from SCI FI Wire:
SCI FI Channel has given a green light to Caprica, ordering 20 hours of the much-anticipated prequel to its hit series Battlestar Galactica, the network announced.
The drama, which kicks off with a two-hour pilot movie, stars Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson and Polly Walker.
Set 50 years before the events in Battlestar Galactica, Caprica follows two rival families — the Graystones and the Adamas — as they grow, compete and thrive in the vibrant world of the 12 Colonies, a society recognizably close to our own.
Enmeshed in the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons, the two houses go toe to toe in a series that blends action with corporate conspiracy and sexual politics.
Production on the series is slated to begin in the summer of 2009 in Vancouver, Canada, for a 2010 premiere. Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights) directed the pilot.
As the series begins, a startling development is about to occur — the creation of the first cybernetic lifeform node, or “Cylon” — the ability to marry artificial intelligence with mechanical bodies.
Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) — father of future Galactica commander William Adama (Sina Najafi) — is a renowned civil liberties lawyer and becomes an opponent of the experiments undertaken by the Graystones, led by a patriarch played by Eric Stoltz, who are owners of a large computer corporation that is spearheading the development of the Cylons.
Caprica is produced by Universal Cable Productions and executive-produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick (Battlestar Galactica) and Remi Aubuchon (24). The pilot is co-written by Aubuchon and Moore.