Falling Skies returns tonight at 9 pm on TNT with a two-hour season premiere, season two of The Killing ends at 9 pm on AMC, Christopher Heyerdahl makes his first appearance in True Blood (HBO, 10 pm), and there are new episodes of Continuum and Longmire.
First stop, Falling Skies. Luciana Carro and Ryan Robbins will be recurring this season, and other than the showrunner, three BSG/Caprica writers -- Mark Verheiden, Bradley Thompson and David Weddle -- worked on season two.
Rémi Aubuchon (showrunner) and the cast have been doing interviews left and right in recent weeks. Jim Halterman talked to him about the new season. You can read the interview at The Futon Critic. Snippets:
Jim Halterman: Having watched the first few episodes of the second season - and not taking anything away from the first season - I felt like things were sharper and tighter.
Remi Aubuchon: Steven [Spielberg, Executive Producer] is very terse and concise in his direction and basically what he said was 'Look, I want you to amp up the second season.' And I think that what a lot of that comes from is us deciding that we've set the backdrop, we've established the foundation of the story now let's just go with it and I think you can feel that energy in the second season.
Blood and Chrome trailer was shown at the BSG panel at WonderCon this weekend. Hero Complex has a report from the panel with Kevin Grazier. Here is a description of the trailer (no, it's not available anywhere yet):
At the end of his talk, Grazier screened a trailer for the upcoming “Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome,” a two-hour television film which is set in the 10th year of the First Cylon War. Edited at rapid-cutting pace to Trent Reznor and Karen O’s cover of “Immigrant Song” for “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” – which was actually quite fitting with images of ice-covered planets and (space)ships – the trailer ended with title cards flashing the words “It’s time for a SyFy game-changer.”
Still no official word on what Blood and Chrome is (a TV film or a pilot) even though the decision was supposed to be made in February, but hopefully Syfy will announce something at the upfronts (April 24) if not sooner.
Elsewhere, TNT has announced a return date for Falling Skies:
Falling Skies
• Two-Hour Season Premiere: Sunday, June 17, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)
• Season 2: 10 episodes
The wait is nearly over as basic cable's #1 new series of 2011 returns to continue its extraordinary story about life and survival in the wake of a catastrophic alien invasion. Noah Wyle stars as a college professor who becomes an unlikely resistance leader in this gripping series from DreamWorks Television and executive producer Steven Spielberg. Moon Bloodgood, Will Patton, Drew Roy, Maxim Knight and Connor Jessup also star.
In the same press release, TNT has also announced the dates for The Closer (Monday, July 9, at 9 pm ET) and Major Crimes (premiere: Monday, Aug. 13, at 10 pm ET, regular slot: Mondays at 9) with Mary McDonnell, and Perception (Monday, July 9, at 10 pm ET) with Jamie Bamber recurring. Longmire with Katee Sackhoff also got a premiere date in recent weeks: June 3 on A&E.
Caprica, the highly anticipated prequel to "Battlestar Galactica," will enjoy its world premiere exclusively on DVD on April 21, 2009 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. In a groundbreaking move sure to delight fans of the long-running television phenomenon, the feature-length prequel will be available on DVD as a limited-edition uncut and unrated version before the series' broadcast premiere on the SCI FI Channel in 2010. Caprica is executive produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick ("Battlestar Galactica") and Remi Aubuchon ("24"). Exclusive bonus features that take viewers behind the scenes of the creation of Caprica make this DVD a landmark event for any fan of "Battlestar Galactica." The film will also be available at selected online destinations for digital download transactions.
As "Battlestar Galactica" wraps its gripping final season on SCI FI on March 20, 2009, Caprica begins a brand new epic saga that continues the franchise's commitment to thought-provoking storytelling and extraordinary characters. Set over 50 years before the events of "Battlestar Galactica," Caprica is a world at the peak of its power, grappling with new science and technologies and the issues they create. The series will star Golden Globe nominee Eric Stoltz (Mask, Pulp Fiction), Esai Morales ("Jericho," "NYPD Blue"), Paula Malcomson ("Deadwood" "ER") and Golden Globe® nominee Polly Walker ("Cane," "Rome") in a story laced with passion, intrigue and family conflict.
