Brad Wright Hasn’t Given Up on Stargate Universe

Destiny in FAITH (MGM)In a brief interview with Stargate Universe co-creator Brad Wright, Chicago Now’s Show Patrol reporter Curt Wagner posted some encouraging news about the production office’s efforts to continue the SGU story following its non-renewal by Syfy.

“We haven’t given up on finishing the story we started,” Wright wrote in a recent e-mail concerning the producers’ five-year plan for the latest installment in the Stargate franchise.

“Wright was on a trip when he heard about the cancellation,” Wagner explained, “but since returning he has been exploring options for continuing the series in some form. He and officials at franchise owner MGM have been discussing several options, he said, and he’s thankful for fan support.”

This does not mean that SGU has been saved, as Wagner is quick to point out, but it is encouraging. “It simply means that the parties are looking into a lot of possibilities, but much work remains to be done before we can celebrate,” he warned.

Stargate Universe returns to Syfy with Season Two‘s second half (10 episodes) in April 2011.


ETA: Joseph Mallozzi’s comments about Brad Wright’s plan:

“It’s hard to say no to a job because it’s always great to be employed. Especially if you know, like and respect the people you’ll be working with, and love the material you’ll be working on. Which brings me to a conversation I had with Stargate Creator/Showrunner/Executive Producer/Writer Brad Wright today. Alas, no details to offer (yet!) but suffice it to say he’s battling hard to ensure the franchise (that’s SG-1, Atlantis, and SGU) lives on and that the season two finale of Universe, “Gauntlet”, will not be the end. He’s adopted a clever two-pronged approach that, if successful, will see our awesome crew back at work next year. Nothing is guaranteed, but it’s great to hear he’s got a plan to make it happen. And, for the sake of the many, many Stargate fans out there, I really hope he succeeds.” – Joseph Mallozzi, December 23, 2010

Brad Wright: SG-1, Atlantis Fans Hurt Stargate Universe

SGU 1.5 DVD CoverIn this opinion piece, SciFi Now author James Rundle notes that Universe needs fan support now more than ever, pointing out that its ratings have plummeted for Season 2. He also asks Stargate Atlantis fans to stop punishing Stargate Universe for not being Atlantis, quoting the actors’ disappointment over some lack of fan acceptance. He also quotes Brad Wright on the topic:

“I don’t think if we for any reason go away, it is an issue necessarily of the quality of the product that we’ve been making,” said executive producer and co-creator Brad Wright. “I think getting moved on the schedule has hurt us. And the fact that some of the fans that liked SG-1 and Atlantis were so angry that they have deliberately hurt us, which is unfortunate.”

What do you think? Has whatever negative fan reaction that exists been fueled primarily by Universe being new and not SG-1 or Atlantis? Has fandom negativity in turn affected Nielsen ratings? Feel free to sound off in the comments.

SciFi and TV Talk: Rachel Luttrell Fan Q&A

Rachel LuttrellStargate star Rachel Luttrell has completed answering fan questions posted at Steve Eramo’s SciFi And TV Talk Blog.

The two-part Q&A is posted HERE and HERE. A few highlights:

About her audition for Teyla:

I had to read two scenes with Joe Flanigan in front of a bunch of network executives at the network here in LA. I waited for two hours pacing while they saw other actors. It was nerve-wrecking. But I managed to stay focused and Joe and I just had a great connection in the (audition) room. It all unfolded beautifully.

About how being a mother has changed her:

Well, if I weren’t a Mom, I would have been able to get to these questions a lot sooner. Never a dull moment. Life is busy and full!

Motherhood has deepened my compassion. I am so easily moved to tears by the injustices in the world. I am even more emotionally available as an actor. I also have the mother bear strength. Don’t mess with my boy! You will have BIG trouble coming your way!

The opposite ends of the scales, those of venerability and strength, have increased within me immensely.

