Sci-Fi The Caprica (2009) Thread

Tom

An Old Friend
There is a rumour that the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica may get the greenlight since the networks are running out of content due to the writers' strike. I have my doubts. I figure it's been on the shelf this long for a reason, but SciFi also released Flash Gordon and airs wrestling so maybe quality isn't their first criterion when choosing which shows they schedule.
The first – and probably last – good thing to come out of this strike is here. Sci-Fi are considering greenlight the “Battlestar Galactica” prequel series, “Caprica” – if only because the network are running out of original content to screen in ’08.

The pilot script for “Caprica” was written, like, years ago so it’s ready to film.
Ain’t It Cool News reports that “the new ‘Sci-Fi Preview’ edition of TV Guide reports (on page 28) that the back-story of Bill Adama’s Pop may indeed see the light of day.

‘’I just got a call from NBC Universal,’’ SciFi VP Mark Stern tells the magazine. ‘’They want us to take another look at the project.’’

Well, don’t just stand there Mark…. Take a look!

GALACTICA Spinoff CAPRICA Finding New SciFi Traction??
An excerpt from James Hibberd’s TV Week story about an Emmy-night SciFi Channel party:
Most recently presumed a dead project, Sci Fi executives seem to have renewed enthusiasm for [the “Battlestar Galactica” prequel “Caprica”], especially with the looming prospect of losing [“Galactica” mastermind Ron] Moore following the conclusion of “Battlestar.”
Additionally, the story confirms that SciFi is contemplating holding back “Galactica’s” final ten episodes until 2009 – a move that would apparently please NBC Universal’s accountants, even as it infuriates the show’s rabid fan base. TV Week’s source says SciFi will decide in January.
Under this plan, two hours of the series’ final 20 hours would arrive in November as the “Razor” TV-movie, eight would begin unspooling in January 2008 and the final ten would reach their audience in 2009.
Another excerpt:
Moore’s storyline also could make fans demand rapid closure, one person close to the project says, since “when people see the ending of the 10th episode, they’re gonna freak out.”
Read all TV Week’s story on the matter here.

Caprica is a proposed television series set in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe. It is described as "television's first science fiction family saga."[1] The show will be set on the fictional planet Caprica, approximately fifty to seventy years before the events depicted in the re-imagined series. It will tell the story of the Twelve Colonies at peace and living in a society not unlike our own. But high technology and a startling breakthrough in robotics brings to life the age-old dream of marrying artificial intelligence with mechanical bodies to create the first living robots — the Cylons. They are researched and built, ultimately leading to the First Cylon War.

The series will revolve around two families: the Adamas and the Graystones. Joseph Adama, father of future Battlestar commander William Adama, is a renowned civil liberties lawyer who becomes an opponent of the artificial intelligence/Cylon experiments wrought by the Graystones, owners of a large computer corporation that builds the first Cylons. According to Mark Stern, Sci-Fi Channel's Executive Vice President of Original Programming, the script for the two-hour pilot episode concluded with an explanation for how the name "Cylon" was coined.[2] On September 20, 2007, Battlestar Galactica writer and producer Bradley Thompson revealed that Ron D. Moore's script for Caprica has a character coin the term, saying, "A cybernetic life-form node, a Cylon."[3]
The series has yet to go into production and to be aired on the U.S. Sci-Fi Channel. NBC Universal Television Studio is developing the show, in conjunction with the executive producers of Battlestar Galactica (Ronald D. Moore and David Eick) and 24 writer Remi Aubuchon, who is writing the pilot and set to be the show runner.

On April 27, 2006, the Sci-Fi Channel announced that Caprica was in development.[4] Despite rumors that the project had been consigned to "Development Hell", the producers stated at Comicon in New York in February of 2007 that it was not the case. However, on a March 24, 2007 interview, Ronald D. Moore stated that It's been in development at Sci-Fi for a while and they haven't picked it up, and I don't know if they're going to pick it up at this point, there's talk of doing it as a TV movie and seeing how that works, as a back-door pilot, much as we did with the "Galactica" miniseries. Right now there's nothing telling me that they're going to move on it anytime soon, so I'm starting to feel that it's going to remain on the development shelf.[5] On March 26, 2007, Moore said that the Sci-Fi Channel was not picking up Caprica as a pilot, though a movie or DVD release were still possibilities. According to Moore, the show was currently "on the back burner."[6]

According to a statement by Ron Moore in the Season 3 Companion book, the proposed Caprica prequel series will have a story-arc-heavy format like its predecessor; a large reason why the network is reluctant to greenlight the series is because story-arc-heavy series notoriously have difficulty in picking up new viewers, as compared to a series composed of mostly standalone episodes. This was already the cause of friction between Moore and the Sci-Fi Channel at Caprica's parent series — the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica were arc-intensive, with detailed attention to internal continuity, but were not pulling in the Nielsen ratings that the network wanted, so the Sci-Fi Channel pressured Moore into retooling the third season of BSG to consist of largely standalone episodes. This measure actually backfired, as it resulted in negative criticism from both fans and critics, and Moore revealed in the Season 3 finale podcast that the network finally grudgingly admitted that standalone episodes simply do not work in the format of story he is trying to tell. This may ultimately make the Sci-Fi Channel uneasy about picking up another story-arc-heavy series.

