SG-1 – Page 20 – Solutions Blog

Browder on Continuum, Farscape, and Other Projects

Coming out of a lengthy interview with Ben Browder concerning the release of the first of two direct-to-DVD movies, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, Mike Szymanski of SCI FI WIRE has posted several small articles concerning the many other projects in which Browder has some involvement.

Stargate: Continuum

Brad Wright’s Stargate Continuum was one project under conversation. This is the second direct-to-DVD movie filmed last year that will be released in July this year. According to Browder, “I think Ark of Truth is more tied to the last couple years of the series. Continuum is more stand-alone. That’s probably the most concise way of saying it.”

Continuum involves Ba’al, time travel, and a trek in the Arctic, which Browder has spoken about on numerous occasions. Richard Dean Anderson will be reprising his role as Jack O’Neill, and because it is a time-travel story, many other familiar faces from the past will be seen. Both Cooper and Wright have described it as an “old school” or an “old-fashioned” Stargate SG-1 story.

Browder believes that people can jump almost anywhere into the Stargate saga without having watched all ten seasons and still understand the concepts behind the series and movies. “Look, you can drop into the third season of something without knowing all the backstory and go, ‘Wow, this is really interesting. I like this.’ And, yeah, look, Ark is riddled with Stargate mythology, and there’s no question about that. I would imagine a reasonably intelligent, discerning audience member would be able to follow the story, though.”

To read the complete interview, visit Continuum More Casual.

Farscape Web Series

Browder was made a familiar face in the sci-fi world as astronaut John Crichton in Sci Fi Channel’s Farscape. The show gained a large fanbase, who were instrumental in getting a wrap-up to the storyline that was abruptly cut off when the TV show was cancelled. The mini-series Peacekeeper Wars was completed back when Stargate SG-1 was in their eighth season. Now, executive producer Brian Henson and creator Rockne O’Bannon are talking about how to revive Farscape on the Internet with a series of 10 webisodes.

Browder, who had considerable input into the stories told during the TV series, and who penned a few episodes himself, told Szymanski that he talked with Henson about the new web series at last year’s Comic Con held in San Diego. “They haven’t come to me with any specifics yet, and I don’t read anything into that. But at Comic-Con, Brian discussed it and said, ‘Yeah, we’re still figuring it out.’ The writers’ strike happened immediately after that, … and a lot of things went on hold, and it will take a little while before a number of things get going again.”

According to Szymanski, Browder is looking forward to reprising his role in the web series, but no other actors from the TV show were mentioned in the article, which you can read at Browder Eager For Web Farscape.

Other Projects

In addition to co-writing the Sci Fi Channel mini-series Going Homer, Browder and writing partner Andrew Prowse have sold a script to MGM for a horror movie entitled Black Mountain.

The movie is centered in a small town that is plagued by gruesome murders. The investigator assigned to the cases discovers that “it’s a critter in the woods” that is actually doing the killings. “It was one of those fun projects that you look at and you go, ‘Yeah, let’s have a stab at that. Let’s just see how badly wrong we can go with this [horror/sci-fi] genre,’ But, so you know, there is a monster in it, and the monster will really show the character for what he is.”

Browder told Szymanski, “That’s a script that MGM owns. They will do what they will do with it.” He added that he doesn’t write stories as starring vehicles. “In my own head I might imagine there’s a place for me, but, again, it’s a sole property, not something that I’m in the active process of trying to raise the money to produce at the moment. You know, it wasn’t written with that in mind anyway.”

To read the full interview, visit Browder Scales Black Mountain.

SCI FI WIRE: "Ark" Blew Browder Up

Cam Mitchell and Explosion ("The Ark of Truth")

For those who have seen Robert C. Cooper’s Stargate: The Ark of Truth, the fact that the production held onto the making of the fireball portion of the fight between Mitchell and Replicator Marrick for the end of the movie’s shooting should come at no surprise.

In a brief interview with Mike Szymanski at SCI FI WIRE, Browder explained, “You’ll look at the production schedule and see it’s the last shot, and you’ll look at it and you’ll go, ‘Oh, they’re worried about this.’ That’s because if I got fully fried and lost all of my hair or other body parts, they could whack something together for the next movie.”

