06/11/17 @ 8:47 pm EST

Source: Hollywood Reporter | Categories: Battlestar Galactica

The cast of Battlestar Galactica reunited Saturday at closing night of the ATX Television Festival and while it marked the first official reunion, those behind the Syfy drama revealed they've kept in close contact since the series went off the air eight years ago.

"It is profoundly different than I think what happens to a lot of casts when it's time to run away from each other," Mary McDonnell told the crowd.

Battlestar was developed as a reimagining of the 1978 series of the same name and originally premiered as a miniseries on Syfy in 2003. The following year, the project returned as a full-fledged series and ran for four seasons, wrapping in 2009. Over its run, the drama quickly became a critical darling, and went onto win Peabody and Television Critics Association awards.

Looking back on the original miniseries, showrunner Ronald D. Moore recalled watching every episode but said "it didn't light the fire in me," despite his love of other sci-fi projects in the '70s like Star Trek and Star Wars.

When he got a call in early 2002 about potential coming onboard the reboot, Moore was hesitant after logging 10 years on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. "I wasn’t sure if I want to go back into space again," he said. However, Moore thought it over and rented the original tape from Blockbuster.

"It had completely different resonance," Moore said of watching the original in a post-9/11 world. "I just sort of immediately thought if you did that show now, it was an opportunity to talk about the thing that were happening in the world." He then took the job.

When asked how Battlestar would be different if it launched in present-day, Moore said the show "would take advantage of the current political situation," he said, but added, "It's hard to imagine doing it today if it was just from zero."

However, McDonnell pointed out the current administration was made some of Battlestar's key themes even more relevant."We're living in a time where the powers that be are trying to create as much difference between us as their pockets books will allow. With Battlestar, we have a reminder that it could go away," McDonnell said. "We're unfortunately living on the edge at the moment of the planet. Perhaps we can stop dividing each other and seeing each other as the other."

Moore and stars including McDonnell, Edward James Olmos, Katee Sackhoff, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, James Callis and Michael Trucco reflected on their auditions, Olmos' big speech to the cast and what Moore calls "one of the stupidest things" the writers ever wrote into the show. Read on for more highlights from the show:

Olmos Initially Said No

When he was offered the role, "I said no at the beginning. I said, 'Thank you very much but I'm working,'" he said. But his agent urged him to read the script anyway. "And then I read it, and I immediately said, 'I want to be with them. Let's do this.'

The Female President

Mary McDonnell never saw the original Battlestar. "I didn't have a television. I didn't know anything about it. I didn’t understand. It was presented to me as you have the opportunity to do the reboot or the reinventing of Battlestar Galactica. I just giggled," she said. However, when she the script, "I was attracted to these people in the first readthrough." McDonnell also found the script extremely prescient to the current times, particularly playing a female president. "We were shooting this when Hillary [Clinton] was running [for the Senate] and it became a very timely event for me," McDonnell said. "We started it not too long after September 11th so there was a strong emotional connection for me as well."

A Female Starbuck?

Moore said one of his first ideas was to change Starbuck from a male character to e a female. "This was a moment in time when we ere just starting to see women in combat, female combat pilots for the first time," he said. "I really didn't think it would be a thing," he said. However, it quickly drew ire from fans. "I was surprised and sort of like really? People are getting upset about this?" he said. "It seemed like the dumbest thing in the world. It was just kind of baffling." However, Moore quickly learned to embrace it. "Yell about it, get angry," he recalled thinking. "I need publicity."Sackhoff recalled being told she was "too girly" for the part. "I was told so many times that I was not right for this part. There's a piece of you that goes, 'Oh my God, I'm not right for this part.'" She subsequently had to audition six or seven times. "I cut my hair in the process. I took off my stiletos and eventually, I got the part," she recalled. When she learned about the controversy surrounding her character in a chat room at an Internet café, "I thought, f– 'em,'" she said.

The Other Starbuck

Park recalled it was down to her and Sackhoff for the role Starbucks. "When I was told I got Boomer, I was pissed," Park said with a laugh. "I was like, 'Who the 'eff is Boomer?'" Subsequently, it took part a while to figure out her character was a Cylon. "I just hadn't realized because I wasn't reading for that and I probably wasn't picking up on the clues," she said.

A First Day Kiss

Helfer had been acting professionally for about a year when she got the gig, and recalled the nerves she had the first day on the set, particularly when it came to shooting a steamy scene with Callis. "He was getting nervous. I was getting nervous We were both sweating," she said. "I finally said, "James, there's a basement, let's go downstairs.'"One thing led to another and "I just planted a kiss on him," Helfer said. "Genuinely it was a really good move because we were both really self-conscious," Callis said. "It’s a thing about trust and I think that was what helped us and helped us establish that relationship."

