CAPRICA & BSG at Nerd Prom (aka Comic-Con) 2010

Maureen Ryan has confirmed with SyFy they are bringing CAPRICA to San Diego Comic-Con this year.

Starz has announced that Lucy Lawless will attend the SPARTACUS: BLOOD & SAND panel, and there is a rumor that James Callis will be attending with the EUREKA panel (he has joined the cast for the new season, which premieres July 9, to play physicist Dr. Grant).



The HAWAII FIVE-O panel will include co-star Grace Park. Writer/producer Mark Verheiden will be there for a panel about his new series FALLEN SKIES, co-produced by HEROES' Greg Beeman and executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

If any of you hear about additional BATTLESTAR GALACTICA alumni at SDCC this year, shout it out in the comments.

For the first time ever I am going to SDCC myself, and will cover as much as I possibly can from the TV and Film worlds over at my new site The FemmeBot. Come check it out!

Five-0

Film School Rejects has a first look at the new Hawaii Five-O co-staring Grace Park:

Auction Reports

Reports indicate that the BSG props auction was a great event. Check out photos from the events here and here.

Michael Trucco and Kate Vernon attended the event and spoke about working on The Plan.

See also, the Battlestar Blog.

Caprica Paley Video

The Paley Center has video from their Caprica event.











Much more from daphnesadventures's YouTube Channel.

See also a preview from PlayStation Pulse.

Grace Park on Attack

Grace Park on G4's Attack of the Show:

TV Guide Feature Scans

Via Spoiler TV, here are scans of the TV Guide BSG feature. Logan read the piece, and tells me it does have some spoilers which I, and some of you out there, probably do not want to read.
Tread lightly...

Situation Report

A ton of interviews and news items....

Richard Huff of The Daily News spoke to Kate Vernon. Rick Bentley of McClatchy Newspapers talked to Vernon and Ron Moore.

Tahmoh Penikett has been doing lots of press to promote BSG's final eps, and the debut of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. He talked to Timeout Chicago, Zap2It, and the Boston Herald.

Kat Angus of Canwest News Service interviewed Katee Sackhoff about the end of BSG and the beginning of Lost and Found. (And Starbuck makes a top ten list.)

Jamie Bamber reflects on the end of BSG and promotional photos of his work on Law And Order: London are online via pu5h1n6_da15135 of the BSG LJ blog.

Aaron Douglas spoke to io9 about the final 5 cylons, and the the endgame for the series. (No spoilers.)

Kandyse McClure talked to MediaBlvd Magazine about her end on Battlestar Galactica, and her new work on Children of the Corn, and other projects.

Galactica TV has recent interviews with Grace Park, Jane Espenson, Nicki Clyne and Micheal Tayles.

Dean Stockwell is scheduled to appear at the upcoming Leap Back Quantum Leap Convention in Los Angeles, California, March 27-29, 2009 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Quantum Leap.

Other news and notes: Kevin Smith mentioned BSG at a talk at Ohio State University... Battlestar Galactica leads in shout-outs on other TV shows (like The Office.) ...Dvice's Steampunk Cylon contest continues... Viper cars, and bento boxes...

Upcoming comic books continue the story of BSG and Cylon history, in Ghosts and Cylon War.

Grace

Grace Park briefly talked to TV Guide at the Emmys.

The Cleaner: Grace Park

Millions of sci-fi fans know her as the conflicted cyborg on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Now, Grace Park battles different kinds of internal demons on the new A&E hit THE CLEANER. She sits down with Hollywood 411 for some TV therapy.

In The News

Sci-Fi Wire and Buddy TV talked to Jamie Bamber about the big Galactica finale, and his upcoming new series in London, Law and Order: UK.

Variety reports that BSG's uber director Michael Rymer is set to direct a new feature film for Platinum Studios, Inc., Top Cow Productions and Arclight Films of the comic book Witchblade. Rymer also recently wrapped production on "Revolution," a two-hour series pilot for NBC Universal Media Studios and the Sci Fi Channel.

G4 and CVG report that former BSG writers Bradley Thompson and David Weddle are scripting a first person shooter video game set in the Alien universe called Aliens: Colonial Marines.

BSG fan Joss Whedon recently explained what's going on with the shooting of a new pilot for his upcoming Fox series Dollhouse, co-staring Tahmoh Penikett. Maureen Ryan talked to Whedon after a tour of the Dollhouse sets to get further information.