All joking aside, the stunt was dangerous, and the production had a great respect for that. “I think it may have been more scary for production [than for me],” Browder told Szymanski over the phone. “You know, it’s a big old ball of flame, and you have to trust that these guys know what they’re doing. And you do trust. … I [could] feel the heat. I know that, you know, my clothes come up smoking on the backside when you’re done with something like that.”

To read the full interview, visit Ark Blew Browder Up. For those interested in the making of the fight scenes, including the fireball stunt, check out the special feature on the DVD entitled Uncovering The Ark of Truth, featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the movie.

Bridges on Fleshing Out General Landry

General Hank Landry ("The Ark of Truth")

With the release of the first of two direct-to-DVD movies, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, the cast of Stargate SG-1 is getting quite a bit of press attention. Among the latest is a three-page interview with Beau Bridges who portrays Major General Hank Landry.

Bridges tells Mark Wilson at About.com that he enjoyed doing the research that defined much of Landry’s backstory. “And I actually researched American generals, from George Washington all the way up to Tommy Franks, and Eisenhower, MacArthur, and kind of worked out a lot of the qualities that I liked in these guys and also a lot of the things that they said, the quotes, and I gave that — it must have been a 40 page thing of research — I gave that to the writers to help create General Landry. So we had a lot of fun. It was great.”

There was a history with Brad Wright’s Outer Limits that Bridges believes was instrumental in his being asked to join the cast. Bridges said that Landry’s progression was much like his own in finding his place and determining what was required of him. “And when I came into the show — yeah, it was a transitional period, and as the new general coming it I felt it was time to kick ass and take names [laughs], and tighten the ship. So I was a pretty serious guy and had a short temper. As the show went on I became more relaxed as an actor in the show, and so did my character, and more of the practical joker aspect of his character came out — it was neat, you don’t often have a chance to have that kind of evolution for a character.”

Still, Landry’s command came at a pivotal time at Stargate Command when the Ori began their crusade in the Milky Way. This type of situation calls for a general who knows what it’s like to be in the field and can provide his people with what they need, even though he no longer goes out on missions himself. “And I think he’s the kind of guy who — if you meet him out on the field of battle, he’s the kind of guy who’s going to enjoy the fight. And the tougher the odds, the stronger the enemy, that just jacks him up, because he’s that kind of a warrior.

“And even though, because of his age, he’s not the young buck going out and killing the dragon, he still felt very motivated and very excited about the whole proposition of it and being a master tactician. And also he’s good at getting out of his troops the things that he needs, the people that work for him. I liked doing him. Because I think as a younger man, he had been there, done that. So it wasn’t a problem in terms of not being on the battlefield himself, because he’d been there. He felt that he owed it to the people he was sending out there to make sure they had what they needed, and gave them the best advice he could before the battle.”

Of course, this type of dedication can be destructive to a warrior’s personal life. “He’s a man who really loves his service to his country, loves his job. He’s sort of married to that aspect of his life. And because of that, that’s one of the reasons he had problems personally, with his family — he loved his job so much, he kind of short-shrifted his wife and his daughter.”

General Landry confronts Prior in "The Ark of Truth"

In Stargate: The Ark of Truth, Landry demonstrates his unwavering faith in SG-1 to save the planet and gives them the extra time they need by talking with one of the Priors who will lead in the Ori’s attack on Earth. Landry shows a cool and calculating head when dealing with the Prior’s threats. “I had two people in my personal life who I though of when I played Landry. One of them was my father, who has been gone ten years now, but he was certainly a leader in his profession. I saw many times that calm aspect under fire when things got tight, he would be steady. And the other was my college basketball coach, John Wooden at UCLA, one of the best collegiate coaches ever to play the game — he won 10 out of 12 national championships. His whole composure was just very even-tempered, he never raised his voice, and he said wonderful things like, ‘Make every day your masterpiece’ and ‘Be quick, but don’t hurry,’ that was another great one. And so I thought of both those gentlemen a lot when I was doing Landry. They were very impressive to me.”

