The Syfy Network has confirmed that Caprica will return on October 5, three months earlier than originally planned. Previously, it was announced that season 1.5 of the Battlestar Galactica spinoff would not air until January of 2011, which really didn’t make much sense.

In its new timeslot, Caprica will air following new episodes of Stargate Universe, which makes a heck of a lot more sense considering they are both Sci-Fi shows and Stargate is a great lead in. Syfy EVP Mark Stern obviously agrees.

“Though we initially announced the January return of Caprica, we still had hopes of finding a way to get the series back on the air sooner,” said Stern. “We’ve been able to successfully re-work our schedule, and are thrilled to bring the show back during what is traditionally Syfy’s most-watched time of the year.”

Sadly, while this is good new for fans of the series, the fact that no decision has been made on a second season for the show makes this news not quite as good as it could be. It seems Syfy is trying to give the show a chance by moving the premiere earlier but will most certainly be watching the ratings carefully to see if a second season is warranted.

So, if you’re a fan of the show and want to see it come back for a second season, you had better encourage everyone you know to watch the show when it comes back.

Lots of names come to mind when thinking of the more popular film score composers of the past two decades. Names like Danny Elfman, John Williams, and Quincy Jones have dominated the craft for so long, it’s refreshing when a newcomer joins the ranks. In the last 5 years, Michael Giacchino has earned his slot in the Mount Everest of film composers.

Giacchino has shown his incredible range scoring projects such as LOST, Speed Racer, The Incredibles, Star Trek, and finally getting himself an Oscar for his work on Disney’s Up. It looks like the major studio isn’t letting go of Giacchino any time soon, as they have just hired him to compose the score for the upcoming space adventure John Carter of Mars.

It makes sense that Disney would go with this pick, given his work on their more recent Pixar films, especially with Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton directing the film. While that connection makes the most sense, it could also be attributed to the amazing score Giacchino composed for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, which could easily go down as one of the best sci-fi scores of recent history.

Even with this news, John Carter of Mars is most definitely not shaping up to be a small picture. With Disney backing the film, and a cast made up of Taylor Kitsch, Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe, Bryan Cranston, Dominic West, Polly Walker, Thomas Hayden Church, Samantha Morton and Lynn Collins, you can expect to see big things from the upcoming sci-fi epic.

Fans of the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad are finally getting their wish for more Bryan Cranston. The actor, who picked up an Emmy for his work on the AMC series, has just been signed to fight alongside the titular hero in the upcoming John Carter Of Mars.

Cranston will play a Civil War colonel who clashes with Carter in the early moments of the film. The movie is based on the series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs about a Civil War veteran who is transported to another body on the red planet of Mars, where he embarks on an epic journey.

This is quite late casting, as the film reportedly begins production next week. Cranston will join the ranks of an impressive ensemble cast including James Purefoy, Mark Strong, Dominic West, Thomas Hayden Church, Lynn Collins, Willem Defoe, Samantha Morton, Polly Walker, and Taylor Kitsch as Carter.

The screenplay comes from Michael Chabon (Spider-Man 2) with Andrew Stanton (WALL-E) taking the helm. Disney is expected to give the film a mid-2012 release date.

First, there was Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins and then Willem Dafoe. Now, there’s three more actors confirmed for Andrew (Wall-E) Stanton’s big screen version of John Carter of Mars. Along with the casting news, there’s also a few spoilers concerning Martian politics and things of that nature, so be aware.

Minority Report‘s Samantha Morton and The Wire‘s Dominic West have joined the cast of the Walt Disney version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic novel. Morton will play Dafoe’s daughter, Sola, while West’s character will be the Zodangan prince Sab Than, who feels that he should be the one to rule all of Mars. Rounding out the three new actors is Rome’s Polly Walker playing the role of Sarkoja, who is described as “a merciless, tyrannical Thark.” Is there any other kind?

The film, in case you’re not aware, centers on a Civil War veteran (Kitsch) who finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars where he becomes embroiled with the planet’s warring people and kicks a lot of green butt. The movie is expected to start production early next year for a release in 2012.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, following his recent role in Dollhouse and the feature Big Fan, comedian Patton Oswalt is now joining the cast of Syfy’s upcoming drama series Caprica as a recurring character. According to the article, on the Battlestar Galactica prequel, Oswalt “will play Baxter Sarno, a popular Caprican comedian and talk show host on whose show Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and Amanda Graystone (Paula Malcomson), ultimately appear.”

As this character was not in the original two hour pilot, obviously as the show is currently filming in Vancouver, the producers felt they needed some sort of recurring character like this to provide some overall context to events unfolding after the first Cylon has taken its first steps. Oswalt is a pretty good choice for this type of role where his humor and somewhat abrasive style can take center stage and provide that context and commentary. Should be interesting to see what he makes of the role.

Oswalt joins a cast which already includes the aforementioned Eric Stoltz and Paula Malcomson and also includes Esai Morales, Sasha Roiz, Polly Walker and the recently announced Luciana Carro. Caprica debuts on SyFy on January 22, 2010.