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This is excellent news! Thank you Thor!

Syfy greenlights pilot for third Galactica series

Friday - October 22, 2010

by Romeo53

Syfy Channel announced today that it has greenlit Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, a backdoor pilot for a potential third BSG series. The show would chronicle the adventures of a young William Adama during the later years of the first Cylon War.

The network originally ordered the script for Blood & Chrome as a limited-run series of webisodes, but liked Michael Taylor’s script so much that it is sending it straight to television as a 2-hour movie event. The backdoor pilot could then turn into a full-fledged series, if Syfy likes what it sees.

Production should begin in Vancouver, British Columbia early next year. The show could be ready to premiere as early as Fall 2011, though TV Squad suggests after talking with Mark Stern, Syfy’s executive vice president of original programming, that if it is picked up for a full series a 2012 debut is more likely.

In addition to a younger “Husker” Adama the show will feature a younger, shinier Battlestar Galactica during the height of the Twelve Colonies. The production team took high-resolution scans of every nook of the Galactica sets before they were struck, and plan to recreate them digitally — a la Sanctuary‘s use of green stages and virtual sets.

Here’s how Syfy describes the show’s premise:

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome takes place in the 10th year of the first Cylon war. As the battle between humans and their creation, a sentient robotic race, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, a brash rookie viper pilot enters the fray. Ensign William Adama, barely in his 20’s and a recent Academy graduate, finds himself assigned to the newest battlestar in the Colonial fleet … the Galactica. The talented but hot-headed risk-taker soon finds himself leading a dangerous top secret mission that, if successful, will turn the tide of the decade long war in favor of the desperate fleet.

Adama, of course, was played by Edward James Olmos in Syfy’s first Galactica series, which ran for four seasons from 2005 to 2009. Actor Nico Cortez (pictured left) played the younger character at this same time period in the telemovie Battlestar Galactica: Razor. While the role could potentially be recast, Stern told TV Squad’s Maureen Ryan that “I’m assuming there will be a full casting process for this pilot, but with Nico at the top of the list.”



Stern described the series as “very much an action-adventure, war series.”

Younger versions of other familiar BSG characters (or older versions of characters from Caprica, set when Bill Adama is just a young boy) are possible.

In spite of Caprica‘s rough time attracting viewers — especially after moving to Tuesdays this month — Stern insists that Blood & Chrome is not intended to be a replacement for that show. “To be really categorical about it, this is not about finding something else so we can get rid of Caprica,” Stern told TV Squad. “I don’t know the fate of Caprica yet, but, if anything, Blood & Chrome going to series would only be a great opportunity to pair it with something.”

He said that a decision on Caprica should be made by November 15.

Taylor wrote the teleplay for the 2-hour Blood & Chrome pilot from a story by Eick, Taylor and Bradley Thompson & David Weddle. It will be executive produced by David Eick for Universal Cable Productions.

Ooooh, I'm eagerly awaiting...

Yeah me too.

Seems like Syfy jumped the gun with the decision on Caprica by pulling it now instead of waiting until Nov 15. Why say one thing and do another. These channels are so full of themselves that they don't seem to realize that the fans will just walk and are not about to hang around until another series gets up and running. If they had any sence they would have kept it going until Blood and Chrome was ready and formed Caprica into Blood and Chrome with a seamless blend, at least this would have kept the Caprica viewers and added the new Blood and Chrome viewers.

Special Announcement: January 31 2010: William Adama Cast in Blood and Chrome

The actor chosen to play young William Adama in the Blood and Chrome pilot is English Actor Luke Pasqualino. he is best known for playing Freddie Mclair in the hit UK show Skins.

Adama's commanding officer who is named Coker has also been cast. Coker will be played by Canadian Actor Ben Cotton. Cotton has appeared in various tv shows including Stargate Atlantis, Harper's Island and Supernatural, he also had a small part in Battlestar Galactica: Razor.

