy in Smallville and also recently appeared in ABC's V series and SyFy's Stargate Universe.
Caprica premieres only a month from now, on January 22.
On the vibrant world of Caprica, in a culture recognizably close to our own, two dynamic families – the Graystones and the Adamas – live separately on opposite ends of society until they are brought together by tragedy.
Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz), a computer engineering genius, owns a large corporation that is spearheading the development of artificial intelligence. His unwavering professional pursuits are driven to extreme measures when personal tragedy strikes him and his wife Amanda (Paula Malcomson): their strong-willed daughter Zoe (Alessandra Torresani) dies in a terrorist bombing fueled by an underground religious dogma. Unbeknownst to her parents, the teenager had also been dabbling in these radical teachings, which were secretly propagated by her school’s headmistress, Sister Clarice Willow (Polly Walker).
Also living on Caprica but deeply entrenched in a cultural heritage that sets them apart from the rest of civilization, is the Adama clan. The family is helmed by Joseph Adama (Esai Morales), a renowned criminal defense attorney – with questionable ties and sometimes-devious methods – and father to William (Sina Najafi) and Tamara (Genevieve Buechner). When Joseph’s wife and daughter perish in the same attack that befell Zoe Graystone, Joseph’s path soon crosses Daniel’s, and the two become united in their grief.
Soon after, Daniel lets Joseph in on a sinister secret: he’s discovered that Zoe, a computer genius in her own right, had been experimenting with perilous virtual reality technology along with her friend Lacy (Magda Apanowicz), and managed the impossible: she created a life-like avatar of herself, a perfect digital copy. Obsessed with the possibility of seeing his daughter once again, and preying on Joseph’s shared emotions, Daniel implores his new confidante to help him make Zoe’s vision a complete reality. Appalled by the ethical implications of recreating a soul, but aching to bring his own daughter back to life, Joseph complies… and the fate of the human race is altered forever.
Aleks has been cast in the recurring role of WILLIAM ADAMA in the television series CAPRICA. This character is the father of Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) and grand father of William Adama (Edward James Olmos). Aleks will appear as William Adama in flashback scenes.
I'm still at Caprica. Running the room was very intensive and took a lot of time away from actually writing this amazing ambitious show. I missed the writing more than I expected and this was my decision to concentrate on that as we put together the big end of season one. Kevin is extremely smart and talented and brings fresh eyes and fresh energy to the project — we're so lucky to have him!
Kevin Murphy has taken the reins of "Caprica," Syfy's upcoming "Battlestar Galactica" prequel.
Murphy originally joined "Caprica" in October as a co-executive producer to work on the second half of the show's first-season order.
He now is an executive producer alongside Ron Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson and serves as the day-to-day showrunner on the show.
The series will premiere with a two-hour pilot that is already available as a standalone DVD. Eight additional hours of "Caprica" will air through March. Then the show will take a break and the remaining nine hours of "Caprica's" first season will air some time in the second half of 2010. (...)
[Mark] Stern said that the decision to reduce the episode order was made in consultation with the show's creative team and was driven purely by financial considerations. Quite simply, "Caprica" turned out to be more expensive than the network thought it would be, he said. The episode reduction was part of an effort to make those 19 hours as good as they could be without sacrificing the quality of the drama, a story of intrigue and family conflict that follows the Adama and Graystone clans in settings that resemble present-day Earth.
The show's creators also ended up devoting more time to certain characters than they had originally planned to, and the show lined up recurring guest stars such as James Marsters and Patton Oswalt.
"This was the time to make the decision" about whether to cut an episode, Stern added. Production is underway on the thirteenth hour of the show and thus the producers have time to retool the last third of the season. "If it didn't work creatively, they weren't going to do it," Stern said.
The show recently took a two-week break to retool scripts and recalibrate where "Caprica" was heading, and Kevin Murphy, a veteran of "Desperate Housewives," has joined the show. He, along with Eick, Moore and Espenson, is an executive producer of "Caprica" and Murphy has been taking the lead on breaking stories.
