Hell on Wheels preview, new interview with Christopher Heyerdahl & new project for David Eick

Christopher Heyerdahl makes his first appearance as the Swede in Hell on Wheels 1x02, "Immoral Mathematics," which airs tonight at 10 pm on AMC. He's been getting great reviews for the show (see here), so see the episode if you get a chance. Here is another one, from The Boston Globe:

Indeed, once a character known as the Swede (Christopher Heyerdahl) shows up in episode 2, with his silent-picture expressiveness and the kind of threatening presence usually found in Coen Brothers movies, I was fully invested in the show and looking forward to seeing the rest of the 10-episode season. The Swede is just the kind of twisted psycho creep you want to watch closely, the showiest bad guy in the “Hell on Wheels’’ stampede of antiheroes led by financier, swindler, and railroad builder Thomas Durant (Colm Meaney).

And here is what the A.V. Club says:

Tonight’s episode introduces our new favorite character ever, The Swede, played by Christopher Heyerdahl. Trust us, kids. You’re going to want to start working on your Scandanavian accent for your Swede Halloween costume next year. Phil Nugent’s got a head start.

Syfy Digital Press Tour report: Moore & Eick on Caprica 1.5

Ron Moore and David Eick attended the Syfy Digital Press Tour in Orlando earlier today and the first reports are in. There is still no word on whether Caprica will get a second season, but Ron Moore is still confident that it will, and Syfy's Mark Stern says that the decision will be made by November 15.

Snippets below are from Zap2It:

In the second half, we'll see more momentum and focus on certain storylines. There will be more tie-ins with the "Battlestar Galactica" mythology. Eick says this is when they're "unapologetically" connecting to its origins instead of trying to establish its own identity. So more "BSG" tone, suspense, action, etc.

Moore says that they have a creative road map for the second season, should they be picked up. It's a fairly detailed plan with several points out on the horizon. So creatively they're ready to go, but just waiting for the green light. It'll almost feel like a fresh start, so you won't be bogged down with the mythology, launching that AI or sentience, from Season 1.

Continuity isn't too difficult because much of the story was created while "BSG" was still going on. "Caprica" pretty much has its own stand-alone mythology. During "BSG's" fourth season, they tried to not mention the origins of Cylons that much in order to give more freedom to the "Caprica" story. In fact, they had to cut a line from Adama who refers to his father.

And there is a short clip from the panel, uploaded by ash0283 here.

Caprica executive producers on where the show is headed

Syfy has posted a new exclusive clip (embedded below) from the Caprica Season 1.0 DVD. In it, executive producers Jane Espenson, Kevin Murphy and David Eick talk about where the show is headed in the second half of the season. It’s a short clip, but it might bring up some of the old controversies from the Battlestar Galactica series finale. There is also a brief glimpse of Sam and Tamara Adama in V world in one of the upcoming episodes.

Make sure you also check out the new behind the scenes clip at AirlockAlpha.com.

On other fronts, Alessandra Torresani tweeted that she will be on Attack of the Show on October 5, Sasha Roiz is doing a conference call with the press today, and Starry Mag is talking to Magda Apanowicz.

Other cast updates:

• Hollywood Life has a bunch of pics of Eric Stoltz on the set of Glee and PDN Pulse has an article about Untitled, the short film he did last year that's part of MoMA's New Photography exhibition.
• King of the Avenue, with Esai Morales, will be out on DVD on October 26, and Cherry is getting screened at a bunch of festivals this month. You can find the schedule on Facebook.
• A Night for Dying Tigers, with Leah Gibson and John Pyper-Ferguson, will be screened at the Vancouver Film Festival. You can find the details here. Conviction, also with Pyper-Ferguson, will get a limited release on October 15.
• Patton Oswalt will guest star on Bored to Death again one of these Sundays. He was also cast in Jason Reitman's Young Adult earlier this week.
• SpoilerTV has the first pics of James Marsters in Smallville 10x04 here. Battlestar's Michael Hogan will also guest star in at least two episodes of the show later this season.
• The season premiere of Human Target (with Tahmoh Penikett and Jorge Montesi guest starring in episodes 2x01 and 2x04 resp.) has been pushed back to November 17.
• The final season of Friday Night Lights, exec produced by Jeffrey Reiner, with Scott Porter returning in episode 7, will premiere on October 27 on DirecTV.
• The Walking Dead, scored by Bear McCreary, will premiere on Sunday, October 31.

