Blood and Chrome television premiere tonight (Syfy, 8/7c)

Blood and Chrome has its television premiere tonight at 8 pm on Syfy.

The TV version will include additional footage, and the unrated cut will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on February 19. The DVD will contain about 30 minutes of deleted scenes.

From the press release:

This highly anticipated chapter in the Battlestar Galactica saga from Universal Cable Productions originally debuted as a weekly web series on YouTube’s premium channel Machinima Prime, drawing upwards of 8 million total views. On February 10, fans will get to see it for the first time in its film version entirety, including additional scenes not included in the online release. The unrated edition from Universal Studios Home Entertainment will then be available on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on February 19th.

Blood & Chrome takes place in the midst of the first Cylon war. As the battle between humans and their creation, the sentient robotic Cylons, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, gifted fighter pilot, William Adama (Luke Pasqualino, The Borgias), finds himself assigned to one of the most powerful battlestars in the Colonial fleet: the Galactica. Full of ambition and hungry for action, Adama quickly finds himself at odds with his co-pilot, the battle-weary officer Coker (Ben Cotton, Alcatraz). With only 47 days left in his tour of duty, Coker desires an end to battle as much as Adama craves its onset. Lili Bordán (Silent Witness) also stars.

Leveraging cutting edge CGI and virtual set technology, Blood & Chrome is produced by Universal Cable Productions, a division of NBCUniversal, and the award-winning producing team of Battlestar Galactica. David Eick (Battlestar Galactica, Caprica) is executive producer along with Michael Taylor (Battlestar Galactica, Caprica), who wrote the teleplay from a story by Taylor, Eick, Bradley Thompson (Battlestar Galactica, Falling Skies) and David Weddle (Battlestar Galactica, Falling Skies). Blood & Chrome was directed by Jonas Pate (Prime Suspect, Caprica)

Blood and Chrome stars Luke Pasqualino, Ben Cotton, Lili Bordán, Brian Markinson, Karen LeBlanc, Jill Teed, Ty Olsson, John Pyper-Ferguson, Adrian Holmes, Leo Li Chiang, Mike Dopud, Carmen Moore, and Zak Santiago. Tricia Helfer makes a special appearance. Bear McCreary wrote the score.

Some interviews and featurettes below.

Lili Bordán did an interview for The Younge Hollywood Blast:



Screen Picks talked to David Eick (hit the link for the rest):

But Galactica fans will be happy to hear that just because the series is being distributed online, it’s not going to disappoint. Eick acknowledged, “We did nothing differently because it was geared for online versus broadcast. Absolutely nothing was decided or complicated or managed to accommodate that difference. The only choices that were made aesthetically, creatively, and narratively that were different from Battlestar were purely driven by a desire to reinvent once again this franchise and this title for a new audience.”

But Eick conceded that there was one major change in style, “What we decided to do differently to make it fresh and accessible and evocative, but not duplicative of the last Battlestar, was to make this a green screen composite universe.”

He described the process, “You literally had a green screen stage with a massive lighting configuration that was something you’d see at a Rolling Stones rock show that could accommodate a variety of different looks and environments. And then using a painstakingly built creative army put together by Gary Hutzel and Mike Gibson, our visual effects guys from the earliest in the Battlestar days, we were able to achieve a look and a level of 3D immersive compositing detail that you would compare much more easily to what you see in cutting edge feature films than to anything you would see on television.”

MassLive.com has an interview with Ben Cotton and Luke Pasqualino (full article at the link):

A self-described “Battlestar virgin,” Pasqualino exchanged casual emails with Olmos and watched the failed 2010 prequel series “Caprica.”

“It helped me a lot to see where our show fit in the mix,” Pasqualino said.

Cotton, who had a bit part in the “Battlestar Galactica” movie “Razor” in 2007, said he screened a few episodes, but then “opted to pick my battles.”

The two actors developed a fine onscreen chemistry, which they credit to the story by “Battlestar Galactica” veterans Michael Taylor, David Eick, Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, as well as the direction of Jonas Pate (“Prime Suspect,” “Caprica”).

“There was a lot of freedom on this set to let it go and play off each other,” Cotton said. “It was really fun.”

Another one from Comics Online:

Q: Luke, did you have any contact with Eddie Olmos?
L: I was given an email address, and we were kind of sending emails back and forth, but none of it was really about the work, in terms of material or performances. It was more about what’s expected. I didn’t want anything that Eddie did to influence my interpretation of the material because it was two very different stages of his life, so I tried to steer away from watching any of his stuff, but I did watch seasons of Caprica. Mr. David Eick made that a priority. It was homework for me, and I loved it. To be part of the Battlestar franchise now, and to be welcomed on board as this young William Adama character, it’s truly an honor, and I’m very grateful for the opportunity.

Q: Is this, both of you, your first experience working with primarily green screen?
B: (laughs) The hardest part was the helmet. It’s hard to breathe in those things. The green screen was, strange, but I didn’t find it to be too hard of a challenge I mean there were these little markers you could pick to make your imaginary spaceship, but after watching some of the dailies, I realized I wasn’t taking in the environment as much as I would if i was actually in a Cylon facility, but once I figured that out, I didn’t find it too challenging at all. You get used to using your imagination.

And Blastr has one, too:

Cylon possibilities aside, Cotton believes the reason Battlestar Galactica has continued on is because “the writing has always been really good. People love it. Our fans are the best fans that you're going to find. They'll stick with you. I think people want to embrace this story. Or so it seems, anyway. People are excited,” he said.

“I think aside from that, even someone like me who wasn't a Battlestar fan before I was involved with it. People like to see action. People like to see relationships. People like to see real life stories. People like to see drama. They like to see comedy. They like to be human. All these different things, Battlestar can offer that. The only difference between Battlestar and any other show is that it's set in space. We're dealing with real life situations here, whether it be love, hate, there's everything going on there,” said Pasqualino.

Here is a VFX featurette, "The Idea," that includes interviews with David Eick, Michael Taylor, Mike Gibson (co-producer/VFX producer), and Jonas Pate:



Another featurette, "The Value of Proximity," that has interviews with Paul Leonard (producer), Gary Hutzel (VFX supervisor), Doug Drexler (CG supervisor), Eric Lea (editor), and Patrick F.X. Murphy (digital compositor):



And another one, "Pre Viz," with Kyle Toucher (VFX sequence designer), Jonas Pate, and Eric Lea: