More Desanto questions

[larocque6689]

The following are items from Scooter's Singer/Desanto timeline. I could not corroborate ANY of it. Feedback welcome. If you heard it from Tom or other sources, please confirm!

1) Roles for George Murdock (Salik, & The X-Files), Dr. Wilker (recast), Terry Carter/Tigh

2) The existence of a Todd Moyer lawsuit over merchandising rights contract dating back to 1999

3) Rob Bowman (X-files, Reign of Fire) offering his services as pilot director (post-Singer)

4) Desanto being shown the door by Kissinger in early 2003. I don't care if it is impolite to ask this: did this happen? What happened? Details?

5) CaptainTripps/KornFan repeatedly posted info on a Baltar-replacement villain named Lt. Damian to be played by Michael Ironside. I heard none of this in the Galacticon accounts. Did you hear this from Tom? In a related question - what did Deasnto intend to use a human villain in the absence of Colicos?

[jewels]

Originally posted by larocque6689
The following are items from Scooter's Singer/Desanto timeline. I could not corroborate ANY of it. Feedback welcome. If you heard it from Tom or other sources, please confirm!

1) Roles for George Murdock (Salik, & The X-Files), Dr. Wilker (recast), Terry Carter/Tigh

No, No, and I thought someone said something about Tigh included. I know Terry stated he'd be willing to play Tigh again.

2) The existence of a Todd Moyer lawsuit over merchandising rights contract dating back to 1999

No mention

3) Rob Bowman (X-files, Reign of Fire) offering his services as pilot director (post-Singer)

I think 3 alternate directors were mentioned--I didn't take notes, but they were way above what Moore's mini got for a director. DeSanto's production wasn't lost to lack of available and willing directing talent.

4) Desanto being shown the door by Kissinger in early 2003. I don't care if it is impolite to ask this: did this happen? What happened? Details?

No mention and he is somehow contractually tied into the mini: likely some sort of non-compete (totally guessing everything after the colon in that statement).

5) CaptainTripps/KornFan repeatedly posted info on a Baltar-replacement villain named Lt. Damian to be played by Michael Ironside. I heard none of this in the Galacticon accounts. Did you hear this from Tom? In a related question - what did Deasnto intend to use a human villain in the absence of Colicos?

No Damian was mentioned by DeSanto--Apollo was to be the replacement for Baltar as he had been captured by the Cylons and had given up his free will to survive, gotten cyborged then risen through their ranks to be like Baltar had been. (Erik, Don, Tom: did I get that clearly?)

[LadyImmortal]

1) Roles for George Murdock (Salik, & The X-Files), Dr. Wilker (recast), Terry Carter/Tigh

Tigh was going to be in the series - it was mentioned by Tom that he would have lost the fight with the Council about settling on the asteroid after Adama died... I'm not sure what he would've done after that but I got the idea that he was 'there'. Salik & Wilker weren't mentioned (and PS, the guy who played Wilker was at Galacticon)

2) The existence of a Todd Moyer lawsuit over merchandising rights contract dating back to 1999

Didn't hear anything about this - Tom never mentioned it.

3) Rob Bowman (X-files, Reign of Fire) offering his services as pilot director (post-Singer)

He didn't mention specific directors other than Bryan...

4) Desanto being shown the door by Kissinger in early 2003. I don't care if it is impolite to ask this: did this happen? What happened? Details?

Nope, no details were given about how he was 'shown the door' either, other than that he was still contractually bound to the mini...

5) CaptainTripps/KornFan repeatedly posted info on a Baltar-replacement villain named Lt. Damian to be played by Michael Ironside. I heard none of this in the Galacticon accounts. Did you hear this from Tom? In a related question - what did Deasnto intend to use a human villain in the absence of Colicos?

No Lt Damian was mentioned at all by Moore. As Jewels stated, he did mention Apollo becoming the new 'bad guy' at least for the first season of the show - until Serina's appearance near the end of the first season where Apollo would have 'found himself' again. He had a place for Baltar, initially, until John Colicos passed...

--Rhonda

__________________

[michaelfaries]

Everyone should note: The script/production plans changed throughout the entire process. At one point, Adama was in the script; in another script, he wasn't present, etc. Everything was being constantly tweaked and changed. (And btw, Sir Ian McKellan's statement about Adama is fascinating, considering I had talking with Bryan Singer in mid-2001 about that casting prospect -- Sir Ian *did* know and had been talked with about it.)

In fact, I leaned over to Tom (conundrum7g) during the presentation to mention how things had changed "yet again."