The "Where We're Headed" clip:

New clip from Unvanquished, Cylon news, and Caprica screening alert

Jane Espenson posted this on her blog earlier today:

Return of the Cylons: The Caprica Season 1.5 Premiere Fan Event!

Join CAPRICA stars Esai Morales, Alessandra Torresani, Sasha Roiz, and executive producers Ronald D. Moore, David Eick, Jane Espenson and Kevin Murphy for the Caprica season 1.5 premiere!

500 dedicated fans will have an exclusive opportunity to be the very first to see CAPRICA's return at a free private screening with the cast and producers on Sunday, October 3 at the Globe Theatre at Universal Studios Hollywood! Gates open at 6:30 PM and the cast and producers will kick off and close the event.

To get your ticket for this exciting celebration of CAPRICA'S return, please send your name, e-mail address, & # of tickets (max of 6 per person) to frak@nbcuni.com.

A few TV reminders:

• Teryl Rothery and Ryan Kennedy guest star on Hellcats tonight at 9 pm on the CW network
• Sasha Roiz, who is still filming an episode of House, will appear on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation tomorrow at 10 pm (CBS)
• You can also catch Hiro Kanagawa on Fringe tomorrow at 10 pm (Fox)
• Keep an eye on Aleks Paunovic - he's been tweeting pictures from the set of Supernatural

Ausiello over at Entertainment Weekly has some interesting new tidbits from David Eick about Cylon activity in season 1.5. You can read the article at EW.com. Spoilers below.

“Daniel Graystone’s creation—the early-model Cylon known as the U-87—emerges as a critical story point,” reveals Eick. “Due to the bad PR Daniel has endured since his prized creation, the Holoban, [was blamed for] the emergence of terrorist cells on Caprica, Daniel shifts his company’s focus to the perfection of artificial intelligence and its proliferation throughout the culture as the ultimate “helper”: Never gets tired. Never asks for a raise. Never quits on the job.
“Meanwhile,” Eick continues, “Joseph Adama and his brother Sam—using their organized crime muscle to seize control of Daniel’s company—see an altogether different purpose for the U-87′s: to sell to the highest bidder, no matter how violent their agenda might be.”

And Syfy has posted a new clip from episode 1x10, "Unvanquished," with James Marsters, Magda Apanowicz and Liam Sproule. "Unvanquished" airs next Tuesday at 10.

More Comic-Con videos

More interviews from Comic-Con showed up online in the last couple of days, from MediaBlvd, Buzzfocus and MyTakeOnTV. Most of them are embedded below. The Buzzfocus folks also have freshly uploaded videos with Sasha Roiz, Alessandra Torresani and James Marsters on their site that haven't been posted on YouTube, so you need to follow the links to see them.


Ron Moore:





David Eick:


David Eick "Caprica" CC2010 (HD)

MediaBlvd Magazine | MySpace Video


Alessandra Torresani:


Alessandra Torresani "Caprica" CC2010 (HD)

MediaBlvd Magazine | MySpace Video




Sasha Roiz:




James Marsters:



James Marsters “Caprica” CC2010 (HD)

MediaBlvd Magazine | MySpace Video

Caprica panel at Comic Con - the full video

You can see the video of the panel at TheFemmeBot.com.

Here is part one (there are five clips in total):

More video interviews from Comic Con: Ron Moore, David Eick, Alessandra Torresani, Sasha Roiz, James Marsters

Okay, no panel video or extended season 1.5 trailer yet (The Sci-Fi Block has a brief description), but a few more interviews showed up on YouTube since yesterday. Check them out below.

Ron Moore:




David Eick:






Alessandra Torresani:






Sasha Roiz:




James Marsters:

Cast & creators discuss morality on Caprica + new BTS clip with Alessandra Torresani

SyFy has released two new clips today. In the first one, the cast and producers talk about the concept of moral responsibility on the show and how it relates to the main characters.

In the clip: David Eick, Sasha Roiz, Mark Stern, Paula Malcomson, Polly Walker, Alessandra Torresani, Esai Morales, Jonas Pate and Eric Stoltz



And here is the second part of Alessandra Torresani's "Take Me Away" video (this time doing ADR with Sasha Roiz):

Interviews: Magda Apanowicz, Ron Moore & David Eick

Magda Apanowicz did a couple of interviews this week. First, she did the TV Talk podcast with Shaun O'Mac. You can listen to it here (her segment starts an hour into the podcast and lasts about 40 minutes).

And the second one:

The Vancouver native, who plays Lacy Rand on the lauded sci-fi series, says this Friday's mid-season finale - airing just two months after the show debuted - has arrived far too quickly for her liking.

"It's so crazy, it happened out of nowhere. I'm like, 'What? No! There's got to be, like, three more.' But nope!" says Apanowicz, 24, who will be at Wizard World Toronto Comic Con this weekend.

"It just always feels like it's been only on for like, a month, and you're like, 'There's so much more, you guys need to see, there's so much more."'(...)

Friday's mid-season finale will feature "a bunch of cliffhangers," says Apanowicz.

"We're all pretty stuck in the decisions we make at the end and there's no real going backwards from them but kind of finding a new way to go forward from them."

Apanowicz has strong roots in the genre of sci-fi drama, with previous roles in the series "Kyle XY" and "Bionic Woman," the miniseries "The Andromeda Strain," and the film "The Butterfly Effect," among others. -- TheFreePress.ca

And Ron Moore and David Eick talked to The Associated Press about what we can expect to see in the second half of the season.

 

Interviews: Magda Apanowicz, Alessandra Torresani, David Eick & Ron Moore

Several new interviews today.

Fulle Circle Magazine talked to Magda Apanowicz. For the complete interview, go here.

JA: How much do you remember about the audition process for Caprica and being cast in your role?

MA: I was very hesitant about doing it because I get really nervous in auditions. I also had to get my wisdom teeth pulled in a couple of days. So I was dreading it but also thinking "I have to do this." So I went in and did the audition, and then a couple days later I had my wisdom teeth pulled. I got an infection and my whole face started to swell- for a month I couldn't talk or eat. They wanted to see me for a callback and I wasn't able to go. They had to trust the tape when they hired me, and I couldn't speak until about four days before we started filming the pilot.

JA: Take us through an average work day on the set of Caprica.

MA: Some days you'll come in and do one scene, other days you'll be there for an entire day. The crew works so hard because they are there every single day, and they work very long hours. I usually get there around 6:00AM, get into my trailer and have breakfast, then go and get my hair and makeup done, then get into wardrobe, get your mic, and do the blocking. To get ready for work, I always go to my trailer and put some kind of music on and dance spastically. It's just one of my morning rituals right before I have to do any kind of acting. It's a really boring process when you try to explain it, but it's fun! I love it.

Matt Mitovich talked to Alessandra Torresani. The complete article is on Fancast.

Can any amount of preaching by papa – or gun barrels targeted at loved ones – make Zoe step forth? ‘Caprica’ star Alessandra Torresani is skeptical.

“At this point her father has done so much, she’s not going to let him have [closure],” says the actress. “They’re the same person – and because of that they butt heads – so the more he tries, the more she’s not going to give in.”

Events are unfolding quickly, though, as ‘Caprica’ speeds toward its cliffhanger-filled midseason finale. As such, “It’s almost too late” for Zoe to make her presence known, Torresani admits. That said, she allows for a possible “change of heart” by her alloy-clad alter ego at some point down the road.

Bryan Reesman has an interview with Ron Moore and David Eick here.