Now that the two movies are done, will Landry be included in any future Stargate stories? “I think that with these two two-hour movies that we made, Rob [Cooper] and Brad [Wright] always seem to leave the door open a crack, in case we want to do any more. We’ll wait and see how things go. If the people enjoy them and show enough interest, we may even make some more. I don’t know definitively whether that’s true, but they have such a loyal following. … I think all of it will be determined by how these DVDs do. But I’m always up for it, if I’m free.”

To read the rest of the interview, visit Interview: Beau Bridges: Stargate SG-1’s commander talks about “Ark of Truth.”.

Shanks Talks Stargate and Science Fiction

In another interview conducted concerning the release of the first of two direct-to-DVD movies, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, Michael Shanks talked with Brooke Tarnoff not only about the movie, but also about his acting career in the sci-fi genre.

First off, Shanks described how the decision was made to make the two movies after word of the cancellation of Stargate SG-1 was received. “When the show was cancelled, our producers went right away to MGM and we have a great ally in Charlie Cohen there. He’s a fan of the show, which is a wonderful thing to have, somebody who enjoys the show’s success and monetary gain but also watches the show. It’s nice to have that person making financial decisions for you. Sometimes the financial decisions are influenced by the fact that he wants to see it too, so… The consolation prize when we were cancelled was ‘don’t worry, there’s this thing in the future, no promises, but we think this is probably going to happen.'”

That “thing,” of course, was the production of the two movies, about which Shanks was relieved to hear because he had heard of no plans for the dangling storyline to be addressed in Stargate Atlantis. He said, “If it had been left alone, I think been now I would be pretty choked about it, like a chapter of my life had been left unclosed.”

Now that the movies are done, there are still some Stargate stories left to tell that involve Dr. Daniel Jackson. “I’m booked for two guest spots for their mid-season two-parter over on Atlantis this year as just as guest. So Daniel Jackson will be visiting that world, which I think is going to be a lot of fun. In terms of what’s going to go on with the character in the franchise, I don’t know. I don’t know how much franchise is in the tank – I know there’s a another spin-off possibility [Stargate Universe]. I have no idea what the premise is of that, I’ve had no discussions.”

Shanks doesn’t balk at continuing to play in science fiction shows, even after having worked in Stargate for over a decade. “I think sci-fi’s a wonderful medium. I’ve had to read for several parts and come very close to several parts I’d have loved to get – there are certain parts that I read for that I don’t really care if I get them or not – but other parts I read for and I go, ‘why are you so jazzed about this?’ It’s basically sci-fi stuff.”

One of the parts Shanks auditioned for was in The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and he was bummed out when he didn’t get it (the role went to Brian Austin Green). Still, Shanks hasn’t given up trying to get interesting sci-fi parts. “I guess I just like to be part of the things I like to watch, and those are the things I like to watch. Sci-fi is always going to be far and away some of the most interesting and imaginative stuff. It’s exciting to do, because it’s what I like to watch.”

To read the full interview, visit UnderGroundOnline: Michael Shanks, Stargate: Ark of Truth Interview.

MGM: Cooper Gives the Truth . . . Directly

Image of Robert C. Cooper from his Ark Q&A

MGM’s Official Stargate website has posted the first two of four videos in which writer, director, and producer Robert C. Cooper answers fans’ questions about his movie Stargate: The Ark of Truth. These questions were submitted directly by the fans from all over the world at the website, and Cooper answered ten of them as he sat in front of the Stargate.

One of the most surprising reveals of the interview includes a deleted scene in which the team breaks into Area 51 to destroy the Ark. Cooper deleted the scene because he felt that there were “too many endings” and that the conversation between Daniel and Landry about the dangers of the Ark sufficiently addressed the Ark issue. Other scenes were trimmed, including about half of the scene in which IOA representative James Marrick was introduced.

Cooper’s favorite scene from the movie is when the Odyssey goes through the Supergate, and he especially enjoyed the music and epic feel of Teal’c’s trek across the mountain. The two toughest scenes to write for Cooper were the one in which Tomin, Daniel, and Vala set the course of the movie in their conversation in the holding room and the scene that introduced James Marrick. Cooper said that he relies very heavily on the other writers (Brad Wright and the group working on Stargate Atlantis).

