Time for a Battlestar Rewatch?

How in the fresh Cylon hell has it been 17 years since Battlestar Galactica finished its run? It was talked about a lot here on MNPP in our early years -- especially Jamie Bamber dropping that towel, that was a very popular subject -- but to be truthful I haven't watched a minute of the show again since it finished its run. I think I watched some but not all of the short-lived spin-off Caprica? I guess that's why it was so short-lived! Anyway news has landed today that the show is hitting streaming -- this can't be for the first time, can it? -- at Paramount+ and Pluto TV on May 1st, so perhaps a re-watch is finally in order. The world inexplicably feels more dystopian than it did during the GWB presidency, which is what that show was of course riffing on -- I feel like it might have entirely new lessons to impart here in 2026. All I know is we should throw our fucking President out of the airlock, full stop. 

Joel Kinnaman For Mankind

.

Joel Kinnaman, as appealing as he is -- and he is very appealing -- hasn't seemed to be able ti find That Role, the breakout one. Insert your own commentary here about white dudes getting a million and one chances -- point being he's got yet another new TV show hitting soon, and I'd say this one seems promising but I thought Altered Carbon looked promising so what do I know? (The answer is super totally nothin, since I haven't even watched Altered Carbon myself, proving I am a cog in the problem.) Anyway Joel's new show is from Battlestar Galactica reboot whiz Ronald D. Moore and it's called For All Mankind and here is the first trailer:

.

.

That trailer's actually like two months old so I'm not exactly on top of things again -- I only stumbled upon it when I stumbled upon a couple new photoshoots of Joel that are properly new. 

One of the photoshoots is for Men's Journal and they have a very fine set video on their site to go along with the shoot, plus I guess an interview with Joel or whatever, click here for all that. Anyway there's no word on when For All Mankind will drop, Apple TV is being sketchy about their slate of programming -- all we know is sometime this fall. Until then we'll have to make due with these photo-shoots of Joel, hit the jump for the rest...

Joel Kinnaman and the Space Jockeys

.

If you want to watch something created by Battlestar Galactica creator Ron Moore again but Outlander isn't your thing - and Outlander ins't my thing, despite the valiant attempts to make it so by the cum-gutters of Sam Heughan - then perhaps this news will bring on a smile to your own cum-gutters: Moore is making a sci-fi show (as of yet untitled) for Apple about "a world where global space race never ended." I hope they title it Space Force, personally. (Thx Mac) The show will star Joel Kinnaman here (along with his own cum-gutters presumably), as well as the attractive ginger Kiwi Michael Dorman who was apparently in The Water Diviner with Jai Courtney's Mustache. So that is a thing to look forward to! Until then let's all stare at these pictures of Joel being all butch in Men's Health recently right here after the jump... 

Outer Space Babes

.

Not sure when this actually happened (and I'd like to know so I can rewind time and BE RIGHT THERE) but yesterday Tahmoh Penikett tweeted this picture of his Battlestar Galactica reunion with Michael Trucco, Jamie Bamber, and James Callis! This makes me miss that show so much. Or at least it makes me miss the locker-room scenes of that show so much. What, they couldn't have their reunion at the baths? Selfish.

.

Who Wore It Best?

.

.

I can't take credit with realizing this bit of synergy between naked Marvel actors -- this Tumblr is to thank, actually -- but clearly what the world needed was a towel-off between Loki and Captain America, and here we are. In case you missed what the Tom Hiddleston shot is from we literally just posted a new trailer for High-Rise that contains that show; as for Mr. Evans, you can see much much more of all that business in our posts here and here on the 2011 film What's Your Number. Oh and if you want to write-in Jamie Bamber in Battlestar Galactica, go to town!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Battlestar Galactica (2004)

Commander William Adama: There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people. 

Well that's a timely line of dialogue right there, isn't it? I've been thinking a lot about BSG this week. I actually decided the other day to download the original series to watch; since it was before my time I've never seen it. Amazon has the reboot we do know and love on super-sale this week - the whole series for 90 bucks on bluray!!! Picture it, Jamie Bamber and his slipping towel...

... for just 90 bucks! Now that's a bargain.

.

I Am Link

.

