Battlestar Galactica

There is so much news going on right now, I don’t know where to start!

First of all, there will (probably) be two more Battlestar Galactica telemovies, but very few details are available yet.  They will be about events that have happened in the past, like Razor, but what events and who they will focus on is largely still a mystery.  I will definitely have more details in the weeks and months to come, but for now let’s just enjoy the news that more BSG is on the horizon.

Next, Ron Moore has a new interview with Wired magazine that contains this disturbing quote:

Wired: Since then, have you written yourselves into any corners?

Moore: Some of that is happening right now as we wrap up the show. It’s like, OK, what did that mean, exactly? How do we get out of this?

Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary has a long post about “Gaeta’s Lament,” the song that is very important to Friday’s episode.  He also confirms that this song, and many of the other ideas that have worked their way into this season, were ideas that were formed during after hours of drinking.

Katee Sackhoff has been cast as a doctor on a four-episode story arc of the bawdy plastic surgery drama Nip/Tuck.  If you have seen that show, you know that Katee’s extensive experience doing sex scenes on Battlestar may come in handy.  Unless, of course, sister guest star Morgan Fairchild beats her to it.

The first United States promo for Life on Mars is out, and you can see a brief glimpse of Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen at the 2:06 minute mark.

Michelle Forbes brought her sexy self to the season finale of Lost, playing a pivotal role in the Oceanic Six story line.

Be sure to look for Callum Keith Rennie (Leoban) in the recently released trailer for X-Files 2: I Want to Believe.

There’s a lot more to cover, but we have time to catch our breaths as there are two weeks before the next episode.  If you are looking for something to help you pass the time, check out this “Faith” recap quiz over at GeekSugar.

ABC gave Life on Mars, Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen, a fabulous time for the fall.  The remake of the critically acclaimed BBC show will air on Thursdays at 9 CST, right after ratings titan Grey’s Anatomy. 

Life on Mars is the network’s only new scripted show for the fall as well, which pretty much guarantees the show (and hopefully Stephanie) will receive great media attention and publicity.

But everything is not golden yet.  As Katee Sackhoff learned with Bionic Woman, even a great pedigree and a great time slot can’t guarantee success.  There are already a few warning signs that the show may have some of Bionic’s problems, as insiders admit the pilot is more serious than they would like (this was a huge criticism of the Bionic pilot). 

Also producers from a character-driven soap have been brought in to take over Life on Mars.  It was announced earlier this week that the producers of October Road are supposed to humanize Life, in the same way Jason Katims from Friday Night Lights was supposed to strengthen the characters on Bionic Woman.

Hopefully the similarities between the show’s fates will end there, as it would be great to see more people discover Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen … and another quality show is always a welcome addition to the world around here.

Stephanie’s new horror movie, currently known as “Untitled Gehennis Project” is now is post production.  The movie stars a huge cast that includes Cuba Gooding Jr. and is directed by Jason Connery.  If all goes as planned the movie will have an official title in the next few months and a release date in 2009.

It is official!  Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen’s new show, the David E. Kelly remake of the BBC drama Life on Mars, has been picked up by ABC.  While industry experts considered this to be a predictable move, fans of Stephanie’s performance as Kendra Shaw in Razor were still relieved to have ABC confirm the commitment at yesterday’s Upfronts in New York City.

Life on Mars was a huge critical hit on the BBC, and the remake will continue the original’s combination of elements of scifi time-travel theories with classic police procedural plot points.  The premise is that an car accident causes a police detective to go back in time to the 1970s, but audience is never sure if the guy has gone into a coma, gone back in time, or gone to a mental institution. 

The BBC drama ended without the question being answered to everyone’s satisfaction, but the remake is more likely to emphasize the drama of human relationships than the drama of time travel.  David E. Kelly is not known for his scifi/fantasy roots, and the primary executive producers are reportedly from October Road.  While I was one of the few viewers who loved October Road, primarily because the great lighting and fascinating supporting cast made up for the fact that the leads were as charismatic as manufactured sponges, I am not too confident in their ability to manage an intricate scifi serial.

For the sake of Stephanie and all of the scifi fans out there who are already rooting for this to succeed, I hope I am wrong.  Life on Mars has a lot of potential … it would be great of the show lived up to its promise.

