Archive for January, 2008
Tapping, Wood Heading for Sanctuary?
Jan 31st 2008
As announced here at the Hollywood Reporter, Sci Fi Channel has “greenlighted” Sanctuary to become a TV series for the channel, and has ordered 13 new episodes of the series. The announcement also states: “The cast from the Web series will remain intact.” Relative to Stargate Atlantis, it states: “Tapping, who co-starred on that series last season, will return for several episodes.”
This is a clear indication Tapping will not be a regular on Stargate Atlantis for Season 5. She would only have part of February available to film on Atlantis, since filming of Sanctuary begins in March. Filming the 13-episode order will take nearly 5 months if a typical 7-day per episode shoot is used. Sci Fi could order more episodes, as well, keeping Tapping busy past the point of Atlantis S5 filming.
This news also puts into question the involvement of Stargate fan favorite director Martin Wood, who is strongly attached to Sanctuary. If he is gone from Stargate, fans will no doubt mourn his loss, both for his directorial skills and his exceptional DVD commentaries.
Fans may now begin speculating who might take over as commander of Atlantis. Torri Higginson told fans at the Pegasus 3 convention this weekend that she has not been approached to appear in Season 5 yet, so it’s a fair bet Weir will not be returning to lead the expedition. Will Rodney finally be given that leadership opportunity he feels he deserves? Only time and Sci Fi will tell. 
Stargate Talent Shines
Jan 31st 2008
While we wait for the release of Stargate: The Ark of Truth and for the cast and crew to resume filming Stargate Atlantis, many of the talent behind bringing the stories to life have been busy with various types of projects. It’s also a time for some award nominations (and wins, such as the People’s Choice Awards) and follow-ups on older stories worth revisiting:
Visual Effects Team Nominated for VES Award
Stargate Atlantis visual effects team of Mark Savela, Shannon Gurney, Erica Henderson, and Jamie Yukio Kawano have been nominated in the Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series category for their work in Season Four’s premiere, “Adrift”. This is the sixth annual Visual Effects Society awards, which will be presented on Sunday, February 10, at the Kodak Theatre Grand Ballroom in Hollywood. This year’s lifetime achievement honoree is Steven Spielberg. For a complete run-down of the nominees, visit Variety: VES sailing with ‘Pirates’.
Extra! Features Stargate Atlantis
Extra! correspondent Jerry Penacoli produced a segment about his time as “Genii Jerry” on location of “Harmony”, complete with fun behind-the-scenes acting tips provided by Amanda Tapping, Jason Momoa, Joe Flanigan, and David Hewlett. Meant to be shown the same night as the premiere of the episode, the segment was pre-empted (see first story) and moved to the weekend edition of the television entertainment magazine. A fan has put the short segment on YouTube for all to enjoy.
Big Finish Audio Dramas
Big Finish Productions has plans to produce several Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis hour-long audio dramas, plays written for audio performances and narrated by one or two actors. James Swallow, one of the writers, has visited some of the Stargate fan forums and also has his own online presence in the form of a LiveJournal blog. He recently stated, “Regarding extra content, I’ve now been told that Big Finish intend to include an exclusive interview on each disc. There may be out-takes too, depending on permissions from the actors.” Fans will also be able to download the programs directly from the studio’s website.
CD Release Schedule:
- April 30: SG-1 Gift of the Gods by Sally Malcolm. Read by Michael Shanks. (Amazon.uk pre-order)
- May 30: SGA Necessary Evil by Sharon Gosling. Read by Torri Higginson. (Amazon.uk pre-order)
- June 30: SG-1 Shell Game by James Swallow. Read by Claudia Black and Michael Shanks.
- July 30: SGA Perchance to Dream by Sally Malcolm. Read by Paul McGillion.
- August 30: SG-1 Pathogen by Sharon Gosling. Read by Teryl Rothery.
- September 20: SGA Zero Point by James Swallow. Read by David Nykl.
Swallow also said that the studio is “already moving forward with our next set of six releases…”
Christopher Judge and Turok
Christopher Judge provided the voice for one of the characters in Turok (see first story), an SF first-person-shooter video game slated for release on February 5 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A featurette, slightly under five minutes long, has been posted at GameVideos.com: Turok: Awakening the Giants and includes information about the story, graphics, and voice talent behind the game (Judge is interviewed and is also shown in the recording studio).
