SyFy channel announces cast for movie Red Faction: Origins, draws on Battlestar Galactica, Stargate Universe

The SyFy television network and video game developer THQ have announced the cast for Red Faction Origins, a two-hour, action-drama, made-for-TV movie based on the popular science fiction first-person shooter video game franchise Red Faction (2001-), in which players assume the role of militant rebels battling against a large corporation on a 21st-century colonized Mars.

Red Faction: Origins follows the children of rebel hero Alec Mason and is set during the years after Red Faction: Guerrilla (2009) -- the third installment of the video game franchise -- and Red Faction: Armageddon (2011) -- the upcoming fourth installment. The cast includes faces that should be familiar to fans of 21st-century science fiction television, including Brian J. Smith (Stargate Universe), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Kate Vernon (Battlestar Galactica) and Gareth David-Lloyd (Torchwood).

Red Faction: Origins will debut on the Syfy channel in May 2011. If the project is successful, it could serve as a springboard to a multi-episode television series.