Esai Morales at the Sundance Film Festival

Esai Morales is at the Sundance Film Festival this week with Gun Hill Road. The film has its first screening today and, according to the official Facebook page, all the screenings have been sold out.

You can find a bunch of pics from different events over at Zimbio. Esai posted a few photos on his Facebook page, too.

And a couple of videos appeared on YouTube. The first clip is an interview with Esai, Judy Reyes and director Rashaad Ernesto Green for Park City Television's IN THE CAN. The second one is a scene from the movie, with Esai and Judy Reyes.

Interviews with Alessandra Torresani, Jane Espenson and Kevin Grazier

A few interviews in this round. More updates coming later.

Jane Espenson did a couple of interviews recently. One appeared on the Italian site Comicus.it (scroll down for the English version). In it, she talks about her work on Buffy, Torchwood, Firefly, Warehouse 13, Game of Thrones, and Caprica. In case it the finale ending wasn't clear to everyone, here is the relevant bit:

Even though it was canceled, it sort of had a real end. Was it the end you had in mind for the first season and you originally wanted to show us what would happen after that in following seasons, or did you speed things up to show us the series' real end?

We did accelerate the story a lot at the end, but not because we had any notion of trying to give viewers a conclusion to a canceled show. The cancelation (actually it was simply not renewed) happened long after the episodes were written. Instead, it was just the result of a sense that we wanted to get to the good stuff, that we should pick up the pace a bit for the good of the show.

The other interview is also with Caprica and Battlestar Galactica science consultant Kevin Grazier and it includes a detailed map of the Colonies. It appeared on io9.com earlier today. Here are a couple of snippets:

I didn't realize there were four different stars in the Cyrannus star system. I had always wondered if there were just 12 habitable planets clustered around a single sun. Where did the idea of four different stars come from? Was this in the show bible someplace? I'm especially curious about Leonis, the "heart of the colonies," which I don't think we ever heard about. Also, Scorpion, the "playground of the colonies." Is that the colonial version of Risa?

Jane: Even back before Caprica the show existed, I believe Kevin and I had talked a bit about the configuration of the colonies. All the work on that is his. I instinctively loved the idea of a star cluster. The idea of 12 habitable planets all orbiting one star just seemed unworkable. And crowded. This group of stars makes so much sense. Kevin was at work on the configuration of stars and planets long before we shot a single frame.

Kevin: Indeed, the instant Ron hired me on BSG, I was so excited, I went home, read the series bible and the first two scripts for "33" and "Water", then proceeded to hack out a document on the astronomy of the Twelve Colonies – how might we get twelve habitable planets in one star system (which is stated in Ron's series bible). (...)

I know that Caprica was going to show us the twelve colonies growing closer together. Would we have dealt with the challenges of having four different stellar systems coming together?

Jane: Probably not. This was clearly a stable system, taking for granted by the people who lived there. It doesn't immediately suggest an emotionally-charged story to me. At least we didn't have anything planned along these lines. -- Space porn continues at io9.com.

And here is a recent interview with Alessandra Torresani, from the Golden Globes Awards Give Back Hollywood Gift Suite. She talks about Caprica, the best things about working on the show, and about her new pilot, Circling the Drain (no real news on that front, so fingers crossed). There is a message for Caprica fans at the end.

New Caprica story and cast updates

The second story in the "Caprica: Season 2" series, titled "Prototype," has been posted at Beginning of Line.

The Sundance site has a clip introducing Gun Hill Road that includes some footage with Esai Morales. The first screening is on Monday, January 24.

There are some behind the scenes pics from the set of Off the Map, episode 1x04, "On the Mean Streets of San Miguel," with Eric Stoltz (directing), over at Getty Images. The episode airs on February 2.

Paula Malcomson will guest star on Private Practice in episode 4x14, "Home Again." TV Guide writes that she will play the wife of a convicted killer who is about to be executed. Gotta wonder where that one came from.

Disney has moved up the release date for John Carter of Mars, with Polly Walker. Instead of June 8, 2012, the film will hit theatres on March 9, 2012.