Btw, John Dullaghan (Dr. Wilker) is a terrific individual to talk with. I asked him on Sunday about doing an interview or Q&A session when I get back up and running again. (Darrell, I'll pull you in when it's ready.) All of you may be interested to know why Dr. Wilker didn't have a stronger role in the show, particularly when the directors and producers really liked him and his character.

If there's one thing I implore event go'ers to do: *Talk* with these actors. They're human beings, too, and sometimes they enjoy sharing their incredible life experiences. And, yes: as I understood, Tom (like Richard) wanted these actors back, whether cameos or one-shot roles (or more), wherever possible.

With the Moore/Eick production, we would have had a cameo with Richard Hatch as the doctor who told Laura Roslin about her breast cancer, and Dirk as [I can't recall at the moment]. By the way, both gentlemen refused their cameo offers.

Michael
:colwar:

[larocque6689]

http://www.cylon.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=656

Here's the reference, Michael. Courtesy of Fletch2:

Earlier in the year when we were arguing over the supposed timeline of the DeSanto production I discovered that Sir Ian McKellen was not available at the time filming was to have taken place. As he could have filled a gap in his schedule at short notice I sent him an email to ask.

I wasn't really expecting an email in reply and didn't in fact get one. However he did receive my note and posted a statement of his website.

Rumour, 4 July 2003: There are rumors that Sir Ian was to have played Adama in the cancelled Singer/DeSanto TV movie of "Battlestar Galactica." Is there any basis in fact to these rumors?

Fact: "I scarcely knew about "BG" until it was cancelled and still know little about it. Any Singer/DeSanto project gets my interest."

-- Ian McKellen, 3 August 2003

the link is here.

http://www.mckellen.com/rumours/index.htm

[Gemini1999]

Originally posted by michaelfaries
Btw, John Dullaghan (Dr. Wilker) is a terrific individual to talk with. I asked him on Sunday about doing an interview or Q&A session when I get back up and running again. (Darrell, I'll pull you in when it's ready.) All of you may be interested to know why Dr. Wilker didn't have a stronger role in the show, particularly when the directors and producers really liked him and his character.

Michael -

Thank you for mentioning John - I didn't get to go to the con, but I was waiting to hear if he had actually showed up. I always liked Wilker for some reason. His appearances in BSG were brief and sparse, but the actor has has certain charisma that came across while on camera. He was not seen much, but certainly made a lasting impression for me.

BTW - It's nice to see you dipping back into the BSG forums a bit - I've been enojying what you've been doing with Space:1999.org and the other Anderson series sites you've been working on...

All the best,
Bryan
________
Kitchen Measures

[kingfish]

Originally posted by michaelfaries
Everyone should note: The script/production plans changed throughout the entire process. At one point, Adama was in the script; in another script, he wasn't present, etc. Everything was being constantly tweaked and changed. (And btw, Sir Ian McKellan's statement about Adama is fascinating, considering I had talking with Bryan Singer in mid-2001 about that casting prospect -- Sir Ian *did* know and had been talked with about it.)

In fact, I leaned over to Tom (conundrum7g) during the presentation to mention how things had changed "yet again."

Btw, John Dullaghan (Dr. Wilker) is a terrific individual to talk with. I asked him on Sunday about doing an interview or Q&A session when I get back up and running again. (Darrell, I'll pull you in when it's ready.) All of you may be interested to know why Dr. Wilker didn't have a stronger role in the show, particularly when the directors and producers really liked him and his character.

If there's one thing I implore event go'ers to do: *Talk* with these actors. They're human beings, too, and sometimes they enjoy sharing their incredible life experiences. And, yes: as I understood, Tom (like Richard) wanted these actors back, whether cameos or one-shot roles (or more), wherever possible.

With the Moore/Eick production, we would have had a cameo with Richard Hatch as the doctor who told Laura Roslin about her breast cancer, and Dirk as [I can't recall at the moment]. By the way, both gentlemen refused their cameo offers.

Michael
:colwar:

Didn't they want Dirk for the Paul Tigh role? The true Starbuck getting punched out by the "FAKE" one. Enough said.

[larocque6689]

Michael

I've spent countless hours piecing this together over the past few weeks. These questions are probably the last ones I'm going to ask. Could you take a look at them?

1) Roles for George Murdock and Dr. Wilker
2) Todd Moyer merchandising lawsuit
3) Rob Bowman offering services as pilot director
4) Desanto being shown the door by Kissinger in early 2001
5) Lt. Damian/Michael Ironside Colonial Baltar-like villain role

I recognize it may be impolite to ask #4. But the rumors are out there and I'd like to know if it is true.

