Is a 'Battlestar Galactica' TV movie deal nearly done?

Last month, Maureen Ryan was the first to report that as many as three "Battlestar Galactica" TV films were under discussion at the Sci Fi network. She noted that "it would make sense to make more 'Battlestar' TV movies while the show's creative team and actors are still all in one place."

Well, too late for that now -- the cast is being flung far and wide.

But! "I just heard about the first Battlestar movie being greenlit," said Grace Park, "Battlestar's" Cylon No. 8, yesterday by phone from Vancouver, Canada.

"A TV movie, but still! But this -- it's like, yeah, it's over but we're ready to move on but nobody's manager or agent has been called. It's supposed to start in August."

So, at the very least, the rumors aren't just flying on the Internet -- but on the set as well.

Tonight in Vancouver, the "Battlestar" cast will have its wrap party. On the shooting schedules in these final weeks, huge chunks of time have been blacked out to accommodate new jobs for Cylon and human character alike: No Mary McDonnell one day, no Tricia Helfer the next.

Park, for one, has been jetting off for her new job on the A&E series "The Cleaner," which stars Benjamin Bratt and shoots in Los Angeles; it premieres July 15.

The cast has so far seen most of the series' final episodes, which will air in (sigh!) 2009.

"There's one episode where everything is explained and I had to read it three times," Park said. "I had to sit down with [executive producer] Ron Moore and he had to break it down."

Among other tidbits (the interview with Park will run here on July 20), Park also confirmed the presence of a child actor on set -- one of the toddlers who plays her character Sharon "Athena" Agathon's daughter, the Cylon-human offspring Hera.

From over at the Sci Fi channel, we hear they'd "love to see the continuation of 'Battlestar' with a special event akin to Razor but the idea is still in the discussion stage."

For his part, Moore told The Times' Geoff Boucher and the audience of fans at the Arclight, who gathered for our series of Emmy panels, that he'd love to see it happen as well.

-- Choire Sicha

Comments

[John Watson]

Dude, that would be soo cool. Proably best movie of the year! I can hardly wait!

JT
www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

[Andy]

I love the idea of continuing the series, even if it's just a handful of TV movies, or maybe direct to video movies like the Stargate SG-1 series accomplished when they went off the air.

[Mike]

I'd love to see a well done Battlestar Galactica movie. Of course, anything would be an improvement over the weekly giant snake movies the Sci-Fi channel loves to air.

[Joe]

I think the show has steadily gotten worse.

The cylon religion has gotten pretty boring. Same with Baltar's Six mind trips. Unfortunately this show has been spending alot of time away from battles in the last few years. The battles are MAGNIFICENT. But they are too widely spread out. I want Action and Story, and not a long drawn out LOST-styled mystery game.

The final 4 (of 5) Cylons got me thinking "THIS is what the big driving mystery was about?" What a frustrating and disappointing waste. We waited years so these guys can tell Starbuck to turn on her Viper???

But the last few episodes really picked up the pace. So hopefully a movie will be up to the quality of the better episodes.

[italianfish]

I can't believe they agreed to cancel it at all. We are in the middle of the story! How can they not continue it? We don't know all the cylons, we haven't found earth...COME ON!

I would like to encourage all involved to keep watching. Thanks to netflix and blockbuster - hundreds of new people become "fans" every week watching the show from the beginning (like me). But i will say - those web episodes were terrible.