Yes, you read that headline correctly. Syfy is preparing a new Battlestar Galactica series, currently entitled Blood and Chrome, that will follow the exploits of William Adama during the Cylon War.
However, before you start to get too excited the series won’t actually be a full blown TV show airing on Syfy. Instead, it will be a web series with about 10 episodes, each around 9 minutes long. Not that I have anything against web series, in fact I kinda love them. I was just hoping for a new network show with a big budget and lots of awesome Cylon heads exploding and big space battles.
Oh well, here’s more on the show from Syfy:
According to Mark Stern, Syfy’s executive vice president of original programming and the co-head of original content for Universal Cable Productions, “Battlestar Galactica” and “Caprica” co-executive producer Michael Taylor will write the the script for the new venture.
“Blood & Chrome” is “about a young man’s initiation into war: both the realities of war as fought by soldiers on the ground (and in Battlestars and Vipers), and the somewhat less real version portrayed in the media,” according to Taylor.
“Blood & Chrome” would consist of nine or 10 episodes of nine or 10 minutes each, and it would make use of cutting-edge digital technology and special effects to depict the Cylon War. If it is greenlit to production, it will be filmed using green screens and virtual sets, not unlike Syfy’s “Sanctuary” or James Cameron’s “Avatar.” Before “Battlestar Galactica” ended, high-tech scans were made of all the show’s sets, so that the special-effects team will be able to re-create them (possibly even in 3D).
But wait, there’s more:
“I’ve seen the virtual, 3D version of CIC [‘Battlestar’s’ Combat Information Center] and it’s pretty damn cool,” Taylor said. “And yet the movie isn’t confined to Galactica. Far from it. It’s a story that will take us to new corners of the ‘Battlestar’ world (or worlds), and yet it aims to be a very contemporary war movie in a lot of ways. I would say I’m thinking as much of Afghanistan and Iraq–the reality of ‘Hurt Locker,’ Sebastian Junger’s ‘Restrepo,’ and similar movies–as I am about about the largely implied past of ‘Battlestar.'”
If the series is successful, more could follow.
I know, I’m not the strongest proponent of 3D. However, maybe in the case of BSG I can make an exception? Who know. Let’s hope it doesn’t look as bad as Clash of the Titans. Sheeshh. Oh, did you notice I didn’t make one comment about the similarities between the names Blood and Chrome and Blood and Sand? See, I think I’m growing.
