Jamie Bamber, James Callis and now Tricia Helfer have all been cast in Ron Moore's new venture "17th Precinct".


Helfer will play Morgana, who Deadline describes as "a necromancer, the magical equivalent of a coroner, who is an expert at manipulating the potions, tools, herbs and spells of her trade."

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Battlestar Galactica’s Jamie Bamber, is returning to sci-fi TV once again. He will be reuniting with his former Galactica producer Ron Moore, on his Moore’s new pilot for 17th Precinct. 

British-born Bamber will be playing Caolan, a homicide detective in the fictional town of Excelsior where magic and supernatural elements rule over science. He joins the already-cast Stockard  Channing who will play Mira, a fiercely intelligent former homicide detective who’s now working in the robbery division at the precinct. 

The show is being developed by NBC.

Source: SFX

Photos by: EMP|SFM

Ronald D. Moore and David Eick talk Caprica (Syfy Press Tour) from Daemons Media Inc. on Vimeo.

According to reports, Moore is in the early stages of developing a series based on the ’60s western television series,The Wild Wild West. It was this show which the ’99 movie was based on.

The show ran from 1965 to 1969 and starred Robert Conrad and Ross Martin as a pair of secret service agents who are reassigned to the wild west, where they used their advanced gadgets to get things done. It was originally pitched when TV westerns were starting to fade away and James Bond type spy properties were growing in popularity, so it only made sense to combine the two.

Source: GeeksofDoom

Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ron Moore is set to create a new fantasy TV series for US network NBC, reports Deadline Hollywood.

The site described the venture as a “Harry Potter for adults”, is one of the biggest pilot orders of the TV season, with a budget of around $2 million. Apparently the show is set in a world ruled by magic rather than science, and it is being made by Sony TV for NBC. Moore recently signed a two-year deal to develop projects for Sony.

Source: SFX

Friday July, 23
11:30-12:30
Ballroom 20
Caprica— Syfy presents an exclusive glimpse into the future of humanity. Featuring Alessandra Torresani (Zoe Graystone), Sasha Roiz (Sam Adama), Ronald D. Moore (co-creator/executive producer), and David Eick (executive producer) and moderated by Geoff Boucher of the Los Angeles Times.

So, Caprica’s been on the air for a while now – it’s well into its run in the United States. Have you been happy with how it’s performed?
Yeah, I think we’re hoping that we get slightly better numbers. There’s been a nice trend in the past couple of episodes where the ratings have been going up and we’ve had a strong response from the critics, so hopefully that combines to get better and better as time goes on.

Is the network factoring in time-shifted viewing?
Yeah, we have a big time-shifted factor.

Caprica has had a lengthy production process from its conception to actually being on the screen. Were there any points where you thought that it might not make it to series?I always kind of believed that there would be a series, but it did take a long time. They also took a long time from the point where we wrote the pilot to the point where they picked it up to even make a pilot. So the whole thing has always been drawn out.

Would you say that the Writers’ Strike actually helped with the show being greenlit?
I don’t know; that is when they picked it up for pilot, in the middle of the Writers’ Strike. So I suppose the strike gave them time to sit around and think about what they wanted to do, and ask “Oh, what’s that thing over there on the shelf?” and picked it up.

Read the entire interview here

Topics covered:

• The differences in production of Caprica and Battlestar
• The teams of writers on the two shows
• Who has final word on the episodes
• The end of Battlestar
• Ron's cameo in the Battlestar finale
• If there will be more BSG DVD sets in the future
• Kevin Smith possibly directing an episode of Caprica
• How close we are to Cylon technology
• How Patton Oswalt became involved in Caprica
• How much Ron considers duality to be part of the show
• If Caprica has a bigger budget for special effects than Battlestar did
• Filming Zoe and Cylon Zoe
• The Caprica cast
• Filming scenes in New Cap City
• When Caprica is coming back

Source: Unthinkable

HUG: Was Battlestar written in the same way [as DS9]?

Ron Moore: It’s changed a bit, but the fundamental is still the same. It’s still a writing staff gathering in a room and putting cards up on the board, and arguing about which scene should go first, and what’s the best story. We thought we were telling this story, but it’s turning into that, or this doesn’t work, or ‘I’ve got a better idea’. The fundamental of working in a writer’s room is really the same.

For me personally it’s different, because shows like Battlestar and Caprica, I create and I’m running so I have more idea and control of what I want to do, whereas Trek was more somebody else’s to begin with and then I was more on the team rather than leading the team. My particular role shifted but the job is still kind of the same. It’s still sitting there and finding the best story. (...) 

HUG: Esai, moving into a spin off of Battlestar: you hadn’t watched the show prior to working on Caprica?

Esai Morales: Not really. I was aware that it was a lauded show, but there is so much stuff that I can’t see because I don’t have the time. I just didn’t happen to be a fan, not that I wasn’t a fan on purpose.

HUG: Have you seen it since?

EM: I’ve seen much more of it now, but I remember asking how much should see and what I should prepare. They were like ‘you don’t have to see any of it’. This takes place before hand. If you’re going to do a story about Ancient Rome, you don’t need to know about how Italy does today. I mean, you could, but they didn’t want us to colour it.

RM: They didn’t want him to lead, always trying to get to where Adama, where his son, would be this person. We didn’t think that was necessary.

HUG: Writing and working on a prequel would presumably be a very different process from working on a new concept or an original series or sequel. Do you feel at all constrained by the overbearing and overwhelming Battlestar fifty, sixty years in the future?

RM: Not so much. We had the luxury of developing Caprica while Battlestar was still on the air. We wrote the pilot a long time ago, but they didn’t make it for a long time. So we had the opportunity to separate the two projects and we were careful to end the last couple of seasons of Battlestar in a way that wrapped up all of the internal Battlestar mythology. So there weren’t big, giant hanging questions that we then had to go back and answer in Caprica.