How much of an impact do you think that Battlestar Galactica and Caprica have had on modern sci-fi television?
Ron Moore: That’s really hard to say. I don’t know.
David Eick: We were so busy cribbing from others that it’s been hard to keep track of who we may have begat. Our touchstones were the greats: [Robert] Heinlein, Philip K. Dick and the movies of Ridley Scott, not just the science fiction ones. I think we were fortunate to figure out a way to apply some of that aesthetic to a modern TV show. I haven’t been able to pay attention enough to what else is on out there to see what we may have inspired.
Ron Moore: To me, the biggest and most important impact is that Salma Hayek had a “Frak” T-shirt when she was on 30 Rock. That was a major score because that’s the one they put in the time capsule.


Ron, I saw you speak last year at the New York Television Festival and reminisce about your later years with the Star Trek franchise and how formulaic it got. How hard is it to stay as original as possible with your storytelling on Caprica, especially after four seasons of Battlestar, and to keep the mythology fresh?
Ron Moore: I think you’re always trying to avoid clichés just as a storyteller. I think within the Battlestar universe the smartest thing we did was we developed Caprica while Battlestar was still going, so we were able to make sure that we carved enough blank space for the back story on Galactica to give ourselves a lot of room. So as a consequence there are not huge plot grids that we have to keep tying into. The continuity is not so densely packed that we have to make all this stuff line up. It feels very free, that Caprica can be whatever it wants to be.

And here is another interview with the cast at The Paley Center that contains a few interesting details about the rest of the season.

Both Esai and Sasha (who plays Sam Adama, brother to Esai's Joseph Adama on the show), were taken aback after reading the script to the finale of "Caprica's" first season.

"Our finale is unbeliable," Sasha revealed. "It's so powerful that I remember me and Esai calling each other after reading the script. We were both absolutely floored by how it ends."

Esai said the season finale script made him emotional.

"The finale drove me to tears on various occasions," he said. "What happens is so profound and out of the blue. [It was] so unexpected it took my breath away."

Preview for Ghosts in the Machine and new BTS clip

SyFy has a new behind-the-scenes clip with the cast & creators talking about the holoband and the virtual reality aspect of the show.

In the clip: Mark Stern, David Eick, Esai Morales, Alessandra Torresani, Magda Apanowicz, Eric Stoltz



The synopsis for episode 1x08, "Ghosts in the Machine," reads: "Daniel Graystone engages in a dangerous game to draw out his daughter's avatar." Not sure if they decided to rename it to "Ghost in the Machine" or if it's just a typo, so I'm leaving the old title.

Here is the teaser:

Art direction on Caprica - new video

There is a new clip on SyFy's video blog in which the cast and crew talk about the different styles on the show.

In the clip (embedded below): David Eick, Brian Markinson, Doug McLean (art director), Eric Stoltz, Peter Wingfield, Santino Barile (assistant props master), Glenne Campbell (costume designer), Jonas Pate (producer/director), Alessandra Torresani

New Caprica event at Paley Center in NYC in March

From the Paley Center:

Preview Screening and Discussion
Syfy's Caprica

Wednesday, March 17, 2010
6:30 pm ET
New York
In Person

Ronald D. Moore, Cocreator and Executive Producer
David Eick, Executive Producer
Paula Malcomson, "Amanda Graystone"
Polly Walker, "Sister Clarice Willow"
Alessandra Torresani, "Zoe Graystone"
Magda Apanowicz, "Lacy Rand"
Sasha Roiz, "Sam Adama"

Syfy’s new Battlestar Galactica prequel—more futuristic family saga than space opera—is a provocative, superbly crafted drama that, like its predecessor, tackles complex, highly resonant themes, such as religion, race, terrorism, technology, love, and the very nature of humanity. Like all quality drama, Caprica is not just emotionally and intellectually gripping, but also compels viewers to confront their own reality, even as they are swept up in this visually arresting, preapocalyptic world of sentient robots, avatars, and interplanetary travel.

The Paley Center will preview an upcoming episode from Caprica’s first season, followed by a discussion with members of the cast and creative team.

Paley Center Members: $15, tickets on sale now.
General Public: $25, tickets on sale Wednesday, February 24 at noon.

Cast and creators talk about the Adama family

SyFy has released a new video. In it, Esai Morales, Sasha Roiz, Karen Austin, Jonas Pate, Mark Stern, and David Eick discuss the Adama family.