"We are thrilled to take the groundbreaking step of offering the world-premiere of the Caprica feature-length extended pilot episode on DVD prior to the new series' television debut," said Hilary Hoffman, Senior Vice President, Brand and Digital Marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment. "This innovative distribution model will serve to satisfy 'Battlestar Galactica' fans' appetites for a new content while building excitement for the franchise's next great adventure."
"Ever since fans first caught wind of the 'Battlestar Galactica' prequel Caprica, they have been eagerly following its development," said Mark Stern, Executive Vice President, Original Programming for SCI FI & Co-Head Original Content, Universal Cable Productions. "We wanted to give them a chance to see the pilot in its original form and experience the prequel to the BSG story while that series' finale was still ringing in their ears. It also affords the creative team an unprecedented chance to get viewers feedback before production on the Caprica series begins this summer."
"If 'Battlestar Galactica' offered us a way to shatter the conventions of space opera, Caprica will be a show which will challenge the conventions of science fiction storytelling as a whole," said Ronald D. Moore, Executive Producer/Writer.
"Part sweeping soap, part meditation on the dangerous moral ramifications of artificial intelligence, this is a truly unique opportunity to continue telling stories which will be as daring and shocking as the best of 'Galactica' -- and yet will be altogether different from 'Galactica,'" said David Eick, Executive Producer.
Universal Cable Productions will begin production on the "Caprica" series in the summer of 2009 in Vancouver for a 2010 television premiere on the SCI FI Channel. The DVD of Caprica is priced at $26.98 S.R.P. Preorder close is March 3, 2009.
BONUS FEATURES: • Feature Commentary with Director Jeffrey Reiner and Executive Producer/Writer Ronald D. Moore and Executive Producer David Eick • Deleted Scenes • Video Blogs • What the Frak is Caprica? • The Director's Process • The V Club • The Birth of a Cylon
SYNOPSIS Set 50 years before Battlestar Galactica, Caprica follows two rival families and their patriarchs – Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) – as they compete and thrive in the vibrant world of the 12 Colonies, a society recognizably close to our own. Enmeshed in the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons, the two houses go toe-to-toe blending action with corporate conspiracy and sexual politics.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION Street Date: April 21, 2009 Pre-Order Close: March 3, 2009 Copyright: 2009 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved. Price: $26.98 Selection Number: 61109037 Running Time: 1 Hour 33 Minutes Layers: Dual Layer Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1 Rating: Not rated. Languages/Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Caprica, the highly anticipated prequel to Battlestar Galactica, will enjoy its world premiere exclusively on DVD on April 21, 2009 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. In a groundbreaking move sure to delight fans of the long-running television phenomenon, the feature-length prequel will be available on DVD as a limited-edition uncut and unrated version before the series' broadcast premiere on the SCI FI Channel in 2010.
Caprica is executive produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick (Battlestar Galactica) and Remi Aubuchon (24). Exclusive bonus features that take viewers behind the scenes of the creation of Caprica make this DVD a landmark event for any fan of Battlestar Galactica. The film will also be available at selected online destinations for digital download transactions.
As Battlestar Galactica wraps its gripping final season on SCI FI on March 20, 2009, Caprica begins a brand new epic saga that continues the franchise's commitment to thought-provoking storytelling and extraordinary characters. Set over 50 years before the events of Battlestar Galactica, Caprica is a world at the peak of its power, grappling with new science and technologies and the issues they create. The series will star Golden Globe nominee Eric Stoltz (Mask, Pulp Fiction), Esai Morales (Jericho, NYPD Blue), Paula Malcomson (Deadwood, ER) and Golden Globe nominee Polly Walker (Cane, Rome) in a story laced with passion, intrigue and family conflict.