Here are the official character descriptions:

Pasqualino will star as the young, talented fighter pilot William Adama, a recent Academy graduate who finds himself assigned to the newest Battlestar in the Colonial fleet: the Galactica. Full of ambition and in pursuit of the intense action that the Cylon war promises, Adama quickly finds himself at odds with Coker (Cotton), the battle-weary officer to whom he reports. With 45 days left in his tour of duty, Coker desires an end to battle just as much as Adama craves the start of it. Though they clash at first, the two men forge an unlikely bond when a routine mission turns dangerous and becomes a pivotal one for the desperate fleet.

Sorry, date shold read 2011 not 2010.

This is great.Can't wait for this show to start

I also can't wait this sounds awesome.

Caprica sounded awesome too...

Caprica was getting good. Hopefully Blood and Chrome will start off better.

Sweet! Freddie was one of my favorite Skins characters before he got his head bashed in, He'll make a great William Adama!

Cant wait for the premiere. I wonder if the charachter Zoe will be in this new show, since she is a computer avatar, I expect she could be. In fact anyone from the Caprica show could be in the show in Avatar form. or as a skinjob as far as that goes. Anyway looking forward to the show. I expect a lot of action, and hope to see some familiar faces from Caprica and maybe BSG as well. Maybe some more info on the "Original Five" as well. Of course they will have to resolve the fact that Zoe was not one of the original five.

any news on the premiere?

No news on when this will air. According to tvbythenumbers filming of the pilot began on February 10 2011.

Going by the filming, I don't expect it to show up till August or September.

I can't wait any longer!

...Mar. 1, 2013 Pilot

Syfy Officially Fraks 'Blood & Chrome' Out Of Series Pickup

Cable channel can't balance costs with potential revenue of a series




It certainly shouldn't be a surprise since news outlets have been writing its obituary since August, but Syfy has made it almost official: There will be no "Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome" series.

At least not on television.

Deadline.com is reporting that Syfy is moving "Blood & Chrome" back to its original home, online, in hopes that a scaled-down version of the show would be far more economical for the cable channel. That's bad news for Battlestar fans, who were offered "Blood & Chrome" as a full-fledged series pilot in late 2010 just before Syfy pulled the plug on another Battlestar spinoff, "Caprica." The pilot had originally meant to be a multi-part online miniseries written by Michael Taylor and David Eick, two very familiar names among BSG fandom.

Unlike the last two series, "Blood & Chrome" was planned from the start to be a green-screen-style series, similar to what Syfy already airs in the form of "Sanctuary," starring Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne. Before the "Battlestar Galactica" sets were dismantled in 2009, high-quality photographs and scans were taken of the background pieces so that they could be used in future productions without requiring the high-cost of rebuilding key sets like the Galactica's CIC.

Yet, from the start "Blood & Chrome" ran into problems. Set decades before "Battlestar Galactica," but at least 20 years after "Caprica," "Blood & Chrome" was set to explore William Adama's first assignment to the Galactica as a Viper pilot. This, of course, was similar to flashback scenes filmed for the Battlestar telemovie "Razor," which featured actor Nico Cortez in the role of Adama.

While Cortez actively campaigned to reprise his role as Adama, Syfy instead decided to go with a fresh batch of actors, leading off with "Skins" star Luke Pasqualino as Adama.

But then special effects took a lot longer than anticipated. That has led to significant cost concerns -- the same kind that plagued the original 1978 series on ABC, and would later almost cost the reboot its chance to move to series before British Sky Broadcasting Group stepped in and helped fund a 13-episode first season. The show became a success, and would last three more seasons before ending its run in 2009.

"Though the vision for 'Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome' has evolved over the course of the past year, our enthusiasm for this ambitious project has not waned," Syfy original programming president Mark Stern told Deadline.com in a statement. "We are actively pursuing it as was originally intended: a groundbreaking digital series that will launch to audiences beyond the scope of a television screen. The 90-minute pilot movie will air on Syfy in its entirety at a future date."