--- Oh My - Big news from production house Wild Bunch out of Cannes today - they're bank-rolling a sequel to Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, which will be written by Trainspotting author Irving Welsh and directed by music-video legend Jonas Akerman and called Spring Breakers: The Second Coming. (Lord that title.) But that's not all! Gaspar Noe's making a threesome-movie called Love, and most excitingly of all - Paul Verhoeven has a new movie in the works! And it sounds super Verhoeveny - it's an adaptation of a French novel called Oh! about a businesswoman getting revenge on her rapist. Be afraid slash excited.
.

--- Off Dick - Michel Gondry isn't going to adapt Philip K. Dick's book Ubik anymore - he says he got a draft of the script from the writers which convinced him the book is unfilmable. Good work, writers! Then again I ain't never read that book so's what do I know? I just wanted a Michel Gondry Philip K. Dick movie, was all.

--- Kill Them All - Maniac Madness has broken out over at Final Girl! (That's kind of like Freak Fever, but with fewer pustules.) Stacie's got us voting on our favorite murderous ghouls, goblins, gals and so forth, step on over and make your opinions known! This first round has chubby Cenobites and possessed floor lamps. Yes please.

--- Death Stars - AICN is reporting that the working title for JJ Abrams' new Star Wars movie is Star Wars Episode VIII: The Ancient Fear. Their source says, and I quote, that "it refers to Max Von Sydow's villain who makes Pazuzu look like a pussy!" Mkay. On a related note, you did all see Kirsten Dunst's Star Wars dress at the Met Gala last night right? She wins everything, all the awards. I looooove it.

--- Gunk Love - John Lithgow says that he turned down the lead role in David Cronenberg's The Fly because he found it just too "icky." I mean... it is icky, so it's not like he's off-base or anything. I love John Lithgow (I really need to write up my thoughts on Love is Strange, dammit) but I'm glad that this part went to Jeff Goldblum in the end - Lithgow never would've brought the disturbing sexiness that Goldblum did.

--- Mo Oh Ses - I've seen The Ten Commandments way more times than any atheist should admit to, but what can I say - Anne Baxter, you guys. So I ate up Andrew's post on that very subject over at The Film Experience. I ate it right up!

--- The Fault in Shaileene - I knew I couldn't stand Shaileene Woodley for a reason! Her whole crunchy granola deodorant-free existence was irritating enough to me, but now she said some dumb-ass shit about feminism, which Pajiba rips to shreds hilariously - I was right all along. You guys need to trust my instincts.

--- Daily Dork - Saving this article for myself to read during lunch - here's The Daily Beast on fan culture and Battlestar Galactica and George RR Martin's books that little TV show those spawned and how those things changed the world of geekery.

--- Mountain Movie - The director of The Great Beauty, a movie I loved, is working on his next film and is snatching up a bunch of big-name Hollywood-type stars for it - Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano, Harvey Keitel and Michael Caine will star in Youth (aka In the Future), and it's about two old friends (Keitel and Caine) vacationing in the Alps. Hey if I could make any movie I wanted to after a rousing success I'd make a movie set in the Alps too, just to hang out there as long as possible.

--- And Speaking of The Great Beauty director, his right-hand man on that film is making his own first movie now, and he snatched up no less than Juliette Binoche to star in it! It's called The Wait and it's about a mother facing off with her son's fiancee, and it's set in Sicily. Similarly I would set my movie in Sicily so I could hang out in Sicily. Really, I'm just ready for another vacation already, seems to be the thing.

--- And finally, I was waiting to see if they'd release the entire video (and they probably will five minutes after I post this) but here's a snippet of the new Arcade Fire video, which stars Andrew Garfield in (and out, most importantly out) of drag:

.

.

Good Morning, World

.

It's been awhile since we checked in with Battlestar Galactica's resident towel-slinger Jamie Bamber - his birthday was about a week and a half ago (I missed it when I was out of town) so a happy belated to him! These are from a British program called The Smoke that he's on right now, where he's playing a firefighter who was injured badly in a fire who's trying to return to work.

Anyone seen the show? Jamie's also taken to Twitter to promote it the way every actor should promote their shows...

Good Morning, World

.

Can anybody tell me why Ben Browder (who is turning 51 today) has never become a big star? Anybody? What is it with stars of science-fiction programs being unable to break out anyway? I'm still waiting for Katee Sackhoff's career. (Ugh at the way her character was nothing but fodder for molestation in Riddick.) Anyway see a little bit more of Ben here.

.

Riddick You Less

.