Jenna Busch of UGO talked to Grace Park about BSG and her new show The Cleaner. Grace Park was also profiled by FHM.

The Watcher Watches

Chicago Tribune television critic, Maureen Ryan has a really comprehensive interview with Ron Moore she conducted Friday after the TCA panel on Caprica, in which he talks about the finale of Battlestar Galactica, the future of Caprica and Virtuality, and the next BSG DVD movie written by Jane Espenson and to be directed by Edward James Olmos. Ron also touched upon the possible production of webisodes that will bridge season 4.0 and 4.5. Ryan also briefly spoke to Sci-Fi exec David Howe as well.

The proposed “Battlestar Galactica” TV movie would take place during the time frame of previous seasons, but it would air after the series finale.

Howe said the final episodes of “Battlestar” will begin airing in January.

The final set of episodes will be at least 11 hours long, and the series finale will occupy three of those hours. However, there’s a chance that the series finale could expand even more.

The “Battlestar” series finale will definitely expand on DVD. Regardless of the length of the finale that airs on Sci Fi next year, an even longer cut will be released on DVD.

Howe said that if “Caprica” gets a full series order, it will air in 2009. If “Caprica,” which was written by Moore and Remi Aubuchon, does not get a series order and airs as a standalone 2-hour movie, it could air this fall.

Regarding when the network would decide whether to pick “Caprica” as a full series, Howe said the decision would come in September. He and his team are considering two other pilots as well, “Revolution” and “Warehouse 13.” Executives will get a cut of “Caprica” in early August, then decide in September whether it will become a series.

Howe said if “Caprica” does get a series order, it will not be something that is designed to end after 13 episodes. It’ll be a regular series that could potentially go on for years, not a limited-run series.

Ryan's interview is must read, so read it here.

The Los Angeles Times has a Sunday Conversation with Grace Park. At the end of the conversation she had to kill a spider:

There's one [BSG] episode [late in season 4.5, before the finale] where everything is explained and I had to read it three times. . . . Then we had to sit down -- like, how does this guy know anything? And where was this thing orbiting? And who died? We don't want to lay it out in the script so much, because if you laid it out that way, it'd be dead boring. There's a spider on my wall I'm going to nab right now! He's a fast one -- I don't want to kill it, I'm just going to grab it. Eek! He's on the ground. I had to kill it. I'm sorry.

Endings and Beginnings

We've just received word that BATTLESTAR GALACTICA will probably be completing principal photography on the series finale today. There may be a bit more left to film (2nd unit, pickup shots, etc), but Michael Rymer and most of the cast will be finished shooting at the end of the day.

Fandom is sad, excited, moved…and Sitrep wishes everyone involved with this show much luck in all future endeavors.



Looking on forward…Collider has reviewed the same CAPRICA pilot script that Sitrep has seen and E!Online has read. Good stuff, we all agree… the new season of USA’s BURN NOTICE starts tonight with Tricia Helfer. We have heard that she doesn’t have much to do on the first ep but features aplenty in the second. The show’s official site has a “Tricia Helfer Trivia” page up… A&E’s new show THE CLEANER, starring Benjamin Bratt and featuring Grace Park in a multi-ep arc, premieres July 15. You can see a quick clip of her and Bratt here (click on Grace’s photo)... DVR Playground reports that Grace will also be joining the cast of CBC's hit show THE BORDER for a multi-ep arc in season 2… And we are late to report this very excellent news: Callum Keith Rennie has been cast in a major recurring arc on the next season of Showtime’s CALIFORNICATION, starring David Duchovny, which apparently returns this September.

Off The Wireless

PopCandy has a link to these delightful Comic-Con exclusive merch items from the NBCU shop: a BSG Toaster and Dwight Schrute "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." T-shirt and bobblehead. That toaster actually brands a cylon head onto the toast. OMG.