More interviews: Alessandra Torresani & David Eick

A couple of really good interviews emerged online in the last couple of days. IGN talked to Alessandra Torresani and Techland.com has an interview with David Eick. Some snippets below.

Torresani:

IGN TV: You've got a really fascinating part here. What was the audition process like?

Alessandra Torresani: They didn't give me the script at first, so I went into casting, directors and everything, and [it was] not a cold read, but just a script, and I just knew there was me, the regular girl, and then this avatar. At the time, we knew what an avatar was, but you know, you read a script and then suddenly you're talking to yourself. You're like, "Ehhh, this is a little weird." So it was very confusing to me, but it immediately hit me, as if I was born to do this. I just thought, "You know what? This avatar, Zoe, is a child. Everything's brand new." And that's how I treated her. She doesn't realize she can talk, and then she learns to talk; you'll see that in a couple flashbacks. You'll see how she first learns to walk; it's like she's a child.

IGN: Is it interesting for you now, knowing that is the future of your world and pondering what role your character plays in that?

Torresani: Yeah, obviously, I'm the reason why Caprica died. I can't think about that right now, because I'm just thinking about the birth of the Cylon and how it's still just a 16-year-old girl stuck in a 7-foot robot body.

IGN: That is a fascinating aspect of the show. I was talking to David Eick earlier and saying how you hear "16-year-old girl trapped inside a killer robot" and it could come off really goofy, but it doesn't. The second episode establishes the technique where we see the Cylon the characters see and then cut to you, Zoe, trapped inside, watching what's going on. What's it like playing those scenes where you are the robot? You don't have any dialogue, obviously; so it's a lot of reactive stuff.

Torresani: It's really hard to show emotion without saying a word. I do this huge scene with Eric [Stoltz] and Paula [Malcomson], and Paula's just emotional and crying to Eric that her daughter's gone. And I'm there and I have to watch this and not be able to talk and not be able to touch, and it just has to be all in my eyes. And that was very difficult, because, are you kidding me, if I was the daughter and I saw my parents and I hadn't seen them and I'm stuck in this body I would wanna grab them and have them hold me. And that's what so sad about the whole character; that's a whole other aspect of it.

IGN: I've watched the first three episodes, and there are some moments where you, as the Cylon, get to show off your strength. Have you gotten to do a surprising amount of action in the series?

Torresani: I'm a blackbelt in tae kwon do, so it was funny, because when I did the show they didn't know that, and then slowly as this got picked up, I was like, "By the way, I'm really good at kicking butt. Really good." And I've always wanted to. You look at Jessica Alba in Sin City and all these girls, and you're like, "I can do that! I'm better! I want some action stuff!" And so they found that out, and they actually wrote a bunch of stuff of me getting in girl fights and kicking and roundoffs and this and that.

IGN: Can you hint at all about where the story is gonna go?

Torresani: I play five characters. I have lots of guns. I wear red lipstick. I can go back and forth from different worlds. That's about all I can say. I wear really cool heels!

IGN: You have two wonderful actors playing your parents. What's it like to work with them?

Torresani: Gosh, it's absolutely brilliant. It's great. I mean, Eric Stoltz; I don't even need to say anything on that. He's just phenomenal. And the fact that he got to direct an episode is just great, because he's the ultimate actor's director. He gets it, and he really, truly acts as the father of our show, on and off screen. And then Paula's just a riot. She's just genius at what she does, and when she gets in that role, she is in that role. You're like, is this Amanda Graystone I'm talking to or is this Paula Malcomson? It's inspiring. It really makes want to try extremely hard to impress them as well as myself and the fans.

IGN: [Laughs] Lastly I wanted to also ask you about another show I was a big fan of, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. That was a one-episode guest appearance ["The Turk"] where you had to play a pretty heavy, intense character.

Torresani: I didn't even know how intense it was until after. Like, that character went throughout the whole season [after I was gone]. Yeah, that was a crazy character. I don't think I've ever had to commit suicide on a show.

IGN: That's what surprised me - that they didn't stop her from killing herself.