Another Apollo?

Trucco remember auditioning for the role of Apollo originally. "Rumor has it that I got initially, initially not very close at all," he said with a laugh. "I wrote in my journal, 'This is the greatest television show ever made.'" In season two, he came onboard for what was originally supposed to be two-episode arc. "Something incredible happened: The majority of the people f—ing hated my character and I think that fueled Ron," Trucco said. Interjected Moore: "He's coming back now." Trucco also remembered the early days of internet chat rooms, saying "People said horrible things."

The Admiral's Speech

When shooting the miniseries that led then to the series, Callis recalled the speech Olmos gave to the entire cast in which he foreshadowed the show's success. "The show's going to go for five years. Every episode is going to be like a movie. Keep your powder dry. We're in here for the long haul. You are not to make fun of this," Callis said Olmos told the cast. "Nobody needs to take this as seriously as we do." Looking back, Callis called it a "galvanizing" moment. "At the time, you don't realize how important something like that is."

Six's Big Moment in the First Episode

Helfer's Six killed a baby in first episode, specifically by cracking its neck. "The network didn’t want it in there," Helfer said, but said she believed the moment added "depth" to her character. "To me, that was a very integral moment of showing that this other side, you're very quickly going to learn that this the other side, this the evil side, has some sort of empathy."However, because of that moment, Helfer's sister never watched the series because she had given birth shortly before. "It was just a hard thing, the crack sound," she recalled.

The Evolution of 'Frak'

While muttered once on the original series, it became a popular (and frequent) part of reboot. "I just said this a brilliant opportunity to say f– over and over again," Moore said. "This is just a license to kill so I'm just going to do it over and over."

The Big Debates Behind the Scenes

Moore remembered, "when I pitched it, I could have done anything. They really don't care. You can do whatever you want with this, was the attitude." However, that changed once the series was in full swing. ""All the big ticket items we never fought about," Moore said. "We fought about stupid things. We fought about how much blood you're going to show, how many pilots you're going to kill. … Is it too dark? Is it too depressing?"Another concern from the network was the show's serialized nature which is why many of the show's early hours are standalone episodes. "Serialized TV was really unusual and frowned upon and networks didn't like it," Moore said. "The network was terrified that people would watch them out of order."

Starbuck's Death (Kind of)

When asked about her favorite moment, Sackhoff recalled getting the call from Moore and David Eicks that her character was going to get killed but then brought back. "'We're going to kill you but we're going to bring you back so don't worry,'" she said. "So I went to Mexico for a couple episodes but the problem was I was lying to everyone."Moore interjected: "This is one of the stupidest things David and I did in the entire run of the show." Sackhoff eventually told Olmos, who then told the entire cast at a magazine shoot she wasn't really dead, "and I felt like such an asshole."Meanwhile, Moore recalled "We're getting calls in Los Angeles saying they're really upset. You don't understand. People are really freaking out that you're killing [her]," Moore said, particularly Olmos. "Eddy is walking around saying this is death of the show. … It just spiraled completely out of control." (Via THR)

07/04/26 @ 3:22 pm EST

Source: IMDB | Categories: Battlestar Galactica

Long before Lin Manuel Miranda took the Founding Fathers to Broadway with the Tony Award Winning Hamilton, the likes of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin sang about the birth of the United States of America and the musical led to an amazing musical called 1776. With this being the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, now would be a good time to watch this classic film that’s available on streaming services like Hulu and Tubi. The film adapts the celebrated musical by Peter Stone with an all-star cast that includes William Daniels (Boy Meets World), Ken Howard (The White Shadow), Howard de Silva (The Great Gatsby) and Blythe Danner (Meet the Parents). The film focuses on the days leading up to the Continental Congress debating and eventually declaring independence and gives us look at the chaos that existed leading up to the birth of the nation. While dealing with a serious topic, the film is laced with humorous moments and unforgettable songs while showing just how difficult it really was to get the thirteen colonies to agree and how different parts of the country had different priorities. Not too unlike the way the country is now. 1776 is entertaining and sneakily educational and I watch if every July 4th… which I’m doing as I type this article. 

