Atlantis – Page 5 – Solutions Blog

McGillion's Short Has Feature Film Aspirations

Grant and White from A FINE YOUNG MAN — McGillion as Mr. Grant and Wesley Salter as Mr. White in A FINE YOUNG MAN

Stargate star Paul McGillion was recently interviewed by The Niagara Falls Review about his new short film A Fine Young Man that will be making its premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival in September.

The short film, which runs thirteen minutes, is set during the Cold War days of the 1960s. McGillion plays Mr. Barton Grant, one of two government men who go to a young man’s home to interview him for an important task. McGillion’s long-time friend Wesley Salter, who plays the other government man Mr. Bill White, co-produced the short, which was shot on 35mm film to give it the look of the period. The up-and-coming young Vancouver director Kevan Funk, who has had several short films accepted by film festivals world-wide, helmed the film.

“It’s very weird and unique in many ways,” McGillion told staff writer John Law about the short. “You come out of the movie thinking, which is great. It’s a dark satire. It critiques the moral contradictions of the times.” Law adds, “For the two Niagara buds, it’s a little project they have big plans for—if all goes well, it will lead to a full-length feature film.”

In addition to the Toronto International Film Festival (September 9-19), A Fine Young Man is also slated to be screened at the Calgary International Film Festival (September 24 – October 3) and the Edmonton International Film Festival (September 24 – October 2), and is awaiting word on the Vancouver International Film Festival (September 30 – October 15).

McGillion also updated his fans on his other recent projects: not only does he have recurring roles in Sanctuary and possibly V, he also recently filmed a retelling of Hansel & Gretal for Syfy called Witchslayer, which also stars Shannon Doherty and Emilie Ullerup. Another film he shot a while back with Val Kilmer, The Stranger (aka The Traveler), is due to premiere in October.

The Stargate star can be seen this weekend at the Chicago Comic Con, which started yesterday, August 19, and ends this Sunday, August 22. After that, he’ll be at Dragon*Con in Atlanta from September 3-6.

Jewel Staite Begins Blogging at Blastr

Blastr is the new name for Sci Fi Wire, and not only have they changed their name, but they’ve also changed their focus and tone. As part of their new direction, they’ve invited Stargate star Jewel Staite to be a guest blogger. She’s kicked off the occasion by answering ten questions directed to her from fans who have enjoyed her work in both Firefly and Stargate Atlantis.

In Jewel Staite talks about Firefly fights, her dream role and more, Staite greets her readers, “Hello and welcome to my very first blog for Blastr! I’m absolutely thrilled to be blogging on this site, and even more thrilled that my ramblings will not have to be reduced to 140 characters or less!” Her Twitter account did come in handy in defining her new method of keeping in touch with her fans, though, as she picked questions from among over 53,000 admiring “tweeps” to construct her first Blastr entry.

With the news that Staite’s SGA co-stars David Hewlett and Robert Picardo will be making appearances in SGU’s season two episode “Seizure” (which won’t be aired until 2011), Staite was asked if she’d be making an appearance on the show too. Her reply indicates that she’s open to the possibility—under certain conditions that alluded to her first SGA role as the Wraith Ellia: “That’s a great question. Did you hear that one, Syfy? Thoughts? I still have the same phone number, in case you were wondering how to reach me! Unless you want me in prosthetics, in which case, I’m super slammed. With, like, this blog. And stuff.”

Staite’s busy “stuff” includes her next personal appearance, which currently is set to be at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, from September 3 to 6. In the meantime, make sure to visit Blastr for her guest blog entries that are sure to be full of all kinds of “juicy” details!

SciFiAndTvTalk: Ask Rachel Luttrell Your Questions

Teyla Emmagan in ALLIES (MGM) — Rachel Luttrell as Teyla Emmagan (MGM)

Steve Eramo at SciFiAndTvTalk would like for you to submit your questions to Stargate Atlantis star Rachel Luttrell! Here’s his invitation:

The lovely Rachel Luttrell (Stargate Atlantis’ Teyla Emmagen) has graciously agreed to answer questions from the readers of SciFiAndTvTalk. You can submit your questions via this post’s comment section up to Sunday, August 8th. I’ll forward them on to Rachel, and then post her answers back here at SciFiAndTvTalk at a later date. So come on, send Rachel a question! She’s looking forward to hearing from you.

Eramo did a similar fan Q&A with Paul McGillion back in March/April.

Make sure to visit SciFiAndTvTalk to submit your questions!

Picardo, Hewlett to Guest on Stargate Universe

Richard Woolsey in command at Atlantis in GHOST IN THE MACHINE

David Hewlett as Dr. Rodney McKay and Robert Picardo as Richard Woolsey (MGM)

An early report from the San Diego Comic Con published by IGN announces that David Hewlett and Robert Picardo are the two Atlantis actors that will be making guest appearances in the second season of Stargate Universe.

