OUTLANDER update

Filming has started on Outlander, the TV adaptation of Diana Gabaldon's novel series of the same name. Showrunner Ron D. Moore and Gabaldon appeared at New York Comic-Con this weekend to talk about the series and how they envisage the project unfolding.

The good news for fans is that the show is staying true to the books: Claire's home time period is still WWII, not the present day (which would have seemed an obvious change to make) and the plot unfolds much as in the first novel, Outlander (retitled Cross Stitch in the UK for no readily apparent reason). Some characters, like Tobias Menzies' Black Jack, will have more screentime in the TV series than in the novel, but beyond that the adaptation will be faithful. Moore said he had no interest in 'rebooting' the basic concept like he did with the 'new' (or 'newer', we should say now) Battlestar Galactica, which is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary.

The first season of Outlander, which will be 16 episodes long, will air on Starz in 2014.

OUTLANDER TV series casts its lead role

Ronald D. Moore's time-travelling adventure/romance series Outlander, based on Diana Gabaldon's novels, has found its leading actress. Caitriona Balfe has previously appeared in the J.J. Abrams movie Super 8 and Bryan Singer's digital series H+. Her next screen role will be the Stallone/Schwarznegger vehicle Escape Plan.

Balfe, who will play nurse Claire Randall, joins Sam Heughan, who will play her on-screen lover Jamie Fraser, and Tobias Menzies (from Game of Thrones and Rome) as her on-screen husband Frank Randall. The series begins shooting later this month on location in Scotland (where the story is set) and will air on Starz in 2014.

GAME OF THRONES actor wins two major roles on OUTLANDER TV series

Tobias Menzies, who plays Edmure Tully on Game of Thrones, has been cast in two major roles on Ron Moore's TV adaptation of the Outlander books.

Menzies, who first rose to attention playing Brutus on HBO's Rome, will be playing both Frank Randall, the 20th Century husband of lead character Claire Randall, and 'Black' Jack Randall, his 18th Century ancestor. In the books and TV series, Claire is a WWII nurse who develops the ability to move between 18th Century Scotland and mid-20th Century Britain, and becomes embroiled in a romance with a Scottish rebel in the past.

Sam Heughan was recently cast in the co-lead role of Jamie Fraser.

Outlander will start filming in the autumn for transmission on Starz in 2014. Menzies' casting will presumably limit Edmure's future appearances on Thrones to when filming does not overlap.

OUTLANDER TV series greenlit

Ronald D. Moore's TV adaptation of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books has gotten a full series order from Starz. 16 episodes will air on the Starz network in late 2014.

The books, which feature a time-displaced romance between a WWII nurse and a Scottish soldier in 1743, have sold more than 20 million copies. The next volume in the series, Written in My Own Heart's Blood, is due out in March 2014.

Starz moving forwards with adaptation of OUTLANDER

Last year, Starz optioned the screen rights to Diana Gabaldon's mega-selling Outlander book series, in which a WWII nurse time-travels back to 18th Century Scotland and finds her life divided between the two time periods. Seven novels have been published in the series so far, along with a four-volume spin-off series. An eighth novel in the main series is forthcoming.

Starz are now moving ahead with the adaptation. Ronald D. Moore (showrunner on Battlestar Galactica and a senior writer and producer on both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine) will be running the show and heading a writer's room consisting of Toni Graphia (Battlestar Galactica), Matt Roberts (Deep Space Nine) and Anne Kenney (LA Law). Also joining the team is Ira Steven Behr, Moore's former boss at Deep Space Nine and also the showrunner on The 4400 and Alphas.

Whilst the show still hasn't been formally greenlit, the hiring of additional writers suggests that Starz envisages going straight to series on the project in the near future.