Lou Diamond Phillips – Page 5

Stargate Planner: Week of June 14-20

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, June 14
Tuesday, June 15	Stargate Universe Season One Finale “Incursion Part 2” on the UK’s Sky One at 8:00 PM. The second season of Amanda Tapping‘s Sanctuary comes out on DVD and Blu-ray today! The show’s official website indicates that this release is available for ordering in Region 1 (North America) and Region 4 (Australia) and will be available in Region 2 (UK) in October 2010. For more information on the release, visit TV Shows on DVD. Additionally, Tapping and show creator Damian Kindler were interviewed in Ottawa Citizen: Sci-fi show finds Sanctuary in Vancouver.
Wednesday, June 16
Thursday, June 17	Stargate Universe “Light” on New Zealand’s Prime TV at 8:30 PM.
Friday, June 18	Stargate Universe Season One Finale “Incursion Part 2” on Australia’s Sci Fi Channel at 8:30 PM.
Saturday, June 19
Sunday, June 20

News Notes

Stargate Universe press:

David Blue: California Chronicle: Clearwater actor is flying high on ‘Stargate’
Lou Diamond Phillips: Chicago Now: Happy to be breathing, Lou Diamond Phillips talks ‘SGU’ & other things
Elyse Levesque: IGN has embedded a brief video interview wherein Levesque talks about the Chloe and Eli relationship. The video is embedded inside their review of the two-parter “Incursion”.

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:

Michael Shanks wrapped the filming of the feature film Faces in the Crowd and is in one of the photos that director Julien Magnat published from the set and the wrap party. For more about the film, visit Winnipeg Free Press.
Jason Momoa‘s Game of Thrones series for HBO will be filming in and around Belfast’s Paint Hall between June and December of this year.
Robert Picardo participated in the industry presentation of the musical Rocket Boys on June 7, and we posted a link to a review of that event.

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.

Stargate Planner: Week of June 7-13

Calendar

Monday, June 7	NBC’s Persons Unknown premieres at 10 PM ET. Current SGU writers/producers Remi Aubuchon and Linda McGibney contributed to the 13-episode show, and actor Robert Picardo is due to make an appearance in the show’s first season finale. Robert Picardo is participating in the industry presentation of Rocket Boys in New York City at 2 PM and 7 PM.
Tuesday, June 8	Today is Lexa Doig‘s birthday! Follow her on Twitter. Stargate Universe “Incursion Part 1” on the UK’s Sky One at 8:00 PM. Richard Dean Anderson and Amanda Tapping guest star! Richard Dean Anderson can be seen as the ever resourceful Angus MacGyver in the release of a two-movie DVD in Region 1 today! MacGyver: The TV Movies comes with MacGyver: The Lost Treasure of Atlantis and MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday. More information about the release can be found at TV Shows on DVD.
Wednesday, June 9
Thursday, June 10	Stargate Universe “Darkness” on New Zealand’s Prime TV at 8:30 PM. Lou Diamond Phillips will be participating in the Osoyoos Wine Festival, which starts today and ends June 12. More details can be found at the Vancouver Sun.
Friday, June 11	Stargate Universe “Incursion Part 1” on Australia’s Sci Fi Channel at 8:30 PM. Richard Dean Anderson and Amanda Tapping guest star! Stargate Universe “Incursion Part 2” on Syfy at 9 PM ET and on Canada’s Space at 10 PM ET. This is the season finale! In preparation for the big event, Syfy will be showing an SGU marathon starting at 8 AM ET! Check their schedule for details. Space will have a live chat with David Blue following the episode’s airing at 11 PM during their InnerSPACE program.
Saturday, June 12	The Official Stargate Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, will begin today and end tomorrow, June 13. Guests include Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Brian J. Smith, Alaina Huffman, Dan Shea, and Gary Jones. Check the website for schedule details. Torri Higginson can be seen tonight on Syfy in the movie Stonehenge Apocalypse at 9 PM ET! Peter Wingfield also stars, along with a whole host of other Stargate veterans (check out the movie’s IMDb profile for the cast list).
Sunday, June 13	Michael Shanks is wrapping principal photography in Winnipeg, Canada, for the movie Faces in the Crowd. Director/writer Julien Magnat has been posting production updates on his Twitter/Facebook, including a few behind-the-scenes photos (none include Shanks to-date, though). Shanks will begin filming his next movie project Red Riding Hood in Vancouver starting July 22.

