“The film is about Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrien Brody), two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named Dren (Delphine Chanéac), the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators - only to have that bond turn deadly.”

I must say that I was looking forward to visiting the set of the new Vincenzo Natali pic, Splice but I can also say that I was disappointed with the weather that greeted me that morning. Of course, the day I was scheduled to visit happened to be the coldest day Toronto has seen in years, roughly -34 Celsius. Thanks god. What was also disappointing was that I was not allowed to take any pictures. Sorry.

I did, however manage to muster up some interviews from director Vincenzo Natali, producer Steven Hoban, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chanéac (who plays Dren) and Natali’s mom! Still on the fence if I want to share that one with you all.

My first impression arriving on the set was that it all looked a little ‘lax with a hint of steampunk provocateur'. From early descriptions given of the cast, Elsa (Polley) and Clive (Brody) come across as rebellious scientific geniuses and I guess you would have to be if you’re delving into genetic research. In other words, it seemed to fit with their characters. It also appeared that what they were doing was under the radar as this did not look like a top-notch high end research laboratory. Very makeshift and very thrifty…for splicing DNA anyway.

A little walk away was a giant room which housed a farm. The farm was actually disassembled from a real farm (where they filmed a few scenes at) and reassembled on set. Inside the farm was a bedroom, Dren’s bedroom. We can assume that the character Dren ages rapidly from some shots Mr. Disgusting saw at AFM but this room was catered to a child. Some soft little blankets, a stuffed animal but there were also magazines and books strewn across a nearby table.

All this while, huddled around the main monitor was special effects wizard Howard Berger (who couldn’t stop playing with a larva like creature that was all blue. I could only assume it will be used in front of a blue screen) and other FX crew from BUF and K.N.B. The gorgeous, kind and humble Delphine was also roaming around the set trying on clothes that will allow the FX crew to impose effects on her body, specifically her legs below the knee and judging from the pics you can see what they were going to do. She also had to shave her head but over a smoke, she told me she didn’t mind and that she actually kind of likes it.

The cast and crew were very secretive on showing me anything which is surprising since they released the pictures of Dren some time ago. Maybe the design has changed? We’ll have to wait and see.