DeeKayP – Page 66 – Solutions Blog

Amanda Tapping Honored as "Woman of Vision"

The Women In Film & Television Vancouver organization has announced their 2009 Spotlight Award™ winners and Stargate star Amanda Tapping was one of the honorees! Here’s a clipping of their announcement:

Vancouver, BC

Women In Film & Television Vancouver is thrilled to announce the winners of this year’s Spotlight Awards™. The Awards Gala will occur March 7, 2009 at the Vancity Theatre in Vancouver, a highlight of WIFTV’s 5-day Women In Film Festival 2009.

“As WIFTV celebrates its 20th Anniversary this year, it’s an honour and a privilege to celebrate such well-respected and talented women and men in our industry. This year’s winners are an incredibly inspiring group. Congratulations!” said Peggy Thompson, President of Women in Film & Television Vancouver.

The Spotlight Award™ winners, selected by a Jury of Board Members of WIFTV are:

[…]

Woman of Vision (Special Jury Prize) — Amanda Tapping, actor, director, and producer, for her ground-breaking work on Sanctuary and having the vision to grow the series from webcast to broadcast. Amanda is also a well-known mentor in the Vancouver film community and a great teller of women’s stories.

[…]

Established in 1988, The Spotlight Awards™ have brought together filmmakers, the film industry, government and media to celebrate the outstanding achievements of BC women and men in screen-based media. Conceived as an event to recognize and promote exceptional professionals in film and television, The Spotlight Awards™ are acknowledged today as one of the industry’s most prestigious accolades.

Since 1988, more than 100 remarkable people have received Spotlight Awards. Many of today’s outstanding filmmakers and industry leaders are past recipients of a Spotlight Award – a testament to women’s contributions to Canada’s entertainment community.

This year’s awards will be presented at a Gala Ceremony on March 7th, at the Vancity Theatre.

Congratulations to Amanda for this incredible honor!

[About the image: Amanda Tapping, executive producer and star of the SCI FI Channel’s series “Sanctuary”, takes part in a panel discussion at the NBC Universal summer 2008 media tour in Beverly Hills, California July 20, 2008. REUTERS/Fred Prouser (UNITED STATES)]

SGU: New Recurring Character Adds More Conflict

Another new character has been revealed in a casting call for Stargate Universe, the upcoming television series that is to begin principal photography February 11 (moved from February 4) starting with “Air”, the three-part series premiere being penned by co-creators Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright.

Spoiler TV has this description of the character:

[COLONEL COLLINS] 35 – 40. Handsome. A born military man proud of himself with great faith in the chain of command. The intended leader of the expedition who plans to reclaim his place as commander regardless of what he must to do. Stubbornly confident and highly regarded by his superiors.sptv050769.. Supporting Lead. RECURRING. PLEASE SUBMIT HISPANIC ACTORS ONLY.

The audition sides for Collins reveal a whole lot of spoilers, so if you don’t want to know, STOP HERE!

SPOILERS ~ SPOILERS ~ SPOILERS ~ SPOILERS ~ SPOILERS ~ SPOILERS

A lot of the story is told in flashback, which makes putting together the order of events rather confusing, so keep that in mind when you read this interpretation:

SETTINGS: Icarus Base is the off-world base that houses the project researching the 9th chevron. Solutions has referred to this project as the Ninth Chevron Project in previous reports. Creative consultant Joseph Mallozzi mentioned the two main sets for the show recently in his weblog, “Another visit to the Destiny in Stage 4 and the Icarus Base in Stage 5 shows the sets are coming along nicely. The ship interiors are particularly impressive.”

AIR (2-part premiere) (Final Draft):

Previous spoilers indicated that Col. Everett Young (Justin Louis) was in temporary command of the Icarus Base. Apparently, the intended permanent commander is Col. Collins. Collins is in the Base to meet the visiting IOA (Camille Wray, not yet cast) and US government civilian authorities (Senator Hamilton [Walker?] and Chloe, not yet cast) when the Base comes under attack.

Collins, though, ends up on the Daedalus (The audition sides originally called for Col. Steven Caldwell to be present, but Collins was given Caldwell’s part in this one scene. Whether or not the ship remains the Deadalus or is a different Deadalus-class ship remains to be seen.) He is protecting the Icarus Base during this attack. Their immediate guess is that it is the Lucian Alliance who is attacking them, but that isn’t certain because the attackers hadn’t identified themselves. The Daedalus is up against at least three Goa’uld motherships, a troop transport, and a squadron of death gliders.

Young and his team man the Icarus Base battlement, which has several rail guns pointed toward the sky, while Collins leads his F-302 squadron in space. Unfortunately, the transport and several gliders get by in the space battle and head for the Base. Collins, in his 302, targets the transport, but is unable to stop it from landing. At least a thousand troops begin to exit the transport and march toward the Base. Collins radios Young to let him know that they are about to be overrun. At this point, Collins commands that all the people on the Base evacuate to Earth through the Stargate and that they’ll rendezvous there.

Apparently, this attack happens around the same time that Dr. Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle) and Eli Wallace (David Blue) are trying to figure out what the 9th chevron is supposed to be. They’ve had the eight symbols for quite some time (it took two years to find the correct properties for the site of the Icarus Base), but the Point of Origin, or 9th chevron, remained an unknown. Rush believes the 9th chevron should be the one used for the Base, but Eli asserts that the 9th chevron should be Earth’s symbol because all of the symbols on the Stargate are the constellations as seen from Earth. Rush argues that the only viable power source that they found that could power the dialing of the 9th chevron is located on the planet that they’re on, not on Earth. Somehow, the results of this experiment and the sudden attack lead the entire base to evacuate to the Destiny rather than to Earth.

AIR PART 3 (Revised Writer’s Draft):

Collins is back on Earth and swaps bodies with Young via an Ancient communications stone, located in a communications lab at a Homeworld Security facility. There are guards standing nearby, and a person named Park is with Collins. The communications lab had previously interacted with Rush, who is stranded on the Destiny like Young is. Lieutenant Tamara Jon (“TJ”, formerly ranked at captain in the breakdowns) takes Collins and Park on a tour of the Destiny while they’re in Young’s and someone else’s bodies. Apparently, Young’s body was injured (possibly during the evacuation), but Collins insists on staying with his crew to help them in their situation, no matter how much pain he’s in.

Young, in Collins’ body back on Earth, is escorted to a low rent neighborhood apartment building. The reason for his visit there is not known, but he’s being escorted by Major Peterson, who is also acting as a liaison. They are there to meet a woman. (This scenario sounds very similar to that of Michael Smith’s in the previously-published audition sides and may be a rewrite. Smith visits his wife to tell her about his situation, but that he’ll do everything to get back home. Emily’s reaction indicates that she resents his secret assignment and is not going to wait for him.)

The stranded crew aboard the Destiny are desperately seeking a way to fix their air scrubbing system. They’ve sent a team to a desert planet to find lime, apparently an active ingredient in the compound the Ancients used. It is also possible that they are looking for an inhabitable new home if they can’t get the Destiny fixed.

More information about the show can be found at Stargate Universe guide in the Stargate Wiki. The Sci Fi Channel will be premiering the first two parts of “Air” in a two-hour movie in the Fall, and Part 3 will be shown later in the show’s regular hour timeslot.

The drafts used in the auditions don’t necessarily reflect the actual story, so spoilers are extremely subject to change as the episodes are in production.

SG-1 Appears in Stargate Worlds

Here is the first screenshot of the legendary SG-1 team, comprised of Col. Jack O’Neill, Dr. Daniel Jackson, Major Samantha Carter, and Teal’c, as they will appear in Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment’s Stargate Worlds, the MMORPG expected to be released this year.

This notice was placed recently in the news section of the game’s official website:

While the rest of the world was working off their turkey hangover, we were …

… nose to the grindstone packing SG-1 goodness into Stargate Worlds! This is the first of several NPC shots we will be debuting exclusively right here on StargateWorlds.com, so keep coming back to see the old favorites and new faces that will bring the game to life.

This screenshot joins several others in the site’s Gallery. The developers added, “Be on the lookout early next week for the next image and a caption contest to go along with it.”

Cooper Shares How "Vegas" Came Together

Vegas Tragedy

“This was a tragedy. The hero always dies at the end of a tragedy. It’s a dark story about a lonely man with a broken past who sees a chance to be a hero and possibly end his life-long pain,” writer and director Robert C. Cooper said of “Vegas”, the penultimate Stargate Atlantis episode, when he stopped by executive producer Joseph Mallozzi’s weblog to answer questions gathered by Mallozzi from his readers.

Cooper was quick to give credit to several others for their contribution in seeing his vision come to fruition. “I have to credit Charlie Cohen Executive VP of MGM for wanting to make the end of season five as special as it could be,” he started.

Part of the unique feel of “Vegas” is the location shoot done in the actual city. “We had a crew most of us had never worked with that had to be flown in from LA. Getting a casino property to agree to let us do what we wanted was a challenge as well. Planet Hollywood made it all possible.

“Mike Banas cut this episode and deserves a huge amount of credit for how it came together. Surprisingly, this is the first time I’ve worked with Mike. He spent countless hours studying various techniques employed by CSI and a variety of other films and television shows. After he took a first crack, we worked very closely on getting things to where they ended up. His enthusiasm and editing artistry made this episode much better than it would have been without him.

“James Robbins, our production designer and extraordinary artist, came up with much of the visual look. We always wanted them [the Wraith] to have a dark goth-like quality. We were amazed when we all looked back and realized that in five seasons we had never seen a wraith with his shirt off. We decided it was an opportunity to show subtle and not-so subtle differences,” Cooper answered when asked about the Wraith’s nippleless chest.

“Kerry McDowall our post-production co-ordinator put in a lot of extra time and effort negotiating the deals for the songs. I’m very grateful to her for that.” Acquiring the use of these songs helped bring the CSI-like mood to the episode, as well as the work of composer Joel Goldsmith, who wrote all of the other music, including that for the chase scene.

When asked “Did you use stock footage of the A10 Warthogs, or did the Air Force give you a fly by?” Cooper replied, “I guess that’s just how good the VFX department is. They were all CG.” The VXF department also added debris to the shoot-out scene at the end of the episode.

And finally, Cooper gave credit to the creative input of Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, and Robert Picardo that went into making the characters deeper and the story fuller.

The production team learned a lot during the making of this episode, and they want to carry that experience over into the new Stargate Universe. “Vegas was an experiment in many ways. It was an opportunity to break the mold and try something different. Universe will not follow the style of Vegas but it will most definitely be much different than previous Stargate series. The shooting style and use of more contemporary music are part of what will hopefully make Universe stand out.”

Visit Joseph Mallozzi’s Weblog for the complete and informative Q&A.

SCI FI WIRE: Stargate Universe Moved to Fall Premiere

According to SCI FI WIRE in an article stating that Robert Carlyle will be joined by Justin Louis, David Blue, Brian J. Smith, and Jamil Walker Smith in the regular cast of Stargate Universe, fans of Stargate will now be waiting until the fall instead of July for twenty new Stargate stories.

This news follows Atlantis executive producer Joseph Mallozzi’s statement that if he were a betting man, the third Stargate SG-1 and the first Stargate Atlantis movies won’t be ready until 2010, rather than the hoped-for fall of 2009. The latest word is that the SG-1 movie, starring Richard Dean Anderson, will be filmed in the spring and the Atlantis movie will be shot in the summer. Depending on how these two movies will be released, a good ten months could possibly follow in post-production and marketing.

Stargate Universe will premiere with two hours of the three-part opener “Air”, which is written by series creators Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright. Filming the new show is expected to begin February 4, and more cast announcements are anticipated for the two female leads who will be portraying Tamara Johanson (aka Jon) and Chloe Walker.

It should be noted that the Sci Fi Channel has been known to change their schedule often, so it’s possible that things might again change. Please visit Solutions regularly for the latest news on the Stargate television and movie projects.

Corin Nemec Hits Rock Bottom Today in "Star-ving"

What happens to child stars who grow up? If you take the case of David Faustino, formerly known as Bud Bundy from Married with Children, and Corin Nemec, formerly Parker Lewis of Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, then you’ll know that they often hit rock bottom and will do anything to get back on top. Faustino and Nemec co-star and co-executive-produce the new web comedy Star-ving that takes a less-than-favorable look at these two men who are allegedly scrambling to succeed in life in a real-life fiction kind of way.

The series debuts today at Crackle.com. There will be thirteen short webisodes, each running less than ten minutes apiece. BE WARNED: This web series is not for those trying to stay away from dirty words, dirty thoughts, dirty deeds … and bare male buttocks. Described as “racy”, the series includes guest appearances by veteran actors Ed Asner, Alan Thicke, and Ed O’Neill, who all give the two ex-stars a rather rough go.

Stargate fans know that Corin Nemec has been anything but a loser, especially considering he starred on Stargate SG-1 for a season (Season Six) as Jonas Quinn, the first new permanent member of the team after the death/ascension of Dr. Daniel Jackson. Since then, Nemec has guest starred on television series such as CSI: NY, CSI: Miami, and Ghost Whisperer and in various movies, including the title role in the DTV movie Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck. Check out his IMDb record for more proof that Nemec has not actually hit rock bottom, but has a good time pretending it in Star-ving.

SGU: Brian J. Smith Cast as Lt. Matthew Scott

The casting announcements continue to come in for the new Stargate Universe, and this one originates with the exclusive given to Gateworld for the casting of Brian J. Smith as Lt. Matthew Scott (formerly known as Lt. Jared Nash and also Lt. Jared Scott).

According to his IMDb profile, Smith was born 12 October 1981 in Dallas, Texas, and at the age of 27 is close to the specified age for his character in the casting breakdowns issued late last year. Smith is a relative newcomer to television, but has had a fairly extensive stage career, having graduated from the Juilliard School of Drama in New York.

Smith’s character, Lt. Matthew Scott, was described as a “junior SGC team member. Officer material but green and rough around the edges. Every teenage girl’s fantasy. Like a college quarterback thrown into his first pro game, he is thrust into the role of leader well before he’s ready for the responsibility and must learn to take command, earn respect through action, and manage the diverse personalities on the ship to keep everyone alive. Like Jason Bourne, he is skilled and well-trained but mentally unprepared for the urgency of the situation.”

Scott is also a pilot and is the first person Col. Everett Young and Dr. Nicholas Rush (formerly known as Dr. David Rush, played by Robert Carlyle) think about to pilot the Ancient Shuttle found aboard the Destiny, the Ancient starship in which soldiers, civilians, and scientists associated with the Ninth Chevron Project find themselves stranded. Scott appears to be second in command after Col. Young, and as such, must become a leader much sooner than he ever imagined.

Stargate Universe will begin principal photography on February 4 and is due to make its Sci Fi Channel premiere in July.

SGU: Jamil Walker Smith Cast as Sr. Sgt. Ronald Greer

In our third casting announcement made today, Matt Mitovich of TV Guide has revealed that Jamil Walker Smith has been cast as Sr. Sgt. Ronald Greer in Stargate Universe. This role was formerly known as Ron “Psycho” Stasiak.

Smith provided the voice of Gerald Martin Johanssen in the animated series Hey Arnold!. According to his IMDb profile, he was born 20 August 1982 in New York, New York, and is a bit older than the 20-year-old profiled in the casting breakdown for his character. Other character traits, however, seem to apply, as Mitovich described him as “a Marine with an explosive temper…and a mysterious past to account for it.” Greer supposedly has had a near-death experience that has changed his outlook on life. He’s a tough soldier and has no qualms about putting his own life in danger in order to save and protect others. Dr. David Rush (Robert Carlyle) strongly dislikes him, but still admires him for his strength and recommends him for the small crew that is to take the Ancient Shuttle from the Destiny to a nearby planet. This Shuttle mission is highly risky, given that the Destiny might leave the crew behind as it proceeds on its unalterable preset course to visit Stargates placed on distant planets millions of years ago.

Stargate Universe will begin filming February 4 in Vancouver.

SGU: Justin Louis Cast as Col. Everett Young

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.

SGU: David Blue Cast as Eli Wallace

This casting announcement is just in from Entertainment Weekly: David Blue, formerly Cliff St. Paul from Ugly Betty, has been cast as Eli Wallace (formerly known as Eli Hitchcock) for the new Stargate Universe television series, which is due to start filming February 4, 2009.

Michael Ausiello at EW stated, “Sources confirm to me exclusively that Blue has been tapped to join the cast of Sci Fi Channel’s Stargate Universe, the franchise’s third (and purportedly edgiest) live-action series.

“Blue, who joins previously announced headliner Robert Carlyle, plays Eli Wallace, a total slacker who just happens to be an utter genius with anything he puts his mind to—mathematics, computers, video games. A lack [of] confidence has left him with an acerbic sense of humor.”

Born January 17, 1979, Blue is 29 years old and is portraying a character who in the casting breakdowns is supposed to be between the ages of 20 and 25. Eli is a social outcast, does not think of himself as good looking, comes from a broken home, and claims that he has no friends and that the only person who cares about what happens to him is his mother. He supposedly dropped out of school to play video games all day, every day, but is somehow given access to one of the most classified projects in the world when he joins the Ninth Chevron Project (not necessarily the official name, but describes the project within the Stargate Program dealing with the use of the ninth chevron on the Stargate). He’s familiar with a computer game that simulates the control consoles found on the Ancients’ long-abandoned starship Destiny. During a tour of the off-world base that is home to the Ninth Chevron Project, the base is attacked and Eli and others flee through the Stargate and end up on Destiny far from home with no known way to get back to Earth.

To learn more about Blue, visit his profile at IMDb. (His official website is under construction.)

Ausiello concludes, “I’m ecstatic for David, a genuinely decent guy who displayed real star potential on Betty.”

Creative consultant Joseph Mallozzi indicated in his weblog that further casting announcements will come soon.