On her recent projects:

I have been working on my CD. I get into the studio on the 16th of October to record it. I have butterflies thinking about it. It is mainly a jazz/standards CD with some bosa nova. Have been working with some pretty spectacular musicians. It should be out by the end of November. Very excited about it!!

I have also been working with my husband on a number of film projects. … I am writing it. … It has a strong female character, a lot of action, and a bit of the fairy tale elements (the darker Grimms tales). I have a couple of other ones mulling in my mind. I like epic tales. I am also a fan of comedies. My story telling taste is as broad as my musical tastes.

About the possibility of filming Stargate: Extinction, the movie that picks up the Atlantis saga from its series finale “Enemy at the Gate”:

I don’t know…My feeling is that they won’t be doing it. But I could be wrong. 🙂

Make sure to visit the two articles for the rest, and to keep up with what Luttrell’s up to now, visit her Twitter and her actor page here at Solutions.

Stargate Planner: Week of October 18-24

You might be interested in these news tidbits and announcements that have been noted on this editor’s calendar and notebook for this week. If you’ve got more to add, please don’t hesitate to announce them in the comment section below. We’ll update this article if something comes to our attention during the week.

Calendar

Monday,   October 18
Tuesday,   October 19

Syfy: SGU 2.04 “Pathogen” at 9 PM ET, with a repeat at 11 PM.

Sky1/UK: SGU 2.03 “Awakening” at 9 PM.

Sanctuary makes its Season Three premiere with Paul McGillion returning as Terrence Wexford in the conclusion to “Kali” on the UK’s Watch at 9 PM. Details about his return and about this new season in general can be found in our previous blog entry.

Cartoon Network’s Tower Prep premieres tonight at 8 PM ET/PT. Michael Shanks is due to appear in the third episode as Professor Literature.

Wednesday, October 20
Thursday,   October 21 Beau Bridges is due to accept the Outstanding Family Award on behalf of the family of Lloyd Bridges tonight at the Fourth Annual Champions for Families Awards Dinner at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
Friday,   October 22

Sci Fi/Australia: SGU 2.04 “Pathogen” at 8:30 PM.

Space/Canada: SGU 2.04 “Pathogen” at 10 PM ET.

Sanctuary episode “Firewall” on Space (9 PM ET) and Syfy (10 PM ET). Guest Cast: Paul McGillion: Terrence Wexford.

Beau Bridges in MY GIRLFRIEND\'S BOYFRIEND

The movie My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend premieres in the United States today exclusively at MegaPlex 17 at the Jordon Commons in Sandy and MegaPlex 20 at The District in South Jordan, Utah. Beau Bridges co-stars with Alyssa Milano in this film that was shot in its entirety in the state of Utah, so this first screening holds significance to local production crews.

Saturday, October 23 Richard Dean Anderson and Beau Bridges are scheduled to attend the Sea Shepherd gala tonight in Los Angeles.

Michael Shanks, Ben Browder, and Torri Higginson are scheduled to appear at the Armageddon Expo this weekend (October 23-24) in Auckland, New Zealand. Make sure to visit the event’s website for the rest of the guest list and schedule.

Robert Picardo, Jewel Staite, and Dwight Schultz are slated to appear at the F.A.C.T.S. event at the Flanders Expo in Belgium this weekend (October 23-24).

Kavan Smith in GROWING THE BIG ONE

Kavan Smith (Maj. Evan Lorne) can be seen in Hallmark Channel’s new movie Growing the Big One at 9 PM ET (repeats at 11 PM ET). Shannen Doherty, Aaron Pearl, and Smith co-star in this story about a woman (Doherty) who needs money to keep her grandfather’s farm from foreclosure. She decides to grow the largest pumpkin to win a $50,000 prize. Her neighbor (Smith) helps her with the project, but they end up “cultivating something much more evergreen.”

Sunday, October 24

News Notes

News Flashes and Brief Follow-Ups

  • SG-1 and SGA Portals – Each Friday, a new feature is posted to the Portal pages. This past Friday, the episodes that our readers chose as their favorites in our seasonal polls were covered. Visit the SG-1 Portal to discuss “The Torment of Tantalus” and the SGA Portal to discuss “Vegas”. This Friday, the key word is “smithereens”, so check back to find out what that means for our shows.

Stargate Universe Press

It should be noted that whenever spoilers come out for SGU, they are placed in the episode guides in the Stargate Wiki without much fanfare here in the News Blog. To keep on top of such updates, visit the main page of the Stargate Wiki to see the “Recent Updates” list of links.

Solutions News Blog Round-Up

Our News Blog posts since the last Stargate Planner (most recent listed first):

Solutions LJ Companion Background Articles

Last week, we posted a few background articles in our LJ Companion that you might be interested in. The articles listed in this section don’t have a companion piece in our News Blog here:

Reminders

For news as it happens, make sure to visit the Stargate Twitter Superfeed for tidbits directly from the Stargate stars and production crew. And don’t forget our new feature Beyond the Event Horizon, which consists of “home pages” with dynamic feeds from our LJ and Blog for the stars of SG-1 and Atlantis.

Our LJ Companion has news bites, polls, and glimpses into the lives of the actors that we don’t necessarily cover here in our more formal news blog. Make sure to visit the LJ’s feed on our front page or visit the site directly to see its mostly fun little tidbits.

For the latest in convention appearances, which are subject to change, make sure to visit Stargate Actor Appearances.

Solutions Opens SG-1 and SGA Portals

It used to be that fans of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis would tune in on Friday nights to watch their favorite teams go through the Stargate, get in trouble, get out of trouble, and return home. And now, just because we’re no longer seeing new adventures, it doesn’t mean that there’s nothing new to report! So Solutions thought it’d be fitting to open our new Portals for each show today—on a Friday.

The Portals have the latest news from our Solutions Blog and LJ feeds, links to episode and movie information stored in our Stargate Wiki, updates on the main cast actors, convention schedule, next episode schedule, and a feature box for videos, polls, and other fun fan stuff that might just so happen to come up.

Click on one of the images below to get to the selected Portal, or you can get to them through our blog’s secondary navigation menu above (the white strip) by clicking on the tab for “SG-1” or “SGA” (or better yet, make sure to bookmark them!). We hope to see you there soon!

SG-1 Title  

Crossover with Universe Changes Atlantis Timeline

Stargate: Extinction, the Stargate Atlantis movie written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, will have to be tweaked a bit to make way for the guest appearances of David Hewlett and Robert Picardo, who are reprising their roles of Dr. Rodney McKay and Richard Woolsey, respectively, in the fifteenth episode of Stargate Universe‘s second season, “Seizure”.

We won’t be seeing this episode until sometime in 2011, but preliminary spoilers indicate that Woolsey and McKay will be involved heavily in negotiations with a Milky Way planet’s ambassador to dial Destiny using their naquadria core (like what was done at Icaruse Base). There is science involved, of course, and McKay must explain it for the laypersons while Woolsey puts on his legal hat.

Robert Picardo as Richard Woolsey

“I’m back in a business suit, so I’m apparently no longer a commander,” Picardo recently told his fans in a Q&A hosted by StarTrek.com. This may or may not be a spoiler, since Woolsey could be donning a business suit for this special occasion, having been called away temporarily from Atlantis Base, but we don’t know for certain. What if he isn’t the commander of Atlantis anymore? What does that mean for Woolsey and the rest of the Atlantis Base personnel?

All of which leads to the big question: “Where is Atlantis, anyway?”

So far, what we know for certain is that the Stargate timeline has been impacted by Woolsey’s and McKay’s presence in the negotiations, happening over a year since Atlantis returned to Earth in “Enemy at the Gate” in 2009. Mallozzi explained in his weblog back in July, “There was a reluctance to move ahead with an SGA crossover, particularly on my part, because the feeling was it would step on the timing of the SGA movie, Stargate: Extinction, the events of which directly proceed the Atlantis series finale, Enemy at the Gate. But given the delay on the movie front and the ideal premise pitched out by Remi Aubuchon and Brad Wright, it was decided to go ahead with the crossover. Not a big deal, but it will require some changes to the Stargate: Extinction timeline which, in turn, will beg a host of questions, some of which will be answered in episode #15, some of which won’t…at least not right away…”

Mallozzi had previously told his readers that a certain amount of time has passed since “Enemy at the Gate” relative to SGU and the movie: “Oh, if you’re wondering about in relation to SGU – maybe days. And if you’re wondering in relation to the Atlantis movie – maybe a week.” So, theoretically, Atlantis would still have been located on Earth when Icarus Base was evacuated in the series premiere “Air”. Then, the events of Stargate: Extinction would have taken place a few days later. Mallozzi gave away only a portion of the events happening in the movie (“The action starts on Earth, then shifts to Atlantis, then shifts to a planet, then back to Atlantis.”), but doesn’t tell us whether or not Atlantis started on Earth and ends up back in Pegasus. But he did say that the movie covers “Earth-based intrigue, intergalactic travel, a looming threat to the city of Atlantis, and a sometime friend and foe who may hold the key to averting disaster.” (Emphasis mine.)

When asked to confirm the new timeline, Mallozzi put his stamp of approval (he said “Correct”) on the following:

1. Stargate Atlantis: “Enemy at the Gate”

2. The third SG-1 movie: Stargate: Revolution

3. Stargate Universe: Seasons One and Two

4. The SGA movie: Stargate: Extinction

This change in the timeline might seem to have a big impact on the movie, Atlantis’s location at the time of the Milky Way-based negotiations in “Seizure”, and Woolsey’s status as commander, but Mallozzi said that it only requires “some minor re-jigging to the opening” of the movie’s script. We still don’t know whether or not the Stargate Program’s base of operations on Earth was moved from Stargate Command in Cheyenne Mountain to Homeworld Security in the Pentagon or to Atlantis nearby, and Mallozzi has teased that we might not know via SGU, but will have to wait for the SGA movie, which he still hopes will be produced soon.

MSOL Annual Auction Kicks Off Today (Sept. 27)

Here’s the announcement from Michael Shanks Online (MSOL) concerning their 6th Annual MSOL Auction, which is being launched today (September 27) to benefit the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada:

We are happy to announce that on Monday, 27 September, the long awaited 2010 annual MSOL auction will be launched, 100% of the profits of which will be donated to the charity supported by Michael and his wife, Lexa Doig – the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.

As well as many Michael Shanks/Stargate SG-1 related items – including some of Michael’s own scripts from SG-1, and from recent tele-movies and series such as Smallville, Burn Notice and Sanctuary – the auction will also offer items from past and current popular shows, such as Star Trek, Supernatural, Torchwood, Battlestar Galactica, Farscape and Dr. Who and – of course! – Stargate: Atlantis.

To date, the MSOL auctions and associated fundraising efforts have raised over $105,000 U.S. for the MS Society of Canada.

This year’s event, which includes items donated and/or signed for the auction by Michael and Lexa, Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Ben Browder, Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Sir Patrick Stewart, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy – among others – will, we hope, be just as successful as the last.

The first 20 items in the auction will be launched on 27 September, with more items added each day.

For more information, check out the MSOL Auction 6 home page – and please feel free to distribute the above news to any websites, lists, forums and online communities.

Charity Auction Includes Lunch with Flanigan, Hewlett

Charity Buzz is auctioning a lunch with Stargate stars Joe Flanigan and David Hewlett for Friends of Sarah Geary.

Here are the details of the auction, which closes Thursday, October 14, 2010, at 1:00:00 PM EDT:

Description

Includes: Lunch with Joe Flanigan David Hewlett in Los Angeles in mid-November 2010. Restaurant is TBD. Based on availability.