Daemon's TV has the synopsis and some stills (with Teryl Rothery) from the episode of Hellcats that airs in two weeks, here. The show is back next week (Tuesday, Jan. 25) on the CW.

Fairly Legal premieres tomorrow at 10 pm on USA. Spoiler TV has two sneak peeks (embedded below) and the guy at end of the first one looks an awful lot like Alex Arsenault (one of the two Caprica actors who aren't credited for the episode on IMDB).


Scene #1 from the SERIES PREMIERE of Fairly Legal 1/20
Uploaded by USANetwork. - Check out other Film & TV videos.


Scene #2 from the SERIES PREMIERE of Fairly Legal 1/20
Uploaded by USANetwork. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

The release of Rise of the Apes, with Leah Gibson and James Pizzinato, has been pushed back to Thanksgiving. The movie was originally supposed to come out in June.

Score: A Hockey Musical, with John Pyper-Ferguson, was released on DVD in Canada yesterday. You can get it on Amazon.ca. The Province has a new article about his and Chris Heyerdahl's new film, Gravity's Pull.

Sanctuary, with Heyerdahl and Ryan Robbins, has been picked up for a shorter fourth season (13 episodes). The second half of season three will start airing this spring (no exact date yet).

Ryan Robbins is currently filming an episode of The Listener, a Canadian show that (says Wikipedia) will return with a second season on Friday, January 28.

And if you missed it on Twitter, here is the first teaser for House 7x10, "Carrot or Stick," with Sasha Roiz:

Friday updates

Beginning of Line has an interview Pema Newton, who wrote the first story of "Caprica: Season 2." You can read the story here: Are You Alive? The interview is here.

The site is still looking for submissions, so if you're a writer or can draw or do graphics, fake video ads, or web comics, check out the submission guidelines.

There is a new interview with Eric Stoltz in The Guardian's tech section, mostly about his colourful relationship with technology. You can read it here.

Spoiler TV has an air date for his episode of Off the Map. (From the last interview, he may have directed more than one, though.)

And a guy from RumorFix tweets that he'll direct another episode of Glee.

Spoiler TV also has the press release for House 7x10, "Carrot or Stick," with Sasha Roiz. (The promo that aired the other week was not just for ep 7x09 as it turns out, so Sasha's episode airs on Monday, January 24, not next week.) Pizquita has a couple of pictures.

Magda Apanowicz will be back on Hellcats in the second half of the season.The show returns on January 25. The next couple of episodes (1x12 & 1x13) were co-written by Kevin Murphy. Teryl Rothery, Aaron Douglas, and Ben Cotton are back in episode 1x13, "Worried Baby Blues," and Ryan Kennedy should be back in episode 1x14, if not sooner.

Brian Markinson will guest star on Fairly Legal (USA's new show with Sarah Shahi & Michael Trucco) in episode 1x03, "The Two Richards." No definite air date yet, but the show premieres on Thursday, January 20 at 10 pm and IMDb says that Philip Granger (Tanner Willow), Ryan Kennedy (Odin), Katie Keating (Prefect Caston), Luc Roderique (Lexon), and Iris Paluly (Jax) are all in the pilot.

Zak Santiago will guest star in a couple of episodes of V (2x07 and 2x08) according to the IMDb. The episodes are called "Birth Pangs" and "Uneasy Lies the Head" and will air on Feb. 22 and March 1.

Jane Espenson and Drew Z. Greenberg are writing a new pilot, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), for Syfy. Report from THR:

The project, which comes from ITV Studios America, was announced last May. The network acquired rights to the British detective show for development as a possible hourlong series. Howard Braustein was announced as an executive producer.

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) centers on Hopkirk, who was murdered while investigating a case and returned as a ghost, only seen by his ex-partner Randall.

Finally, the two episodes of Human Target that were supposed to air the other day but didn't will air tonight (8 pm, Fox) instead. Kendall Cross is in the first one, "Imbroglio."

Caprica nominated for a VES Award, Beginning of Line launches tomorrow with Caprica: Season 2

The Visual Effects Society has released the list of the nominees for the VES Awards today and Caprica's VFX team has been nominated for an award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series, along with teams working on No Ordinary Family, V, The Event, and Stargate Universe. 