He also covers the invention of the Stargate, confirming that the Alteran who invented the Ark is indeed the one who invented the Stargate. The Ori, after they ascended later on down the timeline, gained the knowledge of how to build the Supergate.

Having a larger budget (but not as much more than one would think) allowed Cooper to spend more time (but not by much) and to have more impressive visual effects. He wanted to give the audience something that they wouldn’t have had with the TV show. Cooper had wanted to spread this story out into Season Eleven, breaking it up across seasons with the Odyssey‘s going through the Supergate to the Ori galaxy ending Season Ten. The story would have been spread across Season Eleven, but Cooper says, “Now you get to, you know, have the whole story told in one movie, in Ark of Truth.”

To watch the two videos, visit Part 1 (Questions #1 – #3) and Part 2 (Questions #4 – #6). Cooper comments on a pivotal scene in Wright’s Continuum in Part 1, so beware of that little spoiler. Parts 3 and 4 will be coming soon.

Cooper on Leaving Doors Open

Writer, director, and producer Robert C. Cooper was interviewed by Blaine Kyllo at Cinema Spy about his new direct-to-DVD movie, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, recently released on March 11, that is meant to wrap up the Ori storyline that began in Season Nine of Stargate SG-1. “We’ve never wrapped everything up in a complete package with a bow on it. We really do try and leave doors open all the time.

“If people’s biggest complaint is, ‘But you didn’t answer everything and we still want more,’ then that’s fine. I’m happy with that. We’ve always, even in wrapping up seasons from one year to the next on the show, we try to leave doors open or even introduce new wrinkles that will give us opportunities to revisit or tell new stories in the future. I think it’s almost an instinct, when you’re doing a series, that you want to leave doors open, and even when you’re answering some questions and closing some doors, you want to still have the opportunity to tell more stories. It doesn’t make sense to completely put an end on it.

“It’s not like this is a marketing thing, but it’s one of the things that makes the Stargate universe more ‘user friendly.’ What you have are fans who really immerse themselves in the world, and sometimes choose to write their own fan fiction, or expand their conversations about particular aspects of the series, and I think that if you were to close everything down, and say, ‘It’s over, it’s done,’ then it kind of kills the world. And that’s never our intention. Whether we’re continuing to make shows in a particular series or not, we want people to be satisfied but at the same time we want it all to be open-ended so that a) it can continue, or b) it can continue in the fans imaginations.”

Brad Wright’s Stargate: Continuum is a perfect example of how doors left open can be revisited, especially when it comes to the Goa’uld. Even though the System Lords were defeated at the end of Season Eight, there were still Goa’uld stories to tell. “They’re a big part of Continuum. That’s why I say nothing is ever dead. People said, ‘Oh, the Goa’uld were done and the Ori were in season nine,’ but there were a number of stories involving the Goa’uld in seasons nine and ten. Ba’al was still a significant factor in terms of being a villain in the show, and I think we kept them alive and used what was interesting about them. That plays a huge part in Continuum, which is a bit more of an old school SG-1 story.”

Cooper’s definition of “an old school SG-1 story” falls under his definition of what Stargate is all about: “Stargate is an action-adventure show, so it’s not a drama, but we do try and root it in certain ideologies, and it has always been about the examination of belief and religion. The Goa’uld were, essentially, false gods. They were using ancient religious beliefs to empower themselves, and that was something that, I think, we wanted to continue with the Ori. But at the same time, change the skin of the whole thing and make it look and feel a little different. It’s a little darker take on things. That may have been a reaction to what’s been going on in the world.”

What should fans expect in the Stargate universe in the future? “The franchise … we look at it as a franchise. We look at Stargate now as encompassing two series, two movies — three if you include the original feature — and we’re actively developing a third series [working title: Stargate Universe], there’s an online multiplayer game, Stargate Worlds. There’s always the possibility of more Stargate. It’s a question of what is it going to be? Is it going to be more SG-1 straight-to-DVDs? Is the third series going to be first? I’m not really sure. That’s all something that is not entirely my decision.”

