SyFy channel is currently developing a new Battlestar Galactica online series based around William “Husker” Adama during the Cylon War. According to blastr.com, the new series will be called “Blood and Chrome.” Fans can expect roughly 10 episodes, each coming in at about 10 minutes long. It would make use of cutting-edge digital technology and special effects to depict the Cylon War.
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.
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).
Chicago Tribune adds that according to Michael Taylor:
I’ve seen the virtual, 3D version of CIC [‘Battlestar’s’ Combat Information Center] and it’s pretty damn cool, 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.’
From the sound of all this publicity, “Blood & Chrome” seems less like a web episode but rather a new online series with high production value. Whatever the case, fans of Battlestar probably will not be disappointed.