Thanks and with much respect.

John

[michaelfaries]

Originally posted by larocque6689
Michael

I've spent countless hours piecing this together over the past few weeks. These questions are probably the last ones I'm going to ask. Could you take a look at them?

1) Roles for George Murdock and Dr. Wilker
2) Todd Moyer merchandising lawsuit
3) Rob Bowman offering services as pilot director
4) Desanto being shown the door by Kissinger in early 2003
5) Lt. Damian/Michael Ironside Colonial Baltar-like villain role

1.) Depends on the script version. Neither was formally approached for their role reprisals, although we would have seen one of them onscreen, imho.

2.) Beyond hearing that a lawsuit may have been filed, I don't know the specifics.

3.) To my knowledge, Rob Bowman was assigned to the project by FOX. It wasn't a matter of him offering his services; FOX told the BG production that Bowman was Singer's replacement.

4.) More like, can I get a meeting with you to find out what's happening? (But not being told what's actually went on at SCI-FI.) Believe me, the 2 April 2002 SCI-FI announcement (about the new production) came as a BIG surprise to Tom, just as it did to the rest of BG fans, especially since he had a May 2002 meeting slated with Studios USA.

5.) Check Scooter's synopses. Pieces of (his) puzzle matched what I'd heard from various production team members, including Tom. It's far more comprehensive information than I was privvy to, though, but I'd vouch for it. Was some of it designed to mislead those leaking info? Maybe. I doubt it, though.

Michael
:colwar:

[larocque6689]

Michael

When I returned to fandom (not long after your departure actually), I began looking for solid info on what happened to Desanto/Singer. A lot of the KORN_FAN2 stuff simply looked strange. However, I got the sense looking at the document "The Rise and Fall of Desanto/Singer" that it mostly hewed to the actual record. Sadly, there weren't a lot of other accounts of the period out there, so it was the most credible.

Recently, I was asked to research this project. I went through 18 months of official BSG.com notes posted on the ScFi forum (I ploughed through many miniseries notes as well). I looked at press clippings. And then I assembled my own chronology. After this was done, I then revisited Scooter's chronology and began pulling it apart and making note of what I could not verify.

Some of the script information I was able to verify with a few people, specifically Borg Cylons and Locutus Apollo. I described several months ago my take on the Desanto plot (after reading the info) as "Saga of a star world" but 25 years later. That mostly holds up.

Another thought: The fact is both Desanto and Moore have both deviated from the original series with respect to the Cylons, and both are essentially remaking the pilot episode with mostly new faces. I have defended both Desanto and Moore for the dramatic potential of these deviations. But that's another thread...

Anyway, my assessment of Scooter's document as it is currently edited at Cyllon.org is that it is about 85% accurate with the remainder unverifiable by checking with other sources. Hence my bringing it up here. I'm not authenticating (or discreding) him as an insider, merely providing footnotes and crossreferencing those statements with those that can be verified.

I am in no position to judge Scooter's motivations. I made that mistake a few months and won't repeat it.

Thanks for your response.

[kingfish]

John I always believed that Scooter worked for the DeSanto production team.

[michaelfaries]

Originally posted by kingfish
John I always believed that Scooter worked for the DeSanto production team.

He didn't. (Just so everyone knows.)

Michael
:colwar:

[larocque6689]

At the risk of irritating some people, I received an email from Scooter addressing two points raised above. I won't post them in total here, so I will simply summarize and let the thread rest:

Scooter's George Murdock comments were an educated speculation, given FOX had canceled his 4-year contact with the X-Files and that fans were looking for TOS actors on Desanto and that he was aavilable for work.

His comments on Locutus/Apollo mirror those of others made at the weekend. He said he believed it was Desanto's desire to cast Hatch in a recurring role in a prospective series, given FOX's reluctance to use TOS actors in the pilot.

[dvo47p]

Had a guy that was in on A DeSanto project, with or wthout Singer?

Some stuff I got from Scooter has indeed come to light, as in True.

[thomas7g]

If everyone agrees, lets keep the talk on the DeSanto part of this topic. Talking about problems we had with members are bound to bare old wounds. And really have nothing to do with Galactica, just this forum.

(points at the galactica)

FOLLOW THAT SHIP!!!!

[kingfish]

Why not ask Scooter? He is a member at my site.

[shiningstar]

I want to thank everyone who posted to this thread.
I had the same ? myself and am relieved to find them
answered in Part anyway here.