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Panel highlights: Script to screen … ‘Caprica’
“Caprica” pilot director Jeffery Reiner (“Friday Night Lights”) and star Esai Morales stared down a handful of “Battlestar Galactica” fans Saturday afternoon at a script-to-screen panel at the 2009 Austin Film Festival. Fielding softball questions about the “BSG” prequel series from USA Today blogger (and “BSG” fan) Whitney Matheson and tougher, more specific queries from those in attendance, the pair talked “Battlestar,” the Lakers, the series’ unusual marketing campaign (the pilot episode was released by Syfy on DVD in April although the series will not debut until January, 2010), co-star Eric Stoltz and “Glee.”
Here are some highlights:
On sci-fi: Morales says working on the series has awakened a dormant interest in the genre. “I enjoyed science fiction as a child, but as I got older, I kind of put it away; you know … like Halloween costumes.” Reiner admits he’s not a sci-fi fan, but can appreciate films such as “Westworld” and “The Omega Man.”
On the dark tone of the show: “This is Rome before the decline,” Reiner said. Morales talks about the “dread, weight and gravitas” in the show. “It mirrors a lot of what is happening today, sadly.” Neither panelists were regular “BSG” watchers. Reiner admits that he needed to have the mythology and technology explained to him while Morales gleaned details about his character from a post-series comic book. Reiner, after reading several of the upcoming seasons scripts, said he was surprised at how dark the writers were going at times.
On directing: “I could never do a mystery. It’d be all (expletive) up,” Reiner said. “You’d never know who killed who. I think abstractly. I use the script, but I’ll get way off book to get actors to find behavior, then steer them back to the script. It’s an organic way to do it. It’s being fairly brave. Knowing you’ll get back but being brave enough to find something else.”
Morales, who has directed “some short-form stuff,” would like to helm a “Caprica” episode in the future. He admits to being less-than-organized and not particularly driven to venture outside of acting, his area of expertise. He’s less inclined to direct a feature film, where you have to give up a year of your life and risk losing momentum in your acting career. Still he points to actor/directors such as Clint Eastwood and George Clooney. “I admire them because they get it done.”
Morales said that co-star Eric Stoltz was directing the episode currently shooting. Morales asked Stoltz who would be keeping an eye on Stoltz’s performance while he juggled directing chores. “He looked at me, thought, and said ‘you will’,” Morales recalled.
The pair differed on one aspect of the shooting — the sets. “A lot of it is completely artificial. That’s one thing I’d change. I’d like to shoot on live sets,” Reiner said. Morales however, said that “in a weird way, as an actor, it’s kind of liberating.”
On his character: In “Caprica,” Morales plays the father of “BSG’s” Adm. Adama (Edward James Olmos). “He starts out trying to assimilate into Caprican culture,” Morales says. “That doesn’t work. In mythology, he’s akin to Orpheus — that arc model where someone goes to Hades to find love. My character will take that kind of a journey.” Somebody told Morales that he is “channeling” Olmos’ Adama portrayal which amused him, since he didn’t study Olmos’ performance at all.
On Eric Stoltz: “I’m still getting to know him,” Morales said. “He’s very private.”
On the possibility of a musical episode: “You mean ‘BSGlee’?” Morales joked.
On the series’ originality, when it could have been derivative: “It’s the difference between being in space and being on planet Earth,” Reiner explained. “What kind of house do they live in? What kind of car do they drive? I was able to free my mind up. The fact that it wasn’t in space, that freed me up. It’s probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in terms of creative freedom.” He said that for club scenes, he would “harken back to ‘Sid & Nancy or my days in the LA punk scene. I wanted it to have that energy.”
On the Jan. 22, 2010 premiere: The pair claimed there would be some new stuff in the airing that we haven’t yet seen.
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