The Battlestar Galactica cast is scheduled to begin shooting September 8, 2008 the second TV movie that will first air on the SCI FI Channel and then immediately be released to DVD.

The 2-hour movie will act as an extended episode and is set in the “Lay Your Burdens Down” time period, according to Michael Hogan, who plays Colonel Saul Tigh on BSG.

In the Saturday panel at Dragon*Con 2008, Edward James Olmos said the story would address what happened between his character Bill Adama and Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) on New Caprica. The DVD movie, Olmos said, “is about how Adama gets laid.”

The final episodes of Season Four of Battlestar Galactica may air as late as April 2009, according to the show’s star Aaron Douglas at a cast panel discussion Sunday at Dragon*Con 2008.

Douglas, who plays Chief Tyrol, said that the SCI FI network has completely ignored arguably their biggest hit, adding “and the SCI FI Network sucks,” which got a big applause from those in the audience.

“Ten episodes is not a season,” said Douglas, referring to the first half of the season, which aired from April to June 2008. In June 2008, the remaining episodes, which will conclude the storyline for the series, had not yet been scheduled.

Michael Hogan, Richard Hatch, and James Callis seemed to echo their castmate’s feelings. In an earlier panel, Edward James Olmos riffed on the split saying, “… of course they didn’t pay us for five seasons.” Season Four was originally slated for 13 episodes, but was extended to 22 (which included a 2-hour movie).

Don’t expect to see James Marsters to reprise his role as Detective Grant Mars from the Without a Trace television show. The actor/musician told fans the studio was likely “pissed off” when he declined to resign his contract in favor of other work.

“I thought that they were pretty much done with me,” said Marsters when explaining to fans at Dragon*Con 2008. The studio signed him to a partial contract that meant he wasn’t locked in for the entire season but was also paid less money.

Marsters declined to return after signing on to play Lord Piccolo in the Dragon Ball live-action movie, which is currently in post production and due out in theaters next year.

“I didn’t have to do very much research,” he said of the film. “I have a son, so I’ve probably watched every single episode of Dragon Ball.”

The Nathan Fillion/Alan Tudyk Q&A session at Dragon*Con 2008 felt more like well scripted banter. These guys are obviously close friends and it showed. The two gave something away to everyone who asked a questions.

One piece of newsworthy information came during the panel session, concerning a question about a sequel to the much acclaimed Serenity movie. A fan asked if Tudyk if his character would be included and possibly come back as a clone (considering the events at the end of the original movie).

I spent a significant amount of time driving, then waiting on the other members of my party to meet me halfway to Atlanta, GA — the site of Dragon*Con 2008, which I’ve been self-appointed to report on this long labor day weekend. After that, I waited some more while navigating to the hotel, sitting through traffic and then standing in line a really really long ass time to get “badges” for Con entrance.

Productivity was also at a standstill, as the 3G network on my iPhone was nonexistent and using edge to live blog just wasn’t an option I had the luxury of. No, instead I decided to bid my time counting the girls akin to a specific geeky genre, which then led to a complex equation you could reasonably use to determine the total wait time for obtaining your Dragon*Con 2008 badge.

Seriously.