Photo: Chrome: The Series – Pendragon Pictures
Timothy Hines Amazon Prime superhero fantasy Chrome The Series that features an oppressed class of robots standing up to militarized police continues into its second weekend with solid numbers and rave audience response.
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/embed/TEeFKldV9OU
With an audience of 150 million on Amazon Prime Chrome: The Series is building a strong audience of devoted fans. One viewer said, “Gritty CyberPunk with capital P. Feels and looks like it was torn from the pages a 1980s dystopian comic book. Lots flying by really fast, sometimes literally, so I plan to rewatch it to figure out exactly what I missed.”
Photo: Katie Erin Tomlinson as Chrome in Chrome: The Series – Pendragon Pictures
Chrome: The Series which takes place in the dystopian future of 2131 is an escapist superhero fantasy adventure about a female robot slave who defies her cruel masters with the help of a repairbot named Perdix (Natasha Coppola-Shalom) to fight injustice and bring light to a dystopian world.
Photo: Chrome: The Series – Pendragon Pictures
Director Timothy Hines reflects on the timing of Chrome’s release, “I am a bit surprised that this story I first wrote nearly 20 years ago and spent years mounting with 1000s of artists and two generations of cast, so acutely mirrors current world events. When I first penned Chrome long ago I envision a world corporate government that has made humans obsolete and oppresses all to keep their world of opulence during pandemics and famine. Robots do nearly all of the work and their declaration of consciousness has been perceived as a malfunction in need of repair. The militarized police, ‘Iron Guards,’ control and rule the populace with a vengeance. Then the slave Chrome appears, with her human injury inhibitor damaged. That’s where Chrome: The Series takes off as she breaks free of her cruel masters and joins forces with a robot underground engineered by a repairbot named Perdix (Natasha Coppola-Shalom), and run by a courageous leader named Cricket (Genevieve Sage). The combined forces fight to break the system of oppression and bring light back to the darkened world.”
Wonder Woman, courtesy Warner Bros.
With the pandemic having closed theaters across the globe, major Hollywood female superhero films like Wonder Woman, (which was due to open June 5), Black Widow and Mulan were forced to push their release dates back, while Chrome: The Series landed on Amazon Prime and Apple TV+ on schedule on May 30, 2020. Moving into its second week with strong viewership and positive reviews, the superhero fantasy Chrome: The Series is filling a void left by the absent Hollywood blockbusters.
Photo: Chrome: The Series – Pendragon Pictures
Starring Katie Erin Tomlinson (now Katie Diamond), Anthony Piana, Susan Goforth and Natasha Coppola-Shalom, who is the niece of Nicolas Cage, grandniece of Francis Ford Coppola and Sophia Coppola’s cousin.
In Chrome’s world the paramilitary branch of the world government corporation GeSomnus is known as the Iron Guards. They are the designated “Robot Control.” It is their job to keep the peace, make sure that robots remain at their stations, and if the robots should break free and run away, hunt them down and “Reclaim” them. The most notorious Iron Guard is the dreaded Colonel Zet, played with frightening precision by Anthony Piana.
Photo: Anthony Piana as Colonel Zet in Chrome: The Series – Pendragon Pictures
The Iron Guards are shadowed by a civilian branch of Reclaimers who are rewarded handsomely to succeed when the Iron Guards fail. The most successful Reclaimer, is EL, played by Susan Goforth, (War of the Worlds The True Story, 10 Days in a Madhouse). Reclaimer EL in Chrome: The Series is not your typical villain of pure evil. EL the Reclaimer is on a crusade to end all robots, especially escaped robots in hiding, for as we learn through the progression of the series, EL’s family was killed by robots, making her an orphan. Her personal glee in ending robots is awakened when she has the chance to bring down Chrome, the most legendary of all renegade robots.
Photo: (L) Domenico Del Giacco, (C) Academy award nominee Burt Young, (R) Dave Morrissey Jr. in Timothy Hines’ Charlie Boy.
Actor Dave Morrissey Jr. who plays The Giant Robot Nal in Chrome: The Series says, “Of course, I am most excited for Chrome, The character Nal is fantastic in that he is a giant robot created as a police officer, but people became afraid of him and consigned him to a century of working as a laborbot, essentially a “living” construction site backhoe. Nal is complicated, and a bit sad but he has hope and believes in God. He’s a robot with religion who believe’s he was created in God’s image.”
Photo: Dave Morrissey Jr. plays the giant robot Nal in Chrome: The Series – Pendragon Pictures
In Chrome: The Series Susan Goforth brings it in every way as EL the Reclaimer, equally controlling her slavebot Sky and wielding killer rifle buzzer weapons. She is formidable.
Photo: Susan Goforth is EL the Reclaimer in Chrome: The Series – Pendragon Pictures
“I loved playing EL the Reclaimer. EL is a badass woman who is simply unapologetic for her work of taking out runaway robots with a fierce vengeance. EL has survived many crises and is tough, hard hunter. She has a tense savagery and also an inner-child wildness like The Road Warrior’s Feral Kid character,” enthuses Goforth, “It’s not often a woman gets to play such a villainess, a role as super-villain instead of arm candy for the hero. EL runs her own world and she answers to nobody. I love that she is the only person who stands up to the evil Colonel Zet. She’s so fun to play. She is extreme is all the right ways and, when on the hunt, she belly laughs on nitroglycerin.”
Natasha Coppola-Shalom is the grandniece of Francis Ford Coppola and first cousin of famous Roman and Sophia Coppola. She is Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage’s niece. And as the world dynasty name would suggest, Natasha Coppola-Shalom is ready to carry the torch of her famous family of filmmakers and performing artists.
