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Ron Moore of 'Battlestar Galactica' reportedly producing 'Outlander' time-traveling romance series

Ron Moore of 'Battlestar Galactica' reportedly producing 'Outlander' time-traveling romance series

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ron moore
ron moore

Ronald D. Moore, best known as the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series showrunner, has apparently gotten the green light for a new series on Starz. Deadline reports that Moore is developing an adaptation of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novels, a currently seven-book series of time-travel romance novels. The Outlander series follows ex-army nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall after she is mysteriously transported from World War II-era Britain to 18th-century Scotland and must navigate the complicated politics of an unfamiliar world with Jamie Fraser, a man she is initially forced to marry but quickly comes to love. Since the first novel was released in 1991, the series has seen tremendous popular success; an eighth book is set for publication in late 2013.

According to Deadline, Moore has received a 16-episode order from Starz; he will produce the first season with the help of writers Toni Graphia and Matt Roberts, who worked respectively on Battlestar Galactica and its spin-off Caprica. Ira Behr and Anne Kenney, who have worked on a long list of shows as producers or screenwriters, are also involved. The show is apparently set to begin production in Scotland this October, and an Outlander adaptation has been rumored for months, since Sony Pictures acquired the rights to the books last year.

Outlander, if successfully produced, will be the second series we've seen from Moore this year. In April, SyFy released the first trailer for Helix, a new show about a team of scientists investigating an Arctic disease outbreak. Outlander is a far different proposition: while it includes the common science fictional trope of time travel, much of the series is devoted to following Claire and Jamie's lives in the Scottish Highlands, drawing strongly from historical fiction.