Joe Flanigan

Joe Flanigan was born in Los Angeles and raised near Reno, Nevada. He grew up on a small ranch he likens to a Dr. Doolittle set, where his mother collected animals of every variety, including rare white Ria’s, Scottish Highland cattle, and Emu’s. ” A remarkably stupid animal, but they can spit you in the eye from about 20 yards”. After ‘serving a 4 year sentence’ at boarding school in Ojai, California, he later studied art and history at the University of Paris a la Sorbonne and eventually graduated with a degree in history from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Following multifarious stints including being an Advance Man for the Vice President of the United States and working at Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, Joe found himself fired, broke and uncertain of his next move. An actor friend and neighbor suggested acting and Joe ultimately ended up at Milton Katsela’s Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. Financial pressure forced him to head quickly to Los Angeles in search of paying work. After starting with a number of commercials, Joe began to land roles in film and TV which included being a series regular on the last season of the Emmy nominated series Sisters on NBC, and CBS’s First Monday. Additionally he has shot 11 network pilots/movies including USA’s Thoughtcrimes, and scored numerous reoccurring and guest roles on Murphy Brown, Providence, Profiler, CSI Miami to name a few. He recently completed 100 episodes in the starring role of John Sheppard in Stargate Atlantis, which also won the People’s Choice Award.

Joe resides in Malibu with his wife of 13 years, painter Katherine Kousi, and his three rowdy young boys, Aidan, Truman and Fergus. He is an avid surfer, gardner and not-so successfull bee-keeper.

David Hewlett

Hewlett got his first computer in his mid-teens and became a self-described “computernerd”. While attending high school in Toronto he launched his acting career, starring in student films by Vincenzo Natali. He dropped out of high school in his senior year to pursue careers in acting and computing.

David Hewlett has appeared in many low-budget horror movies, such as The Darksideand the minor cult favourites Scanners II: The New Order and Pin. He also guest starred in several television series. In 1996, he landed one of his better-known roles, as Grant Jansky on Traders. In 1997, Hewlett worked again with Natali, starring in the critically-acclaimed thriller Cube as Worth the architect, a role that saw the rise of his stardom due to the commercial success of the low budget Canadian film.

A self-confessed science fiction fan, Hewlett has been quoted saying that Doctor Who is what first sparked his love for the genre and that he made science fiction when he was younger in England on his 8 millimetre camera with friends. Hewlett more or less had his early dreams of working in science fiction made into a reality when he first had a four-episode guest role on Stargate SG-1 as the Stargateexpert Rodney McKay, which eventually grew into his starring role on Stargate Atlantis. In 2007, David appeared as a guest star in the first episode of the TV series Sanctuary, a show produced by and starring Stargate actress Amanda Tapping. He played Larry Tolson – a patient suffering from a form of psychosis, who was shot and wounded before being taken into custody by police as a homicide suspect. There are no plans for him to reprise this role.

In 2007 he wrote and directed A Dog’s Breakfast starring himself, his sister Kate Hewlett, his dog Mars, and Stargate Atlantis costars Paul McGillion, Christopher Judge, and Rachel Luttrell.

Bid now on this lunch with Joe and David!

Terms: Includes: Lunch with Joe Flanigan David Hewlett in Los Angeles in mid-November 2010. Restaurant is TBD. Based on availability.
Donated by: Stargate Atlantis, Joe Flanigan

Collider: Brad Wright Talks Stargates

Brad Wright in Collider Interview for SGU S2
Brad Wright in Collider Interview for SGU S2. Click on the image to go there.
From crossovers to humor, Stargate co-creator and executive producer Brad Wright talked with Collider about each show (17 seasons and 2 movies) while standing in front of the Stargate on the Destiny set. Collider has given us an index into the video interview, so here’s what Wright addresses:

  • Is he used to doing interviews on flip cameras in the gate room
  • Talks about how the gate in SGU is unique and describes its power on the show
  • 2:15 – How challenging is it to come up with storylines for Stargate
  • 4:25 – Are there more characters from the original Stargate shows coming into SGU. He says in second half of season two there are characters from Stargate Atlantis including McKay and Woolsey
  • 6:10 – Talks about writing the Atlantis characters into the serious tone of SGU
  • 7:45 – How much does he read the online chatter
  • 9:00 – We talk about the move to Tuesday nights
  • 10:20 – How is season 2 different from season 1
  • 12:00 – He talks about how far ahead in story they are
  • 13:20 – Says they know where the series will end
  • 13:40 – He talks about the bridge set. Since the ship was built for season 1, the bridge for season 2, I ask if he knows what they want to build for season 3 and he says they do know. Says it could be next to the bridge set…
  • 14:50 – What percentage of the ship has been explored. He says far under 50%
  • 15:40 – How would he compare the first 10 and the second 10 episodes of season 2
  • 16:50 – Is there a location they want to film at that they haven’t been able to get to yet
  • 18:25 – Are there any Easter Eggs on the ship that fans should look out for

One thing stressed in this video interview – Universe has a new night on Syfy: Tuesdays! This coming Tuesday, September 28, at 9 PM ET, SGU’s Season Two premieres with “Intervention”. Check our SGU Page for other international premieres.

Stargate Planner: Week of August 23-29

You might be interested in these news tidbits and announcements that have been noted on this editor’s calendar and notebook for this week. If you’ve got more to add, please don’t hesitate to announce them in the comment section below. We’ll update this article if something comes to our attention during the week.

Calendar

Monday,   August 23
Tuesday,   August 24
Wednesday, August 25 SGU’s Earth, Time, and Life are on the UK’s Sky2 starting at 9 PM.
Thursday,   August 26
Friday,   August 27 Official Stargate Convention in Chicago kicks off today and ends Sunday, August 29. Appearances are scheduled for Michael Shanks, Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Dan Shea, Robert Picardo, Christopher Heyerdahl, Andee Frizzell, Elyse Levesque, Brian J. Smith, Alaina Huffman, and Steve Bacic.
Saturday, August 28 Today is Amanda Tapping‘s birthday!

The Hub Productions: Stargate SG-1 event in Adelaide, Australia, features Christopher Judge and Corin Nemec in the Napier Building of the University of Adelaide.

Sunday, August 29 The Hub Productions: Stargate SG-1 event in Perth, Australia, features Christopher Judge and Corin Nemec in the Technology Park Function Centre.

The Primetime Emmy Awards for 2010 will be awarded tonight in a live telecast starting at 8 ET/5 PT on NBC. We’ll learn if Beau Bridges won for his guest starring role in The Closer. Unfortunately, our VFX team didn’t take home the Emmys for which they were nominated. That award went to CSI, the only non-sci-fi show nominated in the category.

News Notes

Stargate Universe Press

It should be noted that whenever spoilers come out for SGU, they are placed in the episode guides in the Stargate Wiki without much fanfare here in the News Blog. To keep on top of such updates, visit the main page of the Stargate Wiki to see the “Recent Updates” list of links.

Solutions News Blog Round-Up

Our News Blog posts since the last Stargate Planner (most recent listed first):

Solutions LJ Companion Background Articles

Last week, we posted a few background articles in our LJ Companion that you might be interested in. The articles listed in this section don’t have a companion piece in our News Blog here:

Reminders

For news as it happens, make sure to visit the Stargate Twitter Superfeed for tidbits directly from the Stargate stars and production crew. And don’t forget our new feature Beyond the Event Horizon, which consists of “home pages” with dynamic feeds from our LJ and Blog for the stars of SG-1 and Atlantis.

Our LJ Companion has news bites, polls, and glimpses into the lives of the actors that we don’t necessarily cover here in our more formal news blog. Make sure to visit the LJ’s feed on our front page or visit the site directly to see its mostly fun little tidbits.

For the latest in convention appearances, which are subject to change, make sure to visit Stargate Actor Appearances.