(click for gigantor!version)

A fan who shall remain nameless was nice enough to scan a foxy shot of La Sackhoff in this week's TV Guide (see below), which features a nifty tease for "Revelations":

Brace yourselves, Galactica fans. Executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick are promising BIG things for the mid-season finale of the series' fourth and final year. Eick teases the cliff-hanger "definitely rivals the Season 2 'one year later' shock," but he's otherwise playing it coy...[snip for mild spoilers]...Eick says he's drawn to [the Starbuck] plot because "the struggles Starbuck faces on her own ship call into question the nature of who these people are." For Moore, "the Adama-Roslin relationship [is paramount]. I really like how it's matured. It moves me." The final 10 episodes have not yet been scheduled, but whenever they run, BSG's status as a sci-fi landmark is already set in stone. Frak yeah.

It moves us too, RDM. Awwwww. Is it Friday yet? Wheeee!

(click to embiggen photo...but warning: mild spoilers!)

The New York Times posits BATTLESTAR GALACTICA as the latest cultural example of love between robots and humans. Hmm..."a love that dare not compute its name"? More like..."a love that most guys I know cannot wait to figure out how to achieve"... ;) Somehow this writer manages to bring up The Merchant of Venice, Metropolis, and R.U.R., but not A.I.'s Gigolo Joe. Go figure.

The Los Angeles Times gives a cool shoutout to both Laura Roslin and Buffy The Vampire Slayer while discussing how pop culture has prepared Americans for wide acceptance of a woman as POTUS.

io9 took time out from their busy schedule of completely misunderstanding and/or hating on BSG season 4, to have a quick chat with writer Jane Espenson about her last episode, “The Hub,” and find these cool BSG blueprint designs that were hidden somewhere on Sky One’s site.

Livejournalist ebneter posted this report on seeing Katee at the Wizard World Con last week.

Make Blog shows off a new entry in the “Make a Cylon” contest: Crow T. Cylon! Pretty cool…if you still want to enter the contest, you have till THIS FRIDAY. (Tip o’ the Hat to bonniegrrl)

A whole bunch of VIRTUALITY casting was announced yesterday:
"Joy Bryant, Sienna Guillory, Nelson Lee, Omar Metwally and Richie Coster have joined the cast...Bryant is set as Alice Thibadeau, Lee is playing Kenji Yamaguchi, Guillory will portray Rika Goddard, Metwally is set as Dr. Eyal Meyer, and Coster was cast as Jimmy Johnson." Shooting of this pilot begins in Vancouver next month.


Emmy bees are buzzing away this month since the nomination ballots are due by June 20th. THR mentions BATTLESTAR GALACTICA in these two pieces – always a bridesmaid in the high-profile categories, until last year’s writing and directing nods. (That second article has some interesting discussion of online TV viewing, btw.) EW takes a sort of surprising sideswipe at the show here while also suggesting Mary McDonnell’s time has come at last.

Maureen Ryan has made a list of all the ways she found LOST and BSG similar this season.

Once again, we find BSG in the Top 20 TV shows on the torrentstream…a whole other world of ratings that no one is counting, hmm.

In Bear McCreary's weekly post about his score work (this time for "The Hub") he discusses bringing back a favorite old melody that he'd been saving for just the right occasion... AWWWWW... and mentions what he'll be blogging about after this Friday's mid-season finale:

"The Hub was a good episode, but next week’s is a very special one to me. And after that, though it’s hard to believe, we’re off the air for a while. I’m going to continue to update this blog over the summer, and post Galactica updates as I finish scoring the last ten episodes. I’ll also post information about several new projects and soundtrack albums I’m doing this year. So, stick around during the break. :)"

SoundtrackNet has posted their report on the Bear McCreary BSG concerts, with a bunch of nice photos and DL'able MP3 snippets from every piece performed during the set.

A Daily Kos poster has this theory about how BSG and STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE share similar themes. I’m not a DS9 watcher and therefore have no opinion, but maybe some of you folks will dig it…or want to debate it for a few days. IDIC bbs.

Correction: Lucy Lawless’ free concert in Los Angeles is on June 28th, not the 29th. Her fan site is tracking the deets.

A&E has updated their web site and a page is now live for the new series THE CLEANER, co-starring Grace Park, which premieres July 15th.

Tricia Helfer’s site has EW’s and TV Guide’s previews of her role on the series BURN NOTICE. The show’s second season begins July 10th.

A very basic page has gone live on NBC’s site for the pilot Michael Trucco is shooting this summer, MAN OF YOUR DREAMS. The latest info seems to be this show is a possible pickup for midseason 2008-2009.

