Nico Cortez said he's ready and willing to reprise his role as a young William Adama in the new "Battlestar Galactica" spinoff series "Blood & Chrome."

Casting for "Blood & Chrome," which was upgraded from a web series to a full-fledged television show just ahead of the cancellation of another BSG spinoff, "Caprica," has yet to start. But when it does, Cortez hopes Syfy's head of original programming Mark Stern remembers him as Adama in the flashback scenes of "Battlestar Galactica: Razor" and cast him as the lead in the new series.

"What I discovered in doing 'Razor,' to my surprise, is that this character, I slipped right into it," Cortez said during an extensive interview that will air Nov. 11 on Alpha Waves Radio. "I can't explain it to you. A lot of actors will know what I am talking about but you get one or two [characters] in a lifetime where just slip into it."

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During an interview with the LA Times, executive producer David Eick revealed some new details about Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, including identifying one of the new characters on the show.

“Blood & Chrome is loaded with new characters, but I’d say the most compelling and unusual is the woman with whom Adama connects most deeply in the pilot—Beka Kelly, an enigmatic, seemingly impenetrable software genius who gives Adama a run for his money in more ways than one,” Eick said ”She’s definitely in the tradition of BSG’s andCaprica’s uniquely strong, remarkable female characters and will be a huge casting opportunity for someone out there, whom we look forward to discovering.”

How close will the show follow the mythology ofCaprica, the prequel, and BSG?

“It will definitely be informed by the history, as established in Caprica, and the future, as established in BSG—and, yet, neither of those things should matter,” he said ” The goal with Blood & Chrome is to appeal to our fan base, of course, but it’s primarily to reach out to new fans who do not have, and will not require, any allegiance to either previous show.

“The show takes place when William Adama, the character played by Edward James Olmos in BSG, is in his 20s, fresh out of cadet school, on the precipice of experiencing his first taste of combat. The era—in our mythology–is the threatening, treacherous period known as the First Cylon War, which fans of Battlestar Galactica may remember took place over 40 years before the events of BSG,” he said.

When asked if the franchise’s history will be restrictive when writing for the new show, Eick said, “I’m not sure it’s true that our past history is confining—just because we might meet someone in Blood & Chrome whom we don’t recognize as a younger version of someone from the realm of Battlestar Galactica doesn’t mean that character necessarily died. Alternatively, we may meet the ancestors of characters we’ve come to know in BSG, which can be Easter eggs for the BSG faithful without being a distraction to new viewers of Blood & Chrome who may not be familiar with BSG.”

How did the show come to be called Blood & Chrome?

“Michael Taylor, one of my partners on the cracking of this story and the writer of the teleplay, gets full credit for the title. We’d been calling it “the ‘Young Adama’ project,’ and then one day the script shows up with that wild and provocative title,” noted Eick.

Source: ScifiPulse

Some months ago, the Syfy network commissioned an online series called 'Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome,' a chronicle of the war experiences of young William Adama.

The network liked Michael Taylor's script for the project so much that Syfy will air 'Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome' on the network as the pilot for a possible young Adama TV series.

Mark Stern, said the network hoped to begin production on the pilot in Vancouver in early 2011.

"When we read Michael's script, it was so clearly a full-blown pilot for a series," Stern said in a Thursday interview. "The scope is fantastic and bigger, I think, than anticipated, so we said, 'Let's do it as a 2-hour backdoor pilot.' ... We're trying to get up and running as soon as possible." 

'Blood & Chrome' won't air until the fourth quarter of 2011 at the earliest, Stern said, but an early 2012 debut sounds more likely, especially if the network decides to go forward with a full series.

Fans will get to see their beloved Galactica again as high-resolution digital scans were made of all the 'Battlestar Galactica' sets before they were torn down, and those scans will be used in the new project.

"It's an opportunity to 'see them before they were famous,'" Stern said of 'Blood & Chrome,' which takes place roughly 20 years after the events of 'Caprica' and about 40 years before the events of 'BSG.' "Here's the Battlestar Galactica as a brand-new, shiny ship -- well, not shiny, but as a new ship that had just been commissioned. What was that like?" 

Ensign William Adama of 'Blood & Chrome' is a newly minted Viper pilot, one who goes through a challenging experiences on a difficult mission.

"This is very much an action-adventure, war series," Stern said. "This is definitely dealing with people who are fighting the fight. ... As you hope 'Battlestar' would do, it kind of comments on that process a little bit... but not in a preachy way, not in an issues-oriented way, not in a hitting-you-over-the-head way. Really, the fabric and the canvas of the series are people in the fight and what they grapple with when it comes to each other and what they grapple with when it comes to the enemy they're fighting." 

"Your way into the story is a young William Adama who is not the grizzled old veteran we have come to love in 'BSG,'" Stern noted. "This is someone who is more like us, in terms of coming into this with certain preconceptions and learning as you go. ... It's very much about relationships along the way. I think ultimately the arc of the pilot and of the series is about getting Adama to be who you came to know in 'BSG,' but it's also about the deep relationships he forms. And I don't think there are any deeper relationships than the ones you form in life-or-death situations." 

Stern said actor Nico Cortez was "great" as young Adama in the 'BSG' movie 'Razor,' but it is unsure that he will take the lead in 'Blood & Chrome.' "I'm assuming there will be a full casting process for this pilot, but with Nico at the top of the list," Stern said. There's also a chance that we'll meet younger versions of other 'Battlestar' characters or people connected to either that world or to 'Caprica,' but the new project would try to do those things with "a light touch," Stern said.


'Blood & Chrome,' which takes place in the tenth year of the Cylon War, follows Adama, a recent Academy graduate, as he and a rookie pilot take a female character on an important mission. There's a potential love interest for Adama in the story, but the pilot is basically about that mission, which, if successful, could turn the tide of the war.

[Press Release]
New York, NY – October 22, 2010 – Syfy is readying an exciting all-new chapter in the Battlestar Galactica saga with a greenlight for Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome from Executive Producer David Eick, it was announced today by Mark Stern, Executive Vice President of Original Programming, Syfy and Co-Head of Content for Universal Cable Productions. Universal Cable Productions will produce the 2-hour pilot with Syfy utilizing cutting edge CGI and virtual technology.

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.

"The 'Galactica' universe as re-imagined by Ron Moore and David Eick is rich with possibilities and backstory," said Mark Stern. "We jumped at the chance to revisit the William Adama character and explore this exciting chapter in the BSG narrative which falls between the events of the original series and the prequel, 'Caprica,' currently airing on Syfy."

"While maintaining the themes of politics, social propaganda, and the timeless question: what does it mean to be human? – 'Blood & Chrome' will also return us to the authentic, relentless depiction of combat and the agony and ecstasy of human-Cylon war, which was the hallmark of 'Battlestar Galactica's' early seasons," said David Eick.

Michael Taylor wrote the teleplay from a story by Eick, Taylor and Bradley Thompson & David Weddle.





Source: TV Squad.com