"Ron, Jane and David are still very much in that mix," Stern said. "Every show has to find its voice and figure out what it wants to be. Every show has to find out which characters pop and which story lines play. There were some growing pains as they found the right balance of stories and characters."
"The thing that 'Caprica' has that the 'Battlestar' viewer will recognize -- aside from the obvious little winks and nods [to the saga of the rag-tag fleet] -- is that 'Caprica' is, at its core, a strong character drama about people going through situations in extremis," Stern said. "There are characters who are driven to do things that are morally ambiguous because of the situations that they're put in. And yet tonally, it's not as dark, it's not as grim. Because [the characters] are not on the run, having had their whole world destroyed, that allows more opportunities for poignancy and joy and celebration.
"There's definitely more of that than there was in 'Battlestar.' It's not about someone getting their jaw broken every other episode," Stern said with a laugh. "But there are elements of that kind of extremity in this that I think will attract 'Battlestar' viewers. And yet our hope is, because it is dealing with world that is more familiar to us and dealing with issues that are maybe a little more germane to our daily lives, that it will attract a broader audience."
Caprica - Panel Video from DarkUFO on Vimeo.
Caprica is the real estate sci-fi geek dreams are made of. Graystone Manor was shot on location for the pilot, which left the set designers no alternative but to recreate a $12 million West Vancouver home on the studio set once the series was given the go-ahead. Cold, austere and impeccably accessorized, Graystone Manor is the perfect environmental foil to the warm, personal and cozy space of the Adama residence. The cast members recognize their set as "like a whole other person" as Magda Apanowicz (Lacy) put it during the Q&A, informing their scenes, setting the tone, and infusing new meanings to the personalities of the series' families and relationships. Building on the history and lore of Battlestar Galactica has been both daunting and invigorating for this cast but Paula Malcolmson is quick to point out that they, Caprica, come before and, therefore, it is a whole other world and existence from BSG. Like BSG, Caprica's story begins in tragedy but these characters are given time to mourn and choose their paths of recovery which leads to a much more intricate and internally-motivated story development than the refugee Colony Fleet was allowed.
"Trying to find [the] journey with these characters has been really interesting. I know for the writers — in terms of where you think you're going to go — turns out to be, not exactly where you ... there are things that have been pitched out ... this, episode 8, we're going to do this, and it's going to be a whole torture sequence on this other planet, and it's like 'no, actually that doesn't work in terms of where the stories have taken us'. And we actually took a break. We shut down for a few weeks so that we could, at the mid-point ... so that we could regroup and say, 'OK, what have we learned from the first ten; where do we want to go from here?'"
Where most other Syfy shows get a decent-sized hiatus during the mid-point of its production schedule, "Caprica" didn't get that luxury because of the Olympics, and had been pushing work at break-neck speed to be done ahead of the Olympics. (...)
"Some people want to make more out of this than what it is," the source said. "We're talking about a brand-new series with a concept we've never really tried before. It's something that would normally be worked out slowly, but 'Caprica' never got that luxury. Even with the break, this show has burned through production far faster than most other 20-episode orders, and breaks are sometimes part of the game. Syfy isn't even dreaming about canceling this show yet, not before they even have a chance to air a single episode." (...)
"Production in general is really just laying track ahead of a train," [Mark Stern] said. "What you see in this show is something that's really working and special. If it weren't for the Olympics, there wouldn't even be a discussion. But because of the Olympics, we have been really up against that, and we really have to be out of production [by then]. What would be an easy decision of 'let's take a hiatus' became a very difficult and expensive proposition, but we did it anyway because it was worth it."
The biggest Big Apple Comic-Con & Video Game Expo ever is preparing to hit New York City on October 16-18 at Pier 94 in Manhattan, W. 55th Street & 12th Ave. Now a part of Wizard World, this convention will feature the biggest celebrities of movies, TV, comic books, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, rock & roll, baseball, boxing, MMA, pro wrestling, modeling, and pop culture.