Torresani: It was a really deep character without even saying a lot. There was a lot going on there. That was a fun show. That was really fun. People always say, "Oh, don't you wish you had stayed on longer?" But, you know what, I'd rather do a quality character than quantity, and I'd rather have this one-episode arc that's so intense that continues on the show than some bulls**t, stupid, "I'm in a hundred episodes but I play a stupid character." I'd rather something with depth. I never knew how many people would actually recognize me from that, but it was sci-fi. But I didn't realize how huge that show actually was.

IGN: With that and now Caprica, has it given you a new perception of science fiction?

Torresani: I love it. I think it's so deep and so now. People say, "Oh, it's science fiction, it's crazy." but, you know, it's really not. We're 20 years away, if that. Ten years away from having Cylons walking this Earth. Honestly, we are. We're very close, and I think it's great. -- IGN

Eick:

I'm now three episodes into the show, and I'm surprised by how closely these episodes snap together. Clearly this was an intention, to go deep into these characters and to interweave the episodes – how did you decide that this is the direction you wanted to go after BSG?

It was really an unusual beginning to the process. Both Ron and I had done self-contained series before, Ron had done the Star Trek shows, and I had done the Hercules universe and it was in about the second season of BSG where we started to decide whether or not there was another story to be derived or hatched from this world that we were deeply immersed in. We knew we didn't want to have some sort of continuation of the story, where you'd have some paraplegic commander, some speed freak, in command this time. We debated doing another thing entirely, a Buck Rogers show that would take place in contemporary society and have an artificial person coping with reality.

Then we started looking at the big picture of something we had been discussing, about how many of the BSG episodes were self-contained versus ongoing threads. By the end of the series, I think by the beginning of the fourth season, the episodes were all essentially serialized. And they were great. And so we started talking about moving forward with something that was unapologetically a serial sci-fi soap opera, that from the beginning would be designed to be that sort of animal – free from all the responsibilities or obligations to carry through the artifice of having a beginning, middle or an end.

So once you knew you wanted to go serialized, how did you decide that Caprica would almost follow the likes of A.I. or Blade Runner, in dealing primarily with these issues of artificial intelligence, and this blurring line between computers and humanity?

Well we wanted to go broader, beyond Battlestar, and we thought wouldn't it be great if we went backwards and if we did a prequel that didn't in any way require knowledge of Battlestar. If it had no baggage. And you could still trade on those mythological strands, but now explore and tell stories in a completely different way. What was so unorthodox is that we pitched this to the studio in general terms and they said, ‘Wow, that's really interesting,' and then Remi Aubuchon, this successful television writer, approached them separately with this idea that was dealing with artificial intelligence and the creation of a sentient life. And they said, ‘ Wow, you should call Ron and David and put your heads together, you're all smoking out the same crack pipe.' And we met with him and it was this rare occasion where we had the foresight to put this all together.

It's interesting, though, how you use the notion of artificial intelligence here. It's not just for the sake of something flashy or high-tech, but there's a lot of emotional turmoil that's unleashed by this…

Well, we had thought of Caprica as replacing what oil is in our time with artificial intelligence – this resource that changes everything. And what we actually had a lot of discussions about was Frankenstein, about this need of one man to create life at any expense. And in that story, you have a brilliant man who goes mad with the implications of what he's done. Now imagine that taken to whole new level of moral questioning, when you're talking about the man's own daughter. That level of moral questioning almost runs the risk of a potential break with your own sanity, when you face what you're really trying to do, to bring back a replica of your daughter. -- Techland

Caprica news roundup - interviews, articles, reviews

Okay, with the show premiering this evening, a whole bunch of news, reviews and interviews showed up in the last couple of days. Here are some links:

L.A. Times has a couple of new interviews as part of their Caprica countdown.

Magda Apanowicz:

The old standby question: Were you a fan of "Battlestar Galactica" before joining "Caprica?"
I made a conscientious decision not to watch it until after we filmed the pilot. I was one of those people that looked at it and said, "Eh, I'm not really a sci-fi fan," but holy! I went back and watched it and I'm like "Holy!" How did I not know that this show existed in my life! It was unreal. I just recently watched the whole series again. It's so good. I can't believe that I was one of those people who said "I'm not really a sci-fi fan."