The Stargate Universe panel was moderated by SGU co-creator Robert C. Cooper and was comprised of Robert Carlyle, David Blue, Alaina Huffman, and Ming-Na.

Although the IGN report has some mild spoilers for some of the characters in Season Two, we don’t know what the storyline for the visiting Woolsey and McKay will be, and it’s possible we won’t know until the episode “Seizure” airs in 2011!

Also coming out from this panel is the long-awaited Season Two Trailer, but that hasn’t made its way to the Internet just yet. We’ll be sure to report it when it does!

Stargate Universe Season Two premieres Tuesday, September 28, at 9 PM ET on Syfy.

Stargate Atlantis Meets Stargate Universe

Enemy at the Gate — Which of these characters will appear in SGU's SEIZURE? (MGM)

Not that long ago, Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe co-creator Brad Wright revealed that characters from Atlantis will be making appearances on an upcoming episode of Universe in Season Two.

Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi gave fans a lot more information about these appearances in his weblog entry for July 15, 2010:

With word from producer John G. Lenic that the deals have been closed on those Atlantis alums, we can now move forward on the script, secure in the knowledge that both extra-special guest stars will actually be on hand to say the dialogue written for specifically for them. Great news for fans of the old series. 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 identified six questions that SGA fans have been asking about the current whereabouts of the city-ship Atlantis, where the Stargate is on Earth, and what has everyone been doing during the time since “Enemy at the Gate”, which took place nearly a year ago in the Stargate timeline. To close out the entry, he indicated that the identity of the two characters/actors won’t be revealed until Syfy makes “the grand announcement when the time comes. Watch for it!”

Episode #15 is currently “Seizure”, written by one of the newer writers/producers on staff, Remi Aubuchon. Visit the episode’s guide in the Stargate Wiki for further updates.

Which two SGA characters do you think will be making crossover appearances on SGU and why?

First Images, Video of Joe Flanigan by Martin Firrell

As we reported here in May, the modern artist Martin Firrell has done a study of Joe Flanigan (Stargate Atlantis) as part of his Sci Fi series exploring the deeper significance of popular science fiction. Martin has just posted “a glimpse of a work in progress” of his study of Joe, including still images and some particularly stylistic video in which Joe speaks about the effects of action heroes on women, John Sheppard’s feelings, and the impact on a man of having kids. Definitely worth a visit for all Joe Flanigan and John Sheppard fans!

Visit Martin Firrell’s Joe Flanigan Page

Pick Your Favorite Episodes of Stargate

Now that we’ve been given all of the episodes for Season One of Stargate Universe, it’s time to select our favorites. Pick your Top 5 favorites from the poll below. You can visit this poll anytime by visiting our SGU Hiatus Page.

If you’re looking for polls for Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, visit our Polls Archive. These polls are from our 13-4-13 feature that we did at the start of this year, and the links to each article are included with the polls for the sake of completeness.

Which episodes were your Top 5 choices for SGU Season One?customer surveys

Big Finish Changes Format for Season Three Audio Dramas

Big Finish Productions‘ Stargate audio dramas are going to take a different direction for their third season, presently planned to premiere in Q3 2010.

Big Finish SG-1 Generic — Season Three will consist of six SG-1 episodes featuring Dr. Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran

Thus far, each season has had six episodes, three of them for SG-1 and three for Atlantis. The third season will see two SG-1 trilogies instead, meaning that there will be no Atlantis episodes for an entire year of the dramas’ run. What’s more, all six episodes of the two trilogies will have Dr. Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran, voiced by Michael Shanks and Claudia Black, as the leads. Cliff Simon is also expected to voice System Lord Ba’al in the first trilogy. The storyline for the second trilogy hasn’t been revealed. (Source: Big Finish May Podcast, transcribed in part at MSOL)

Author and story editor James Swallow wrote in his LiveJournal about the additional change in format for the third season of Stargate stories, “The third series of Stargate audios are moving from the ‘narrated’ style of the first two series to full cast dramas. … The audios will be set during the last season of Stargate SG-1/prior to Ark of Truth.”

As far as who’ll be writing these six episodes, Swallow elaborated, “I’m writing episode one (entitled Half Life) as well as story editing. … Joining me are; Sally Malcolm, who has written several Stargate audios (Gift of the Gods, Perchance to Dream, Savarna) and Stargate novels (A Matter of Honor, The Cost of Honor, Rising); Steve Lyons, author of many excellent Doctor Who novels and audios (including The Fires of Vulcan, Colditz and Blood of the Daleks); Peter J. Evans, author of the Stargate Atlantis novel Angelus and the Durham Red novels; Sharon Gosling, writer on the Stargate series guides and audios (A Necessary Evil, Pathogen, The Kindness of Strangers, Lines of Communication); and Richard Dinnick, writer of Space 1889: The Lunar Inheritance and Sapphire & Steel: The Surest Poison.”