Our second set tour stop within the lake shores of Caprica summed it up best when we sat down for panel interviews with Caprica cast members Polly Walker, Alessandra Torresani, Magda Apanowicz, Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson, and Sasha Roiz. I asked both Esai Morales and Eric Stoltz what motivated them to step into television at this stage in their careers after making names for themselves in the film world years earlier. Interestingly, Eric Stoltz took the reigns on the question, relating his decision to step into the world of Caprica and television at large as similar to the Indie film movement in the early '90s that saw new directors push creative boundaries and take risks with rich and complex material. As Stoltz related, television is now entering a new era that gives actors more to work with in terms of material on par with high caliber films. In many ways, as Eric Stoltz revealed, it's exciting to be part of a stimulating new movement that consistently and creatively challenges an actor in new and interesting ways.
As for "Caprica," Murphy has signed on as co-exec producer and is already working on his first script for the show.
"As a rabid 'Battlestar Galactica' fan, it's hard not to go in that writers room and not just grin ridiculously," Murphy said. "These are the people who made the best TV show ever. To be able to be a part of the legacy of that show, I'd be willing to pay them for that."
The Caprica panel will include Polly Walker (Clarice Willow), Alessandra Torresani (Zoe Graystone), Magda Apanowicz (Lacy Rand), Esai Morales (Joseph Adama), Paula Malcomson (Amanda Graystone), Sasha Roiz (Sam Adama), and Eric Stoltz (Daniel Graystone).
Syfy is launching the first phase of its innovative national marketing campaign behind the highly anticipated January 22, 2010, premiere of Caprica with screenings at the prestigious San Diego, Woodstock and Austin Film Festivals.
Humanity's storyline takes completely new twists with Caprica, which follows two rival families and their patriarchs Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) as they compete and thrive in the vibrant realm of the 12 Colonies, a society recognizably close to our own. This original, standalone series will feature the passion, intrigue, political backbiting, and family conflict in an omnipotent society that is at the height of its blind power and gloryand, unknowingly, on the brink of its fall. Caprica also stars Paula Malcomson (Amanda Graystone), Polly Walker (Sister Clarice Willow), Magda Apanowicz (Lacy) and Alessandra Torresani (Zoe Graystone).
Said Blake Callaway, Vice President, Brand Marketing, Syfy: As heir to the rich legacy of Battlestar Galactica, Caprica is more than a new television series. With its pedigree of talent, cinematic look, feel and design along with the intelligence of the programs vision and provocative story lines, Caprica is a natural fit for a film festival. Reflecting the unique way were planning on marketing the series, San Diego, Woodstock and Austin Film Festivals are great platforms to kick off the Caprica marketing campaign.
Caprica Film Festival Screenings
San Diego Film Festival on Saturday, September 26.
At Woodstock Film Festival, celebrating its 10th anniversary, Friday, October 2, and Sunday, October 4.
Caprica Producer/Director Jeffrey Reiner and star Esai Morales will attend the Austin Film Festival Saturday, October 24 screening as well as participate on panels.
Caprica is from Universal Cable Productions and is executive produced by Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson. Jonas Pate serves as co-executive producer and director. Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights) directed the pilot.
The star of "Backtalk With Baxter Sarno," he's a very bright talk show host similar to Letterman or Leno, but with the political intelligence of Jon Stewart and a retro feel that could belong to Dick Cavett or Jack Paar. He is seen delivering his nightly monologue on the topical events of the day.sptv050769.. (25) RECURRING ROLE. PLEASE SUBMIT NAMES AND NON-NAME ACTORS. MUST BE ABLE TO AD LIB.
Syfy has announced the airdate for its highly-anticipated upcoming series Caprica. On Friday, January 22, 2010 @ 9 PM, the show will kick off with a 2-hour premiere and will air regularly on subsequent Fridays @ 10 PM.