Tapping’s Sanctuary Greenlit for SCI FI
Amanda Tapping, Damian Kindler, and Martin Wood (all Stargate veterans) have sold SCI FI Channel a 13-episode season of Sanctuary, “which originated online as the first high-definition sci-fi Web series,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. They’ll use most of the footage from the web series, which includes 90% CGI, but make some enhancements to the visual effects and background to show better on a TV screen.
Sanctuary will begin production in March (this might affect Tapping’s and Wood’s participation in Season Five of Stargate Atlantis; an official announcement is coming this Monday, according to executive producer and co-showrunner Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog).
MGM: "Story Line of the Ark" Video Featurette
Jan 30th 2008
The MGM Official Stargate website has added a video featurette entitled Story Line of the Ark in which writer, director, and producer Robert C. Cooper and cast members Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Beau Bridges, and Michael Shanks tell some of the background behind the story. It’s a short clip, lasting a little over a minute, but it includes small pieces of some of the scenes from the movie.
While you’re at the site, also check out the additional pictures that have recently been added to their Stills Gallery.
Stargate: The Ark of Truth is due out in stores in North America on March 11. Release dates for UK and France are April 14 and April 23, respectively.
[Thanks to siriala for obtaining the release date for France from Amazon.fr]
SGA "Harmony": But No Peace and Love
Jan 25th 2008
Tonight’s episode of Stargate Atlantis is “Harmony”, written by Martin Gero and directed by William Waring. Sheppard and McKay relunctantly agree to escort a young princess, named Harmony, in a rite of passage to the ruins of the Great Temple of Laros to become the new queen after her mother’s death. According to the people’s tradition, Harmony should do this trek through the forest alone to meditate and pray and then return, but Harmony’s older sisters, Flora and Mardola, feel that Harmony is too young to go alone. These two sisters believe that they aren’t breaking the rules if outsiders like Sheppard and McKay go with Harmony.
On the way to the ruins, the three encounter Genii soldiers who wish to do them harm. The peace and quiet of the forest is broken with weapons fire. Apparently, Harmony is the target of assassins, but who doesn’t love this bratty, precocious, demanding little darling of a princess enough that they wish for her to be dead? Well, it might not take a rocket scientist like McKay to figure out that not all is well in Denmark, or wherever. Should Sheppard and McKay survive the attack, will they be able to point their fingers at one of Harmony’s sisters or someone else in the peaceful little queendom that supplies the Atlantis Expedition with grain and fruits (including “that Dala thing” that McKay can’t get enough of because it is sweet and salty all at once) in exchange for medical supplies and warnings about Wraith activities?
Two Stargate SG-1 veterans are featured in “Harmony”: Harmony is played by Jodelle Ferland, who played the “seven-year-old” Adria in Season Ten’s “Flesh and Blood”; and Harmony’s sister Mardola is played by Crystal Lowe, who played Nya in Season One’s “Emancipation”. Executive producer and co-showrunner Joseph Mallozzi took pictures and video footage of most of the forest scenes at Widgeon Park, which is about an hour to an hour-and-a-half away from Vancouver. Fans were kept up to date with the shooting in Mallozzi’s personal blog, and MGM has a featurette entitled “On Set with Joseph Mallozzi” that accompanies him throughout his visit to the shooting.
Because there was so much behind-the-scenes material given to fans in Mallozzi’s blog, he decided to open his Photobucket account (under the name Baron Destructo — long story for some other time, perhaps?) so that visitors can pick and choose from his many short videos (which also include spoilers for other episodes — as well as many personal videos of Mallozzi’s dogs — so be careful in your selections).
Tune in tonight at 10pm Eastern on the SCI FI Channel to see if Harmony lives to see her next birthday, and after viewing, please visit our on-site forum to rate and discuss the episode.
