Comic Con 2014: Starz Makes a Splash with OUTLANDER

For the past 23 years, millions of readers all over the world have been waiting to see the world of Diana Gabaldon’s best-selling novel Outlander come to life. Over those years numerous efforts to bring the dense storytelling of Jamie Fraser and Claire Beauchamp Randall to the small screen, specifically as a two-hour movie, have been fruitless.

Enter Ronald D. Moore, the successful TV executive producer, the man behind the reinvention of Battlestar Galactica and writer-producer on countless TV versions of Star Trek as well as working on Roswell, Carnivale, Caprica and Helix.

As Battlestar Galactica was winding down, Moore was looking for a new project. His wife, costume designer Terry Dresbach, talked to him about the Outlander book series. He read the first book in short order and was sold on the idea of adapting it to the small screen as an ongoing TV series. The series makes its debut on premium cable network Starz on Sunday, August 9 at 9/8c. (The pilot episode is online now.)

Of course, the casting process was going to be the most important aspect of getting the show “just right”; and it was determined that landing the right actor for the pivotal role of Jamie Fraser was going to be the most difficult. That couldn’t have been further from the truth as Scottish actor Sam Heughan (best known for his role on the Hallmark Channel made-for-TV movie A Princess for Christmas) was found fairly quickly. As it turned out, finding the right actress to play Claire Randall was very hard. It took a long time to find the right one, but eventually an audition tape arrived from relative unknown Irish actress Caitriona Balfe (who appeared in the web series H+) won overwhelming favor with the creative team.

With the casting firmly in place, it was time to film in the Scottish Highlands where the bulk of the story of Outlander is rooted. At Comic Con in San Diego last month, the cast – which included Sam Heughan, Caitriona Balfe, Tobias Menzies, Lotte Verbeek and Graham McTavish – had this to say about filming in that beautiful part of the world:

“It was cold and sunny.” (Caitriona)

“It is a fantastic place to film.” (Graham)

“I was delighted to come back (home).” (Sam).

The series, which consists of 16 episodes [eight episodes will air from its premiere date of August 9 through September 27 and then return for the final eight episodes in early 2015], will be told from Claire’s perspective with her voiceovers helping with the exposition. As in the book, Gaelic will be featured throughout the series, but Moore explained there will not be subtitles simply because Claire does not know the language; viewers will learn the language right along with her.

When asked about portraying two such different characters – cold-hearted Black Jack Randall from 1743 and gentle-minded Frank Randall – Tobias first shared that he “didn’t know much about the books in the beginning,” but he quickly learned that these two men were “marked by war”. For Tobias, it’s been “mouth-watering” to portay them and it has “been a hell of a ride.”

Sam shared that “it’s been really exciting to have this wealth of Diana’s writing to portray,” while Claire shared that she had “a specific image of Claire in (her) mind,” and she “hopes she can do (Claire) justice”. Lotte, who plays Geillis Duncan, shared that her character “has lots of layers” to her, and she “has good and bad tendencies”.

Music will play an important part in the show and it was a “happy accident” – according to Ron – that Bear McCreary, who has composed music for TV shows like Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Eureka, Defiance, The Walking Dead, Da Vinci’s Demons, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Black Sails, became the composer for Outlander. Ron talked about how the two men shared some emails before production began on the show in which Bear asked Ron about his working on Outlander and Ron joking that if Bear had time that maybe he could do some music for the show. Bear jumped at the chance, telling Ron that this would be a dream project for him as he wrote his college thesis on Jacobites, the political movement in which Jamie’s family is grounded.

After the Outlander panel at Comic Con 2014, there was the red carpet world premiere event of the series at Spreckels Threatre in San Diego. The folks at Starz did not hold back with the spectacle that featured handsome men in kilts, bagpipe players and a performance by Bear McCreary that included the debut of the show’s theme song.

The debut episode entitled “Sassenach” (which means “English”, or at worse, Outlander) was everything that any fan of the books will love, focusing on the first 70 pages of the book. Right now, fans can watch the pilot episode online via Starz and the world will get a chance to see Outlander for themselves on Saturday, August 9 at 9/8c on Starz.

Don’t miss out!