Ain't It Cool News reported on January 17th, 2008 that the new “Sci-Fi Preview” edition of TV Guide reports (on page 28) that the desperately script-starved SciFi Channel may put into production the fully-scripted pilot for the “Battlestar Galactica” prequel “Caprica.” “I just got a call from NBC-Universal,” SciFi VP Mark Stern tells the magazine. “They want us to take another look at the project.” The prequel, set about half a century before the events of “Galactica,” will deal with Bill Adama’s lawyer dad and his contemporary, the human “inventor” of the Cylons.

Caprica Format Science fiction Created by Remi Aubuchon, David Eick, Ronald D. Moore Country of origin United States Broadcast Original channel Sci-Fi Channel Original airing Pre-production Chronology Related shows Battlestar Galactica

IMDb profile
Plot Outline:

Two families, the Graystones and the Adamas, live together on a peaceful planet known as Caprica, where a startling breakthrough in artificial intelligence brings about unforeseen consequences. A spin-off of the Sci Fi Channel series "Battlestar Galactica" set 50 years prior to the events of that show.

Trivia:

Was originally pitched to NBC/Universal by Remi Aubuchon as an independent series with no connection to the Battlestar Galactica franchise. NBC/Universal read the pilot (an allegorical story about slavery with robots) and suggested Aubuchon meet with Ronald D. Moore and David Eick (who were considering a Battlestar Galactica spin-off series at the time). Aubuchon, Moore and Eick met and within a couple of months the "Caprica" series was born. more

Writing credits

(in alphabetical order) Remi Aubuchon writerRonald D. Moore writer

Produced by

Remi Aubuchon .... executive producer David Eick .... executive producer Ronald D. Moore .... executive producer

'Galactica' Prequel on Tap at Sci Fi

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The Sci Fi Channel will delve into the backstory of "Battlestar Galactica" with a new series that looks at the years leading up to humanity's devastation by the Cylons.

The prequel, called "Caprica," heads a list of development projects the cable network unveiled Wednesday. Also in the works are a miniseries based on the book "Chariots of the Gods" and series from Jesse Alexander ("Alias"), Christopher McQuarrie ("The Usual Suspects"), Eric McCormack and Freddie Prinze Jr.

Additionally, legendary B-movie director Roger Corman will produce two films for Sci Fi's Saturday movie franchise: "Cyclops," about the mythical beast wreaking havoc on ancient Rome, and "Supergator," which pretty much explains itself.

"Caprica" will be set more than 50 years prior to the events of "Battlestar Galactica" and focus on the lives of two families -- the Adamas (ancestors of future Galactica commander William) and the Graystones. Humankind's Twelve Colonies are at peace and on the verge of a technological breakthrough: the first Cylon.

As "Battlestar Galactica" is about a lot more than space battles, "Caprica" will be as much family drama as sci-fi tale. Remi Aubuchon ("The Lyon's Den," "24") is writing the pilot script; "Galactica" veterans Ronald D. Moore and David Eick will executive produce it.

"Chariots of the Gods," Erich von Daniken's book purporting to offer evidence that aliens visited Earth several thousand years ago, is being turned into a six-hour miniseries by writer John Whelpley ("Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Andromeda"). The miniseries will center on a soldier whose souvenir from his tour of duty may hold evidence of alien interference with human life since ancient times.

New Caprica

From Battlestar Wiki, the free, open content Battlestar Galactica encyclopedia and episode guide

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For information on the video game "New Caprica", see New Caprica (2003 Video Game). For information on the failed Singer/DeSanto continuation series colony, see New Caprica (SDS).

New Caprica - Battlestar Wiki

THE RING CYLON

'GALLACTICA' SEQUEL TELLS HOW THE ROBOT WAR BEGAN


By DON KAPLAN
October 30, 2006 -- SCI FI channel is pushing ahead with plans to de velop a spin-off to "Battlestar Galactica," the network's most buzzed about show ever.
The first drafts of "Caprica" scripts - a series that would take place about 50 years before the war between machines and man at the heart of "Galactica" - arrived at the network this week.

"It's not a war show; it's not even a space show or an action-adventure show," "Battlestar" executive producer Ronald Moore said in a recent interview. "It's a family drama and a political drama about corporations and politics. It's almost [more] like a sci-fi soap than it is an action-adventure series."

Galactica, now in its third season, has become the most eagerly followed science fiction series since "Star Trek."

On the epic space drama, a small community of humans are pursued across the galaxy by a race of machines called Cylons. The machines were originally created by the humans decades earlier on their home-world of Caprica.

But since then, they have taken on a life of their own and rebelled against their creators - wiping out most of the people on Caprica in a nuclear holocaust.
Fleeing through space, the war against the Cylons is fought mostly from the bridge of a tremendous battleship, the Galactica, commanded by it's captain, Commander William Adama (Edward James Olmos).

"Galactica" took a big gamble by pushing on the borders of traditional sci fi , incorporating such hot-button, contemporary issues as terrorism, torture and ethnic politics into its storlines.

And it has worked.

The first two seasons on DVD right now rank among the top selling box-sets on Amazon and at other retailers. The ratings for the show hover around 2 million viewers a week - very good for cable.

"Caprica" would aim to build on that success.

"It's the story of the creation of the Cylons," says Moore. "We're trying to do something different within the genre and give a different flavor to the material than Battlestar Galactica does."

The story, Moore says, "centers around two families, one of whom owns an enormous corporation, �* la Microsoft, and it builds the first Cylons; then the other family is Adama's father, who's a lawyer at the time and starts to become an opponent of what they're trying to do."

Even if the show receives the green light, it could be some time before it lands on the schedule due to the length of production time needed to create a new shows.
 
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