Spoiler Preview Videos:
SG-1 Season 10 Illustrated Companion Available
Jan 23rd 2008
The latest (and hopefully not last) in the series of Starate SG-1 Illustrated Companion books is available now! Stargate SG-1 The Illustrated Companion, Season 10 is written by Sharon Gosling and Natalie Barnes and published by Titan Books, who also publish the Stargate Official Magazine. You may order the book through this Titan Books page, which directs you to Amazon. If you’re not in the US, click on the circle representing your country in the upper right corner of the page. Ordering from the US, UK, Canada, and Australia is available.
Once Solutions gets a copy, we will provide a review of the book.
"Extra!" to Feature SGA on Friday
Jan 22nd 2008
The television entertainment magazine Extra! will be showing a feature of Stargate Atlantis this Friday, January 25, according to an announcement made by executive producer and co-showrunner Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog (January 22). Extra! correspondent Jerry Penacoli not only filmed the segment, but he was also included as an extra in the episode “Harmony” that will be premiering that night on the SciFi Channel at 10pm Eastern.
Penacoli has won multiple Emmy Awards and has been an Extra! correspondent since 2000. While visiting the location shoot for “Harmony”, Penacoli donned the Genii uniform, and Mallozzi wrote about his time as an extra, “They were just setting up the scene with special guest star and Extra correspondent Jerry Penacoli, a.k.a. Genii #3, a.k.a. Genii Jerry. Jerry was all smiles and laughs but the second Will yelled “Action!”, he was IN character – tensing up, quavering, and then hitting the dirt like Sir Lawrence Olivier as an after-sticked Julius Caesar. He even threw in a little finishing leg kick. Masterful!”
Mallozzi also included a short video of Penacoli in his Genii uniform in the September 1st entry of his blog, the link for which is HERE (Photobucket .flv file).
Visit the Extra! website to find your local station that will be showing the segment.
Cooper: DVD Movies a "Series on Their Own"
Jan 18th 2008
Robert C. Cooper, the writer, director, and producer of Stargate: The Ark of Truth, talked with Sharon Gosling of MGM’s official Stargate website about the forthcoming release of his movie and Brad Wright’s Stargate: Continuum directly to DVD. “We decided that we wanted to treat these movies as a way of showing both the studio and the fans that these could become a series on their own.”
In the first part of a multi-part interview that anticipates the release of The Ark of Truth on March 11, 2008 (North America), Cooper talks about how he found out about the cancellation of Stargate SG-1, the new direction for the current cast, and the story behind his movie that was meant to be covered during the show’s Season Eleven. “But for me as a writer, and Charles [Cohen] and Brad [Wright] — we all agreed that the right thing to do for fans that had stuck with the series in seasons nine and ten was to resolve those stories. I felt like there was no ending to the story that I had participated in starting. We had written a lot of stuff that was leading up to this confrontation with the Ori warriors, and we [had] certainly left a lot hanging. As a writer, you want to write the ending! …
“So, even though the first one is really not a standalone — it’s very much a final chapter in the season nine and ten Ori saga, we wanted there to be another, much more standalone adventure to show people that once we had dealt with those Ori issues, we could still go back and tell SG-1 stories, and hopefully continue to do that in the future.”
Read the rest of the interview, which includes some plot spoilers, at MGM: Ark Angel – The Ark of Truth, Part 1.
SGA "Quarantine": Testing Relationships
Jan 18th 2008
Tonight’s episode of Stargate Atlantis is “Quarantine”, written by Carl Binder. During normal daily activity, the city suddenly initiates a quarantine lockdown, trapping people all over without a way out or a way in. If there is really a contagion in the city, Dr. Keller can’t get to her patients, and this could be a very bad thing.
Script coordinator Alex Levine explained in his scifi.com blog that “Quarantine” is a “bottle episode”, meaning that the production used existing sets and had very few, if any, guest stars. After having spent a large portion of their budget on the visual effects of “Be All My Sins Remember’d”, the writers decided to go more toward a character-driven story with this episode. The story centers around the relationships emphasized by the odd pairings that result from the lockdown: Carter and Zelenka in a transporter; McKay and Dr. Katie Brown in her lab; and Keller and Ronon in the infirmary.