Swallow also visited the Gate Pages LiveJournal Community to “offer some perspective” to smooth over some of the hurt that Atlantis fans are feeling in reaction to a year without new stories. “Firstly, any suggestion that Big Finish have ‘given up’ on Stargate Atlantis is incorrect. A lot of factors affect the choices made for a production like the Stargate audio dramas, and these include the availability of actors, budget concerns (some Stargate cast members are just beyond our means), and interest on the part of actors/agents (some cast members aren’t interested in doing audio stories); but for a small company like Big Finish, the key ones are sales and audience support. The decision to make series three exclusively Stargate SG-1 and alter the format was not made lightly, and certainly not because of any ‘anti-Atlantis’ agenda.

“By far the best way for SGA fans to show interest for future Atlantis audio dramas is to support the six current SGA releases from series one and two of the Stargate audios, by purchasing CDs or downloads directly from BF’s website here – http://www.bigfinish.com/Stargate-SG-1-and-Atlantis.”

What do you think of this change in direction for the audio dramas? Let us hear from you in our comment section below.

Paul McGillion Talks Stargate, Recent Projects

Dr. Carson Beckett in ECHOES — Paul McGillion as Carson Beckett (MGM)

SciFi and TV Talk’s Steve Eramo has just posted a new fan Q&A with Stargate star Paul McGillion.

The questions range from Stargate to Sanctuary, and A Dog’s Breakfast to favorite Paul McCartney songs. Concerning Stargate: Extinction, the Atlantis movie that was to pick up where “Enemy at the Gate” left off, McGillion offered, “I’d love to be part of Atlantis if they decide to come back, but it would be all up to the producers, though, and, of course, the fans.”

At the end of the interview, McGillion covered his recent projects that should be coming soon to our screens, both big and small:

I just finished filming Fruition, the second to last episode of V‘s first season. I play a character named Dr. Lawrence Parker, a telemetry expert who gets himself into a sticky situation so to speak. So we’ll see where it goes from there. Most of my scenes were with Elizabeth Mitchell (Erica Evans), who is fantastic. It was a great set to work on with a terrific crew as well as cast.

Prior to that, I returned to Sanctuary, and my character of Terrence Wexford comes back and opens up the first two episodes of the third season. He’s especially prevalent in the second episode, and some very dramatic stuff happens onboard the ship. The lizard is back and in full force and he’s got a lot of attitude. Terrence isn’t a very nice man and he’s got his problems. I think the word is “power-hungry.”

So it was great to be back and working with Amanda Tapping (Dr. Helen Magnus) and (executive producer) Martin Wood, who directed the episode. A lot of familiar faces from Stargate work on the show, too, so it was a real blast to be back and reprise my Wexford character. Again, we’ll see where it goes from there.

Prior to that I had a guest-starring role in a new Canadian series with Callum Keith Rennie (Battlestar Galactica) called Shattered and I played a really quirky and interesting character named Victor Hugo. About the only thing I can say is he turns out to be a very bad man.

I also just finished a short film called A Fine Young Man that we’re going to submit to the Toronto Film Festival. It’s directed by an up-and-coming director named Kevin Funk and co-starring a very good friend of mine, Wes Salter (Supernatural), along with Ali Liebert (Harper’s Island) and Cole Humphries. It’s a period piece circa 1962 and a bit of a political thriller.

I did an independent film as well called Hit and Strum that we’re hoping to get into the festival circuit, too. I’m a co-star in that alongside Kurt Cowat and Michelle Harrison.

And I also shot another movie, a thriller called Confined in which I co-starred with Emma Caulfield (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Michael Hogan (Battlestar Galactica) and David James Elliot (JAG), and that will be coming out shortly.

So it’s been a busy few months for me, which I’m really happy about.

Make sure to mark your calendars for V episode “Fruition” coming to ABC on Tuesday, May 11, at 10:00 PM ET/PT. In the meantime, read the full interview at this link: Q&A with Stargate Atlantis’ Paul McGillion.

[Thanks to wraithfodder for the tip.]

Introducing Actors…Beyond the Event Horizon Feature

Solutions would like to present our newest feature to the website, Actors…Beyond the Event Horizon! It’s designed to give you dynamic news on what’s happening with your favorite regular cast members of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis now that their shows are no longer in television form.

Not only will you get the latest from Solutions Blog and our less-formal LiveJournal Companion, but you’ll also have access to pertinent links such as official websites, twitters, and biographies. With one click, you’ll be able to find the actors’ convention and appearance schedule kept up to date by the folks over at Stargate Actor Appearances. And, we’ve done some investigating to find images of our actors in roles that they’ve played since they became part of our Stargate family, showing the diversity of their talent.

To get to the top level index to Beyond the Event Horizon, simply click on the “Actors…” tab above (next to BLOG in the secondary navigation menu). You can also get directly to an individual actor’s page by simply selecting his or her name from the drop-down menu that appears when you hover over the “Actors…” tab.

Created by fans for fans, the feature belongs to all of us, so if you have an image to contribute in the slide shows or have updated information, please just let us know and we’ll add it in. Enjoy!