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series
Caprica
Michael Gibson VFX Producer
Gary Hutzel VFX Supervisor
Davey Morton VFX Artist
Jesse Toves CGI Artist

Congratulations to all and thanks for the frakking amazing work you've done on the show!

The awards ceremony takes place on February 1 and will air on Reelzchannel on February 19.

In other good news, if you have no interest whatsoever in saying goodbye to the show, cancelled or not, this may just be what the doctor ordered. Teresa Jusino's Beginning of Line project, which launches tomorrow (Tuesday, January 11) at beginningofline.weebly.com, will continue to explore the universe and characters of the show in stories written by fans that will be posted every Tuesday. Here is a snippet from the announcement:

Beginning of Line will launch Tuesday, January 11th, and will begin with “Caprica: Season 2.” Season Two will include 18 brand new stories for you to enjoy, written by Caprica fans from all over the world! Each story will be accompanied by a piece of Caprica-inspired artwork also created by a fan, and will be posted weekly the way episodes would have aired had the show been allowed to continue. There will be as many iterations of the Caprica universe as there are contributors, and you will be free to discuss the merits and drawbacks of each in our forums. You’re also invited to submit Caprica-inspired fiction and artwork yourself!

In addition to being a fun and worthwhile pursuit in its own right, fan fiction has proven to be the lifeline through which its source material can continue to exist. Before Doctor Who returned to television in 2005, it existed solely as fan fiction for a good sixteen years, and many of the writers of the 2005 Who were products of fandom. People like Steven Moffat and Paul Cornell were writing fan fiction, keeping their beloved property alive any way they could! And now, Doctor Who is the most popular show on the BBC all these years later. All because young fans grew up and just wouldn’t leave it alone.

For the full announcement and to see how you can contribute, visit Teresa Jusino's blog.

Final reminders: Paula Malcomson guest stars on Lie to Me tonight (Fox, 8-10 pm) and Kendall Cross is on Human Target on Wednesday (Fox, 8-10 pm).

Jane Espenson's new projects, Game of Thrones and Torchwood: Miracle Day (fka Torchwood: The New World), have definite premiere dates. Game of Thrones starts airing on Sunday, April 17, on HBO, and the new season of Torchwood premieres on July 1 on BBC One in the UK and Starz in the U.S. 

Another show that got a premiere date this week is The Killing, with Michelle Forbes, Richard Harmon and Kacey Rohl. It kicks off on Sunday, April 3, at 10 pm on AMC.

Interviews with Eric Stoltz and Sasha Roiz

Several updates today, which you may have caught on Twitter earlier.

If you don't have the DVD, the last five episodes of Caprica are available on Hulu and Syfy Rewind.

Den of Geek has a new interview with Eric Stoltz that's pretty interesting to read. (Reminder: His latest episode of Private Practice airs tonight at 10 pm on ABC.)

A few snippets from the interview:

Do you think that the show fell on the wrong side of a double-edged sword, following Battlestar?

I don't think it was what the majority of Battlestar fans wanted, for the most part. It probably would've served us all better to have not even been connected to it. (...)

It's rare to find characters so instantly complex as we got in Caprica. How do you balance the many levels of Daniel Graystone? How do you set about giving the audience a way into a character like that?

That's a very thick question, one which really requires a three page answer, which I won't bore you with. The levels of the character were largely in the scripts, and usually left to the directors' control: a little bit more malice here, a little more loving there.

That being said, there were certain relationships, like Graystone and his wife, that seemed to take on a life of their own, even beyond Paula Malcomson and myself. And that was wonderful to be a part of.

It was always a fascinating show to watch, and clearly the narrative had many, many threads to it. In hindsight, though, do you think the show was slightly off balance? Or wouldn't you change a thing about it?

It's rare for a show to find itself in the first season. There are exceptions, of course, but a lot of shows take two or three years to find the right ingredients. I'm sure we were off balance at times, and I'm sure I would change a few things if I had that power, but I've moved on. (...)