07/04/26 @ 3:00 pm EST

Source: The Hollywood Reporter | Categories: Battlestar Galactica

With Supergirl underperforming at the box office there is a rush to point fingers… as often happens when it comes to big studios like DC, Marvel and Star Wars. Will there be similar handwringing with the latest Minions film coming in about $17 million below it’s expected opening… probably not. But The Hollywood Reporter has exclusive details about what happened with the Milly Alcock project that seems to pit director Craig Gillespie against James Gunn and the studio. The criticism of the film varies with complaints about the editing, the musical choices, the depth of character for the villain to the changes from the source material. The new report focuses on a few of those and talks about the test screenings happening back in March of this year. Gillespie was given free reign on his film until test audiences had their say and the best the film was able to do was score in the 60s. This led to the studio getting involved and creating their own cut of the film. Gunn brought in Guardians of the Galaxy editor Fred Raskin to re-edit and Jeremy Slater of Godzilla X Kong to work with screenwriter Anna Nogueira on a few new scenes. Then Gillespie’s original cut, edited by Tatiana S. Riegel from Cruella, and the new cut were both shown to audiences to see which would faire better. Neither film stood out too much with the studio version scoring about two points more than Gillespie’s. While the director’s cut came in about 11 minutes longer and scored higher on the villain and the music, two things complained about in reviews, the overall score favored the studio cut and it was chosen to be the theatrical release. Though reports don’t say what the specific scores were, it does say the highest score reached among all the testing was only 70 out of 100. While this may sound like a behind-the-scenes struggle and signs of studio interference, things like this happen all the time in Hollywood with the goal of putting out the best film possible and had the film had a higher opening, this probably wouldn’t be news at all. An on-line movement is now building to have the “director’s cut” released even though a handful of people claim to have been in the audience for the Gillespie cut and claims that the film isn’t that different than what was released to theaters. Perhaps the deleted scenes will be included on the Blu-ray release.  ...

06/27/26 @ 4:07 pm EST

Source: The Hollywood Reporter | Categories: Battlestar Galactica

DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation used this week’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival to signal a broader push into animation, unveiling three new series built around some of DC’s most recognizable characters. The slate includes Absolute Batman, Joker: Laugh Riot, and Krypto, each aimed at a different corner of the superhero audience. The boldest announcement may be Joker: Laugh Riot, described as DC Studios’ first anime series. Produced with Sola Entertainment and directed by Yasuhiro Aoki, the show imagines a Gotham where Batman has been murdered and the Joker hunts for the killer who robbed him of his greatest obsession. That premise turns the usual Batman-Joker dynamic inside out, pushing the Clown Prince of Crime into uneasy detective territory. Absolute Batman adapts the recent comic by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta, reimagining Bruce Wayne as a working-class hero rather than a billionaire crimefighter. Snyder is expected to serve as executive producer and showrunner, while Dragotta will produce. The series’ “no manor, no money” approach positions Batman as a more grounded figure facing wealth, power, and corruption from the outside. Rounding out the lineup is Krypto, a children’s animated series centered on Superman’s loyal super-dog. Developed by C.H. Greenblatt, the project gives DC a lighter, family-friendly entry alongside the darker Batman and Joker titles. Together, the announcements show DC Studios treating animation not as a side lane but as a flexible creative engine. From anime to kid-focused comedy to a radical Batman reinvention, the Annecy slate suggests DC is betting that familiar icons can still feel new when placed in unexpected formats and tones. 

06/20/26 @ 2:31 pm EST

Source: Deadline | Categories: Battlestar Galactica

How well is Supergirl going to do in theaters? It’s really hard to say, especially if you are reading on-line takes. Since the tickets were made available for presale, the opening projections have moved all over the place with initial thoughts being between $40 - $50 million, then after a few really positive days it jumped to $60 - $75 and has bounced higher and lower to where now they’re saying $50 - $60. The film is set to open against a popular Toy Story 5 that will be on its second week and likely to stay at the top of the box office if it has an average second week drop. Bottom line the expert seem to be having a hard time locking in on this one. What about critics’ thoughts? The film was screened for reviewers and while originally embargoed until next week, the studio lifted the embargo for reactions a week early and now you can see what they thought. Not their full reviews, but their short initial reactions and if you look online most sites are claiming they’re “mixed”… unless you go into the comments and read them yourself. Even sites like Deadline are saying that yet of the reactions they list, the positives outnumber the negatives three or four to one. There is consistent praise for Milly Alcock, Jason Momoa, the action and the heart of the film. The villain is often called bland and the pacing gets called out, but to call it mixed is a stretch. The problem is that like everything in life, film coverage has become political. Sites use negative headlines to get attention and with DC Studios particularly you have a split fan base between what is happening now and those that prefer the previous films… which means that narrative gets created to further their own cause. The truth is, Supergirl will struggle a bit with a film like Toy Story 5 going against it, the character is not popular on her own and is a derivative of a bigger character and in a lot of ways, the previous incarnations, while entertaining, did nothing to make the character stand on her own. Regardless of how it does, there will be a narrative claiming success and another claiming failure. The only way to judge the truth is to see the movie yourself and decide… but that’s really how we judge all movies isn’t it?    ...

06/13/26 @ 2:25 pm EST

Source: Deadline | Categories: Battlestar Galactica

We’re just weeks away from the release of the first Supergirl movie in over 40 years and with ticket presales well underway, experts are making their projects on opening weekend. After the initial sales started happening, most sites were predicting anywhere from $45 to $55 million domestically, but after a few days of higher-than-expected numbers, some sites have adjusted up to as high as $60 to $77 million. This would put the Milly Alcock lead film right in line with the last few Marvel Studios films (except Deadpool and Wolverine). While there has been some debate, Deadline claims the film’s budget is $175 million and the breakeven point would be around $315 million. Other sites claim it’s as high as $425 million globally to call it a success. Only DC Studios and its co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran know what would make this film a success for them, but with trying to rebuild a franchise that had been pretty much run into the ground with underperforming films like The Flash, Aquaman 2 and Shazam 2, having a film that makes most of its money back and is a critical and audience success could be more valuable. Coming off the success of last year’s Superman film, DC is hoping that Craig Gillespie’s vision will continue to excite fans and keep building the new DCU to higher and higher heights. The success of this film and this universe may be driven more on word-of-mouth than box office numbers and the studio appear to be confident enough in the film that they have already had media screenings over two weeks before the film’s release. Yes, there is still an embargo so they can have those reviews come out closer to when the film is in theaters, but you can probably tell the way the project is being covered whether or not it was well received.    ...

06/13/26 @ 2:01 pm EST

Source: Jo Blo | Categories: Battlestar Galactica

A new rumor is shaking up what fans are expecting from The Batman Part 2. On the same day that writer/director Matt Reeves posted that filming had begun, insider Jeff Schnieder posted about how everything we knew about Sebastian Stan’s role in the project was wrong. Sites had been reporting that Stan would be playing Harvey Dent/Two-Face and while that had never been confirmed by Reeves or DC Studios, people took comments from Stan as confirmation such as how he would be playing, “multiple roles” as a hint at him playing the split-personality of the Batman villain. But the new report claims that Stan is not Dent but rather the serial killer Victor Zsasz and actor Bryan Tyree Henry would be playing Dent. Other insiders have some out since and claim to have collaborating information. Zsasz is an interesting character, a killer who notches a mark on his skin for every kill. He’s been portrayed in live action a couple of times including on Gotham and in the Birds of Prey movie but has never been the main focus of a story. This would match up to Reeves saying that the film would be exploring a story never done in film before. It doesn’t really match up to Stan’s comment about “multiple roles” or reports that he was already working with make-up to figure out the look. Reeves is not confined by what is in the comics so he could make major changes to characters, even to the point of making Zsasz a divergent personality of Harvey Dent that manifested prior to the acid attack causing Two-Face to emerge. It’s also possible that Schneider’s information is slightly off and instead of playing the serial killer, Stan could be playing Charles Victor Szasz who is also known as Victor Sage or The Question. How’s that for a twist? The bottom line here is that Schnieder is hearing this from an insider, and it has not been confirmed by any official source and I wouldn’t put it past film studios to start leaking false information to protect a movie that is just starting to film. I think this one stays in the, “take with a grain of salt” category and we wait to find out more.  ...

06/06/26 @ 2:40 pm EST

Source: Original Report on Nexus Point News | Categories: Battlestar Galactica

DC Studios and their co-head James Gunn have talked about a lot of potential series and films with some of them being mentioned and then sort of forgotten about. One of those seemed to be Paradise Lost, a Wonder Woman prequel series showing life on Themyscira before the birth of Diana. Though after its initial mention, the project hadn’t been talked about in a while and someone asked Gunn its fate. Gunn insisted the project was still in the works and now we are seeing some possible confirmation. Back in 2024, two names were attached as writers on the series Kira Snyder and Janet Lin and now, according to the WGA website, both are set to work on Paradise Lost for 2027-2028. Snyder is known for writing and producing on The Handmaid’s Tale and The 100 while Lin has credits on Bridgerton, Cursed, and Bones. There has been talks recently about trying to fast track a new Wonder Woman film and while there is no confirmation, rumors persist that the character may debut in Man of Tomorrow, so seeing Paradise Lost finally moving forward would make a lot of sense. 

05/30/26 @ 2:41 pm EST

Source: Forbes | Categories: Battlestar Galactica

Sony’s new Spider-Noir series has out done the MCU when it comes to fans. According to Forbes, the new Nicholas Cage lead series with him playing a 1930s variant of Spider-Man has garnered the highest audience score of all Marvel related television projects on Rotten Tomatoes. In the new series, Cage plays detective Ben Reilly who used to be the web-swinging hero called The Spider but hung up his mask after the death of his fiancée. Audience have really taken to the series that is available in both color and B&W, giving it a 93% (a point higher than when Forbes did their article) and even scored well with the critics at 92%. While the critic score is impressive, other Marvel projects have done better such as X-Men ’97 with a 99% score and Ms. Marvel with a 98% among critics. But on the audience side, 93% is tops beating out shows like Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil (Netflix) and WandaVision. While there has been no word on a second season, it would be hard for Amazon and Sony to ignore results like this. 

05/30/26 @ 2:08 pm EST

Source: Threads | Categories: Battlestar Galactica

James Gunn, co-head of DC Studios and writer/director of the upcoming Man of Tomorrow film, was back on social media this week answering questions and one in particular stood out. A Threads user named “boyturizmo” asked, “Will we ever see General Zod, Doomsday, Dr. Fate, Black Adam, Ultraman (with his Crime Syndicate) or Darkseid?” Gunn replied, “Two of them in not too long…” This of course led to a ton of speculation on which two and where? Now the obvious one is Darkseid, and while Gunn has said his DCU isn’t building toward a big Thanos like battle with Darkseid, the character is going to be appearing in the upcoming animated series Mr. Miracle. The series is in production with comic writer Tom King onboard as the showrunner and he recently showed off a clip to interviewer Brandon Davis, who did not share what he saw. Mr. Miracle is an escape artist raised on Darkseid’s planet Apokolips who falls in love with a warrior woman named Big Barda and they escape to Earth. Though no casting has been announced for the series, Gunn has stated that the animated series are cannon to the DCU and actors cast in the animated shows, like Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., would carry over into live action like Grillo did in both Peacemaker and Superman.   As for the second character we will see soon, it is possible that Gunn could bring back more characters from the DCEU and have Dwayne Johnson return as Black Adam or Pierce Brosnan don the helmet of Dr Fate once more. And Ultraman could return from the black hole he was sucked into… but I think the most likely possibility will be in flashbacks to Krypton, possibly in Supergirl, where we could see General Zod cameo in a scene with Jor-El (Bradley Cooper) and Zor-El (David Krumholtz) discussing the fate of the planet and how to handle it. This would be a great scene for world-building… though part of me really wants Brosnan back as Fate.  ...

05/24/26 @ 1:45 pm EST

Source: Deadline | Categories: Battlestar Galactica

With The Batman Part 2 going into early production, fans are eager for news, information and confirmations and we may just have one thanks to one of the newcomers to the franchise, Sebastian Stan. It’s been rumored for months that the actor who has played everything from Bucky Barnes to Donald Trump to Tommy Lee was moving to Gotham in the role of District Attorney Harvey Dent aka coin-flipping villain Two-Face, and while his casting was confirmed by director Matt Reeves a few days back, we have not had an official announcement on the part he will be playing. While speaking to Deadline about his film Fjord, Stan spoke a bit about his summer plans which include a trip to London to work with Reeves where he says he will be playing “many roles in this one”. The article states that he’s talking about the role of Dent and how the character transforms from D.A. to villain when acid is thrown in his face by mobster Salvadore Maroni. Stan goes on to say, ”I’m excited, I’m nervous and trying to keep surprising myself.” He also he has been working with hair and make-up already trying to figure out how his disfigurement will look. Stan doesn’t come out and say in the quotes that he’s playing Two-Face, but Deadline strongly implies it and are one of the sites that had been reporting that he had been cast in the role early on. The Batman Epic Crime Saga, as Reeves calls it, does have one hitch to overcome. During The Penguin series on HBO Max, Maroni was played by Clancy Brown and does not make it through the series. So, either the attack on Dent takes place prior to the events we’ve already seen portrayed or Reeves is going to change up who throws the acid. Not a huge problem but it will be interesting to see how the moment will be handled if we end up seeing it at all. The Batman Part 2 is beginning to film and is on track for an October 2027 release.  ...