Caprica gets a showrunner: Jane Espenson

Jane Espenson, writer and co-executive producer on Battlestar Galactica, will be taking on the same duties on Caprica and eventually take over as showrunner, writes Chicago Tribune. When the writers meet in February to work on the first season, Ron Moore will be still be at the helm. Espenson is expected to take over halfway through the season.

Other Galactica veterans who have joined the new crew are composer Bear McCreary, production designer Richard Hudolin and special effects supervisor Gary Hutzel. Espenson says that BSG writers Michael Taylor and Ryan Mottesheard will also soon be joining them in the writers' room.

Espenson has a long list of television credits which include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, The Inside, Tru Calling, Dollhouse and Warehouse 13. She came on board Galactica for the third season and has since also written the recent BSG webisodes, The Face of the Enemy, and the upcoming movie, The Plan.

Asked about the differences between Caprica and Battlestar, she said: "I think it will certainly be different, but it's like a different garment made from the same fabric. The beating heart of it will be the same -- complex moral situations, high stakes, compelling characters. Robots."

And speaking of robots, Gary Hutzel, the new visual effects supervisor, told LA Times what we can expect to see on Caprica:

Moving from "Battlestar" to "Caprica," is the process easier for you?

Because we've been doing the robot centurions for years it's ... well, "Caprica's" more robot-heavy for us. There's a lot more development of the Cylon robots. We also have a lot of environmental stuff to do.

Some of the things are similar in that there's still the element of terrorism taking place. "Caprica" is much more on the nose, much more literal when it comes to talking about those things....

The worlds in effect are allegories for the countries and they're very clear-cut.... "Caprica" is the jewel of the planets. "Caprica" is the United States.

Caprica starts shooting in July for an early 2010 premiere.

Bear McCreary is scoring Caprica

Battlestar composer Bear McCreary confirmed the other week that he is recording the score for the Caprica pilot and will stay in charge of the music on Caprica for the entire season.

"The score, like the tone of new series, is quite different from Galactica," he wrote on his blog. "I am introducing a new ensemble, soloists and distinct musical themes, expanding the sonic boundaries of the Battlestar universe, while still keeping the soul of the score connected to my previous work. And don’t worry… Chris Bleth, MB Gordy, Paul Cartwright and the other unique musicians who play on Galactica are on board as well."

McCreary's other recent credits include Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Eureka.

Exclusive Caprica clip up at SCIFI.com

SCI FI has posted a new video from the Caprica pilot at http://video.scifi.com/player/?id=907641

It's a scene with Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and his late daughter's friend Lacy (Magda Apanowicz) in a virtual nightclub, right before he meets the avatar of his daughter Zoe for the first time. 

Caprica script posted online

The other day, SpoilerTV posted links to a bunch of scripts for the pilots of some of the most anticipated new shows, including Virtuality, Castle, Cupid, Lie to Me and Caprica. 

You can find them in this post.

Ron Moore talked to Alan Sepinwall recently about Caprica and tons of Battlestar related stuff. The full interview is available at NJ.com. Here are a few snippets:

(on Caprica's themes and narrative style) 

It's hard to say. The comparison I used to keep making was "It's a sci-fi version of 'Dallas.' But the deeper we get into it, it's not. It's so different in tone and style to what we did on "Battlestar." If you just watched and didn't know the other program or didn't know what the connective tissue was, it wouldn't feel like they're part of the same family. They're very different stylistically. This is really a character piece and a drama that's very political. It has a lot of religious issues too. There are terrorists and terrorists bombings, religious strife... In "Galactica," we talked about monotheism versus polytheism; in "Caprica," those ideas are just starting to percolate.

(on prequels being tricky) 

I mean, we could have done another Battlestar, or the first Cylon war, but those would have been repeating things we had done. Remi Aubuchon had come to the studio with an idea to do something unrelated to "Battlestar" about robots and artificial intelligence and the creation of life, and when we started talking together, I got interested in the idea of doing a sci-fi show that was set on a planet, did not have an action adventure component to it, is even more of a character piece than "Battlestar," where it really has to live and die on its characters and its story without the Cylons attacking every week. Could you sustain a science fiction show in that kind of context? That's what got me excited.  

(on the lack of space battles) 

Science fiction in general is very heady intellectual stuff. The novels are a broad range of material -- there's some action adventure, and then there's very talky, sophisticated stuff. If you're a fan of the genre in general, I think you'll like this flavor of it... Surprisingly, this could be the one that sparks to a female viewership. There's always been a much higher male demo on "Galactica," because of the action adventure, the hardware component, and we think the character material might bring in more women.