Stephanie Chaves Jacobsen is shedding her Kendra Shaw persona from Battlestar Galactica: Razor and taking on another soldier role: she will play an elite soldier named Yoshi in an upcoming horror film starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Taryn Manning. 

The movie is directed by Sean Connery’s son Jason Connery, and is reportedly in post-production and scheduled for a 2009 release.  What the film does not have yet is a title, which is why it is typically referred to as “Untitled Gehenna Project” on most sites … although Jason Connery’s official site implies the film’s name may be Pandemic.

Based on the description, the film is a military horror film with some scifi elements:  “An elite group of soldiers on a covert mission to retrieve a scientist from an underground lab encounter an ancient evil in the facility.” 

If the tentative title and subject matter are any indication, expect the film to be at least slightly concerned with unethical experiments and their unintended consequences.  So in a way, the subject matter of her new project is a bit like the creepy Cylon lab that young William “Husker” Adama discovers in the flashbacks of Battlestar Galactica: Razor.

As previously reported on WatchingBSG, Stephanie also has an upcoming role in David E. Kelly’s remake of the critically acclaimed British drama Life on Mars.  Although ABC has yet to approve the BBC remake for the fall 2008 schedule, the show is highly anticipated and is still expected to be greenlit before the hot months hit.

Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen captured Battlestar Galactica fans’ attention with her role as Kendra Shaw in the BSG movie, Razor.  And it seems her Angelina Jolie-esque lips and Lara Croft-like accent helped her catch television production legend David E. Kelley’s attention as well.

Kendra has landed a role in Kelley’s highly anticipated Life on Mars, a remake of the critically-acclaimed BBC series by the same name.  The premise is that an car accident causes a police detective to go back in time to the 1970s, but audience is never sure if the guy has gone into a coma, gone back in time, or gone to a mental institution.  The show is part scifi part police procedural, and with that kind of pitch you can see how it got a green light in the current television climate.

Life on Mars was originally scheduled as a mid-season replacement, but now it has been pushed back due to the writers’ strike.  No word on how big Stephanie’s role will be, but landing such a high profile gig is good news for her hopes to do more work in the United States and Canada.

Kelley’s previous television hits have included Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, Chicago Hope, L.A. Law, Doogie Howser, M.D., and several other shows that you have undoubtedly at least heard of … and his director for this project is Jonathan Schlamme, who has spent the last decade filming witty dialogue on Aaron Sorkin’s various endeavors.  Additional cast members include Irish actor Colm Meaney, who played Chief O’Brian on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.

Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen plays Kendra Shaw, the character at the center of events in Razor the Battlestar Galactica telemovie that will be shown on the SciFi Channel this fall. Kendra is a Pegasus crew member whose presence provides the catalyst for flashbacks that provide significant, and potentially sexy, background stories for various events.

Battlestar Galactica fans who like spoilers should click here, Battlestar Galactica fans that want to avoid them should just know that signs indicate that Kendra’s significance for the series will extend into season four.

Stephanie was born in Hong Kong in 1980, and has previous scifi experience playing Nurse Froy in Farscape. She is often listed in credits as Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen, but depending on what you read she may have dropped the Chaves for the Battlestar Galactica credits. Additional television credits include being a celebrity competitor on the Weakest Link and characters on Australian television series such as Headland, Pizza, and Home and Away.

In 2002 Stephanie was nominated for a Logie Award, the Australian version of the Emmys, for Most Popular New Female Talent for her performance as Dr. Charlotte Adams on the Australian soap show Home and Away.

Since she left Far and Away, Stephanie has been doing theater work in Australia. She starred in the Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin play Savage/Love and she also played The Pearl Concubine in Empress of China.

All of that pales for the inevitable media whirlwind that will begin to spin as Razor draws near, however. We can only assume that we will learn much more about the mysterious Miss Stephanie come November.

Battlestar Galactica, Razor, scifi, Kendra Shaw, Stephanie Jacobsen, Sam Shepard, Empress of China, Joseph Chaiken, Savage Love, Charlotte Adams, Logie, Weakest Link, Pizza, Home and Away