Wednesday, January 21, 2009

This is an update of my December 20, 2008 post about Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, with new information. Spoilers through "Sometimes a Great Notion".

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Ok. This is mostly old info, but there's enough new info to do an update. Plus it's fun for me. lol

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by Edward James Olmos
Production Start: Sep 8, 2008
Airdate: June 2009

The movie will definitely air sometime after the series ends, so after Friday, March 20, 2009. A piece at Sci-Fi said it would air in June 2009 - but other sources claim that the date isn't certain, but this could just refer to the actual air date not being mentioned beyond JUNE.

It's reported that the movie will be released on DVD shortly after airing, just as previous tv movie "Razor" did before it. Edward James Olmos also said in an interview, that the dvd would most likely include an extended director's cut of the feature. It's possible that "The Plan" will be packaged with the Season 4.5 DVD set.

Edward James Olmos has directed other episodes. These episodes include Season 1's "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" (which introduced Ellen Tigh), Season 3's "Taking a Break From All Your Worries", Season 4's "Escape Velocity" and the upcoming "Islanded in a Stream of Stars".

Jane Espenson (former Buffy writer) wrote Season 3's "The Passage" & "Dirty Hands"; Season 4's "Escape Velocity", "The Hub" "The Face of the Enemy" webisodes and the upcoming "Deadlock".

The movie was filmed after the series was completed, and around the same time "The Face of the Enemy" webisodes were also filmed.

From Sci-Fi's press release:

"Starting before the events of the miniseries, our story focuses on familiar characters including Cylon Number One, known as Cavil, Resistance Leader Sam T. Anders and Chief Galen Tyrol. In the beginning, the Cylons had a plan, but it didn't account for one thing: survivors. During the chaotic aftermath of the destruction, two powerful Cylon agents struggle with plots and priorities on the human ships that got away, and among the resistance fighters who were left behind."

Jane Espenson had this to say:

"The events of The Plan are the events that you've seen...in the show, from the miniseries to almost the end of season two. So it's that chunk of time, but sort of seen with the Cylon perspective. So you're going to see a lot of stuff that was going on that you weren't aware of at the time: on Caprica, in the fleet. That was when the Cylons, as depicted in the original show, were very mysterious, enemies that would come out of the darkness and retreat. And this is...what were they really doing all that time: What was the the internal stuff. A lot of loose ends are tied up, a lot of questions are asked that you don't even know that you have. If you had a copy right now, you might feel that you could go ahead and watch it, because it's about stuff that already happened. But it's very much designed to be watched after the run of the series, because it definitely relies on stuff you don't learn until much later... We made tons of changes in the preproduction phase and ended up with a really tight script that we filmed sort of as they were demolishing the sets out from under us. And we ended up with something that I think is so much better than our highest hopes had been for what this movie could be. It really sort of caps off the show."

It's interesting that it follows the Cylon perspective though the end of the 2nd Season, because that's when we started seeing more from the Cylon perspective in the show through "Downloaded" and later in the 3rd Season with Gaius on the Cylon ship. From "Downloaded" onward we got the Cylon perspective and now this movie is set to fill in some of the blanks - sounds awesome.

The movie stars:

Aaron Douglas ("Chief Tyrol")
Matthew Bennett ("Doral")
Tricia Helfer ("Number Six")
Michael Hogan ("Saul Tigh")
Lymari Nadal ("Giana")
Edward James Olmos ("Admiral Adama"),
Grace Park ("Boomer"/"Athena"),
Callum Keith Rennie ("Leoben"),
Rekha Sharma ("Tory Foster"),
Dean Stockwell ("Brother Cavil"),
Michael Trucco ("Samual Anders"),
Rick Worthy ("Simon")

The International Movie Database lists 3 other recurring characters as appearing:

Colin Corrigan ("Nowart")
Alisen Down ("Jean Barolay") &
Maya Washington ("Sue-Shaun").

It would be nice to see Jean Barolay & Sue-Shaun again as presently, both characters are deceased. Sue-Shawn was killed by Kara Thrace (at Sue-Shawn's request) in Season 2's "The Farm". While Jean Barolay was killed by an unnamed Cylon model Six which Jean had previously murdered on New Caprica; Jean's death happened in the 4th Season episode: "Faith".

Nowart has been a mostly background character since he was introduced in Season 3's "The Woman King". It's been said that his role will be expanded to some degree by the end of the series, so seeing him at an earlier point in the series would also be interesting.

Lymari Nadal's character Giana, appeared in the original miniseries. She was the Caprican who escaped along with Boomer and Baltar when Helo was left behind. She was heard asking about her husband who served in the Colonial Fleet near Gemenon. She hasn't been seen since. Nadal is also Edward James Olmos's real life wife.

It's been reported that Kate Vernon's Cylon character Ellen Tigh will also appear, possibly explaining how she survived the Cylon attack on the colonies. In the same report, it is theorized that Jennifer Halley's deckhand / viper pilot character Diana Seelix may also appear - though this is merely conjecture at this point.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Saul Tigh and Tory Foster, though they both appear, will only be seen in a limited capacity.

Almost all of the cast is made up of Cylon characters, with the exception of Three/D'Anna Biers. I'm wondering if Lucy Lawless's character of Three might not show up in some old footage or something to complete the set?

I wonder at what point the movie ends? Sometime in Season 2, but when exactly? That's less than a year from the BSG characters perspective.

There's a page set up for the film on the Battlestar Wiki, though much of the information I learned about the film is not represented there.

Most of what I learned above (that doesn't feature a link) was discovered while searching for info on the movie back in December 2008. These are the articles that I found then, in case anyone reading this wants to dig deeper:

The Los Angeles Times had this in August. Also in August, BSG writer Mark Verheiden's blog had this to say. Also in August, the Chicago Tribune offered this piece. Then in late August, there was a blog / report on Door Q that had this to say. In September, IGN had this to add. Also in September, the Chicago Tribune offered this cast update. And lastly, there's this interview with the writer Jane Espenson in December.

And that's all I've got for now.

   posted by Bald Jason at 06:38 AM
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