Where do you personally go from now? Is science fiction television an area you'd like to return to? What plans do you have?

I've been directing steadily since I finished. A few episodes of Glee, of Private Practice, and of a new show called Off The Map.

As to science fiction television, if the stories were challenging and original, I'd be up for it.

You can read the complete interview at Den of Geek.

Assignment X has posted an interview with Sasha Roiz. It was done before the cancellation, but still fun to read. You can follow the link for the whole thing.

AX: Is the work ethic there different than the work ethic in other places?

ROIZ: There’s a tremendous work ethic on this set, because we have the same crew as BSG, so these people have labored and devoted themselves to BATTLESTAR for five, six years and now are just as devoted to our program. So there’s a fantastic investment by everybody.

AX: How do you feel that Sam views himself?

ROIZ: I don’t think Sam spends very much time dwelling on himself. I think he’s a man of action and as you’ll see in the show, he’s someone who acts very quickly and very intuitively. He doesn’t spend a lot of time pondering and dwelling on things. That’s actually Joseph’s department. Joseph sits and broods and ponders things over and over, where Sam always tries to incite him to action. (...)

AX: Although Sam has moved from Tauron to Caprica, he doesn’t seem very interested in becoming assimilated into Caprican culture

ROIZ: That’s the thing about Sam – he has no interest in anything but Tauron. He takes great offense at Capricans, with Capricans, and that’s where Joseph and he really butt heads, because Joseph has tried to lead a very Caprican existence, educated himself, changed his name, assimilated, but I think he realizes that no matter how hard he tries, he’s forever Tauron.

Elsewhere, indieWIRE has an article with some new info on Gun Hill Road, with Esai Morales, and it looks like Aleks Paunovic will be the next cast member to make an appearance in the final season of Smallville. See this tweet.

Syfy has posted two more clips from the Caprica 1.5 DVD. In the first one, Bear McCreary, Michael Taylor, David Eick, and Michael Olman (that's the 'Supervising Dialogue Re-Recording Mixer') talk about the music on the show.

Speaking of, Bear McCreary posted an entry about the score for "Apotheosis." You can check it out on his blog. Here is a message he posted to the fans:

Lastly, I want to give special thanks to you guys, the “Caprica” fans. You’ve been so loyal and supportive to our series, and that means a lot to everyone involved. I’m proud of the season we completed, and glad to know fans like you will keep the show alive in your hearts and DVD players.

So Say We All!

Bear's new show, The Cape, premieres this Sunday on NBC.

"The Music of Caprica" clip:



And in the second clip, David Eick, Gary Hutzel, Paul Leonard, Michael Taylor, and Jane Espenson talk about the special effects on Caprica. Click play:

Last five episodes of Caprica air tonight (6 pm - 11 pm, Syfy)

The last five episodes of Caprica air tonight, from 6 pm to 11 pm, on Syfy. Again, double-check your DVRs to make sure they are not showing up as repeats. If you are going to record the episodes, you might have to do it manually.

Propworx has launched The Official Prop and Costume Auction. There is a video sneak peek over at Propworx.com and you can bid on the items on Ebay.

The first half of the season is now out on DVD in the UK. You can get it on Amazon.

Syfy posted a clip from the Season 1.5 DVD, "The Next Generation," with the producers and cast talking about the younger generation on the show. In the clip: Esai Morales, Jane Espenson, Jonas Pate, David Eick, Alessandra Torresani, Magda Apanowicz, Sasha Roiz, Brian Markinson, Eric Stoltz, and Michael Taylor.



If you missed them on Hulu a while back, the Gemenon set clips with Magda Apanowicz are also up at Syfy Video.

A few cast updates:

Gun Hill Road now has an official site at www.gunhillroad.com. No trailer yet, but there are several new stills in the gallery. Esai Morales posted a behind-the-scenes pic on Twitter. The film will be screened at Sundance later this month. (Click here for the dates & venues.) You can follow the updates at Facebook.com/GunHillRoad.

