GEEK ALERT! SyFy: Ronald D. Moore’s ‘Helix’ Greenlighted For Full Season

SyFy is reuniting with Battlestar Galactica‘s Ronald D. Moore for a brand new epic SciFi series, Helix, scheduled to begin production soon and air later this year. Not only is this cool on its face because Moore doesn’t slap his name to anything unless it’s awesome to begin with, but SyFy has so much faith in this that they skipped the whole pilot process, opting to order an entire 13 episode season without seeing a single produced episode.  That’s what you call faith.

Via Press Release:

SYFY REUNITES WITH RONALD D. MOORE GREENLIGHTS NEW SCRIPTED SERIES HELIX FROM SONY PICTURES TELEVISION FOR 2013

MOORE AND LYNDA OBST SERVE AS EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

NEW YORK – March 7, 2013 – Syfy is giving a 13-episode greenlight to Helix (working title), its newest original scripted series for 2013, it was announced today by Mark Stern, President of Original Content, Syfy and Co-Head Original Content, Universal Cable Productions. Helix is Executive Produced by Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica), Lynda Obst (Sleepless in Seattle, Contact), Steven Maeda (Lost, CSI: Miami, The X-Files) and Cameron Porsandeh, who wrote the pilot, will serve as Co-Executive Producer. The series will be produced by Sony Pictures Television.

Helix is an intense thriller about a team of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control who travel to a high-tech research facility in the Arctic to investigate a possible disease outbreak, only to find themselves pulled into a terrifying life-and-death struggle that holds the key to mankind’s salvation or total annihilation.

“With its well-drawn characters, taut drama, and incredible production team, we couldn’t be more excited to see this intense thrill-ride of a series come to life,” said Mark Stern.

Helix is expected to begin production early in 2013 to debut later this year.

Sony Pictures Television is one of the television industry’s leading content providers, producing and distributing programming worldwide in every genre including comedy, drama and reality series, telefilms and theatrical releases, for every platform. SPT is a leader in local language production around the world with 18 production companies outside the US, and also sells SPE-owned formats in approximately 70 countries. SPT’s worldwide television networks portfolio includes 124 channel feeds, which are available in 159 countries reaching more than 800 million households. Additionally, SPT owns multiplatform video service Crackle and is a part owner of GSN, 3net, FEARnet, and ITN Networks, Inc.

Syfy is a media destination for imagination-based entertainment. With year round acclaimed original series, events, blockbuster movies, classic science fiction and fantasy programming, a dynamic Web site (www.Syfy.com), and a portfolio of adjacent business (Syfy Ventures), Syfy is a passport to limitless possibilities. Originally launched in 1992 as SCI FI Channel, and currently in more than 98 million homes, Syfy is a network of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. (Syfy. Imagine greater.)

‘The Walking Dead,’ ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Composer Bear McCreary To Score Starz’ ‘Da Vinci’s Demons’

Sign me up for this soundtrack.

Via Press Release:

STARZ TEAMS UP WITH CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED COMPOSER BEAR MCCREARY FOR ANTICIPATED ADVENTURE SERIES “DA VINCI’S DEMONS”

McCreary to Compose Original Score for Series Exploring the Early Life of the Famed Genius from David S. Goyer

Los Angeles, CA – November 13, 2012 – Starz Entertainment and BBC Worldwide Productions announced today that groundbreaking composer Bear McCreary (“The Walking Dead,” “Battlestar Galactica”) will serve as the musical composer for the upcoming historical fantasy “Da Vinci’s Demons,” which will premiere on STARZ in the U.S. and will be distributed by BBC Worldwide in international territories in Spring 2013.  The eight-episode series, written by David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Man of Steel) who also directed the first two episodes, follows the ‘untold’ story of the world’s greatest genius, Leonardo da Vinci, during his turbulent youth in Renaissance Florence.

Goyer commented, “I’ve been a fan of Bear’s since hearing his score for ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ which was inspired and unexpected.  We wanted something similarly grand, but unconventional for ‘Da Vinci’s Demons’.”

Emmy® Award nominated, McCreary is one of the leading musical composers in television and has worked on some of the most successful shows in the medium.  At the age of 24, he received widespread acclaim for his groundbreaking score to SyFy’s hit series “Battlestar Galactica,” for which he composed, “the most innovative music on TV today,” according to Variety.  He was declared as one of the “Ten Best Science Fiction Composers of All Time,” by io9.com, listing him alongside legends John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Herrmann.

McCreary’s recent credits include AMC’s smash hit, “  His score for the FOX series “Human Target” featured the largest orchestra ever assembled in the history of series television and earned him his first Emmy® nomination.  McCreary’s many other credits include: “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” “Eureka,” “Caprica,” “Trauma” and “The Cape.” His feature film work includes the upcoming Knights of Badassdom (starring Peter Dinklage and Summer Glau) and his videogame credits include Sony’s successful SOCOM 4: U.S. NAVY SEALs. With degrees in composition and recording arts from the prestigious Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, McCreary’s professional training came from film music legend Elmer Bernstein (The Magnificent Seven, The Ten Commandments).  He has also conducted orchestral performances of his music in North America and Europe and has been invited to conduct at film music festivals such as Fimucité in Tenerife and the International Film Music Festival in Úbeda, Spain. The Walking Dead,” on which he collaborated with writer / director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) and producer Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator).

“Da Vinci’s Demons” will star Tom Riley, who has received wide critical acclaim in the UK for his performances in theater, film and on television and was nominated by the Drama Desk Awards for his performance in the 2011 Tony® Award nominated Broadway play, “Arcadia.”  Riley’s co-stars include Laura Haddock (The Inbetweeners Movie, “Honest,” Captain America: The First Avenger) who plays the celebrated beauty with obscure motives, Lucrezia Donati; Elliot Cowan (“Marchlands,” “The Fixer,” “Lost in Austen”) who plays the shrewd de factor ruler of Florence, Lorenzo Medici; and Lara Pulver (“True Blood,” “Sherlock,” “Robin Hood”), who plays his wife Clarice Orsini.  David S. Goyer, co-writer of blockbuster and critically-acclaimed films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and writer of the upcoming Man of Steel, is showrunner.  Julie Gardner is Executive Producer, along with BBC Worldwide Productions’ Head Jane Tranter.  The series is currently in production in Wales.  

About Starz Entertainment 
Starz Entertainment, LLC, is a premium movie and original programming entertainment service provider operating in the United States. The company offers 17 premium channels including the flagship STARZ^®and ENCORE^® brands with approximately 20.8 million and 34.3 million subscribers respectively.  Starz Entertainment airs in total more than 1,000 movies and original series every month across its pay TV channels. Starz Entertainment is recognized as a pay TV leader in providing HD, On Demand, HD On Demand and online advanced services for its STARZ, ENCORE and MOVIEPLEX brands.  Starz Entertainment (www.starz.com) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation (NASDAQ: LMCA).

 About BBC Worldwide Productions

BBC Worldwide Productions is one of five core businesses under BBC Worldwide America, the U.S. division of the main commercial arm and wholly-owned subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), BBC Worldwide. Led by Jane Tranter, BBC Worldwide Productions is based in Los Angeles and develops and produces scripted and non-scripted projects for U.S. cable and broadcast networks, as well as digital platforms. The production company is responsible for various titles currently on air and in production including Da Vinci’s Demons (Starz), Criminal Justice (HBO), Getting On(HBO), Top Gear (HISTORY), Torchwood: Miracle Day (Starz) Breaking Pointe (CW), Richard Hammond’s Crash Course (BBC AMERICA), What Not to Wear (TLC), The Week the Women Went(Lifetime) and the cultural phenomenon, Dancing with the Stars (ABC).

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CLOSET CLEANING: Battlestar Galactica Series Bible (2003)

So, we’re cleaning out the C drive on the computer and we just happen to find what could possibly be one of the coolest things we’ve ever randomly downloaded and forgot about: Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica series bible.  Enjoy!

Battlestar Galactica Series Bible

GEEK ALERT! SyFy: Eureka Final Season, Lost Girl Season Two Premieres TONIGHT, 2012 – 2013 Schedule Info!

Hitting us like a shovel to the face, we just found out that not only is Eureka‘s fifth and final season starting tonight, but the second season of the Canadian transplant and now SyFy hit, Lost Girl will begin immediately after the Eureka premiere.  In the annals of television history that has to be the quickest transition between seasons a show has ever had in the U.S.  If you’ll recall, Lost Girl‘s first season just premiered in January and it just wrapped up a few weeks ago.  Yes, we are aware that the show has been on in Canada sice 2010 and we are just catching up with it here in the states, but still, SyFy S.O.P. on imports is to wait and have them air a season behind their country of origin.  This tells us that SyFy is very high on this show and that they are scrambling to get the season two episodes aired so that they can air season three episodes simultaneously with the Canadians.  Good for them as short breaks between seasons only help to keep audiences interested.  Read the full press release for more details below.

In other news, we just found out that SyFy’s upfront advertising event will be on April 24th.  As we’ve noted in the past, SyFy traditionally holds their upfront events in April ahead of the major networks upfronts in May.  For those unfamiliar with the upfront advertising events, these are the events that the networks hold to sell airtime to their advertisers.  This is the Christmas morning for television junkies like us when the networks announce their upcoming schedules and we find out what’s new, what’s renewed and what’s been canceled.

Now, what should be of particular note is, as we mentioned in our big Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome piece, that this is where we’ll really have an idea of what’s really going on with the BSG spin-off prequel.  As we noted, despite statements to the contrary by SyFy, we think it’s certainly a possibility that B & C will wind up being broacast on the network and not digitally, (or at the very least, they’re hedging their bets and it’s still up in the air) and the upfronts will give us a real indication of what direction they plan to take it.

Again, if SyFy announces that they will be airing the 90-minute B & C pilot in the Summer or Fall of 2012, all bets are off and they will be treating B & C as a backdoor pilot and will rely on its Nielsen 18 – 49 numbers, to determine which medium the saga will be distributed on.  If, on the other hand, they announce it for early 2012, then you can pretty much expect that it will be launched as a digital series exclusively, as they claim that they have intended from the beginning.  That being said, that’s nothing to fear.  Read all about why a digital B & C is actually a good thing, right here.

Now, what if they don’t tell us when they plan to air the 90-minute pilot?  Well, then… we’re screwed.

Via Press Release:

NEW YORK – April 9, 2012 – The spring season of Syfy’s “Powerful Mondays” programming block will feature the fifth – and final – season of the beloved, iconic series Eureka on Monday, April 16 at 9PM (ET/PT), followed by the second season of the sexy supernatural drama series Lost Girl at 10PM (ET/PT).

As Eureka’s thrilling fifth and final season kicks off, the town is reeling after the Astraeus and her crew mysteriously vanished just before their planned launch to Titan. When they finally crash land, Allison and the crewmembers are shocked to find themselves back in Eureka – and that they’ve been missing for four years. As the town copes with the shocking personal changes that have happened during their long absence, Sheriff Carter and Henry try to uncover the truth about the forces behind the crew’s bizarre disappearance – with deadly results.

Eureka stars Colin Ferguson (Sheriff Jack Carter) Salli Richardson-Whitfield (Allison Blake), Joe Morton (Henry Deacon), Erica Cerra (Jo Lupo), Neil Grayston (Douglas Fargo) and Niall Matter (Zane Donovan). Returning for the final season will be popular guest stars Wil Wheaton (The Big Bang Theory, Star Trek: The Next Generation) as the contentious Dr. Parrish and Felicia Day (The Guild, Red) as Dr. Holly Marten. Co-creator Jaime Paglia and Bruce Miller are executive producers. The series is produced and distributed by Universal Cable Productions.

In the Lost Girl season two opener, a nomadic Fae sideshow comes to town to take advantage of the chaos caused by both the bombing of the Light Fae headquarters and the declining physical condition of The Ash. Lost Girl stars Anna Silk as Bo, co-starring Kris Holden-Ried as Dyson; Ksenia Solo as Kenzi; Zoie Palmer as Lauren; Rick Howland as Trick, and K.C. Collins as Hale. Lost Girl is a Prodigy Pictures Production in association with Showcase. Executive producers are Jay Firestone, Michelle Lovretta and Peter Mohan. Lost Girl was created by Michelle Lovretta.