Brad Wright recently talked with MGM about the making of his movie Stargate: Continuum, soon to be released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 29 in North America. In the first of a multi-part interview, he related how cast availability forced him to make changes to the story and that these changes actually made the movie “better.”
Wright first explained about having Richard Dean Anderson return to play Jack O’Neill. “I didn’t know I had Rick,” he admitted. “Let me just say that there was a version of the script with him and a version of the script without him! I much preferred the version of the script with him, it was much more fun to do. There was also a version of the script with him just in the arctic scenes, which was a possibility.”
Concerning working with Claudia Black’s character in the alternate timeline, Wright stated, “I wasn’t going to use Vala as extensively as I did, and then Robert [Cooper] suggested a certain twist that makes her far more villainous and essential to the final part of the movie. It’s fun because this is a Qetesh that would have been different, even from the other timeline, because this is a Qetesh who was forced into marriage with Ba’al. Ba’al says, ‘I want you to be my queen’, which is a Goa’uld way of imposing servitude. But Qetesh is a Goa’uld, and obviously wants the power for herself.”
And finally, Wright addressed the changes made to the movie due to Michael Shanks’ absence during the Arctic shoot. “I actually wrote a version of the story with Daniel [staying on the ice] all the way,” he explained, “but as I was writing it I found out that I wasn’t going to have Michael for the arctic stuff, because he wasn’t going to be available. So I actually had to change the script to address how the Daniel character isn’t with the other two as they trek across the ice. I actually think it turned into two dramatic scenes, so I was quite happy for it. Sometimes change is good – sometimes change makes a script better.”
To read the full interview, visit MGM: The Making of Continuum (Part 1).
Release dates for the movie are as follows:
- July 29, 2008: North America (DVD and Blu-ray)
- August 6, 2008: Australia
- August 18, 2008: UK
- September 10, 2008: France
If you know of other dates, please leave them in our comment section below, and we’ll update our list. Thanks.
[Thanks to Andreas at Repro Images for the MGM Movie Stills. Thanks to julie for France’s release date.]