Even though there has been no official word about what will come next from Cooper as far as the Stargate franchise is concerned, Cooper did feel that the SG-1 cast is more than willing to return to tell more stories. “Kind of like characters on our show, though, nothing’s ever dead. Things always come back. I do think that, for the most part, the main cast of SG-1 is obviously off doing their own thing, whatever that may be, and that if we decide to proceed with more movies, that we would be able to get them all back. But there’s no deal in place to continue doing that right now.”

To read the full interview, which covers the introduction of Ben Browder and Claudia Black to the show, visit Exclusive Interview: Searching for the Ark: Robert Cooper talks about the evolution of ‘Stargate SG-1’.

Shanks on Continuing SG-1's Saga on DVD

With ten seasons and two direct-to-DVD movies portraying Dr. Daniel Jackson under his belt, Michael Shanks has a long-timer’s perspective on the journey both his character and SG-1 have taken. Shanks offered some of his insights in an interview conducted by Brian Gallagher at MovieWeb.com.

The interview starts off covering the events that led to the making of the two direct-to-DVD movies, Robert C. Cooper’s Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Brad Wright’s Stargate: Continuum. The Ark of Truth just made its world premiere on March 11 in North America, and Continuum is scheduled for a July 2008 release.

“Our producers had been bugging MGM to try and find some format to do features of some capacity for years and years, since the fifth season, because we always thought that, after five seasons, to do a feature film the way the franchise started with a feature film,” Shanks told Gallagher. “Brad Wright, who’s our showrunner and created the series, he’s always been adamant about doing a feature, so this was his dream from square one.”

Concerning the method of storytelling the movies have to offer, Shanks said, “What I appreciated about it was, we had gotten used to, in the series, the idea that the powers that be wanted us to be accessible to new viewers. There was a constant need, as the characters wandered through everything, to keep explaining, expositorily, every detail about everything that we’re seeing and how it relates to this happened before. New audiences who watch it for the first time – well, frankly they’re going to be confused anyway – but it’s going to be a bigger chore as the seasons went on because the mythology kept building and building. I appreciated that we left a lot of the expository stuff on the floor, and we dealt more with the emotions of the characters and the specifics of the situations themselves as opposed to delving into back story and whatnot. That was a nice relief from the usual stuff we’ve done on the show.”

The new DVD format for continuing SG-1’s story is appreciated by Shanks, who saw The Ark of Truth at a special screening in Vancouver. “When I first saw it, I saw it up on the big screen, and it had a great cinematic feel to it. It’s great. It’s a great feeling to watch it and to have it not feel like it doesn’t fit in that environment. That it does feel bigger, and larger than life, and certainly larger than the television screen than we’ve been on. It’s nice to get to this different level, and I’m excited to see what else we can do with them. I know there are other possibilities being thought up for them as we speak.”

To emphasize the positives of switching to direct-to-DVD format for the movies, Gallagher and Shanks discuss two of the featurettes included on the DVD, Stargate SG-1: The Road Taken – Prelude to Stargate: The Ark of Truth and The Ark of Truth: Stargate at Comic-Con. Shanks himself didn’t attend Comic-Con (July 2007), but was the target of best friend Christopher Judge’s jokes when Judge made a phone call from stage hoping to get Shanks. Shanks said that he was in the car at the time and not in the bathroom as Judge suggested. On a more serious note, Shanks said of the Prelude featurette, which gives an overview of the Ori storyline from Seasons Nine and Ten, and similar DVD extras, “Yeah, I think that’s a wonderful thing, especially with a straight-to-DVD release. Obviously, you’re not going to get the chance to do that if it’s a theatrical release, but with a DVD release, it gives you the chance to add these extra features and allow people to access it that would be looking at these things going, ‘What the heck is that supposed to be?’ Instead of having your sister explain it, you can tune into the special features. I think it’s a great addition to get people up to snuff. Whether they’re going to realize that’s available going in or not, we’ll have to wait and see, but I think it’s a great idea.”