Although “Quarantine” is a “bottle episode”, it doesn’t mean that there are no visual effects. Levine described the development of this episode’s VFX sequence, “Lastly, I should mention the amazing VFX sequence of the tower climb. When Carl envisioned the script, he knew most of it would take place in interiors, so, even though this was a bottle show, it was going to need a breathtaking sequence to open up the episode. So you get to see your hero, Sheppard, in a death defying climb up the Atlantis tower. Carl called it a ‘visual showpiece’, which is exactly what it is.”
Find out which relationships thrive and which are strained as the city takes over tonight on the Sci Fi Channel at 10pm Eastern and then visit our on-site forum to rate and discuss the episode.
Spoiler preview videos:
MGM Begins Promotion of "The Ark of Truth"
Jan 17th 2008
MGM’s Official Stargate website has commenced a promotional countdown to the release of Robert C. Cooper’s Stargate: The Ark of Truth, scheduled for release directly to DVD on March 11, 2008 (North America). On the main page, the campaign includes a large image with a link to Amazon.com so that visitors can preorder the movie, now priced at $16.99 (US)!
Additionally, MGM plans to release movie stills every week on their images page. The first batch of ten pictures can be viewed in their Stills Gallery.
Stargate: The Ark of Truth closes out the Ori story arc that was started in Season Nine of Stargate SG-1 and includes the Season Ten cast of Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Claudia Black, Beau Bridges, and Michael Shanks.
SGA S5 to Start Shooting February 19
Jan 16th 2008
Listed under “TV Pilots” at the BC Film Commission website, Stargate Atlantis is documented by the Commission to begin its filming of its fifth season on February 19, 2008, and complete it on September 23, 2008:
STARGATE ATLANTIS ~ SEASON V
Pegasus Productions V Inc.
Exec. Prod: Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie, John Smith
Prod: John Lenic
DOP: Michael Blundell, Jim Menard
PD: James Robbins
PM: John Lenic
PC: David Magee
LM: Lorne Davidson
ALM: Dominic Main
Publicist: Brigitte Prochaska
Cast: Joe Flannigan, Jason Mamoa, Ish Kabibble
SPFX Coord: Wray Douglas
Casting: Corinne Clark, Jennifer Page
Extras: Sandra Couldwell
Sched: Feb 19/08 – Sep 23/08
2400 Boundary Rd.
Burnaby, BCV5M 3Z3
TEL: 292-8500
FAX: 292-8550
Interestingly enough, “Ish Kabibble” is listed as a cast member, perhaps because the actual cast members for the new season have not yet been officially announced (note that Joe Flanigan’s and Jason Momoa’s names appear in the list, but are misspelled). Fans corresponding directly with executive producer and co-showrunner Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog have been told that an official announcement is to be issued by the SCI FI Channel, rather than from him directly.
Joe Flanigan stated at his Burbank Creation Con appearance that he had signed up for Season Five, and Mallozzi has discussed continuity issues concerning Jason Momoa’s hair after Momoa had a major haircut. Mallozzi also confirmed that Rachel Luttrell will be returning for Season Five, and Jewel Staite has mentioned returning to the sets in her personal blog, but hasn’t revealed for which or for how many episodes. And as for how Flanigan and David Hewlett will appear after seeing that they both were sporting beards for the People’s Choice Awards acceptance video, Mallozzi said, “The boys will be beardless for the start of the new season.”
This leaves the status of Paul McGillion (Dr. Carson Beckett), Torri Higginson (Elizabeth Weir), and Amanda Tapping (Col. Samantha Carter) still in question. Mallozzi has reassured the Save Carson Beckett campaigners that the “door will be left open” for Beckett’s return in Season Five. Additionally, the new Weir-Replicator story arc that was started in Martin Gero’s “Be All My Sins Remember’d” leaves Elizabeth Weir fans wondering if Torri Higginson will be returning to reprise her role. Gero reassured them, “Weir’s storyline will be revisited in season 5.” And as for Carter, Mallozzi has expressed his desire to see Amanda Tapping return for Season Five. It should be noted, however, concerning contract negotiations and writing the new episodes, Mallozzi said, “It’s very rare we’ll write a script without having an actor commit beforehand.”
Join Solutions for production coverage of Season Five, and please continue to visit to keep up with Season Four as new episodes are currently being aired on the Sci Fi Channel on Fridays at 10pm Eastern.