I went to Riddick hoping one thing above all else - that all the Vin Diesel in the trailer was actually a sleight of hand and it'd end up being Starbuck Fights Monsters: The Movie. It is sadly not that.

But let me get back to that in a sec - in all seriousness I love Pitch Black and I figured maybe they'd learned their lesson with the overblown Chronicles of Riddick and this would be a return to the first movie's smaller scale. In a weird way, Riddick actually ends up straddling both films - the first half is pretty gangbusters, with its itty bitty love affair between boy and dog (reminiscent of the good first part of I Am Legend, actually), as the two creatures suss out the harsh world they find themselves in. There's a terrifying flashback to events from Chronicles that momentarily murders the well-established mood (terrifying solely because I didn't need to be reminded of Chronicles at all, not even if yes it gives us Karl Urban in eyeliner) but mostly the first half of Riddick is lo-fi man and his dog versus a monster storytelling, and director David Twohy generally knows how to wring tension out of a moist toilette of a story as long as things are kept simple.

But then a crowd of bounty hunters show up and the inevitable apparently inescapable riffing on Aliens begins and it becomes a pretty by-the-numbers affair, with single characteristic'd cardboard cut-outs lumbering around waiting to be offed. Most sadly of all is what they actually do with Katee Sackhoff, an actress I loved on Battlestar and I've weep for in the years post-Battlestar where nobody's taken her up on her promise - pretty much every single line of dialogue involving her is about her being a lesbian, or someone wanting to have sex with her. Here's how her scenes go. "I wanna fuck you, lady. "I don't fuck guys!" "You'll fuck me!" "I will not, due to me lesbianism!" "Lesbian schmesbian!" " Dyke McGee, that is me!" It is totally, utterly beyond believably ridiculous.

And what do you know, in the end Vin Diesel (yes Vin Diesel, who "only dates in Europe") is just too much man for her not to wrap her legs around. The horror.

That aside (although that's a big, huge aside, you guys! It is 2013, right?) Twohy still manages to keep things moving and give us a couple of edge-of-seat set-pieces amid the tomfoolery. The monsters have a terrific design (the scorpian tail with the clacking face!) but they could've used a lot more actual personality - when it was just one in the first section it had some, but like everything in the second half it just becomes Too Much, and suddenly there's a billion of them that're offed with ease, an inkily pixilated mash spotted amid lightning flashes.

The most disappointing thing about the movie is, it was obviously a passion project for Diesel so there is a lot of very strange personality grafted onto the routine SyFy trappings, and I wish it let its freak flag fly a little bit more, instead of getting bogged down in third act over-the-top shenanigans with way too many characters and monsters. It needed more of the side-eyes about "riding bitch" and of Diesel airing his butt-cheeks in the distance on a mountain top beside a lovingly painted sunset. There was a real Creature Feature for the ages tied up dying to get out here. As is, there are embers that singe your eyes every now and then.
.

I Am Link

.

--- Scoot Catches Fire - Scoot McNairy, who's coming off quite a year movie-wise having rocked Argo and Killing Me Softly, has just joined the cast of Lee Pace's TV show Halt & Catch Fire that I told you about the other day. Sounds like he's the co-lead. Yes please, this is very fine news.

--- Laugh Once For Yes - Over at The Film Experience Beau took on the trailer for Frances Ha "Yes No Maybe So" style; y'all know I am nothing but Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes, so head over there for someone who won't make you crazy.

--- Ghost House - I loved Monster House and think it might be an inspired choice, picking its director to remake Poltergiest. Or it could be awful, who knows. Since it can't have Zelda Rubinstein in it, her being dead and all, it's already got a huge uphill battle.

--- Green Thumbs - I guess it wasn't official when we blogged about it back in January, and now it is - Kate Winslet will indeed be starring opposite our beefy Belgian boyfriend Matthias Schoenaerts in A Little Chaos, about rival horticulturalists in 17th Century France. Alan Rickman is directing it.

--- Dead Dad Drama - Shawn Levy is lining up quite the cast for his funeral comedy This Is Where I Leave You about a family reuniting for the death of their patriarch - Jane Fonda plays the widow, while Tina Fey and Jason Bateman and Corey Stoll (mmm Corey Stoll) play three of her four kids (the fourth isn't cast yet I don't think).

--- Tweet Whedon - Hopefully Joss Whedon's giant yet cuddly ego won't let him quit once he's done promoting the movie - he's finally begun tweeting under the guise of the Twitter account for his Much Ado About Nothing movie, which you can hit up right here.