"We are thrilled to take the groundbreaking step of offering the world-premiere of the Caprica feature-length extended pilot episode on DVD prior to the new series' television debut," said Hilary Hoffman, Senior Vice President, Brand and Digital Marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment. "This innovative distribution model will serve to satisfy Battlestar Galactica fans' appetites for a new content while building excitement for the franchise's next great adventure."
"Ever since fans first caught wind of the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica, they have been eagerly following its development," said Mark Stern, Executive Vice President, Original Programming for SCI FI & Co-Head Original Content, Universal Cable Productions. "We wanted to give them a chance to see the pilot in its original form and experience the prequel to the BSG story while that series' finale was still ringing in their ears. It also affords the creative team an unprecedented chance to get viewers feedback before production on the Caprica series begins this summer."
"If Battlestar Galactica offered us a way to shatter the conventions of space opera, Caprica will be a show which will challenge the conventions of science fiction storytelling as a whole," said Ronald D. Moore, Executive Producer/Writer.
"Part sweeping soap, part meditation on the dangerous moral ramifications of artificial intelligence, this is a truly unique opportunity to continue telling stories which will be as daring and shocking as the best of Galactica -- and yet will be altogether different from Galactica," said David Eick, Executive Producer.
Universal Cable Productions will begin production on the Caprica series in the summer of 2009 in Vancouver for a 2010 television premiere on the SCI FI Channel. The DVD of Caprica is priced at $26.98 S.R.P. Preorder close is March 3, 2009.
BONUS FEATURES:
Feature Commentary with Director Jeffrey Reiner and Executive Producer/Writer Ronald D. Moore and Executive Producer David Eick
Deleted Scenes
Video Blogs
o What the Frak is Caprica? o The Director's Process o The V Club o The Birth of a Cylon
SYNOPSIS
Set 50 years before Battlestar Galactica, Caprica follows two rival families and their patriarchs - Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) - as they compete and thrive in the vibrant world of the 12 Colonies, a society recognizably close to our own. Enmeshed in the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons, the two houses go toe-to-toe blending action with corporate conspiracy and sexual politics.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Street Date: April 21, 2009
Pre-Order Close: March 3, 2009
Copyright: 2009 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Price: $26.98
Selection Number: 61109037
Running Time: 1 Hour 33 Minutes
Layers: Dual Layer
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1
Rating: Not rated.
Languages/Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
www.CapricaDVD.com
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
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.
SCI FI Channel presented Caprica at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills a couple of days ago. The writers, producers and cast revealed a number of new details about the show and promo just keeps trickling in.
First thing's first. The trailer hit the web yesterday, so here is a first look at the main characters and general tone of the prequel:
SCI FI's executive vice president Mark Stern said the final decision has not yet been made whether Caprica will air as a television movie or a series pilot. The air date has not yet been set because the executives are waiting to see the pilot before they decide whether to show it this fall as a television movie or later - possibly as late as next summer - along with the series if they decide to greenlight it:
“We're going to take a look at it and maybe just order it as a series from there. We are going to take delivery on it in a couple of weeks and then decide whether to air it as a standalone movie or as the premiere of a new series,” Stern said at the press tour. They will get a cut in August, weigh it against the pilots for Warehouse 13 and Revolution, and make a definite decision in September.
SCI FI's president David Howe said that if Caprica does go to series, it will most likely not end after 13 episodes, but grow into a regular series that could go on for years.
Ron Moore, the show's creator, revealed that the opening shot will include a title card saying “Caprica – 51 Years Before the Fall,” saying that the knowledge of the planet's eventual fate will just add extra tension to the prequel. “The idea is to say, all this world you're about to visit is doomed and there's a sense of ominous dread that gathers over all the characters,” he said. "It's about a vibrant society that is at the height of its power and the height of its decadence. It’s going to come apart. It’s sort of like a roller coaster.”