News Notes

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

Recently, we’ve been keeping up with the Team Stargate Worlds racing team as Simona de Silvestro drives the Stargate Resistance #78 car. She finished 14th in the Indy 500 and was named Top Rookie. Unfortunately, yesterday, she hit the wall and burst into flames in Texas, but thankfully walked away with non-threatening burns on her right hand and finished 24th.
Amanda Tapping won Vancouver YWCA’s “Connecting the Community” award. $10,000 went to her selected YWCA program Crabtree Corner, which supports single mothers and their children.
Con reports from London’s MCM Expo and TimeGate were linked to. Carmen Argenziano, Alaina Huffman, Jamil Walker Smith, and David DeLuise were in attendance.
David Hewlett opened a new dGeek forum and created a special subforum for all of his Stargate fans.
We’re up to Kino #26 in our Stargate Wiki, and we’ve installed rotating banners at our LJ community.

Reminders

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

Stargate Planner: Week of April 12-18

There are some news tidbits and announcements that have been noted on this editor’s calendar and notebook that maybe you’d be interested in for this week. If you’ve got more to add, please don’t hesitate to announce them in the comment section below.

Calendar

Monday, April 12
Tuesday, April 13	Stargate Universe returns to the UK’s Sky One at 8:00 PM with “Space”.
Wednesday, April 14	Today is Robert Carlyle‘s birthday!
Thursday, April 15	The Official Stargate Convention in Vancouver kicks off today and lasts until Sunday, April 18. Make sure to visit Creation Entertainment for the latest in the schedule, which includes appearances by Michael Shanks, Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Rachel Luttrell, Brian J. Smith, Elyse Levesque, David Blue, Mark Burgess, Peter Williams, N. John Smith, Cliff Simon, Colin Cunningham, Christopher Heyerdahl, Dan Payne, Dan Shea, James Bamford, and Andee Frizzell.
Friday, April 16	Stargate Universe “Divided” on Australia’s Sci Fi Channel at 8:30 PM. Stargate Universe “Faith” on Syfy at 9 PM ET and on Space at 10 PM ET. Lou Diamond Phillips will be attending the Dallas International Film Festival (DIFF) for the first screening of his movie Transparency at 10:30 PM. Jewel Staite will be appearing at the Anaheim Comic Con, which starts today and ends on April 18. Several actors who appeared in supporting roles will also be in attendance.
Saturday, April 17	Today is Alaina Huffman‘s birthday!
Sunday, April 18	Today is David Hewlett‘s birthday!

News Notes

Unfortunately, Corin Nemec‘s web series Star-ving did not win the Audience Choice Award for which it had been nominated in the Second Annual Streamy Awards. The award went to Agents of Cracked. You can see a list of all of the nominees and winners at Mashable.com.

Stargate SG-1 character-focused comic books are being developed by Dynamite. Stargate: Vala Mal Doran is written by Brandon Jerwa and involves Vala in an “Ocean’s Eleven” type heist. It’s supposed to be released in May. Stargate: Daniel Jackson, written by Doug Murray, focuses on Jackson’s “voice of reason” and intellect while going on a classic SG-1 adventure.

On our Twitter, we provided a link to Chicago Tribune‘s Maureen Ryan’s review of the Supernatural episode in which Michael Shanks briefly appeared. Do you agree with those among Ryan’s readers that his role was way too small (although he did warn us that it would be so)?

Reminders

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

13-4-13: Stargate Universe 1.0, Feature Wrap-Up

SGU Season One Cast

It’s hard to believe, but that time has arrived! We’ve reached the final installment of our Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years (13-4-13) series. You know what that means? That means that new episodes of Stargate Universe resume next week on Friday, April 2, at 9 PM ET/PT on Syfy! Canadians watching Space will also see it on April 2 at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT. Australians getting Sci Fi will see it April 9, and UKers getting Sky One, April 13! (For more information on these schedules, visit the Stargate Universe main page in our Stargate Wiki.)

In the meantime, let’s look back at the beginning of the third series in the Stargate franchise. Premise-wise, Stargate Universe had been in the making for several years, first as a stand-alone Stargate movie, then as a series. Brad Wright told The Official Magazine, “The germ of Stargate Universe began as a movie by Robert Cooper [series co-creator/executive producer], as do many of our ideas. We always come up with a movie, pitch it to MGM, and they say, ‘Terrific, let’s make it a TV show.’ When we were spinning the film idea, we knew deep down that Universe was really a series because it had so much scope.

“Oddly enough we pitched Universe a couple of years before we actually thought we were going to end up doing it. We went to the Syfy Channel with the idea and it appeared to be really well-received, but then a very long time went by without us hearing anything more. At one point we thought, ‘Oh, well, it looks like it’s not going to happen,’ and then we received the series order. It came as a little bit of a surprise. Honestly, I expected Atlantis to go another year, and then we’d either have another year before Universe started up, or we would just wind up doing a couple more direct-to-DVD Stargate movies. Now, however, we’re doing Universe, which, believe me, is great.”

Getting down to the driving force behind the change in Stargate‘s proven 15-season signature of maintaining a sense of humor while not taking themselves too seriously, co-creator Robert C. Cooper explained to the Canadian Screenwriter Magazine, “What I really wanted to do was to shake up the approach to the show. I wanted us to move stylistically in a very different direction. We had made a plot-driven, action adventure show previously. The characters were fun and interesting, and one of the key reasons people liked the shows was because of the characters, but when people tuned in they knew what to expect: the crew would get into some trouble, go through the gate, have an adventure and then come home after saving the world. I don’t mean it in a derogatory sense, but it was a comic-book adventure, with larger-than-life bad guys, all about bad vs. good—very broad, primary colours. I felt like we had done as much of that as we could possibly do.

“I pitched the idea of doing something slightly more real as a character drama. It’s a sci-fi show: you’re still dealing with space ships. But I wanted the characters to feel real.”

Reaction to this change in format has been mixed, but ultimately, the first season of Stargate Universe has been deemed successful enough that a 20-episode second season was ordered (and is currently filming). Stargate Universe indeed is quite different in style, but still at the heart of it is the foundation laid in the previous twelve years’ worth of work done for both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.

Universe Season 1.0

If you haven’t had a chance to watch SGU 1.0, there’s going to be a marathon on Syfy to lead into the new episodes on Friday, April 2, starting at 11:00 AM ET!

Which episodes were your Top 3 choices for SGU Season 1.0?polls

The SGU Ensemble Cast

Cast interviews have been aplenty for the newest Stargate! Here at Solutions, we’ve reported on several, both here in the Solutions Blog and at our less-formal LJ Companion. Recently, we’ve added tags to both places that will lead you directly to the reports. We’ve also started actor and character biographies in the Stargate Wiki. Click on the following links to get you to your favorite’s entries (clicking on the image will get you to our Gallery’s larger version):

Robert Carlyle
(Dr. Nicholas Rush)

Louis Ferreira
(Col. Everett Young)

Brian J. Smith
(Lt. Matthew Scott)

Elyse Levesque
(Chloe Armstrong)

David Blue
(Eli Wallace)

Alaina Huffman
(Lt. Tamara Johansen)

Jamil Walker Smith as MSgt. Ronald Greer

Jamil Walker Smith
(MSgt. Ronald Greer)

Ming-Na
(Camile Wray)

Lou Diamond Phillips as Col. David Telford

Lou Diamond Phillips
(Col. David Telford)

Solutions

Stargate Universe Main Page in the Solutions Stargate Wiki
Season One (Episode Guides and Transcripts)
Solutions On-Site Forum
Our friends at SGU Destiny LJ Community
Other Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years (13-4-13) Articles
Stargate SG-1
Stargate Atlantis
Keep up with the actors who were in the regular casts of SG-1 and Atlantis in our new Beyond the Event Horizon feature.

Did you enjoy our journey through the years of Stargate in this Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years series? Would you like to see more series of this type in the future? If so, what would you like to see? Let us hear from you in the comment section below, or contact us through our e-mail address. Thanks. 🙂

SGU Segment on ‘Today Show’ (Updated)

According to Craig Engler of Syfy, Stargate Universe will be included in the line-up for The Today Show tomorrow (October 1). Here’s his tweet:

FYI you can watch Robert Carlyle @MsMingNa & @LouDPhillips on @todayshow tomorrow morning! #sgu

Today is a four-hour morning show on NBC that begins at 7 AM (ET). If you miss Robert Carlyle, Ming-Na, and Lou Diamond Phillips as they make their appearances, you’ll be able to watch the entire program online at their website (most likely only available to those in the USA).

Stargate Universe premieres on Friday, October 2, at 9 PM (ET) on Syfy and Space.

UPDATE:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

SGU Momentum Builds; RDA Returns

With less than a week to go until the North American premiere of Stargate Universe, the press and promotion machine is going full-tilt, to the credit of Syfy and MGM. There have been few if any negative reviews of the three-parter, “Air,” which was screened by the press. Rather, the reactions have ranged from cautiously optimistic to positively glowing. A recent selection includes:

Pop Culture Zoo Review

Stargate Universe has one of the finest ensemble casts I’ve seen in a long time. When someone of the caliber of Robert Carlyle is cast in a lead role there is always the concern that they will overshadow the others (John Noble through most of Fringe’s first season is an excellent example of that). Here all worries are quickly dispelled as every actor that shares a scene with Carlyle easily holds their own and that amazing acting continues when he is absent.

CinemaSpy Review

If ‘Air’ sounds a bit downbeat, that is because it is. The episode is dark (literally as well as figuratively, since there seem to be few lights on Destiny) and less humorous than Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. The plot also gives our heroes few major victories to cheer about.

LA Times: TV This Week

It’s no “Star Wars,” or even “Star Trek,” but 15 years after the 1994 sci-fi adventure “Stargate” — which has already spawned the TV spinoffs “Stargate SG-1” and “Stargate Atlantis” — the franchise soldiers on with the debut of “Stargate Universe” (above). Robert Carlyle and Lou Diamond Phillips star. (SyFy, 9 p.m.)

There are also many interviews coming out with the cast. The Province of Canada just posted interviews of Robert Carlyle, Louis Ferreira, Ming Na, and Lou Diamond Phillips.

Twitter reveals many tidbits as well (follow our superfeed here!). The cast and crew will gather tonight to watch the premiere together for the first time, as revealed by numerous Tweeters from the show.

Filming this week included a major action sequence involving Louis Ferreira, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jamil Walker Smith, and Brian J. Smith. LDP reported he was bruised as a result.

Amanda Tapping was on set this week and had lunch with the ladies of SGU. Ming Na tweeted the photo below here.

AT and SGU Ladies

It’s not clear whether Tapping will be appearing in an additional episode of SGU or if she was just visiting the set for some actor bonding. Meanwhile, it appears Richard Dean Anderson is on set for filming of the season finale, as “not” confirmed by Joe Mallozzi:

To those of you asking, I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of Richard Dean Anderson on the lot. However, in the event I was to confirm it (which I’m not), I’d say he was in great spirits yesterday when he joined us for lunch in the writers’ room – joking away, his charming old self, simply happy to be back. IF he is back. Also, in the event he has returned for a guest spot(s), it’s possible he could have started shooting his scenes today.

Filming of Season 1 is scheduled to continue into October. Whether there is a Season 2 will depend of course on the ratings for the first few episodes of Season 1, as the decision will need to be made before the year is out.

Stargate Universe Does TV Critics Tour

Stargate Universe had a big presense at this week’s Television Critics Association (TCA) summer press tour in Los Angeles. The producers (Brad Wright, Robert Cooper) and some of the cast did a short Q&A and gave other interviews. The most extensive coverage of the Q&A is this article at IGN. Here is a snippet:

As to the producers talking about the more ambiguous characters, Carlyle said his Dr. Nicholas Rush was “Very different from characters you would find on most science fiction shows. He’s a very dangerous man. He generally only talks to people if he needs something from them. He’d happily get rid of everybody on the ship, but he needs them. He does some really dodgy stuff.” Carlyle also said that the other characters would gladly “put him in an airlock” if they didn’t have need of his knowledge.

Lou Diamond Phillips was characterized as reassuring Stargate fans in this SciFiWire article:

“The Stargate is at the center of it,” Phillips said in an exclusive interview Wednesday at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Pasadena, Calif. The show will also focus on the combined military and civilian exploration of space, much like SG-1 and Atlantis before it, he added.

He also said, as others have, that there would be different elements:

I think audiences today are looking for something that’s a little more grounded, so to speak, even when you’re doing sci-fi,” Phillips said. “It’s grittier. It’s darker. It’s very much character-driven. It’s about the dynamics between very real people in an extraordinary situation and not so much about heroes and villains, you know?

Several press outlets reported that Universe strives to be as good as Battlestar Galactica, such as this one from the LA Times Blog:

“Make no mistake, ‘Battlestar’ is a quality show, and, yes, we want to make quality too,” said creator Brad Wright.

“Stargate SG-1” ran for 10 seasons, “Stargate Atlantis” ran for five, but “Universe” will be something new. “Other than the Stargate [ship] [sic], which is still very much the core, a whole lot is different from the old series,” creator Robert Cooper added.

There was more coverage, but those articles give one the gist of it!

Remember to Vote for Lou Starting Tonight!

Tonight is the two-hour premiere of NBC’s I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! contest for charity at 8/7c and Stargate Universe star Lou Diamond Phillips would like your votes! 🙂

The official website describes the show: “A groundbreaking, live event airing throughout the month of June it’s the ultimate “Swiss Family Robinson” as ten celebrities are dropped into the heart of the jungle [Costa Rica] to face fun and comedic challenges designed to test their survival skills. America is the puppet master, controlling their favorites by putting them into challenges and tasks to win food, supplies and luxury items. In each episode, friendships will be tested, hilarity will ensue and viewers will decide which celebrities stay or leave. While all participants will be playing for their favorite charities, the last remaining star will be crowned King or Queen of the Jungle, winning the largest share of the prize for donation.”

Phillips’ Celebrity biography can be read HERE, but surprisingly enough, neither Lou’s selected charity nor Stargate Universe got mentioned! In any case, Lou has asked that you submit your votes for him so that he can stay as long as possible in the challenge, which will broadcast various weeknights from now until June 24 (check your local listings or the NBC website for times).

Good luck, Lou!

Update on Flanigan, Tapping, Phillips

Stargate stars Amanda Tapping and Joe Flanigan are featured in this week’s episode of The Jace Hall Show! The show is geared toward the gaming community, but it’s not unusual for Hall to have a chat with television and film celebrities. And be warned, sometimes these interviews show sides of people we never knew they had!

Episode 8:

… we take a trip to Canada, to check out another show that started on the internet and made it to TV, well the Jace Hall Show has 1 of those things in common, and its not the 2nd part 🙁 … anyways, its Sanctuary!!! We catch up with Amanda Tapping, Robin Dunne and Ryan Robbins who all give us a tour of the hit shows massive green screen stages.

But thats not ALL! Stargate Atlantis mega-star Joe Flanigan drops by the office for a meeting with Jace about our “V”ideo game show, and doesn’t want to leave until he gets to try something on for size himself.

To view the video, visit Episode 8 w/ Stargate: Atlantis’ Joe Flanigan, a visit to the set of Sanctuary and Terminator Salvation w/ a Terminator…” (viewers are reporting better playback at Crackle.com).

According to Playbill.com, Universe star Lou Diamond Phillips will be reading at The York Theatre Company on 54th Street, east of Lexington Avenue, tonight. He’s starring in the title role of Dillinger: Public Enemy Number One and is joined by Natalie Bradshaw, E. Clayton Cornelious, Jason Griffith, Jimmy Ludwig, Darren Matthias, Brooke Sunny Moriber, Eric Morris, Jennifer Prescott, and Megan Sikora.

Playbill.com states, “Although the reading is free, reservations are required by emailing Jeff Landsman at Jlandsman@yorktheatre.org (include name, phone number, the show’s title and the number of tickets) or by calling (212) 935-5824, ext. 24.”

Lou Diamond Phillips in “Carny” on Sci Fi

Carny - Sci Fi
Lou Diamond Phillips stars in Carny (image from Sci Fi)

Stargate Universe star Lou Diamond Phillips can be seen in the new Sci Fi Channel movie Carny this Saturday, April 25, at 9 PM (Eastern).

The movie was produced by Muse Entertainment and Brava Pictures for the Sci Fi Channel in the US and Super Channel in Canada (airing time for Super Channel currently not known). The Muse Entertainment website points to the official press release and an interview done by Phillips with The Ottawa Citizen during the time the film was shooting in Ottawa, Canada (to stand in the place of a small town in Nebraska, USA). The interview is available in both PDF and on-line formats.

Phillips plays the town sheriff, Atlas, who is the hero of the story: “When a blood thirsty creature known as the Jersey Devil escapes from a travelling carnival and begins to inflict terrible revenge on the citizens of a small town, it’s up to the Sheriff to track and kill the beast before it’s too late.”

What attracted Phillips to the role? “It’s a horror film, it’s a lot of fun and my kids are going to love this. They loved one of my earlier films, Bats — a 1999 film about killer bats — and I find this a bit reminiscent of that. I’ve beaten sharks, a Jersey Devil, bats — daddy is indestructible.”

Phillips is the father of four children. The youngest, Indigo, is probably a bit too young to watch the movie “live” just yet, though, because, according to the movie’s producer, Irene Litinsky (Human Trafficking, The Last Templar), “Carny will transport the audience to a time of nostalgic carnivals – the ones we all remember as young children. Our film will not just thrill them – but hopefully scare them witless.”

Phillips is currently filming episodes of Universe in Vancouver, which is due to premiere on the Syfy Channel (same as the Sci Fi Channel, just a new name) in October.