--- South Korean Superstar - Hey here's an interview with Park Chan-wook, that dude who directed Stoker, that movie I was really excited about and saw a whole week ago and totally enjoyed it and then never wrote anything else about, huh, how about that. I totally intend to write something today, I pinky swear.

--- Snow Bug - Ron Moore, the co-creator of the fantastic Battlestar Galactica remake, is making a new series for SyFy - it's called Helix and it's about a group of scientists in Antarctica dealing with some sort of out of control virus. You'd be forgiven for immediately thinking of The Thing, since it kinda owns snow-bound petri dish storytelling. And there's a picture of Tahmoh just because he should obviously be in it, wearing only that, frostbite be damned.

--- Screen Savers - Gothamist lists the twelve best movie theaters in New York. I know they show great shit and all but the Film Forum is just an awful way to see a movie. So cramped and such tiny screens. My favorite places to see movies are the Ziegfeld (seeing Oz the Great and Powerful there tomorrow!) and the Walter Reade theater in Lincoln Center. The screens at MoMA aren't bad either.

--- And finally, here's the first trailer for Eli Roth's werewolf series for Netflix, Hemlock Grove. I haven't watched this yet myself. All of the episodes drop on April 19th.

.

Missing Bamber Is Easy Cuz He's...

.

Of course it took me no time, negative time, inverse time, for my brain to go from that last post looking at the brand new Battlestar Galactica prequel to wander back the Bamber way. Where have you gone, Jamie Bamber, Jamie Bamber? A nation turns it's lonely eyes loins to you. Aww shucks now I miss the whole gang...

... especially Tahmoh's ginormous guns.

.

Blood and Chrome and Group Showers

.

As we mentioned the other day would be happening, the first two chapters of the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Blood and Chrome are now online, via the YouTube, you can see them there... or here, even! It took practically no time at all for them to get Luke Pasqualino (as the young Bill Adama) shirtless.

.

.

I Am Link

.

--- Horny Bastard - There's a new batch of on-set shots of Danny Radcliffe in Horns online, see 'em over here. I love their dedication to that hint of chest-hair they've given his character; it's really taking it over the top for me. I finally read this book a few weeks ago by the way; it was pretty good. I look forward to seeing what they do with it, movie-wise, anyway.

--- Juno Loves Chachi - Diablo Cody sold a sitcom to ABC. It sounds dumb on paper - girl in her 30s dates guy in his 20s! - but I groaned at a show about a mom with multiple personality disorders before Tara, too.

--- Z Is For Lots of Zeroes - AICN has the first snippets of footage from World War Z, the ridiculously expensive zombie movie starring Brad Pitt that's been having some behind-the-scenes drama, as well as a look at what could handily win the title The World's Most Boring Teaser Poster Ever.

--- Cylon Cometh - They also have the details on the long-delayed Battlestar Galactica prequel Blood and Chrome, which stars airing online this Friday on YouTube. There are ten chapters that will be released through February, and then SyFy will edit them into a movie version.

--- Han Goofy - One of the things I missed being essentially off-line last week was the whole "Disney buys George Lucas and will make a thousand Star Wars movies" thing, which, well my first reaction was that sounds great! Maybe they can get somebody to make a good one now. I wouldn't mind Star Wars being like James Bond, continuing forever. The world is big enough. Anyway Harrison Ford says he'd totally play Han Solo again, so there's that.

--- Faster Dom - Our boyfriend Dominic Cooper has a new role - he's joined the racing video game adaptation Need For Speed opposite Aaron Paul; Dom will play an ex-NASCAR driver slash gear-head who makes fancy cars fancier for speed-freaks. Will we finally find out if he wears anything under his jumpsuit? Stay tuned.

--- Outdoors Infection -  [REC] co-director Jaume Balaguero has signed up to make Summer Camp, which sounds like a riff on the Cabin Fever genre of movies. Yes, please. Oh and did you know Balaguero's latest film Sleep Tight, which has gotten terrific reviews, is on demand to watch right now? I think that's what I might do tonight, actually.

--- And finally, proving themselves the awesomest movie chain in the history of ever once again, the Alamo Drafthouse has announced they will no longer allow people to go into movies if they show up late. I want to hug the stuffing right out of Tim League & Co. Now will they open their damn NYC locations already?
.

Good Morning, Cylon

.