Daniel and the Doci ("The Ark of Truth")

As far as covering specific character moments, Shanks didn’t go into too much detail for either movie, but what he said about Daniel’s many deaths and the possibility of more in Continuum may raise some fans’ concern. “Yeah, it’s almost become a running joke. It’s taking the jeopardy out of the situations our characters are put in. If you can die from every situation, and still manage to come back for the next episode, it takes the gut-wrenching, climactic feelings out of the audience’s because the belief that they might not see this guy again. It certainly is testing the realms of believability, I guess. As Brad Wright was quoted as saying before, ‘There’s nothing better than being able to kill your regular character.'” Shanks did laugh several times as he said this, though.

The final questions of the interview permitted Shanks to offer more insight into the future of the SG-1 saga in its new medium. “We wanted to switch formats to go to something that was going to be larger than what we were doing before, that’s going to take less time than what we were doing before. It was necessary, because the show was being cancelled and we wanted to finish that storyline, and if we wanted to get together for like a reunion once a year or something like that, to tell some more stories, and we had to find a medium for it. Obviously, the DVD medium is the perfect one. We don’t have the money available to us to do a large theatrical release and have a huge impact, but we had enough to do more than your average television show.

“The DVD market has always been good to the franchise so it’s obviously a strong tool out there for giving fans what they need if they don’t have a regular weekly window for it. I believe for the studio, for MGM, keeping the brand name out there is an important thing with the video game coming out and the possibility of another spin-off in the works, it’s a great tool to keep the series alive. In terms of keeping the show resurrected [on the air as a regular weekly show], I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

And finally, Shanks wanted to say to the fans, “Thank you. Thank you for continuing to support the franchise and we’ll look forward to spending more time with you in this year and in the years to come.”

To read the full interview, which also includes discussion on a new project entitled Rage of Angels that he’s producting with Judge for MGM, visit EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Michael Shanks Dishes on Stargate: Ark of Truth.

Browder Comments on Scope of "The Ark of Truth"

Browder in front of the camera during Mitchell

Several reviews and features have been published concerning Robert C. Cooper’s Stargate: The Ark of Truth (some even before its official release on March 11). One recent article put out by SCI FI includes a phone interview with star Ben Browder as he talks about the “bigger” scope of Cooper’s film.

Browder feels that using 35mm rather than HD (high definition) helped give the film that bigger feel. “I think 35 looks better than HD does. The HD technology is good, but I still don’t think it’s as good as film, at least not at this juncture. So I think it looks bigger, [and] it looks better.”

Cameron Mitchell on his own in "The Ark of Truth"

Even so, the schedule for shooting the movie was almost as tight as it was while the ten-year-old show Stargate SG-1 was being produced, and the story still had to cover as much ground as possible. Unfortunately, that meant that there weren’t as many character or team moments in the film as Browder would have liked. He said, “It’s a rapid pace, but it’s a little more time than we would normally have per minute than on the series. … In order to do everything that needed to be done, we were split up quite a bit, so … there wasn’t a lot of sort of what you’d call ‘character scenes.’ We were split up and talking to each other over the radios quite a bit. [What] I would say is that I think Rob did an excellent job of giving every character something to do and giving everyone a chance to shine.”

To read the rest of Browder’s interview, please visit Ark Makes Stargate Bigger.

Concerning the “bigger scope” of the movie, a featurette covering the making of the movie from writer and director Robert C. Cooper’s point of view is included on the DVD. Portions of this featurette, entitled Uncovering The Ark of Truth, are included at SCI FI’s new webpage launched to cover the movie’s release.

Stargate: The Ark of Truth concludes the Ori storyline that was started in Season Nine, the same year that Browder joined the cast. The direct-to-DVD movie had its world premiere yesterday, March 11, in North America (Region 1). The following are the known dates for DVD releases in other parts of the world (thanks to our readers for helping put the list together):

April 8, 2008: New Zealand
April 9, 2008: Australia
April 23, 2008: France
April 23, 2008: The Netherlands
April 28, 2008: UK (Note: moved from April 14)
April 29, 2008: Italy
May 2, 2008: Germany
June 25, 2008: Spain
July 28, 2008: Czech Republic

If you’ve heard of other release dates, please leave the information in our comment section below. Thanks!

NOTE: A good “Google” search will probably yield more reviews, features, and interviews concerning the movie as time goes on. Solutions will continue to cover the movie, but more from the personal level that only these interviews can offer.

