Stargate Universe Gets Nine Gemini Nominations

Stargate Universe has received nine nominations in the 25th Annual Gemini Awards!

Before we get to the list, here are the particulars concerning this year’s Awards (from their website):

Toronto, ON –– The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is pleased to announce the nominations for the 25th Annual Gemini Awards, recognizing the year’s best in Canadian English-language television. This year’s celebrations will be held in Toronto over three nights in November. The Industry Gala Presentations will take place on Tuesday November 2nd and Wednesday November 3rd at the Kool Haus Entertainment Complex; the Broadcast Gala will take place on Saturday November 13th at the historic Winter Garden Theatre and will be broadcast live-to-tape on Global and Showcase.

The Nominations

  1. Best Dramatic Series – Brad Wright, Carl Binder, Robert Cooper, John Lenic, N. John Smith (Stargate Universe I Inc.)
  2. Best Direction in a Dramatic Series – Andy Mikita, “Air Part 1”
  3. Best Photography in a Dramatic Program or Series – Jim Menard, “Light”
  4. Best Picture Editing in a Dramatic Program or Series – Rick Martin, “Human”
  5. Best Sound in a Dramatic Series – Kelly Cole, Jay Cheetham, Kirby Jinnah, Bill Mellow, Patrick Ramsay, Steve Smith, Joe Watts, Matt Wilson; “Air Part 1”
  6. Best Visual Effects – Mark Savela, Brenda Campbell, Shannon Gurney, Vivian Jim, Andrew Karr, Michael Lowes, Kodie MacKenzie, Krista McLean, Alec MClymont, Craig Vandenbiggelaar; “Air Part 1”
  7. Best Original Music Score for a Program or Series – Joel Goldsmith, “Light”
  8. Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role – Robert Carlyle, “Human”
  9. Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role – Louis Ferreira, “Justice”

Congratulations to our Stargate nominees!

Stargate Planner: Week of July 19-25

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,   July 19
Tuesday,   July 20
Wednesday, July 21 Encore: Stargate Universe “Life” on New Zealand’s Prime TV at 10:30 PM.
Thursday,   July 22 Stargate Universe “Justice” on New Zealand’s Prime TV at 8:30 PM.

Michael Shanks starts filming today in Vancouver for his role in the new Gothic Red Riding Hood. The Warner Bros. movie is currently scheduled for release in theaters on March 11, 2011.

San Diego Comic Con begins today, but the SGU panel is not until tomorrow.

Friday,   July 23 Stargate Universe Panel at SDCC – 10:30-11:30: Robert Carlyle, David Blue, Ming Na, and Louis Ferreira, moderated by Robert Cooper in Ballroom 20.
Saturday, July 24 Sanctuary Panel at SDCC – 1:00-2:00: Moderated by Josh Gates and featuring Amanda Tapping, Robin Dunne, and executive producers Martin Wood and Damian Kindler in the Indigo Ballroom, San Diego Hilton Bayfront.
Sunday, July 25

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.

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

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.

Stargate Universe at the San Diego Comic Con

San Diego Comic ConSuper Hero Hype has published the schedule for the panels in this year’s San Diego Comic Con, being held July 22 through 25. Here’s the information about the Stargate Universe panel:

Friday, July 23

10:30-11:30 Stargate Universe— Follow your Destiny. Catch the Syfy Stargate Universe panel, featuring Robert Carlyle (Dr. Nicholas Rush), David Blue (Eli Wallace), Ming Na (Camile Wray), and Louis Ferreira (Colonel Everett Young), moderated by Robert Cooper (series co-creator). Ballroom 20

Ask Louis Ferreira Your Questions

Col. Everett Young in front of the Destiny Stargate (MGM)
Louis Ferreira as Col. Everett Young (MGM)
Once again, executive producer Joseph Mallozzi is opening his weblog up to fan questions directed to someone attached to the production of Stargate Universe. This time, you’re invited to ask Louis Ferreira (Col. Everett Young) your questions:

Okay, looks like the guest bloggers are coming up fast and furious. I’ve collected your questions for Jennifer Spence and will be sending them her way this weekend. Next up…

The lovely Louis Ferreira, SGU’s Colonel Everett Young, is looking forward to hearing from you. If you’ve got questions and comments for Destiny’s commander, start posting!

To submit your questions, do the following:

  1. Go to this entry in Mallozzi’s weblog: Yet Another Guest Blogger Announcement!
  2. Scroll all the way down until you get to the comments section.
  3. Fill in the form. Make sure to proofread your entry because you won’t have a chance to edit it after you submit it.
  4. Click on “Submit Comment”.

Mallozzi reviews all comments before they get posted, so it might take a little while for your entry to make it through.

Stargate Planner: Week of May 24-30

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, May 24
Tuesday, May 25 Stargate Universe “Pain” on the UK’s Sky One at 8:00 PM.
Wednesday, May 26
Thursday,
May 27
Stargate Universe premieres in New Zealand with “Air Part 1” and “Air Part 2” on Prime TV starting at 8:30 PM (Source: MSOL).
Friday,
May 28
Stargate Universe “Subversion” on Australia’s Sci Fi Channel at 8:30 PM and on Canada’s Space at 10 PM ET. Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks guest star!

There will not be a new episode of Stargate Universe on Syfy until next week, June 4, because of the Memorial Day weekend.

Collectormania 16 in Milton Keynes, England, begins today and runs to May 31. Joe Flanigan is due to make an appearance.

Saturday, May 29 London MCM Expo begins today and ends tomorrow, May 30. Guests include Alaina Huffman and Jamil Walker Smith from Stargate Universe, along with guest starring veterans David DeLuise and John Noble.
Sunday, May 30

News Notes

Last week, we posted a few background articles in our LJ Companion that you might be interested in. Most of these articles 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.

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!


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 as Dr. Nicholas Rush

Robert Carlyle
(Dr. Nicholas Rush)
Louis Ferreira as Col. Everett Young

Louis Ferreira
(Col. Everett Young)
Brian J. Smith as Lt. Matthew Scott

Brian J. Smith
(Lt. Matthew Scott)
Elyse Levesque as Chloe Armstrong

Elyse Levesque
(Chloe Armstrong)
David Blue as Eli Wallace

David Blue
(Eli Wallace)
Alaina Huffman as Lt. Tamara Johansen

Alaina Huffman
(Lt. Tamara Johansen)
Jamil Walker Smith as MSgt. Ronald Greer

Jamil Walker Smith
(MSgt. Ronald Greer)
Ming-Na as Camile Wray

Ming-Na
(Camile Wray)
Lou Diamond Phillips as Col. David Telford

Lou Diamond Phillips
(Col. David Telford)

Solutions


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 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.

io9: SGU Character Profile: Col. Everett Young

io9 has the next exclusive video interview with Stargate Universe actors as they describe their characters. This one is from Louis Ferreira (aka Justin Louis) who plays Col. Everett Young, the temporary leader of the Icarus Base who ends up the leader when the base is evacuated to Destiny.

You’ll need Flash in order to play the video (link goes to io9 website):

sgu-young-profile

Justin Louis Stars in “Grey Gardens”

Justin Louis in Grey Gardens (HBO)
Justin Louis and Arye Gross in HBO’s Grey Gardens (image from HBO)

Stargate Universe star Justin Louis (Col. Everett Young) can currently be seen in the HBO production Grey Gardens.

The mainpage for the production at the HBO site describes the movie, “Based on the lives that inspired the Maysles Brothers’ classic documentary, this HBO Films drama tells the story of “Big Edie” Beale and her daughter “Little Edie”, who forged a unique bond while living in a ramshackle East Hampton mansion.”

Louis portrays David Maysles while Arye Gross plays his character’s brother, Albert. The cast also includes Jessica Lange, Drew Barrymore, Michael Gets, Daniel Baldwin, Ken Howard, and Jeanne Tripplehorn.

The website also has a behind-the-scenes making-of feature, a synopsis, interviews, a photo gallery, and a video preview. There’s even a fan community. The movie has several showtimes throughout this and the upcoming month, so there are plenty of times to catch Louis in a recent production. All of the HBO showtimes are provided at the movie’s website.

Louis is currently filming Universe in Vancouver and will be seen in his first Stargate role during the show’s two-hour premiere slated for October on the Syfy Channel (formerly the Sci Fi Channel) in the US, SPACE in Canada, and Sky One in the UK.

SGU: Justin Louis Cast as Col. Everett Young

Justin Louis

Matt Mitovich of TV Guide has announced the casting of Justin Louis as Col. Everett Young in Stargate Universe. Louis has played the character of Art in the Saw movie franchise and had the title role of Donald Trump in Trump Unauthorized.

Born 20 February 1967 in Portugal, Louis was raised in Toronto. According to his IMDb profile, he has had the starring role in nine different television series.

Col. Young is the leader of the off-world base that houses the Ninth Chevron Project (not necessarily the official name of the project, but a name given herein for clarification). While the facility is being toured by civilian representatives from the International Oversight Advisory (IOA) and the United States Senate, an attack leaves everyone scrambling for safety. The survivors flee through the Stargate and end up on the Ancient starship Destiny, which leaves them stranded far from Earth and with no means of returning home.

Young had formerly been an SG team leader, but he lost some of his team. He was married two years ago to Hailey and requested to serve the rest of his commission on Earth. He was given the temporary command of the base when it comes under attack. Once stranded, Young takes control of the crew, much to the objections of the Project leader Dr. David Rush (Robert Carlyle).

Stargate Universe is scheduled to begin filming the premiere episode “Air” on February 4.