A happy 52nd birthday to Callum Keith Rennie, who played Leoben the Cylon with a robo-hard-on for Starbuck in the Battlestar Galactica reboot. He's seemingly stayed very busy with TV work ever since, doing roles on everything from 24 to Californication to... there's a TV version of The Firm? Huh. Learn something new every day. We posted about him once before. And you can see several pics of Callum here, too.

Because It Just Came Up In Conversation

.

No other reason needed.

.

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... using the Lee Adama Moving Service 

- they're as tough as Apollo!

(via) Apparently Jamie Bamber is on some show called Body of Proof - let me rephrase that: apparently there is a show called Body of Proof, and Jamie Bamber is apparently on this show. And while he's on this show, he's only just now decided to take off some of his clothes, even though this show, which apparently exists, has existed for several episodes with Jamie Bamber on it. I don't know. It defies all logic. You have Jamie bamber for five seconds, you get him out of his clothes! God, it ain't rocket science. Anyway at least things have straightened themselves out now. Next stop: dropping the towel!

Dean Stockwell Three Times

.

A happy 76th birthday to the Cylon, the helpful hologram,

and the candy-colored clown. 

I Am Link

.

--- Blood Buddies - Over at The Film Experience Nat recapped this week's True Blood which I just watched last night; I really like the embrace of cheese that the show's gone for this season - that freeze-frame at the end was glorious. But it's Nat's mention of Jessica's arc that really got me tingling - I was dreading her and Hoyt busting up but what they're doing with her character is just fucking brilliant. And Fiona Shaw is such a rock-star. Okay if you want me to bitch about something, everything having to do with Lafayette and Jesus can get the fuck up off my TV right now. I hate that they turned my beloved possessed baby story into all that bullshit it became.

--- Hi Ya USA - Takashi Miike's latest movie Ninja Kids!!! (the exclamation points are part of the title, of course) is getting picked up for a US remake, apparently. I skipped NK!!! when it played at the New York Asian Film Festival earlier this year because I know Miike well enough to know which movies of his to skip. And for the reasons I skipped it I could see it making the translation to lowest common denominator American movie well. Lots of opportunities for getting bonked on the head, no doubt.

--- See Saw - Glenn watched Tobe Hooper's masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre this week and shared some thought upon it here. He even shoehorned in the opportunity to post that pic of Christian Bale in short white shorts doing sit-ups, so go give him some love.

--- Never Die Everdeen - Slash rounded up some post-teaser goodies for The Hunger Games, including a video of director Gary Ross talking about the teaser, and a viral site that's got an inexplicable symbol of some kind sitting there.

--- Fall Ahead - The time has come for Joe's first Fall Movie preview of the year! Celebrate! He touches upon Contagion and Warrior (my review here) and Drive (you guys really have no idea how bad I want to see Drive. It is killing me.) amongst others.

--- Ryan's Ride - Speaking of Drive, Film School Rejects - which calls the film "about as perfect as a movie can get" and say it works even better with a second viewing (where's my first?!?) got this tidbit from a Q&A with the director NW Refn - Ryan Gosling is working on Terrence Malick's next movie.It's gotta be better than The Tree of Life, right?

--- Nooses Up - Ronald D. Moore, one of the creators of the wonderful Battlestar Galactica remake that we here at MNPP have been missing lately for no specific reason other than it ruled, has gotten a Western picked up by ABC. It's called Hangtown and it sounds like Murder, She Wrote slash CSI set in the Wild West. Mkay. Just cast all BSG vets! I haven't seen Jamie Babmber take off his top in far far too long.

--- And finally, if you ever wanted to see what the director who made Nine Inch Nails' video for "Closer" would do with those dancing Kia hamsters, are you in luck! Mark Romanek made this commercial just for you. (via)

.

.

Momma Everdeen Be...

.

... the actress Paula Malcomson, who's probably best known for playing the mother on the Battlestar Galactica spin-off Caprica. Or maybe for playing the nasty adopted mother who drives off and abandons Haley Joel Osment in the woods in A.I.? Or perhaps it's Trixie on Deadwood? Anyway, she's playing Katniss and Prim's mother in The Hunger Games.

I was just having a conversation with the boyfriend about her a few weeks ago, because she guest-starred on Fringe and was terrific - she managed to make a very specific character that you cared about with very little time and material to work with. Anyway, I completely approve of this right here. Yes.

.