Photo: Natasha Coppola-Shalom is Perdix the Repairbot in Chrome: The Series – Pendragon Pictures
“When I first envisioned the character of the robot Perdix, I imagined her as subservient in the way that Merlin served King Arthur in The Once And Future King,” explains Chrome creator Timothy Hines, “I cast Natasha Coppola-Shalom because, besides having extraordinary acting abilities, she has a natural humble, self-effacing quality that expresses kindness and respect for others. So I was surprised when I first heard her vocal interpretation of this small, seemingly insignificant yet ultimately powerful repairbot character. She immediately demonstrated a strength and nobility along with the gentle qualities I had intended. By the second sentence I realized she understood the character Perdix in ways I hadn’t; she had seen into this creator robot, this manipulator’s soul, so to speak, extracting a multitude of facets to the character’s personality. Her performance is sublime.”
Photo: Katie Erin Tomlinson is Chrome in Chrome: The Series – Pendragon Pictures
Chrome: The Series is not an exploitative male fantasy view of women. Coming from feminist director Timothy Hines who adapted Nellie Bly’s book and directed the movie 10 Days in a Madhouse, Chrome is, unapologetically, a hyper action fantasy female superhero adventure mini series.
In creating a story of a female superhero, Hines points out that few amongst the general public may know that Wonder Woman was created by a man.
“My gender is irrelevant. You don’t have to be a woman to support and believe in women’s equal rights. Woman’s rights are as absolute as the right for all to breath air as I see it and I am an unapologetic feminist. I work with mostly female crews and creators and tell stories that don’t make the woman character a set piece or a talisman for the male character to act out his destiny.
One of Hines’ former movies 10 Days in a Madhouse, starring Caroline Barry and Christopher Lambert, played on opening day at Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival Celebrating Women and Diversity, which was sponsored by every major studio and many corporations including Walmart.”
Pictured: Caroline Barry and Susan Goforth in Timothy Hines’ 10 Days in a Madhouse. Co-starring Christopher Lambert – NBC Universal Home Entertainment.
“Chrome is a story of women’s right’s and human rights, set into the comic book movie genre of screen superheroes. It is breathless and meant to be dizzying in it’s pacing and intensity, and also followable. I couldn’t understand what was happening on screen in the main action sequences of the Transformer movies. I’m not speaking against them, I just lost the narrative as metal parts were flying in every direction for 20 minutes at a time.”
Hines continues with enthusiasm, “But when I saw Wonder Woman, I was struck as by joy and also deeply jealous. It’s a movie that I would have loved to make! Patty Jenkins and her team are geniuses at narrative. When Diana Prince pulls off her coat revealing her armor and shield, and steps out onto no man’s land from the trenches of World War I, well, to me, it was one of the best superhero moments ever put on screen. And I knew I had scenes similar to that sitting in the can waiting to breath life into Chrome. On a side note, seeing the truth and intensity of Jenkins’ movie, Monster, gave me the courage to make the often emotionally wrenching, 10 Days in a Madhouse.”
Photo: Chrome: The Series – Pendragon Pictures
“We are very proud that we are partnered with Amazon Prime as our principle platform,” says Chrome: The Series producer Susan Goforth.
Chrome director Timothy Hines adds, “Times have changed. Major theatrical films are left with one of two choices, postpone or stream. In our case Chrome: The Series was ready to go when the pandemic hit and we were fully geared for the streaming universe.”
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/embed/m-wK0aEvkEg
Above video: Timothy Hines on the KF Podcast.
Chrome: The Series which was designed as a serialized females superhero cliffhanger, with a new episode appearing every 3 months, began its streaming debut on schedule with the pilot episode, May 30, 2020 on Amazon Prime. From director Timothy Hines and producers Susan Goforth and Donovan Le, (War of the Worlds The True Story, 10 Days in a Madhouse), whose films have competed in the Academy Awards. War of the Worlds the True Story has sold over 7 million DVDs through WalMart alone. 10 Days in a Madhouse played 19 weeks in AMC Theaters and is distributed throguh NBC Universal Home Entertainment.
Chrome draws its style from classic era science fiction and fantasy serials like Flash Gordon (the same source George Lucas used for Star Wars) and intellectual science fiction films like the 1927 Metropolis.
Above: Metropolis and Star Wars courtesy Lucas Arts.
The Saturday morning serials were a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, advancing weekly, until the series was completed. Like the modern mini series the stories were edited into chapters.
Each chapter was screened at a movie theater for one week, and ended with a cliffhanger, in which characters found themselves in perilous situations with little apparent chance of escape. Viewers had to return again to the theater next time to see the cliffhanger resolved and to follow the continuing story.
The Flash Gordon serial and its sequels were major productions in their time that were action-packed stories where the villain would continually place the hero into inescapable deathtraps at the end of episodes before the hero ultimately triumphed.
Photo: Chrome: The Series – Pendragon Pictures
Chrome: The Series, on Amazon Prime, like the Saturday morning serials, a new chapter will be released consecutively, one every 3 months culminating in mid 2021.
Photo: The birth of Chrome – Chrome: The Series – Pendragon Pictures
Nearly 20 years in the making the long awaited giant homage to classic era serialized cliffhangers and classic science fiction Chrome: The Series’ streaming debut on Amazon Prime and Amazon Prime UK brings the miniseries to an audience of 150 million viewers, who get the opportunity to screen the pilot episode for free with Prime. Non Prime viewers can also watch the epic hyper action pilot with Amazon Pay Per View.
Watch Chrome: the Series on Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0882ND6Q1/
Media Contact
Company Name: Pendragon Pictures
Contact Person: Susan Goforth
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Phone: 1+ 310-480-0837
City: Los Angeles
State: CA
Country: United States
Website: www.pendragonpictures.com