Humanity's storyline takes completely new twists with Caprica, which follows two rival families and their patriarchs Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) as they compete and thrive in the vibrant realm of the 12 Colonies, a society recognizably close to our own. This original, standalone series will feature the passion, intrigue, political backbiting, and family conflict in an omnipotent society that is at the height of its blind power and glory and, unknowingly, on the brink of its fall.
Caprica also stars Paula Malcomson (Amanda Graystone), Polly Walker (Sister Clarice Willow), Magda Apanowicz (Lacy) and Alessandra Torresani (Zoe Graystone). The series is from Universal Cable Productions and is executive produced by Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson. Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights) directed the pilot.
Was it refreshing to have a slightly cleaner slate for Caprica in terms of design?
Well, I shot the pilot while I was finishing off Battlestar, last season. It's fifty-eight years before the Cylon war, so we're kind of re-inventing what Caprica was. It's a lot of fun and a great challenge. Dealing with Ron Moore and David Eick and the writers, we can actually get on the phone and say 'What do you think it should be?' [laughs]. And we come up with all these different ideas...we try and actually bring some of the Battlestar feeling into some of the designs in a subtle way, because by the time you get to fifty-eight years later, these are things that would have evolved. It's kind of like you're retro-fitting something, but you have to make the sense and the logic work for stuff that's going to happen sixty years from now. So it's a real little mind-twist to get some of the stuff right. But if you've seen the pilot, I thought everybody did a really great job on that.
Do you think you'll be sticking with sci-fi? You seem to be doing a lot of it now...
[laughs] Here's the story: I did Doctor Who, which I didn't know was sci-fi - to me it was just a great show to work on. And I had done a whole lot of other shows that weren't science-fiction. Lot of film work, drama, comedy, musical and so on. So I did the pilot for Stargate, and that was a huge success, and then I did five seasons of it. Then I said to myself that I had to get out of here in case people started saying 'All you do is sci-fi'!.
So after I left Stargate I made a big point of taking shows only like drama. comedy, western, whatever...anything but sci-fi. So I then did the pilot for Haunted with Michael Rymer, and that got picked up and shot in LA. Then that went by the wayside, and while I was working on something else, Michael Rymer rang me inviting me down to meet David Eick. When he told me had Battlestar Galactica going, I went 'Oh shit!' [laughs].
And then I said to myself that if I don't take this, it's not going to come around for another forty years, and at that point I probably won't be able to do anything [laughs]. So I took it, and that went for five seasons, and between seasons I would do other things like Painkiller Chain and Eureka, and that evolved into Caprica. It's just one evolvement after another that keeps me in this world right now, but it's nothing that I actually planned.
Big Caprica writing staff news. Now joining us on the staff will be... Buffy alum and all-around great guy DREW Z. GREENBERG!
Still in pre-production, but it's getting close -- shooting starts next week. Excitement in the air. Even the robots are nervous.
Regarding your latest release, Caprica, it sounds to me more emotive and character-centric than the Battlestar scores, which are very atmospheric, encapsulating all the action and drama of the environment.
Well, Caprica has a much smaller cast, and that cast can essentially be divided into two families – The Adamas and the Graystones. So I wrote two themes, one for each family, and they serve as the thematic thread that ties the Caprica score together. Battlestar, as you mentioned, tends to be attached to arcs, subplots, and sometimes thematic ideas. There are also themes for every single character on the show, and there are at least 50 of those alone, not that they all get used all the time. So Caprica was a very different approach.
Was it difficult at all to pull back from the expansiveness of Battlestar and hone in on this smaller story?
It was a bit of a relief, honestly. If the producers wanted Caprica to sound bigger, I might have died. The Battlestar score has reached a point where it is so unwieldy and massive, in terms of the amount of instruments in it, the style it encapsulates. It’s difficult to work with this language, and Caprica was like a breath of fresh air. I got a small chamber-sized orchestra together, and I was able to fall back on just writing, technique, and ideas, and the spectacle of the score wasn’t part of it.
Did you approach it more as a classic drama than as a sci-fi epic?
Well, I don’t approach anything as a sci-fi epic. I look at everything from a dramatic standpoint. Battlestar is certainly no exception to that. There are more family-drama storylines happening in Caprica, and Battlestar certainly does have its share of big, sci-fi plots that are not solely character based. But I have to admit that I try to ignore them, from a musical standpoint. What can one do to write science fiction music in the first place? I write narrative music. So, in that regard, it wasn’t any different than doing Battlestar. But I think the biggest difference was the ensemble, which was much more traditional, more contained, and much more classical. And the signature instruments like the ethnic drums, Middle Eastern flutes, and whatnot that are all over Battlestar, only make sporadic appearances throughout Caprica.
Something I found puzzling, given your credentials, was that in the press surrounding Caprica’s development, you weren’t even originally considered to do the score. I read something about the director having conversations and you were eventually suggested. What happened there?
Well, they honestly wanted a very different sound. And the director, Jeffrey Reiner, who had never previously worked on Battlestar, came in to direct Caprica, and wanted to go in a completely different direction. He didn’t want to re-create Battlestar… none of us did. So, I wasn’t an obvious choice, because I WAS the guy who did Battlestar. I had a meeting with Jeff, and we realized immediately that we were both on the same page about how the music should be. In fact, we had an incredible relationship artistically; he and I really got along, so it worked out for the best. But no, I wasn’t the obvious first choice. But like I said, the producers were concerned; they wanted something different, so I had to prove that I could deliver it.
How often do you have to go back to the drawing board and do rewrites for something that doesn’t work for you or the director?
In my entire career working on Battlestar and Caprica, I have only ever done one rewrite. It was in one of the very first episodes of Season 1, and I’ve never done one since. That’s for two reasons: one, the producers and I have worked together for a really long time and we see eye-to-eye. Generally I know what they want, and they trust my instincts. And two, there’s no time for rewrites. I had to write the entire score for Caprica in nine days. So I was just churning out cues as fast as humanly possible. I turned out between five to eight minutes of music for nine days straight, and on the tenth day, I was in front of the orchestra conducting it. So we definitely make revisions, tweaks – Jeff and I worked together on it very closely. But as far as going back and rewriting something from scratch; there was no time for that.
[BAXTER SARNO]
The star of "Backtalk With Baxter Sarno," he's a very bright talk show host similar to Letterman or Leno, but with the political intelligence of Jon Stewart and a retro feel that could belong to Dick Cavett or Jack Paar. He is seen delivering his nightly monologue on the topical events of the day.sptv050769.. (25) RECURRING ROLE. PLEASE SUBMIT NAMES AND NON-NAME ACTORS. MUST BE ABLE TO AD LIB.
Universal Cable Productions presents Bear McCreary and the music from Battlestar Galactica for three nights at the House of Blues in San Diego from July 23-25th – during Comic Con!
The concerts will be hosted by Admiral William 'Husker' Adama himself, Edward James Olmos (on Thursday and Friday) and Grace "Boomer" Park (on Friday and Saturday). The concerts will celebrate the July 28 release of a special 2-CD set, Battlestar Galactica: Season 4. La-La Land Records is releasing the Battlestar Galactica: Season 4 soundtrack through a license agreement with NBC Universal Television, DVD, Music and Consumer Products Group.
Battlestar Galactica: Season 4 will be available in stores nationwide and online on www.lalalandrecords.com and www.amazon.com. The two-CD soundtrack will feature music from seasons 4.0 and 4.5 and the music from "Daybreak," the stunning series finale. Also available from La-La Land Records are McCreary's soundtracks for Battlestar Galactica Seasons 1, 2, and 3, Caprica and Eureka.
UCP Presents Bear McCreary: The Music of Battlestar Galactica will feature special guest hosts and surprise celebrity appearances. Special Battlestar Galactica merchandise will also be available for sale at the concerts. La-La Land Records will be selling copies of the soundtrack for Caprica, and all of the Battlestar Galactica soundtracks, including advance copies of Season 4.