I saw you at the screening of the "Battlestar" finale at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences last year, talking to "Caprica" [executive producer] Jane Espenson. What have you learned from working with her?
Yeah. You saw me bowing to her because I am a huge "Buffy" fan, again from someone who said they weren't into sci-fi. Though I've realized over the past few years that I am a massive sci-fi fan. Pretty much every one of my favorite movies is sci-fi. Everything I've worked on is sci-fi. And meeting Jane Espenson was just jaw-dropping, not talking just in awe. I was like "You're Jane Espenson and you worked on 'Buffy' and how was that and that's awesome and you're awesome and this is awesome." There was more actual conversation once we got past that. I just felt really honored to meet her. Keep reading

David Eick:

So how long ago did the idea for "Caprica" actually come about?
The first time that myself, Ron Moore and Remi Aubuchon got together to discuss it was was five years ago. It's crazy cause it doesn't seem that long. Ron and I came from these franchises that had spawned offspring. In Ron's case it was "Star Trek" and in mine it was the "Hercules"/"Xena" world. At some point during the second season of "Battlestar," we started kicking around the idea of another story rooted in this world. We started kicking around the idea of a more human-based, terrestrial-based soap opera with a sci-fi undertone that would take place in the years before the events that were depicting in "Battlestar." In affect, it would be Dallas where the McGuffin would be artificial intelligence instead of oil.

We had a general conversation with execs at Universal, then we tabled it as we continued to make "Battlestar." We got a call from those execs some time later and they said that at some point in time they heard a pitch from Remi Aubuchon that they felt crossed paths in many ways with what we'd talked about for our "Battlestar" prequel. It just made sense to Ron and I to have another partner since we were so into just making "Battlestar" at the time. So we sat down with Remi and started to hammer out where this spinoff would be.

So I don't really need to ask if it was a harder sell than the original 'reimagined' "Battlestar" premise?
Our reimagined "Battlestar" premise was held back by a couple of things at different stages. One was title, which was a blessing and a curse. It opened certain doors, but there's a whole contingent ... who would not watch a show called "Battlestar Galactica" no matter how many trophies you win. And Bonnie Hammer said to me, 'You're gonna have to explain to me again when you come in to pitch this why the world needs another space opera.' And I think we did.

In this case, we had a leg up, you could say. We were coming at the "Battlestar" mythos at what did not feel like a lot of other shows. As unique as "Battlestar" is, it's still easy to lump it in with "Stargate" and "Star Trek" and "Andromeda" and I can't even name them all. Whereas with "Caprica" I think we're operating in very unique territory. Keep reading

They also reviewed the pilot here.

SpoilerTV has the full transcript of the conference call with David Eick and Paula Malcomson here.

BuddyTV talked to Jane Espenson about Sam Adama, the gay character on the show - link.

Airlock Alpha talked to Bear McCreary about the show's score.

PinkRayGun has an article about the Caprica set visit last October here.

Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly has a pic of James Marsters and says he will first appear on the show on March 5.

Times Colonist interviewed Magda Apanowicz - link. So did Dose.ca.

Wired talked to Alessandra Torresani - link. Sioux City Journal also has a new interview with her.

SeattlePi has an interview with Esai Morales here.

And the Wall Street Journal talked to David Eick - link.

AfterElton.com has a lengthy review/feature about some of the issues that will be explored on the show.

And here is the New York Times review.

New interview with Paula Malcomson and David Eick

Io9.com has a new interview with Paula Malcomson and David Eick. You can read the entire article here.

We took part in a conference call with Malcomson and Eick earlier today, and we got the chance to ask them about how you handle a bad mom like Amanda. Does Malcomson have a hard time playing such an unsympathetic character?

Malcomson says, "It's definitely something that occurs to you in the back of your mind, but as an actor you have to set aside your own judgments as to whether the character is good or bad... Being a good actor is sort of understanding the complexity of the human psyche and also knowing that we are none of us perfect. But yes, it was tough, and I did think that, particularly, men would find this character unsympathetic. I just tried to… tap into the loss and the pain, and the fact that she has made mistakes and go from there… you know."

