At the Sci Fi Channel upfront party in March, James Callis (who plays Gaius Baltar) told me in no uncertain terms that there would be no more Battlestar Galactica projects with this cast once production concluded on the fourth and final season (the wrap party, in fact, was last Saturday). The impression I got from Callis was that giving your all to a series as intense as Battlestar left the cast and creators more than ready to move on, but whatever my interpretation of the reasoning behind it, Callis was quite clear that season 4 was the end of the line.

So I was quite surprised to hear Grace Park (who plays Athena/Boomer/Number Eight) telling the press that at least one Battlestar movie is on the way after all.

"I just heard about the first Battlestar movie being greenlit," Grace Park told The LA Times's Choire Sicha over the weekend.

"A TV movie, but still! But this – it's like, yeah, it's over but we're ready to move on but nobody's manager or agent has been called," Park said. "It's supposed to start in August."

So far this sounds like a rumor, though a serious one and one that's hit the set of Battlestar itself. Talk of a three-movie post-series trilogy has been around at least since May, when it was reported on an internet radio show. Sci Fi, which produces and airs Battlestar, not surprisingly favors the idea, following the attention generated by the standalone movie special Razor and the direct-to-DVD Stargate films Ark of Truth and Continuum.

Sci Fi, though keen on the idea, is saying a Razor-style post-season-4 movie event is still in the discussion stage. When the rumors were first reported the network described them essentially as just talk – something along the lines of "Hey, wouldn't it be cool to do some Battlestar movies?", I'm guessing – and sometimes talk develops into something, and sometimes it doesn't.

The analogy to the Stargate TV movies gives some indication just how difficult it will be to make this happen. Ark of Truth required the availability of five principals, plus creative staff and crew (much of which was borrowed from Stargate Atlantis, forcing that show to find some creative solutions to getting its own shows done). Battlestar has a huge cast, each and every one of them essential to the fabric of the show; and many of them have already moved on to other projects (Park herself is shooting The Cleaner as we speak). If even one of the central actors is not available, the project will be severely wounded. (Assuming, of course, they're not killed off in the bottom half of the fourth season, which airs in early 2009.) As much as I hope she's right, it seems like a significant challenge for production to start next month on a project she says no one's been signed to and for which the availability of key figures is in question.

So far Park's confirmation of the green light for the project is floating alone in the press – no one, not even TV Guide, has been able to add to what she said or provide any details. Not that this is surprising -- the Battlestar production team is famously tight-lipped about news both great and small.

I will be the first person to jump for joy at the prospect of a set of Battlestar films. Still, I think we need to hear more before we start setting up the fireworks.