“Today for your reading pleasure, we have an exclusive celebrity blog from Michael Shanks, who plays Dr. Daniel Jackson in Stargate: The Ark of Truth, the follow-up to the Stargate SG-1 series,” stated David in his entry at Amazon’s Screening Room Blog. The brief interview covers Shanks’s experiences in science fiction, starting with his viewing Star Wars when he was seven years old to his recent screening of Will Smith in I Am Legend.
“For me, it’s all about the characters; the audience must be able to believe them and empathize with them,” Shanks said about what makes sci-fi stories long-lasting. “The more that they resound as real people and react to different situations—no matter how seemingly far-fetched—appropriately, the more the audience will believe in them and their reactions in otherworldly situations.”
Shanks also discussed the differences between producing SG-1 stories in the new direct-to-DVD format and the making of the television show. “The monumental difference in shooting the feature-length Ark of Truth was that we had more time, money, energy, and resources to tell the story properly. The writers, producers, director, actors, and crew were able to take the time to do what they love rather than be forced to take the assembly-line approach that comes with the territory of having to shoot 20+ episodes for a series, which never turns out exactly how you hoped it would because of the fast production pace.”
To read the brief interview and to watch a clip from the movie (Teal’c and Tomin), visit Amazon Screening Room Blog: Cosmotopia: Sci-Fi celebrity blog from Michael Shanks.