During this week’s TCA tour, Ron Moore sat down with the Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan and discussed the future of Battlestar Galactica and the upcoming Caprica.
But before we get to that potential SPOILER filled material, here are a few tidbits from the panel that should have Galactica fans salivating.
At the panel, SciFi Channel President David Howe confirmed that series four will resume in January and that it will run for 11 episodes. Howe also said he doesn’t know the identity of the fifth Cylon and that he doesn’t want to know for fear of telling anyone in the media, thus ruining the surprise.
He also said that a decision on whether or not to take Caprica to series would come in late August or early September after execs see a working edit. There are several other series in the running for a potential series pick-up on SciFi though. Howe also said that if Caprica went to a series, the network was thinking long-term and not a 13-episode limited run series.
If passed over for a series, Caprica could air as early as this fall.
Finally, there will be new webisodes for the fourth season that will air on SciFi’s web-site. No word yet on when they will begin.
Now, onto what Moore said, a lot of which could be SPOILER material. If you want to know, join us behind the jump.
Moore confirmed that the final half of the season will run eleven hours, with the final three episodes being devoted to the series finale. The finale was originally set to take the final two epsiodes, but when looking at the script and the story, Moore felt the finale deserved and needed three hours to do it justice.
“[The finale] started as two hours. It was always meant to be two [hours long]. It was going to be episodes 21 and 22, in terms of production,” said Moore. “Then we wrote it and prepped it and realized that it was much bigger than two [hours] and went to the network and studio and said, “Look, to do this justice, we probably need it to be longer than two. Would you be willing to do that?†And they had to crunch all their numbers and they loved it too, and they came back and they said, “Yeah, we’ll do three [hours for the finale].â€
Moore said that could expand if necessary, but right now he’s not sure.
“But we haven’t cut it together, it’s being cut together as we speak. We’re way long, as usual. I don’t know what that means — if there’s a possibility it goes to four [hours], do we keep it at three? It’s hard to say until you see it,” Moore said. “So I think he’s being honest when he says we don’t quite know yet because none of us know, even the director hasn’t seen it. We just know there’s a lot of footage right now.”
Moore did tease that no matter if the finale runs three or four hours, fans will get an extended cut on the DVD release.
Moore confirmed that series writer Jane Espenson is penning the two-hour Galactica movie and offered a few hints as to what fans can expect.
“It’ll be a la “Razor,†it’ll won’t be contemporary to where the fourth season is. And it definitely won’t take place after the finale,” he said. “So it’s going to be back in time, in earlier seasons. I can tell you it will look at the earlier seasons from a different perspective.”
And while SciFi hasn’t officially signed on the dotted line, Moore believes the network will step up and green-light it.
“It feels like it’s going to happen. I think something dramatic would have to happen to make it not happen. But it’s not nailed down yet. And it will be one as opposed to three,” said Moore.
As for Caprica going to a series, Moore said he is optimistic about the chances.
“I think where Caprica is, there’s a lot of positive momentum for it. They liked the script and they see all the dailies, so I had conversations with them during shooting and after shooting and they were very excited about what they were seeing.” he said. “I talked to [Sci Fi’s] executive vice president of original programming] Mark [Stern], I talked to [NBC Universal head of cable] Bonnie [Hammer], and they were saying, “This looks amazing.†And I’ve seen it cut together and it looks really good. ”
“So my gut is telling me that it’s probably going to go [i.e. get a series order], because I just think it is. They’d be fools not to, and if they don’t, I will call them fools! [laughs] I think it’s great and I am hoping that they will pick it up but they have a network, they have a network’s interests to figure out.”
As soon as SciFi officially confirms the next BSG movie and decides the future of Caprica, we’ll bring you the story. Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed.
[…] http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2008/07/24/moore-discusses-bsgs-final-episodes/ Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Caprica bits of tid […]