| By Maureen Ryan,
on 20-07-2007
|
Favoured : 143 |
Date: July 19, 2007
'Razor' revelations and hints about 'Battlestar Galactica's' final season
In the "Battlestar Galactica" movie "Razor," which airs Nov. 24, one scene will take fans of the acclaimed drama back to where it all began.
"You’ll see a glimpse of the first Cylon," executive producer Ron Moore said in a Wednesday interview.
"Razor" is a standalone, two-hour film that does not pick up where “Battlestar’s” third season left off.
But "questions and concerns" raised by "Razor" will be in the air when “Battlestar Galactica’s” fourth and final season begin in early 2008, according to Moore.
The film, which will be released on DVD soon after it airs, explores the experiences of those aboard the Battleship Pegasus, which was the setting for a couple of memorable second-season episodes of the show. It also marks the return of Admiral Helena Cain, a fan favorite played by Michelle Forbes.
“We’ve been through [the Cylon attack on humanity] with one ship, with this group of characters” from the Galactica fleet, said Michael Taylor, who wrote “Razor.” The 2-hour movie will explore “a ship that had a very different experience and a very different captain.
“When we first started talking about the movie, somebody said ‘Pegasus,’ and everybody lit up,” Taylor continued. “I think it was the chance to tell the story from another perspective, which perhaps is less heroic in traditional terms. But [the actions of those aboard the Pegasus] may have been just as necessary a reaction, as necessary a way of dealing with such horrendous circumstances. To tell the same story even more darkly was naturally very attractive to all of us.”
“It’s so dark you can’t actually see what’s happening,” Moore joked.
“We’ll sell dark glasses so you can’t even see the screen,” Taylor said with a laugh.
“Razor,” which also follows the first mission of Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber) aboard the Pegasus, promises to reveal some important information about the Cylons, who, as fans of the Sci Fi series know, have been relentless pursuing the 50,000 remaining humans in the Galactica fleet.
And a new character is introduced in the film – Kendra Shaw, who’s played by Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen, a native of New Zealand who will increase TV’s PKC (Prominent Kiwi Count) to four, if you count the three New Zealanders on “Flight of the Conchords." (Trivia alert: Chaves-Jacobsen also appeared in the genre classic “Farscape” as Nurse Froy.)
But I digress.
“There’s an element in [‘Razor’] – something in the deep past that young Bill Adama encounters,” Taylor said. “It comes back to haunt us, it’s something we have to deal with in the present. It tells us something new about the Cylons as well, it advances that mythology a little bit.”
That back story of a young William Adama (who in the present day is Admiral Adama and the military leader of the Galactica fleet) will be fleshed out in 2- to 3-minute “mini-sodes” that will air on Sci Fi starting in October (more on the teeny-sodes, as I call them, here).
Those mini-sodes, which will also be available online, “provide a sneak peek into the original Cylon War, when a young pilot named William Adama (Nico Cortez) discovers a dangerous Cylon weapon that will come back to haunt him and his crew 40 years later,” according to a recent Sci Fi press release.
All in all, “Razor” sounds very much like a film that explores how the past affects the present.
“There’s a sense of the sins and the evils of the past revisited upon us in the present, on both a character level and a story level” in “Razor,” Taylor added. “There should be some surprises in the movie, and they relate to the Cylons as well as some of our own characters.”
Speaking of Season 4 (and there's a little more on that here), at least two characters won’t make it all the way through the last year of “Battlestar Galactica.”
“It’s interesting, there have been a couple cast members where we’ve had to say, ‘Your character isn’t going to make it,’” Moore said. “But because it’s this year, as opposed to last year, it’s different. They kind of went, [in an upbeat tone], ‘Oh, I kind of wish I was going to make it to the end – but I’m in the last year!’”
I noted that Katee Sackhoff, who plays Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, certainly got a lot of attention for her dazzling third-season “death” episode, “Maelstrom,” and of course for her character’s unexpected return in the Season 3 finale.
“Actually, we’re going to kill Katee again and again this year. That worked out so well for us,” Taylor joked.
In a more serious moment, Moore noted that the cast is extremely motivated to do their best work in Season 4.
“I’ve been very, very impressed – the cast has really been involved in the stories,” he said. “They really care that this is the last year and none of them are really checking out and looking to their next project. They’re all really engaged. Something clicked over when we said, ‘OK, this is it, this is over, this is senior year on the show.’ The cast suddenly cares very much what their final story is.”
Another “Battlestar”-related tidbit: Mark Sheppard, who became a huge fan favorite after his delightful turn as Romo Lampkin in the last three episodes of the season, may return in Season 4, but that has not been decided for sure.
But if you don’t spot him on "Battlestar," don’t worry, Sheppard will still be on TV: He’ll be in at least half a dozen episodes of NBC’s new “Bionic Woman” series, which also features other “Battlestar” actors, including Sackhoff, who will also make several appearances on “Bionic.” (David Eick is an executive producer of both shows, hence the casting of “Battlestar” actors.)
Though he and his staff are hard at work on “Battlestar,” Moore has been developing other projects as well. And he said that there is a “strong possibility” that Sci Fi may pick up “Warehouse 13,” a new show he’s been working on with Jane Espenson, who wrote some “Battlestar” episodes in Season 3 and is a co-executive producer on the show's writing staff for its last season.
More from Moore on “Warehouse 13”:
“It’s been in development at Sci Fi for a while. Jane and I are working on it. The pitch is, here’s a warehouse out in South Dakota that is the repository for the federal government of all the strange and mysterious items that have been collected over the last 200 years, and they just sit in this warehouse.
“The show is about the two federal agents who are stuck there, who are sort of exiled to Siberia and punished for their sins in the pilot, [they’re made] to go catalogue and be caretakers for the warehouse. Each week, you open a box and something jumps out at you and they have to go investigate what it is.
“It was originally developed with Brent Mote, he brought the idea to the studio and then Jane is now writing it and we’ve been working on the concept and working with the network and reinventing it for a while.”
I said it sounded as though there may be an “X-Files” flavor to the show.
“We’re aware of that and we try to keep steering away from that,” Moore said. “The biggest shift away from the ‘X-Files’ is that this is a lighter, more comedic tone. We’re not really going down that road.”
featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com
Last update : 20-07-2007
|
|
|
Users' Comments  |
|
Average user rating
No rating |
|
Add your comment
|
By: michael kors factory (Guest ) on 16-10-2012
The lower price michael kors handbag offers the stylish woman an excellent accessory to stand out. michael kors jardines wallet is a superior selection - beautifully constructed with black mesh and leather trim, the shimmering michael kors wallet outlet is a first-class addition to a cocktail outfit.
» Report this comment to administrator
» Reply to this comment...