Unproduced pitches and failed pilots (2009–2013)
In April 2009, Moore, along with several other Battlestar Galactica alumni, made a cameo appearance in the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode "A Space Oddity." The episode was directed by Michael Nankin (who directed a number of Galactica episodes), written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle (who both started their TV writing careers on Deep Space Nine, and worked as writer/producers on Galactica) and based on a story by Naren Shankar (who went to school with Moore and started his writing career on Star Trek: The Next Generation). In the episode, Moore has one line of dialogue as he portrays an irate audience member at a science fiction convention, yelling at the (fictional) producer of a dark-and-gritty remake of a beloved cult series. Several of his Battlestar Galactica colleagues including Grace Park and Rekha Sharma appear in non-speaking cameos, while Kate Vernon is a major guest star in the episode.
Moore also developed a pilot for Fox called Virtuality. It aired on June 26, 2009, and was not picked up. Virtuality was the first show developed under the banner of Moore's new personal production company, "Tall Ship Productions".
Moore worked on the script for the companion/prequel film of the 1982 John Carpenter film, The Thing. His screenplay was scrapped late in 2009 and rewritten by Eric Heisserer, writer of the 2010 A Nightmare on Elm Street. The Thing began production in March 2010 and was released in October 2011.
In March 2010, following the mixed reception of the first half of Caprica's first season, SyFy channel approached Moore to produce another Battlestar Galactica spin-off. The show was entitled Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, and was to feature a young William Adama's experiences in the First Cylon War. The series was originally designed as a series of webisodes, but with the cancellation of Caprica, Blood & Chrome was slated to become a full television series without any direct involvement from Moore.
In May 2010, Moore signed a two-year deal with Sony Pictures TV to create and executive produce series projects for broadcast and cable through his production company, Tall Ship Productions. By late 2010 this resulted in two of Moore's pitches being purchased by major TV networks for potential development into pilot episodes. The first was a remake of The Wild Wild West purchased by CBS. The second was purchased by NBC and called The McCulloch, an action-adventure series about the crew of a US Coast Guard vessel as they travel the world, to be co-produced by NBC-Universal and Sony. But neither of these projects made it to the screen.
In 2011, Moore was commissioned by Lucasfilm's Rick McCallum to write scripts for a Star Wars live action TV series, which was being developed for ABC.
Moore developed a series for NBC in 2011 which had been described as "Harry Potter for grown-ups," and it was confirmed on March 3, 2011, that the new show would be called 17th Precinct. Tricia Helfer, Jamie Bamber, and James Callis had signed up for the new series which would have centered around cops at the local 17th Precinct in the fictional city of Excelsior, with Moore writing the pilot. On May 13, 2011, it was confirmed that NBC had decided not to pick up the series.
On August 30, 2011, it was announced that ABC bought Moore's pitch for Hangtown, a Western drama series. The series was co-created by Ron D. Moore and former Caprica writer Matt Roberts. Hangtown is described as "a Western with procedural elements" that takes place in a frontier town in the early 1900s grappling with the development of the railroad. The potential series would revolve around the town's old-fashioned veteran marshal who solves crimes by drawing on instinct and experience, who butt heads with the young new East Coast crime-solving doctor who relies on emerging forensics and rational inquiry. Added to the mix is a young female writer who has come to the west to write pulp stories about stereotyped "Wild West" crime, to send back to big city dime-novel publishers back East. Tall Ship Productions announced on Twitter on October 18, 2011, that Justin Lin had signed on to direct a potential pilot episode of Hangtown, in the event that ABC officially orders it. In an interview with Wire.com on September 29, 2012, Moore confirmed that his The Wild Wild West reboot for CBS and Hangtown had been passed on.
Moore had a cameo appearance in a Battlestar Galactica-themed sketch of the January 2012 Portlandia episode entitled "One Moore Episode," where he plays an unknown actor who has never seen Battlestar Galactica. The episode also features a character named Ronald D. Moore who is mistaken for the TV producer.
On November 11, 2011, sci-fi news website io9.com ran an editorial about Moore, lamenting that "none of his post-BSG projects has really taken off. It's been a couple years since Moore's writing has appeared on our screens."
In 2012, it was reported that a TV series adaptation of A Knight's Tale was in development by American Broadcasting Company, written by Moore.