In addition to general admission tickets, a limited number of VIP tickets are available for all three nights. VIP Tickets include special entry and access to the hosted VIP-only balcony seating, bar and Delta Lounge, a meet-and-greet and autograph signing with McCreary and the BSG band, and a VIP gift bag which includes the Caprica Soundtrack CD.
"Bear McCreary's music was an integral part of the re-invention of Battlestar Galactica. Its complexity, depth, and breadth helped elevate the series beyond a simple 'Space Opera.' We couldn't be more excited to see Bear's music embraced by fans and music aficionados as something to be celebrated on its own," said Mark Stern, EVP, Original Programming, SCI FI Channel and Co-Head, Original Content, Universal Cable Productions.
The emcee the first two nights, Edward James Olmos agrees. "The day has finally come when I will be able to experience live the sights and sounds of Bear and his friends. Wow.... what a privilege!"
"This great series has come to an end, but I'm thrilled that my original score can live on in soundtrack albums and on the concert stage," said McCreary. "I can think of no audience who will appreciate the shows more than the fans at Comic Con, and I am grateful to UCP for this opportunity to bring the music of Battlestar Galactica directly to them."
Season 4 composer McCreary was recently called one of the top 10 composers "that make space adventures epic" by www.io9.com. His work on the television series Battlestar Galactica has been described as offering "some of the most innovative music on TV today," by Variety, and his blog www.bearmccreary.com/blog, which features in-depth inside looks at the process of scoring Battlestar Galactica, was called "one of the best blogs in the business. It's a fascinating look at the process of making music for film and television and the care he takes with aligning the score with the twists and turns of each character's plot lines," by The Hollywood Reporter.
McCreary's feature film credits include Wrong Turn 2 and the Rest Stop films. He also scores the series Eureka and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and will be scoring the upcoming SCI FI series, and Battlestar Galactica prequel, Caprica and the Capcom video game Dark Void. McCreary was among a handful of select protégés of late film music legend Elmer Bernstein and is a classically trained composer with degrees in Composition and Recording Arts from the prestigious USC Thornton School of Music.
UNIVERSAL CABLE PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS:
BEAR MCCREARY
THE MUSIC OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
HOUSE OF BLUES SAN DIEGO
All shows are 21 and older, doors open at 7PM
Thursday, July 23 (hosted by Edward James Olmos):
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0A0042CB95F42FAC
Friday, July 24 (hosted by Edward James Olmos and Grace Park):
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0A0042CB9FA03078
Saturday, July 25 (hosted by Grace Park):
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0A0042CBA0713083
Friday, July 24
11:45 AM-12:45 PM Caprica / Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Ballroom 20
The present meets the past as the makers of Battlestar Galactica deliver the highly anticipated original series Caprica and the 2-hour event, Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, directed by Edward James Olmos. This is your chance to get the inside scoop on these exciting projects and see two generations of Adamas on stage together for the first time. Executive Producers Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson sit down with Caprica star Esai Morales (Joseph Adama), and Battlestar Galactica's Edward James Olmos (Admiral William Adama), director of The Plan, to reveal the truth about these two new chapters in the mythology of BSG. Moderated by Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times.
Are events such as the Battlestar auctions sort of a stopgap for the show, since it seems to live on with Caprica and The Plan, the upcoming DVD movie?
Trucco: It does sort of hammer it home that it's over. The alternative [with the props] would have been to store them, which is costly: It's time-consuming, it's space-consuming and financially consuming. I think [executive producer] Ron [Moore] was pretty adamant about not resurrecting the series, one of those "We're going off the air. No, we're not! We're coming back. Oh, no we're not!" He didn't want to play like that, so he said this was the end of the show. So as far as I know, this is the end of the show. That's not to say they couldn't revive it; I think they could. From a fan standpoint, I think they could, and it would be viable. We're done with this version as it is. Caprica will take on as, a prequel, the themes of Battlestar Galactica, and I think it's going to do a great job. I saw the pilot, and I thought it was fascinating. SCI FI Wire
"I talked to Jane [Espenson], one of our writers, and I found out there's going to be a bunch of flashback scenes, and I am going to be a Cylon, and I'm having to take miming classes because they want me to wear the little dots on my face and actually be miming as a Cylon."