At the panel for the show, Moore also said that Caprica was "shot very different, and I think I was particularly attracted to the idea of doing a science fiction piece that was not built on a foundation of action adventure. It wasn't about Vipers and it wasn't about the Cylons attacking every other week. It was really a character piece. It was really a drama, and you can infuse with a lot of political commentary and a lot of religious overtones and really dig into a people and a society and how and why it all came unglued."
In response to a question about the main character changing his name from Adama to Adams, he said: "Well, we're not playing them as Hispanic, obviously, within the context of the Galactica universe. What we are playing in the show is the idea of assimilation in an immigrant society. The Adamas, we're going to say, came from the planet of Tauron, which is one of the 12 planets of the 12 colonies. And a big part of the pilot and a big part of the show, if we go to show, is this idea of ethnic and racial identification, of here's a group of immigrants that came to Caprica and are struggling with the melting pot versus their own cultural identification. Joseph Adama came, changed his name, has tried to assimilate, and is having struggles about who and what he was exactly. That sort of theme of the clash of these different civilizations and these different cultures will be an ongoing storyline in the series."
Moore also confirmed the rumours about Caprica not being written as a television movie: "It was written as a pilot. It's a pilot. It's not a movie. They have the option to show it as a movie, you always have the option with these two-hour scenarios, they're designed that way so you can show them as a two hour film overseas and on video to protect the company economically. But it was conceived as a pilot. Just the way that Battlestar miniseries was conceived as a pilot – it ends with 'Let's go find Earth, and Sharon is a Cylon, and there are 12 models.' That would have not been a satisfying ending either."
Moore’s partner in crime David Eick added that the emphasis on Caprica will not be on space travel, but on technology and artificial intelligence. What we can expect in terms of looks when it comes to the first Cylons, however, is something that not even Eric Stoltz can say for sure: "I don't know either. It's all created in post-production effects. We acted our scenes with lights tied to poles, kind of like trained seals - 'Look over here! At the bright shiny light!'"
Remi Aubuchon, writer and executive producer, addressed the look of the show (reminiscent of the 1950s) by comparing it to Mad Men, saying that both shows "do a good job of making the viewer realize immediately that you're looking at a different era."
Caprica won't be pervaded with constant references to Galactica and have relatives of BSG characters popping up everywhere - no geek porn of that particular kind - because the colonies are not yet unified under a single government half a century before the Cylon attack that kicked off Battlestar. Moore: "There's no equivalent to Laura Roslin in Caprica, a president who serves all of the people of the 12 Colonies. At this point in the story, they're all disparate and they war against each other periodically."
Talking about the timeline and Caprica being set a few years before the first Cylon war, Moore said: “At the time of the mini-series, we said that no one had seen or heard from the Cylons in 40 years and we never nailed down how many years, so this gives us a little more of a cushion and how the long war took place.”
The prequel will not affect how Galactica plays out because, when the show returns for its final run in January, the story will be complete and all the burning questions answered. There will not be much room for a sequel, as Moore explains: “The way we end Battlestar Galactica doesn't hold itself open to another story. We end that pretty definitively with a sentence that has a period at the end of it,” adding: “We have separated [the two series] out. In the mythos, there’s nothing in Battlestar that has been held for Caprica or vice versa.”
To recap, Caprica tells the story of two families – the Graystones and the Adamas – dealing with a tragic loss. Joseph Adama (Esai Morales), father of Admiral Bill Adama (played by Edward James Olmos on Battlestar Galactica), is a well known and respected lawyer on Caprica. Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) is a wealthy computer scientist whose daughter Zoe (Alessandra Toreson) dies in the same explosion that kills Joseph Adama's wife and daughter. Graystone eventually recreates his daughter's online avatar as the first ever Cylon model.