Alison Araya will appear in "Red Rain," the season two premiere of the V series, which airs tonight at 9 pm on ABC. Teaser at Spoiler TV.

Private Practice 4x11, directed by Eric Stoltz, also airs this week (Thursday at 10 pm, ABC). Daemon's TV has the press release and stills, SpoilerTV has the teaser.

Spoiler TV also has 10 clips from The Cape, Bear McCreary's new show, which kicks off this Sunday on Fox.

Pizquita has the stills from Lie to Me 3x09, "Funhouse," with Paula Malcomson. Episodes 3x09 and 3x10 air on Monday (Jan. 10) at 8 pm on Fox. For the teaser, go to SpoilerTV.

Spoiler TV also has the second promo for House 7x09, "Larger Than Life," with Sasha Roiz.

ET Canada has a behind-the-scenes clip from Blackstone, with Carmen Moore. You can watch it on YouTube.

Kendall Cross will appear on Human Target, in one of the two episodes that air next Wednesday.

Here are the summaries for the last five episodes, from Daemon's TV:

1.14 "Blowback" – Amanda tries to get more information from Clarice, but can’t get close enough. In order to provide her with the equipment to do so, Duram would have to give her up as his CI, a dangerous confession given the possible leak within the department.
"Blowback" was written by Kevin Murphy and directed by Omar Madha.
Guest stars: Jorge Montesi (The Guatrau), Ryan Robbins (Diego), Ryan Kennedy (Odin Sinclair), Chris Heyerdahl (Kevin Reikle)

1.15 "The Dirteaters" – As the Adama brothers rise to new positions in the Ha’la’tha, they are haunted by the mission of their late parents and the different direction the Guatrau is taking them. Daniel hopes to use this with Sam by offering Cylons for Tauron, in exchange for refraining to carry out the ordered hit.
"The Dirteaters" was written by Matthew B. Roberts and directed by John Dahl.
Guest stars: Scott Porter (Nestor), Peter Wingfield (Gara Singh), Jorge Montesi (The Guatrau), Aleks Paunovic (William Adama Sr.), Elisabeth Rosen (Kolibri), Alison Araya (Isabelle Adama)

1.16 "The Heavens Will Rise" – As the 'Avenging Angels' change code inside New Cap City, Daniel is able to track them down, but an early snafu in trying to reach out to Zoe leave the Graystones to enter the game only under its strict rules. With only one chance, Daniel asks help from Sam who has no interest in disturbing his brother’s peace of mind.
"The Heavens Will Rise" was written by Patrick Massett & John Zinman and directed by Michael Nankin.
Guest stars: Meg Tilly (Mother), Scott Porter (Nestor), Carmen Moore (Fidelia Fazekas), Ryan Robbins (Diego), Ryan Kennedy (Odin Sinclair), Chris Heyerdahl (Kevin Reikle)

1.17 "Here Be Dragons" – The Graystones’ search for Zoe leave them oblivious to the danger of Clarice and her two husbands invading their home. At the same time, the Adamas are targeted by the Ha’la’tha. One family will finally begin the move forward, while the other will experience yet another tragedy.
"Here Be Dragons" was written by Michael Taylor and directed by Michael Nankin.
Guest stars: Scott Porter (Nestor), Jorge Montesi (The Guatrau), Carmen Moore (Fidelia Fazekas), Ryan Robbins (Diego), Ryan Kennedy (Odin Sinclair), Chris Heyerdahl (Kevin Reikle)

1.18 "Apotheosis" – Clarice and Olaf move forward with the plan to blow up Atlas Arena when they learn of their powerful ally in the GDD. Singh covers their tracks by framing the Graystones as terrorists, forcing them to go on the run. The grieving Adamas confront the Guatrau for his string of recent decisions in the hopes of avoiding further violence.
"Apotheosis" was written by Jane Espenson and Kevin Murphy and directed by Jonas Pate.
Guest stars: Patton Oswalt (Baxter Sarno), Peter Wingfield (Gara Singh), Jorge Montesi (The Guatrau), Carmen Moore (Fidelia Fazekas), Ryan Kennedy (Odin Sinclair)