You lucky Aussie fans (and people with a massive collection of frequent flyer miles) can now go see Jamie Bamber and James Callis at the GenCon next month. That is gonna be FUN. Someone PLEASE VIDEOTAPE THAT for me, kay?

Meanwhile, apparently Aaron Douglas and James Callis are so tightly scheduled during these final weeks of shooting that it has effected their commitment to sparkle motion -- er, I mean to FedConUSA in Dallas. The latest news seems positive…

Gizmodo has noticed that the Cylons are probably doomed to failure, because they are running Windows XP2 on their basestars. Tsk-tsk.

So Many Interviews

Space Westerns has an interview with the newest addition to the BSG writers room, Seamus Kevin Fahey. Fahey was a BSG writers' assistant for two years and was promoted to staff writer last year. His first script for the show is "Faith."

Slice of SciFi spoke with BSG writers Bradley Thompson and David Weddle. They promise this isn't spoilery, but I haven't listened yet.

Rekha Sharma talks by phone with BuddyTV (warning for mild spoilers).

Wired's Patrick DiJusto put up a short flickr set of shots from backstage with most of the Final Four after the NY Comicon in April. Make sure you read all the captions. :)

Grace Park is the cover story for Complex Magazine and they have posted the interview, slightly NSFW photos, and photo shoot vids.

Katee Sackhoff spoke to the Philadelphia Inquirer on the eve of her appearance today at Wizard World.

Alessandro Juliani talked to IGN (warning for mild spoilers and...well...something most people seem to think is a joke about the final cylon).

Variety visits BSG composer Bear McCreary in the recording studio and discusses the show's score with some of the cast and crew.

Pop Critics has posted a Q&A with Bear McCreary. (Yes, another FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS fan!)

Future-Past has an interview with BSG's special makeup effects designer Bill Terezakis.

For those of us still recovering from this, this and this, now comes news from Tricia Helfer's site that a new LA Times article is in the works. Goody.

Sit Rep

Scott Ian reflects on Escape Velocity on his Sci-Fi.Com blog:

Poor Chief. He loses his lady and then loses his shit with the old man. His description of Cally, "a shriek with dull-vacant eyes, the boiled cabbage stench of her" was oddly accurate. Is Chief's Cylon programming disavowing his relationship with a human knowing that it could have been with Boomer or is it just a case of the grass being greener? I asked my main-man Aaron Douglas and he was his usual forthcoming self (although I can't print everything he told me, no spoilers here).

Long days of really emotional stuff.
Really very tiring and hard because the rest of the cast has little to do so they get restless after 5 hours of doing the same thing and I am still trying to stay in the place of emotion of a funeral.

The scene with Eddie and I in the bar is one of my favorites.
I have not seen the ep yet so I don't know how it turned out.
We did my coverage 3 times.
The first time, which by all accounts was the best, was not recorded. The camera guys did not turn them on.
That was frustrating.
So what people saw on Friday was my 2nd best performance.
I will watch it tonight and see if I remember anything else.
That was a year ago that we shot it."

And he also added this:

"And tell the fans to watch for the Chief in the next weeks ep. He goes a little nuts…"

Amazon.com has a Sci-Fi Channel store and notes that you can:

Listen to our interview with Katee Sackhoff and Grace Park from Battlestar Galactica, and find out what the frak is up with cylons, season four, and two of the coolest actresses to hail from the 12 planets.

Visit their Sci-Fi Channel store here.

Michael Hinman of SyFy Portal talked to Nathan Lilly of Space Westerns about his discovery of hidden clues and deeper meaning in the BSG Last Supper photo.

The L.A. Times summarizes Escape Velocity and posts a poll where you can vote on who you think the final Cylon could be.

Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune notes that:

Tricia Helfer, better known as Cylon No. 6 on "Battlestar Galactica" will have a multi-episode arc on Season 2 of "Burn Notice," TV Guide's Michael Ausiello reports.

Todd VanDerWerff of the House Next Door blog, posted a few in depth reviews of, He That Believeth in Me, Six of One, The Ties That Bind and Escape Velocity.

Dr. Kevin Grazier writes for Cinemaspy:

Back on February 11, CinemaSpy reported that the leader of the Imaging Science team on NASA'S Cassini mission to Saturn, Dr. Carolyn C. Porco, had accepted an invitation from producer/director J.J. Abrams to join the Star Trek XI production crew as a consultant on planetary science and imagery for the forthcoming feature film.

