Moore To Stay On At NBC Universal

Ronald D. Moore, the creative genius behind the re-imagined SF hit show and Peabody Award winner “Battlestar Galactica” has just penned a deal with Universal Media Studios that will keep him hanging around the NBC TV network and Universal movie lot for at least another two years, according to Variety.

While Moore puts the finishing touches on Battlestar’s fourth and final season, due to air this coming January, he will also be developing new television products for NBC. More Moore means more sci-fi and other genre-related programming, maybe as early as the 2008-2009 season.

However, he will not only concentrate on television, but will also be working on some big screen projects such as his continued comittment for “I, Robot 2″ over at 20th Century Fox, a project he started before signing his NBC Universal deal, and he has a new take on “The Thing,” for Universal Pictures.

NBC Universal scrambled to ensure they didn’t lose Moore after the phenomenal success of BSG and had made his retention their highest personnel priority. This new deal will also afford Moore the opportunity to continue working with friend and BSG collaborator David Eick, who was the network’s second highest priority for retention. Eick recently signed his own renewal contract with NBC Universal which allowed him to bring his idea for the “Bionic Woman” back to the small screen. Since they will now continue with NBC Universal, it isn’t out of the question to possibly see some new genre programming from either one or both men on The SCI FI Channel and/or The USA Network — both cable channels are owned by NBC Universal.

Besides sci-fi, for which Moore is best known, he wants to flex his comedic muscle a bit and try his hand in that arena as well. Concerning that effort and other new directions Moore related, “It sort of depends on what it is,” he told a group of reporters. “My first instinct is to do something new and of my own (creation). But I’m not averse to doing a new spin on something else. I will be as curious as you to see what my next project is.”

With a track record that includes such landmark hits as “Battlestar Galactica,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “Carnivale” and “Roswell,” the genre is in good hands over at NBC, at least for the foreseeable future.