The award-winning science fiction novel author John Scalzi has joined the Stargate Universe team as a creative consultant. In his blog entry yesterday, Joseph Mallozzi mentioned he was meeting Scalzi for dinner. Today, Scalzi has announced the reason for the dinner in his own blog entry:
The reason I’m in Vancouver, aside from having dinner at Fuel last night with Joseph Mallozzi, can now be revealed: I have a new gig as Creative Consultant for the upcoming Stargate: Universe television series.[…]
To answer questions that immediately come to mind: What “creative consultant” means in this case is to assist the producers and directors in shaping the direction of the series, to offer technical writing suggestions and advice, and basically to be useful when they want another point of view on something; it’s a background rather than foreground sort of job.[…]
Yes, the producers and writers are very smart folks who have a definite idea of what they want SGU to be, and I think it’s a good and intriguing idea with lots of interesting possibilities, which is why I signed on.[…]
Joe Mallozzi and others on the Stargate production staff, as well as actor David Hewlett, have publicly declared themselves big fans of Scalzi’s works, notably The Android’s Dream and Old Man’s War and its sequels. Visit his Amazon.com store for a complete listing.
Mallozzi also chose Scalzi’s The Android’s Dream as one of his “book of the month club” selections, and Scalzi stopped by to answer fans questions about the book.
Speaking personally and editorially, this is another big coup for SGU, after the casting of Robert Carlyle. Scalzi’s works are engaging, fast-paced, funny, and intensely imaginative. Scalzi’s influence promises to be a creative boon to the SGU production.
Look to Mallozzi’s blog tonight for what are sure to be more details on the deal, and the dinner.
Stargate Universe is due to start principal photography February 4. To-date, the only cast announcement that has been officially released is that of Scottish actor Robert Carlyle, who is to play one of the series’ leads, Dr. David Rush. Mallozzi promises more information concerning the rest of the cast will be released soon.