SCI FI Channel has given the go-ahead to “Caprica,” a prequel of “Battlestar Galactica” in the form of a two-hour backdoor pilot, and has signed Rosario Dawson to develop “True Believer,” the pilot for a proposed series based on a comic book she co-created.
The network also said it’s developing two more scripted pilots that could become series: “The Stranded,” the first project of a joint venture created last year by Sci Fi and Virgin Comics to put together comic books with TV potential, and “Deputized,” a comedy drama about an Everyman who accidentally gets special powers that he uses as a member of an intergalactic police force.
And the writer-director Nick Willing and his exec producers Robert Halmi Sr. and Jr., who created Sci Fi’s runaway-hit miniseries “Tin Man,” based loosely on “Wizard of Oz,” have agreed to tackle “Alice in Wonderland” as the source of another potential mini. SCI FI will call it “Alice.”
“Battlestar Galactica” is concluding its 3½-year run with 20 final episodes this year. Its “Caprica” prequel begins production in Vancouver in the spring. Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, the executive producers of “Galactica,” will join with Universal Media Studios to work on “Caprica.” Rene Aubuchon will co-write the “Caprica” pilot with Moore, and Jeff Reiner will direct it. Casting begins soon.
“True Believer” focuses on a comic book nerd who hires a down-at-heels superhero, the duo pairing up to become crime fighters. Dawson is executive producer, and her co-author on the Image Comics book “Occult Crimes Task Force,” David Atchinson, will write the script of “Believer” with Matthew Spradlin and Tom Feister.