We were also able to set up Caprica in a way that it could just start from its own course, fresh. There was really not a lot of direct continuity between the two that we’re constantly having to make sure that this lines up, or go ‘we can’t do that in Caprica, because that would contradict this’. We really separated them in terms of time, and in terms of storyline. We don’t really feel that much of a burden while developing the story, about trying to make it match up to Battlestar. It’s not like the Star Wars prequels that are so integrated, that it must have been a challenge to try to make sure it all lines up. We’re just separated.

Read the entire article here

Deadline Hollywood broke the news this week that Ron Moore has signed on with Sony to create new TV work:

Ronald D. Moore has found a new TV home. The Battlestar Galactica creator has inked a two-year overall with Sony Pictures TV to create and executive produce series projects for broadcast and cable through his production company Tall Ship Prods. Moore is coming off three consecutive overall deals at NBC Uni’s Universal Media Studios that were tied to Moore’s services on Syfy’s Battlestar Galactica... Sony is clearly making a push in genre series. The studio recently signed Smallville creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough to an overall deal.

Source: GALACTICASITREP

How daunting was the prospect of finishing Battlestar Galactica, giving that it's being called one of the greatest TV shows of all-time?

Well, I kind of felt like the story had moved into its final chapter; so I felt pretty confident that it was the right time to end the show.

The awards that you've won for Battlestar Galactica and so forth, do they spur you on or do they make you sit back and relax?

Uh, I don't know. They look pretty on my mantle. [laughs] I think the awards and the acclaim are surprising and gratifying and you're always amazed that people like what you do, and it's even more surprising when you find the critics, the publications, and organisations like that, give the show awards, it's great. It's incidental to the process. You try to make the best story you can and you don't really make them in order to earn the awards, but it's certainly nice when they come.

So what made you stick with the Galactica story instead of trying something new?

Well, it came up a couple of years ago. David Eick and I had spent some time causally talking about the possibility of doing a spin-off series of Battlestar Galactica while we were still producing the show, and we said if we did do it, it would probably be about the creation of the Cylons, but we didn't really take those discussions any further.

It wasn't until another writer, Remi Aubuchon, completely separately went to Universal Studios and pitched them an idea for a show about artificial intelligence that things started to happen. Universal then said that maybe Remi, David and I should sit down together and talk, and we did. It was really out of those discussions that we decided to do Caprica.

Read the entire article here

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

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of speaking with "Caprica" creators Ron Moore and David Eick at Syfy's upfront party in New York City. It was a rare opportunity to get an inside glimpse into the minds of the guys responsible for making the word "Cylon" relevant to the science fiction-loving world once again, with their completed Syfy series "Battlestar Galactica."

"Caprica" is a prequel spin-off of the series, focused on the families of Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz), creator of the Cylons, and Joseph Adama (Esai Morales), father of "BSG" favorite William Adama (Edward James Olmos). The eighth episode of the first season, "Ghosts in the Machine," airs this evening. I'll get you a recap first thing in the morning. For now though, let's hear from Moore and Eick on what fans can expect moving forward.

Eick thinks that next week's episode, the last until fall, is the one to watch out for. "For me, the best episode of [the first half of this season] is the last one, episode 9," he said. "It's really where I feel like we start to hit our stride and reach what I would call, in humility, a 'Battlestar' level of intensity and emotion and depth, and it's very strong."

The big question I had for the guys is if we'll see more of the Twelve Colonies. There was a brief, tantalizing glimpse of Tauron in a recent episode, but that's really been it so far. "There's definitely more of the colonies," Moore promised. "You'll be seeing Geminon and you'll be seeing more of Tauron as well."

Read the entire article here

Caprica fans will need to wait a little longer to learn whether Syfy's critically acclaimed but ratings-hungry show will return for a second season. Meanwhile, Battlestar Galactica and Caprica co-creator Ronald D. Moore confirmed reports that another BSG project of some sort is under consideration.

SCI FI Wire spoke to Moore at last night's  Syfy's upfront session in New York City and asked him what it will take to bring about a Caprica renewal.  It comes down to the same two things to which it always comes down to, ratings and money.


"It's an expensive show for Syfy, for a basic cable show, and the ratings are not gangbusters, but the ratings have been ticking up and we're building momentum," he said. "It's been critically well received, so there's a good buzz on the show. It adds a lot of prestige to the network, but the network also has its own business people that have to figure out a cost analysis on it. I feel like we're gonna get it. I always felt like we were gonna get it on Battlestar. We'll just have wait and see."

When must the decision be reached?

"I think ultimately it comes down to when the actors' contracts come due," Moore replied. "That's the real trigger, and I don't think those are due until August. However, I think that the other factor is [the network's] schedule and when they'd want the show to be on the air. So they would probably pull the trigger before that in order to start production in time to get the show on the air for their schedule."

As for that other potential BSG-related project, Moore insisted it was "really nothing yet." Syfy approached him and producing partner David Eick, and it's still early stages. "[They] said, 'We have this concept for a format in which to do a show. Would you be interested?'" Moore recalled. "We kind of said, 'Yeah, that's interesting. What would it be?' And we had some conversations about what the parameters of the show would be. We're really at the very beginning of that whole process, so there's really nothing definitive yet, but we are sort of talking back and forth about what it might be. It'd be in this [BSG/Caprica] universe."

Whatever it is, Moore added, it won't necessarily be for TV or, for that matter, a theatrical release. "It's potentially something that may be not TV, or not TV exclusively," he said. "It's very fluid."

Source: scifiwire.com

(SPOILER warning for the second question, concerning the evolution of the Cylons and Zoe in particular, and watch out for possible Willie Adama spoilers after the clip.)