Late last year, Stern told news outlets that he was concerned about the long production lead-time producing "Blood & Chrome" would need, saying that it could take a year from a pickup order for the first episodes to air. That meant if a series were to come to Syfy, it wouldn't be until 2013 at the earliest, and likely many months after the airing of the pilot. Syfy did a similar move with "Caprica," releasing the pilot on DVD several months before continuing on with more episodes. "Caprica" would end up lasting just one season.

There has always been a big question mark on whether Syfy would be able to fulfill its goal to make "Blood & Chrome" a television series. Syfy's most popular shows are reality programming like "Ghost Hunters" and "Destination Truth" as well as "grounded" programs like "Warehouse 13" and "Alphas." Those shows are not only big with viewers, but also much less expensive to make than special effects-heavy programming like just about anything set in space.

An unofficial trailer for "Blood & Chrome" was shown at Anaheim's WonderCon this past weekend, set to the same music and style as a trailer for "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." It generated interest from thousands of people who flocked to YouTube to see unauthorized copies of the trailer, which NBC Universal pulled down since it had not cleared the music nor the trailer itself for release. Initial feedback on that trailer has been generally positive by media and viewers alike.

"Blood & Chrome" could air as Syfy's December movie event, similar to what "Battlestar Galactica" did in 2003. A move to the Web as a regular series, if that does indeed happen, likely wouldn't take place until mid-2013 at the earliest.

Romeo thanks for the update

I know it's not for the big screen or the little screen... But if you like to read books and like BSG and Caprica, checkout the "Lords of Kobol" trilogy. I'm on the second book and it is fairly interesting. It tells the story of the "Gods" that are often referred to series, and addresses monotheism as well. It has regular Cylons, skinjobs, and humans, and has been very interesting. Explains where the skinjobs on BSG came from in more detail, how the 12 colonies where created, etc. etc. It's all happened before and it will all happen again.

They are free ebooks available from Barnes and Noble.

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Here is leaked a demo reel for the Blood and Chrome pilot. I can't believe SyFy are not bring this to series, it looks awesome!

http://io9.com/5895080/totally-badass-trailer-for-battlestar-galacticas-cyl
on-war-prequel-blood-and-chrome

What is wrong with SyFy.This really looks badass.

maybe tnt or another cable station will pick it up. looks like production costs are high

it does look good... :(

nothing on the story-line from that clip. any official trailer ?:D

Its a shame, trailer looks pretty good :)

looks good

but syfy will treat it like shit as always

Blood & Chrome Starts November 9

The long-awaited Web series debuts this week on Machinima. Here’s the jaw-dropping trailer.
Video game and streaming media site Machinima will debut the first two installments of the series exclusively this Friday, November 9 on its YouTube channel, Machinima Prime. The 10-episode series will run for four weeks, with individual installments at 7 to 12 minutes each.
Syfy Channel originally commissioned Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome as a Web series, but turned it into a full-fledged pilot for a TV series after cancelling both BSG prequel Caprica and space-based Stargate Universe.
After an absolutely epic, VFX-filled trailer was leaked to the Web and got fans all excited for how astonishingly incredible the series might be … Syfy announced it was passing on the series. It will air instead as a Web series, as was originally planned, and will be broadcast in its entirety on Syfy in early 2013.
It will be released as an unrated DVD movie soon thereafter.
Set in the early years of the original Cylon War, Blood & Chrome follows young pilot William “Husker” Adama (Luke Pasqualino) and the rise of the first generation of mechanized warriors, who rebel against their human creators and threaten the Twelve Colonies.

Just watched 1st episode and this is really really good.I'm hooked and I got goose bumpes when I saw Battlestar Galactica(it's been a long time).

that would go without saying for you starbuck
its a home away from home for you

Exactly =)

I will be checking this out when it comes to blu-ray