As Battlestar Galactica's science advisor and CinemaSpy's resident Cinema Boffin columnist, it seemed appropriate for yours truly to sit down with Dr. Porco and discuss her involvement with Star Trek XI, but to first give our readers a little taste of her real world responsibilities — responsibilities that would ultimately lead producer J.J. Abrams to determine that she was the ideal choice to ensure that Star Trek's astronomical imagery and planetary scenes look as realistic as possible.

Dr. Porco is currently a Sr. Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, She is the Team Leader for the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) instrument on the Cassini/Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan, as well as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Read Grazier's interview with Porco here.

Scans scans scans

TV Guide talks to Michael Trucco about his car accident last year.

Starlog talks to Tahmoh Penikett about the show.

Richard Prince photographs our space grrls on bikes for Interview Magazine. In bikinis. No talking necessary.

Frakheads and Browncoats unite

[Mark Sheppard, Adam Baldwin, Jamie Bamber, Leah Cairns and Ron Glass
at Serenity Complete; photos by Bamberrific]

Much to the thrill of the Frakheads and Browncoats at this past weekend’s Serenity Complete con in London, it turned out that a huge number of SERENITY and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA castmembers managed to attend. BSG cast included the previously announced Nicki Clyne and Mark Sheppard – but also Michelle Forbes, Kandyse McClure, Leah Cairns…and Jamie Bamber, who had cancelled the previous week, but managed to get to London from Vancouver afterall.

Reports are starting to trickle in -- what fun to see Firefly/Serenity and BSG actors hobnobbing at one con together, tee hee! We’ll have more fannews later this week, as happy attendees settle back at home…at least those who aren’t on their way to Germany for the FedCon, with many BSG guests still confirmed despite production being in full swing. A first taste are these comments and photos posted on the skiffy forum by happy Bamber fans (squee begins on page 1073, and there are photos and more at 1074, 1078 and onwards).

Over at the Starfury site, the next UK BSG con announced is Battlestar Starfury coming this December, guests TBD.

In other con news this week…

A fan has posted some photos of Grace Park from the Grand Slam con 2 weeks ago in Burbank. Creation often posts video snippets from their events, we’ll see if anything turns up.

Aaron Douglas had to cancel his appearance at the Pittsburgh Comicon due to the BSG shooting schedule.

Mark Sheppard will be appearing later this year at Australia’s Supernova in June, and Mark will be at Baltimore’s Shore Leave in July with Leah Cairns.

Michael Trucco has announced on his official fan forum that he is coming to the New York Comic Con. No confirmation yet from NYCC itself – let’s hope Michael will attend the Saturday noon event along with Grace Park and Tahmoh Penikett. (Thanks to cujoy for the tip.)

Also, on this Slice of SciFi podcast, Trucco is interviewed and mentions he may be working with JumpCon this summer to attend their Boston, Chicago, and Stamford events. JumpCon is the same company that secured several dates for Eddie Olmos and Mary McDonnell to appear together *joy*… Trucco’s terrific, detailed interview begins 36 minutes into the podcast. (Thanks to xenite99 for this tip!)

Tricia Helfer on The Tonight Show and other interviews

How perfect is it that Tricia was a guest the same night that William Shatner was a guest:


Uploaded to YouTube by Saturn92103.

Meshel73 uploaded Tricia's interview with TV Guide channel's Hollywood 411:


Along with Grace and Tahmoh on The Today Show:

Tomorrow on Today

Justine of All About Tahmoh Penikett sends word:

Just got a message from Tahmoh that he will be appearing with Grace Park (Sharon Agathon) on NBC's Today Show tomorrow, April 11th between 7-10am EST.

So, get up early, or set your DVR.

More on New York Comic Con guests

Hat tip to All About Tahmoh Penikett for noticing that NYCC has updated the program schedule with more details about the special BSG guests this year:

Saturday, April 19th, 12:00PM
Join Grace Park, Sharon "Athena" Agathon and Tahmoh Penikett, Karl "Helo" Agathon for a one-hour discussion with Marc Bernardin of Entertainment Weekly.

Bernardin is the same TrueProFan who moderated the “Ladies of BSG” panel at San Diego Comic Con last year. No word yet if they’ll be doing autographs, but here’s the full official list, which is updated regularly.