Eric Stoltz described his character as being “a lot like Bill Gates, only richer,” adding that, between Graystone and Adama, he’d be “hard pressed [to say] one is a good guy and one is a bad guy. What [Caprica] has similar with Battlestar is that there's a gray area. No character is all good or all bad. We all have our gray areas that we live within. But it's interesting that way: You're not quite sure who you should or shouldn't be rooting for." When asked what shocked him the most about the script, he replied: "How smart it was."
He also discussed the Caprica universe: “I think Caprica taking place 51 years before Battlestar happens, it's very similar to our society now. There are no flying cars. There are no spaceships. We're on an Earth-like planet. We wear the same clothes. We have similar problems. Ideally, people will be able to watch Caprica and think, 'This is similar to what we're [doing], to what's happening in the States right now.'”
Another interesting character on Caprica is Sister Clarice Willow, the headmistress of the religious school that Zoe Graystone and her friends attend. She is played by Polly Walker, who was also present at the panel. "There just seems to be so much scope and places that I could go," she said. "It's a very strong character. It's a woman that's on her own in a sense. She's not attached to anybody. And she has very strong convictions, and I think and believe that I can do something equally interesting with it."
Paula Malcomson, who plays Amanda Graystone, also mentioned strength as part of the appeal of the role she has taken on: "I look for roles that are strong women and that are as strong as they are, they're equally flawed where I can create a human being, and I think that is a similarity of these two women, with Trixie [in Deadwood], that I played for a long time, and this woman, Amanda, that I'm just getting to know. And when we started working together, I saw the potential for that to have sort of a long journey with this woman. There's a lot of places to go here."
And it was precisely the courage to go places that played a huge part in the decision to cast Malcomson in the role. Moore: "I know one of the reasons we cast her is based in large part because of the tremendous work that she had done in Deadwood. I think one of the things that we really liked in this performance and in that show in general, was there was a certain fearless quality to what she did, and there was a certain thing that we like to do in Battlestar and that we want to do in Caprica, where we are really willing to push, challenge actors and actresses, ask them to go places that are not typically done in conventional television. So we tried to assemble a cast that we felt could go places with us and that would really take leaps of faith and really be willing to do things that would be truly challenging and still bring an emotional truth to it and that was really of a tremendous appeal to casting Paula in the role."
Finally, Eric Stoltz provided yet another interesting summary of the prequel that's worth quoting: "It's a show that takes place in the not-so-distant future, on a not-so-distant planet, that deals with a family struggling to stay together, class warfare, religion, and our never ending search for meaning in a world that over-values stimulation, consumerism, and facts."
And hopefully we won't get to see it until next summer.
SPACE, Canada’s national science fiction, speculation, and fantasy channel, announced today the exclusive Canadian acquisition of Caprica, the highly-anticipated spin-off pilot of the number one dramatic series on Canadian specialty, Battlestar Galactica. An airdate for the two-hour pilot is still to be determined.
Executive produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick (Battlestar Galactica), and written by Remi Aubuchon (24), Caprica stars Eric Stoltz, Polly Walker (Rome), Esai Morales (Jericho), and Paula Malcolmson (Deadwood). The pilot was shot in Vancouver, BC. A full series has not been greenlit to date.
Caprica delves into events that take place more than half a century before Battlestar Galactica. The citizens of the Twelve Colonies are at peace and living in a society not unlike our own. High technology has changed the lives of virtually everyone for the better and a startling breakthrough in robotics is about to occur. A breakthrough that will bring to life the age-old dream of marrying artificial intelligence with a mechanical body to create the first living robot: a Cylon. Following the lives of two families, the Graystones and the Adamas (the family of William Adama, becomes the commander of the Battlestar Galactica), Caprica weaves together corporate intrigue, techno-action, and sexual politics into television's first science fiction family saga.
Rémi Aubuchon (showrunner) and the cast have been doing interviews left and right in recent weeks. Jim Halterman talked to him about the new season. You can read the interview at The Futon Critic. Snippets:
