Sci-Fi orders "Caprica" pilot, sets renewals

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Sci Fi Channel Green-Lights Battlestar Galactica Prequel, Caprica
NBC Universal-Owned Cable Channel Also Teams Up with Rosario Dawson,
Tracy Morgan on New Shows; Rolls Out Major Digital Initiative
By Anne Becker 

Sci Fi Channel green-lit production on its Battlestar Galactica
prequel, Caprica.

With the original about to begin its final season, the network is set
to begin production on the two-hour prequel from its creators, Ronald
D. Moore and David Eick, this spring in Vancouver.

Sci Fi announced its plans at its annual upfront presentation to
advertisers and press in New York Tuesday night. It originally
announced its intention to do the show in April 2006.

Caprica is set 50 years before Battlestar Galactica and will follow
two rival families and the backstabbing and passion involved as they
evolve in the world of the 12 Colonies.

The show, from Universal Media Studios, is executive-produced by Moore
and Eick and co-written by Moore and Remi Aubuchon.

“We couldn’t be more excited to see this long-anticipated project get
off the ground,” Sci Fi executive vice president of original
programming Mark Stern said. “It’s an amazing script and, though
clearly inspired by the Battlestar mythology, it is not just a pale
spinoff. This is a smart, thought-provoking, emotional and compelling
character drama in its own right.”

At the upfront presentation, Sci Fi also announced that it signed
deals with Rosario Dawson, Tracy Morgan and other big names to produce
and host new shows.

Dawson, a well-known science-fiction fan, is developing two-hour
backdoor pilot True Believer, a dramedy about a comic-book geek who
teams up with a real-life superhero to save the world. She’s
executive-producing and making the show in partnership with David
Atchison, with whom she authored a comic book.

Also in the comic-book vein, Sci Fi is developing a two-hour pilot
called The Stranded based on a comic book it has been producing
through a wide-ranging partnership with Virgin Comics that began last
year. The show, like the comic, will track five regular people who
find out their entire lives have been lies.

Also on Sci Fi’s scripted-development slate are Deputized, a dramedy
about a regular guy who gets special powers from an exoskeleton, and
Alice, a six-hour miniseries retelling the classic, Alice in
Wonderland. The latter is from RHI Entertainment, which made Tin Man,
the network’s retelling of The Wizard of Oz that scored big ratings in
December.

Morgan signed on to host a new season of the network’s unscripted
show, Scare Tactics. The hidden-camera show ran for two successful
seasons after premiering in 2003 and now the Saturday Night Live alum,
who stars in NBC’s 30 Rock, will host its third.

Elsewhere on the unscripted front, Sci Fi green-lit second seasons of
Mind Control with Darren Brown and Ghost Hunters International.

Unscripted pilots in development include Endemol USA’s Estate of
Panic, a competition reality show that challenges seven contestants to
find millions of dollars in a huge, haunted estate; Idiot Box’s Brain
Trust, a reality show that tasks a bunch of geniuses with finding
novel solutions to ordinary problems; and Mystery of the Crystal
Skulls, a special with NBC News’ Lester Holt that debuts in May.