Eick adds that he doesn't think there's any room for the trope of "sympathetic characters" on shows like Caprica, any more than there was on BSG. "Audiences like challenging characters. [There's] no room for black and white, [only] morally gray." And he adds that you'll find Amanda unpredictable and weird: "Sometimes you expect her to lose her shit and she holds it together, and vice versa. That's part of the charm of the show."

Also, Eick explained more about what's new and different in the version of the two-hour pilot that airs on Friday, as opposed to the version many of us already bought on DVD. "The version that airs Friday is tricked out with a couple of new shots and visual effects and some new scenes we reshot." Keep reading

Interviews with Jane Espenson and David Eick

Io9.com has a couple of interviews up with Jane Espenson and David Eick here.

Espenson talked about the central conflict on the show being not between humans and robots but between different groups of humans, while Eick talked about the beginnings of the show.

According to Espenson, the "other" in Caprica is other groups of humans, instead of the Cylons which barely exist at this point. You have twelve colonies, with diverse ethnic groups, all in conflict with each other. And that doesn't even include the monotheists, who are a minority in all the different colonies. The show's being very careful to make clear that not all monotheists are evil terrorists, adds Espenson. The whole stew of conflict, with each group believing it has the right answer to all of society's woes, brings a society that's at peace closer to the brink of war and disaster. And those elements — a peacetime society where different groups of humans are fighting over cultural and religious differences — allow Caprica to tell very different stories than Battlestar Galactica. It's still just as allegorical as BSG, however, and it still has something to say about the times we're living in.

Eick told us that Caprica started out as Remi Aubuchon's pitch for a totally unrelated show about robots, and then Syfy suggested turning it into a BSG prequel. And that opened up all sorts of ways to explore the same questions as BSG, only from the opposite side — instead of a show about machines who are becoming human, you have a show about a human girl who becomes a machine. Either way, you're getting to ask some questions about what humanity really is, says Eick.

Another report from the Caprica panel

TV Squad posted a report from the Winter Press Tour here. David Eick talked about Zoe's character and the decision to do the scenes with both Alessandra Torresani and Zoe's Cylon body.

"The reason for that," said Eick, "beyond just how difficult it's proven to be on production to accommodate that, because it does tax us greatly, but it was so critical because the emotions are so important.

"And you can only get so much of an emotional point-of-view from a CG creature. And we had this magnificent actress in Alessandra, who we knew could deliver all the complexities of this angst-ridden young woman that we just thought it would be cheating the show, the audience, and just our storytelling ability to limit it to just visual effects."

And he and Jane Espenson also discussed the similarities and differences between Caprica and Battlestar Galactica. Espenson said, "There's no stark bad guys and good guys, that this is a world that is perceived by some of its residents as sort of sliding over the edge, and there's a whole bunch of people who think they've got the answer."

Eick added:

There are the occasional Easter eggs and nods and acknowledgments for the Battlestar faithful to enjoy or maybe deepen some of their appreciation for it, but I think legitimately the show stands on its own. And other than the fact that if you happen to know Battlestar Galactica, you know that that show had its roots in some of the stories we're telling now, there really is no relationship between the two shows whatsoever.

Caprica - Winter Press Tour report

Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly has the first report from the Winter Press Tour. You can read the article  here.

“Caprica, like Battlestar Galactica, doesn’t treat the [sci-fi] genre like a toy department,” exec producer David Eick told reporters at Winter Press Tour. “We take it seriously.”

Translation: The drama, starring Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Polly Walker, and Paula Malcomson, will be brimming with BSG’s trademark moral complexity. “There are no stark good guys and bad guys,” said fellow e.p. Jane Espenson. “Everyone has moral shadings and we can tell very complex stories as a result.”

On the flipside, Eick stressed that non-BSG loyalists will not be lost if they tune into Caprica. “New viewers will find that there’s virtually no tether to BSG from a storytelling standpoint,” he maintained. “Legitimately, the show stands on its own… It’s not called Battlestar Galactica: Caprica [for a reason].”