There was the ship’s therapist who was using a reality show as a means of getting the crew to open up. A married couple who like to have sex in unusual places, a ship’s doctor who himself is dying and the first gay couple in space.

Then casting was completed and some people, like the folks at Futon Critic got a first look and they liked what they saw. By December, though, things were looking rocky and word of a retooling began to circulate around the web.

Finally, in May of this year, we were told that Virtuality would be a movie event on Fox. With that, all hopes of the show going to series were dashed.

It’s been a long wait, folks, but the time has come. Ron Moore’s Virtuality airs tonight on Fox and so the stars Clea Duvall and Sienna Guillory sat down with reporters to talk about, this much talked about, project.

On their characters:

C. Duvall: I play Sue Parsons, who is the ship’s pilot. She definitely has sort of like a cocky, hotshot attitude, which was pretty fun to play.

S. Guillory: My character is Rika. She’s an exo-biologist which is kind of extreme gardening on a molecular level. But I’m trapped in this passionless marriage to the ship’s psychologist, so I use my virt module to fantasize about sex and intimacy. She’s introvert, oversexed, and I just think quite real. I mean, the fact that we’re geeks doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re particularly brilliant at handling our emotions. So I think we’re all prone to exploding emotionally, and I thought that our advanced kind of cerebral ability didn’t necessarily lend itself to us emotionally, and I think that that’s what’s nice about the story. There are huge big ideas, but we’re all very accessible people that are easily bruised.

Clea on how she approached the role:

On Virtuality, for me it was so much about getting to know the people that I was working with and getting comfortable with improv, which is something that I’ve never done before, but Peter Berg likes to work that way, just sort of letting scenes run and seeing what happens. I’ve never had so much freedom with the script. I mean, of course I said everything that was in the script, but being able to build on it and create more and find things that I didn’t even know were there until we were doing it was very exciting, and I think everyone was so good at that, and it really shows onscreen.

So it was a lot of kind of on-the-job training on this one. Any preparation I did had to be sort of thrown out the window and just putting the trust into my fellow actors and my director.

Sienna on working in an ensemble piece:

I was seduced by the idea of working in an ensemble, and the complete lack of limitation plot-wise, because anything can happen. Every single character has their own movie. And in virtual reality, your wildest dreams and fantasies can come true, so we all—it’s the fact that it’s limitless and entirely inspirational.

I haven’t ever worked with such a brilliant group of actors, and you know that if you do something stupid it’s just not going to be there, because someone else is doing something brilliant.

Clea on the environmental themes in Virtuality:

I think that the environment has been such a big issue, and I think people are taking more responsibility now, and hopefully the people that are going to see this and realize that, yes, this is a fictionalized show but dealing with a very real possibility – probability. And hopefully it will get more people to recycle or carpool or ride their bikes or whatever little steps we can do to reverse or at least slow down the damage that we have done and are doing.

Sienna on working with Ron Moore and Mike Taylor

I think that the creative imaginative genius that is Ron Moore and Mike Taylor, they’re so infectiously enthusiastic and …. They were so brave… they assumed that the audience was intelligent and demanding, which made us as an ensemble want to rise up and meet the challenge. So in those moments when we’re actually filming, we’re on set, they lent us that bravery, and they allowed us to inhabit the roles and just let rip with whatever stupid idea came into our minds, with the safety net of knowing that they’re more intelligent than we are and they’re going to take out the bad bits. So that was the freedom and that was the great thing about working on it.

Clea on the future of the characters:

There were little bits and pieces that we were given because I think we all had the hopes that it would continue. But they, Michael and Ron, didn’t really give away much. I think that we were all under such pressure to just do what we were doing, that thinking into the future was overwhelming at times. But there’s definitely a lot more to the story that, fingers crossed, we may be able to tell.

Virtuality airs tonight beginning at 8:00 on FOX.

Cast pictured L-R: Kerry Bishe, Ritchie Coster, Eric Jensen, Nelson Lee, Joy Bryant, Clea Duvall, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Sienna Guillory, James D’Arcy, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Gene Farber, Omar Metwally and Jimmi Simpson. ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Kharen Hill/FOX

Post from: SF Universe

Burning the pilot off in the summer was bad enough, but scheduling it on a holiday where the majority of the people in the US are outside watching fireworks – that was insult to injury.

Now, Fox has bumped the pilot movie back to June 26th, a better date but still not the sign of respect this expensive scifi thriller deserves.

Set aboard Earth’s first starship, the Phaeton, a crew of 12 astronauts is on the verge of embarking on an epic 10-year journey crucial to the survival of life on Earth. To give the crew a measure of privacy as well as a vital recreational outlet on the long journey, the ship has been equipped with revolutionary virtual reality modules. Each crew member can assume adventurous, avatar-like identities as they explore self-created worlds and scenarios, or simply spend quality down time as themselves in the ultra-life-like simulators. From a war hero to a rock star to secret lovers on an island, these are their psychological lifelines, and each module’s unique setting was chosen by the crew member before departing Earth.

But there is a bug in the system.

As crew members go in and out of reality, they realize that a virus has entered their private world. Questions are raised, and suspicions fanned: Is someone on the crew responsible? When the interloper’s intrusions cross a violent and disturbing line, the ship’s commander makes a difficult decision to shut down the modules. But before he can, a tragic event threatens the mission. Is it an accident or a crime? Real or virtual? Whatever the case, it’s too late to turn back, so the group ventures forth into space, fearing that they may be harboring a person or presence determined to derail their vital mission. Meanwhile, tensions are heightened even further as surveillance cameras capture their every move for a reality series back on Earth.

The cast includes New Amsterdam’s Nikolaj Coster-Waldau , Clea Duvall from Heroes, Sienna Guillory, James D’Arcy and Erik Jensen.

Photos: ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: David Gray/FOX

Post from: SF Universe

The story revolves around a malfunctioning virtual reality system on board Earth’s first starship The Phaeton. The cast includes Clea DuVall, James D’Arcy, Jimmi Simpson, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Joy Bryant, Kerry Bishe, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Sienna Guillory.

Early news on the series was the Fox wanted the original two-hour pilot to be re-shot. There was also some rumored concern about a same-sex marriage between two of the characters. According to Airlock Alpha, there was also some early issues about potential copyright infringement.

So now Fox has scheduled the two-hour pilot to air on Saturday, July 4 and they couldn’t have picked a worse night. A Saturday and a holiday where most of the people in the United States are out watching fireworks or having barbecues. It’s hardly the vote of confidence we were all waiting for.

There’s a small ray of hope that a good turnout for the pilot might encourage Fox to go ahead with the series. But it’s more likely that they decided to get their money’s worth out of a very expensive project by airing it on TV then releasing it to DVD.

Post from: SF Universe

Sarah Connor, however, is going to have to pull all the stops out if they want to come back next year. The show is underperforming, and Fox is giving it one last chance with this new Friday time slot.

Reilly spoke positively about Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, saying that the show was retooled and that now its where it needs to be “creatively.” I’m not holding out much hope.

Ron Moore’s Virtuality has been sent back to the starting blocks for a retooling of its own. Reilly called th pilot as it stands “a little bit too dense.”  Don’t hold your breath on that one.

Get the full story at Sci Fi Wire.

2009 FOX WINTER TCA: (L-R) Dichen Lachman, Harry Lennix, Fran Kranz, Tahmoh Penikett, Eliza Dushku and executive producer Joss Whedon (live via satelitte) during the DOLLHOUSE session of the 2009 FOX WINTER TCA Tuesday, Jan. 13 at the Universal Hilton in Universal City, CA.
© 2009 FOX BROADCASTING CR: Frank Micelotta/FOX

Post from: SF Universe

The Hollywood Reporter

Virtuality details the exploits of a spaceship crew on a journey so lengthy they are linked to virtual reality machines to pass the time. The show is one of four pilots FOX is currently looking at and word is it could be reworked as a “more mainstream drama.”

Um, it’s got spaceships and VR chambers so I have no idea how it can get “mainstream” and keep the concept intact. Let me guess? FOX execs didn’t get it and want everything reshot? Nah, what are the odds of something like that happening at FOX.

There is good news for genre fans, though. FOX is reportedly very high on the space comedy Boldly Going Nowhere that comes from the creators of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The network apparently ordered a pilot and some additional scripts to get things into production quickly.

Pictured: Ron Moore– SCI FI Channel Photo: Trae Patton

Post from: SF Universe

From the description released so far, the plot sounds very “Matrix-ish.” It’s about a spaceship called the Phaeton on a 10-year journey to a distant solar system. To help the crew members deal with a decade of having not much to do, the ship keeps them in virtual reality modules that allow them to do anything they want. Of course it wouldn’t be sci-fi if the machine worked properly and a “bug” causes things to go haywire.

Sci-Fi Channel’s parent network NBC passed on the project so Fox is taking a crack at it. The project is slated to begin in July.

Post from: SF Universe