View source for Michael Rymer

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| image=Michael rymer.jpg
| role=Director
| series=RDM
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| nationality=AU
| imdb=0753382
| sortkey=Rymer, Michael
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'''Michael Rymer''' (born 1963) is a film director and writer. He is noted for setting the tone and direction for the entire [[Battlestar Galactica (RDM)|Re-imagined Series]] in terms of how the show looks on film, namely due to his direction of both the [[Miniseries]] and various episodes for the series itself.

==Biography==

Rymer was born in [[w:Melbourne, Australia|Melbourne]], [[w:Australia|Australia]], but completed his studies in film at the [[Wikipedia:University of Southern California|University of Southern California]], where his abilities in writing, producing and directing short films earned him the Warner Communications Scholarship for Directing in 1987. Following this, he wrote two plays, ''Darkness at Noon'' and ''Ensenada'' before he returned to Australia to work on a number of films, initially as a production co-ordinator and as a writer. He made his directorial debut in 1995's "Angel Baby," which premiered at [[:Wikipedia:Robert Redford|Robert Redford]]'s [[:Wikipedia:Sundance Film Festival|Sundance Film Festival]], and won a total of seven Australian Film Institute Awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Rymer also won the Australian Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director, and the [[Wikipedia:Writers' Guild of America|Writers' Guild of America]] award for Best Original Screenplay. 

In 1997, he returned to the United States, where he wrote and directed "Allie and Me," following it up with two directorial stints with "In Too Deep" (1999) and the less-than-stellar "Purfume" (2001), described as an improvisational film. 

In 2002 he helmed "Queen of the Damned," the sequel to 1994's "Interview with the Vampire" before taking the director's chair for the pilot episode of [[Wikipedia:UPN|UPN]]'s television series, "Haunted". From here he moved onto the [[Battlestar Galactica (RDM)|2003 ''Battlestar Galactica'']] production.

==Rymer and Battlestar Galactica==
A self-confessed science-fiction fan, Rymer was not given to watching the {{TOS|Battlestar Galactica|Original Series}}, and didn't make a point of viewing it when he took the assignment, noting:

:"The thing that pulled me in was the script. I had just had a very intense year working on my first big - budget studio film, which was ''Queen of the Damned'', and after that I told my agent and manager, 'I just want to do a character piece, with people talking in rooms. I don't want to do anything with special effects or big set - pieces.' So the next script I get is ''Battlestar Galactica'' [the [[Miniseries]]], and I just said to them, 'What are you thinking?' But they told me to read it, I agreed and I just couldn't put the script down. I loved the characters and the realism of the piece, and I just said, 'OK, once more unto the breach!'"

Such was his enthusiasm for the new series that he worked closely with writer/producer [[Ronald D. Moore]] and [[Emile Smith]] of [[Zoic|Zoic Studios]] on pre-visualization for the [[Miniseries]], setting out much of what has become the show's visual and vital style. 

Given his intimate involvement with the Miniseries, Rymer was a natural choice to helm the opening episode of the first season, "[[33]]," and to handle both parts of the season's climactic episode,  "[[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I]] & [[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II|II]]," as well as the Season 2 opening episodes "[[Scattered]]" and "[[Valley of Darkness]]". Rymer also directed   many other pivotal episodes of the series, such as "[[Pegasus (episode)|Pegasus]]," "[[Resurrection Ship, Part I]] & [[Resurrection Ship, Part II|II]]," "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I]] & [[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II| II]]" and "[[Crossroads, Part I]] & [[Crossroads, Part II|II]]".

His extended work on the series and his work with Ron Moore and David Eick has earned him a producer credit for the show from Season Three onward.

[[Fulvio Cecere]], who played Lieutenant [[Alastair Thorne]] in "[[Pegasus (episode)|Pegasus]]", described Rymer's approach on that episode as unusual by television standards. Where most productions shoot seven to eight pages of script per day and actors get one or two takes before the crew moves on, Rymer took time to work through the nuances of each scene — an approach Cecere compared to feature film production. Cecere, co-star [[Grace Park]], and Rymer spent time discussing the characters in depth before filming the episode's most demanding sequence.<ref name="damen_galacticatv_cecere_interview_rymer_method">{{cite web|url=http://www.galactica.tv/galactica-2003---interviews/fulvio-cecere-galactica.tv-interview.html|title=Fulvio Cecere Interview|author=Marcel Damen|publisher=Galactica.TV|date=January 10, 2007|accessdate=May 17, 2025|archive=Y}}</ref>

== Director credits for "Battlestar Galactica" ==
*[[Miniseries]]
*Season 1:
**[[33]]
**[[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I]]
**[[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II]]
*Season 2:
**[[Scattered]]
**[[Valley of Darkness]]
**[[Pegasus (episode)|Pegasus]]
**[[Resurrection Ship, Part I]]
**[[Resurrection Ship, Part II]]
**[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I]]
**[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]
*Season 3:
**[[Collaborators]]
**[[Hero]]
**[[The Eye of Jupiter]]
**[[Rapture]]
**[[The Woman King]]
**[[Crossroads, Part I]]
**[[Crossroads, Part II]]
*Season 4:
**[[He That Believeth in Me]]
**[[The Road Less Traveled]]
**[[Revelations]]
**[[Daybreak, Part I]]
**[[Daybreak, Part II]]

== Writer credits for "Battlestar Galactica" ==
*Season 2:
**[[Resurrection Ship, Part I]]
**[[Resurrection Ship, Part II]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External Links==
*{{Archivelink|live=N|url=http://scifipulse.net/battlestarnews/BSG/Michael_Rymer_Interview.html|title=Sci Fi Pulse: Michael Rymer Gets Fresh About ''Galactica''}}


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