How tough was it to define Zoe in just a few scenes and then go back and present her as a "version" of herself that isn't quite complete?
Toreson: I took it as twins. That's how I kind of [saw] the characters, as Zoe and Zoe-A. They are basically the same person, but they are also completely opposite. That's how I feel twins are: People look at them and think they are the same, but they always have different personalities. I took Zoe as just a hard ass: She's a brat, she knows who she is, and she doesn't understand why no one else believes in her except for her best friend and her boyfriend. She doesn't understand why her mother and father don't get her.
But she takes life for granted because she has all of this money, and she can do whatever she wants, so she basically says, "F--k you guys, I'm going to do my own thing." Then I took Zoe-A, or avatar Zoe, as the sweet child or innocent [version] of what the original Zoe was earlier in her life. She is more naïve because thinking is brand new to her, so she's a brand-new, newborn baby. So her eyes just light up when she sees certain things, but she's deeply, deeply scared, and she is the innocent of the original Zoe. So the two of them, they make a perfect whole.
Is there anything you're most looking forward to sinking your teeth into?
Toreson: Well it's great, because I'm playing the original Zoe in flashbacks. I'm playing avatar Zoe, and we're going to have a few more avatar Zoes in the club. I know I'm going to be blond in one of them, maybe I'll have pink hair in another one, and then I'm also going to be playing the Cylon. So who knows when the Cylon's going to come through? The Cylon could magically turn into a human-form Cylon. I mean, that's me hoping that's where it's going to come to—I don't know about that—but that's the way I think it would eventually turn out to become. I'm just hoping to play as many people as I possibly can, and I'm up for the challenge—the emotional and comedic challenge behind it. SCI FI Wire
The album is finished and is currently being mastered. It will hit stores in early June, but will be available early from the label’s website in late May. The sound of this score is much more intimate than Galactica, but I think fans will nevertheless be surprised at how lyrical, passionate and thematic it is. In fact, many of the musical shifts you heard in Daybreak were inspired by the harmonic language I devised for Caprica. [BearMcCreary]
Like Battlestar Galactica before it, Caprica explores the themes of free will, identity, and what it means to be truly human. Using both Zoe and Daniel's experiments, the writers create a rubric for understanding the building blocks of creation, of humanity, of artificial intelligence. Through their actions, the audience sees the birth of a new race and how that very creation spells the end for the human race as we know it.
Caprica is very much a different series than Battlestar Galactica. Unlike BSG, which took place in the dark recesses of space, Caprica is much more grounded. There are no Viper dog fights, no Battlestars jumping to coordinates. It's set in a world that's very much like ours, with characters that are hauntingly similar to you or me. The design work is absolutely breathtaking, with modern sets daringly juxtaposed to vintage suits. Both Joseph and Daniel wear clothing that would be right at home in the confines of AMC's Mad Men, with beautifully tailored suits and fedoras, while the Greystones' home is all sleek, clean lines, glass and steel, and robot attendants.
Likewise, Caprica feels much more grounded in reality as well, promising more a drama about the "extraordinary" than a just strict space opera. Personally, I think it's a narrative approach that works; by placing the plot in a more "real" setting (literally grounding it on a planet), the dramatic uses of technology sound out more as surprising and innovative than they would in a full-blown sci-fi action piece.
"Caprica" is interesting because it's the first show that I'm completely creating music from the ground up. But even there, I'm not, because I need to acknowledge or not acknowledge "Battlestar". I mean, if I use taiko drums people go "Oh, he's doing 'Battlestar'", and if I don't use taiko drums people go "Oh, he's doing something different than 'Battlestar'". It's kind of the elephant in the room, it's like "Battlestar" exists. And with me scoring "Caprica", I have to acknowledge it. Now the fact is, you're not going to hear a lot of "Battlestar" music, so in many ways "Caprica" is the show that I'm creating from the ground up. But you'll hear some nods [to BSG] for sure.
"Battlestar", you have to remember, musically started out very simple. There were no character themes, in fact I was told not to have character themes. "Caprica" is very different because at this point, the producers know me well and they are more open to ideas. The score to "Caprica" in general is simpler, much more western. It's much more classical. I think I wanted to do something different and ultimately I was faced with this question, what is different than "Battlestar Galactica"?
Well, in "Battlestar Galactica" there is a lot of ethnic music, it's music from every continent, with instruments from throughout human history. It covered a lot of bases. What could I possibly use on "Caprica" that I haven't used on "Battlestar"? That's when it occurred to me, the way to make "Caprica" different is to make it more normal, really. "Caprica" should not sound so weird, more like what we are used to hear in film and TV.
And there's also a benefit to that. "Caprica" takes place before the apocalypse, not afterwards. In many ways, this event in the "Battlestar" miniseries, it kind of hits the reset switch. We've gone from this society to this rag tag fleet. The tribal drums and this ethnic instruments felt very appropriate. "Caprica" is very different, our society is refined and polished and the infrastructure exists. It's totally different. The music is more baroque, almost. It's not actually baroque in style, but it feels more constructed and more western, more symphonic. It felt appropriate.
And then, of course, this also gives me a place to go because should the series live on for multiple seasons, we know how it ends, where the series goes. The neat thing is, it gives me the opportunity to slowly evolve the score so that it becomes more like "Battlestar" the closer we get to the nuclear holocaust it ends with, or presumably ends with.
So I think people will hear that it sounds very different. There are also some musical nods to "Battlestar". I think people will recognize that it's me writing it. But as you can hear from that little snippet, it is a sad tone. It's also very lyrical like the piece that I just played to you. In "Caprica" I'm much more direct than in "Battlestar". The emotions are, at least in the beginning, more direct, a little more obvious, simpler.
Tonally the show is quite similar to "Battlestar". The characters are very dark, very conflicted and so it's the music that's a little different. More traditionally actually. I think people assume that I'm "Mr. Taiko Drum" will be surprised. I mean, I don't find it surprising because when you watch "Battlestar Galactica" carefully, you'll hear that there's a lot of very different orchestral inspired pieces in there. But I think a lot of people that assume that I just do taiko drum battle music are going to be surprised. We'll see.
What doesn't work: The first 15 minutes or so are something of a challenge - a weird mix of teen angst, hedonism and virtual reality - that the uninitiated will likely find either incomprehensible (you don't quite understand what you're seeing at first) or frustrating (tuning in to find out the origin of the Cylons and finding 15 minutes of The WB-era teen drama), making it a rocky start to say the least. And for those ultimately who just want answers here to solve the remaining questions in the current show - prepare to be disappointed. Sure there's plenty of geekasms to be had - the eight-sided paper, Pyramid, "So Say We All," the first "Centurion" (complete with voice from the '70s series), etc. - but there's nothing here that really informs what's happened on "Galactica" thus far. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that for better or worse "Caprica" is very much its own entity.
What does: The good news is though once established, the world of "Caprica" has the potential to be just as compelling, interesting and multi-faceted as its "sequel" - minus of course the cool shit blowing up in space. In just 92 minutes, "Caprica" manages to dish out a surprisingly dense, but not too overwhelming, array of plot threads - the government's investigation into the attack (spearheaded by Brian Markinson's Durham); the teens' school with potentially sinister ties (run by Polly Walker's Sister Clarice Willow); Daniel's business foibles; Joseph's obligations to the Tauran mob; and whatever the STO and Zoe are ultimately up to. And that's on top of yet another fascinating window into the Colonists battle between monotheism and polytheism not to mention a surprising look at the demographics of the time (Capricans are the elite while Taurans, dubbed "dirt eaters," are the despised colony) as well as the inevitable showdown between Daniel and Joseph over what they're doing.