Christopher Judge on "The Ark of Truth"

Stargate star Christopher Judge shared his thoughts about Robert C. Cooper’s Stargate: The Ark of Truth in two recent interviews.

In the first one, an audio interview conducted by Tony Tellado of Sci Fi Talk, Judge enthuses about how Teal’c’s trek was depicted in the movie and how it appears on the screen.

Judge also gets into the religious implications of the story, especially concerning blind faith and how Tomin’s journey depicts that of an every-man’s. “When you are accepted into something, I think that human nature is … the first thing that we do is we’re so glad that we’re accepted into something that we do follow blindly.”

Judge talks about how the production was blind-sided by the cancellation of the show, especially after they had just negotiated two-year contracts to go into Season Eleven. “That’s why Season Ten felt so unfinished: because we didn’t think it was the end; we thought there was going to be a Season Eleven!”

Thinking back on the ten seasons of Stargate SG-1, Judge says his most enjoyable week was shooting the landmark episode “200”. He reminisces fondly about the sequences for The Wizard of Oz and Farscape. He admits that the addition of Ben Browder, Claudia Black, and Beau Bridges to the show helped the production find new energy. “Season Nine: it was a new show.”

Judge touches a little on the stand-alone nature of Brad Wright’s Stargate: Continuum and how that movie is meant to start the series of stand-alone SG-1 stories.

Outside of Stargate, Judge talks about his role in fellow Stargate star David Hewlett’s A Dog’s Breakfast. “I jumped at the chance to do it.” And to wrap up the interview, Judge talks about his production company’s pursuit of his pilot script Rage of Angels, and how the Writers Guild of America strike stopped the negotiations with MGM for a while, but after the strike ended, the paperwork was pushed through in three days. “We’ll probably shoot it up at Bridge [Studios in Vancouver].” Besides writing and producing the movie, Judge will also be starring as the angel Gabriel, and fellow Stargate star and business partner Michael Shanks will also star as Lucifer.

You can listen to the full interview (mp3 file) from THIS LINK.

In the second interview, conducted by Kevin Carr of Film School Rejects, Judge touches on how tight the filming schedule was for Cooper’s movie. Of course, Cooper pulled off the endeavor, to which Judge comments, “In true Stargate fashion, Brad [Wright] and Rob [Cooper] showed that they are smarter than I am, and that’s why they’re the boss.”

Judge talks about his appearance in the Season Four episode “Midway” of Stargate Atlantis and about his working with Jason Momoa, who plays Ronon Dex: “I was afraid. Yes, I was. I was scared. That kid is a lot younger than me. That kid is younger, better looking, bigger and faster than I am.” He laughs.

Carr mentions Judge’s fears during the filming of the show and movies: from what his hair was going to look like to being attacked by wolverines during the filming of The Ark of Truth. Judge says, “They told me, ‘We’d like to say you’ll be 100% safe.’ And I said, ‘You’d like to say that, but you can’t.'” Judge didn’t go to the Arctic shoot with Stargate: Continuum‘s crew because he was afraid that he’d be mistaken as a seal by a hungry polar bear.

As far as looking forward to both direct-to-DVD movies, Judge reassures fans, “Truly from day one was in the grand scheme of things that Stargate was ultimately going to go back to the movie format.”

To read the full interview, visit Exclusive: Stargate’s Christopher Judge Talks About The Ark of Truth.

MGM: "The Ark of Truth: The Final Word"

Cover art for "Stargate: The Ark of Truth" DVD

MGM’s Official Stargate website has added another, and most likely final, video preview to their Video Gallery to lead up to the world premiere of Robert C. Cooper’s Stargate: The Ark of Truth, scheduled for North American release on DVD tomorrow, March 11. In this video, cast members Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Beau Bridges, and Michael Shanks, and producers Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright talk about the fun they all hoped was shared with the fans in the telling of the Stargate stories.

Thus far, world release dates for the direct-to-DVD movie are:

March 11, 2008: North America
April 8, 2008: New Zealand
April 9, 2008: Australia
April 23, 2008: France
April 23, 2008: The Netherlands
April 28, 2008: UK (Note: moved from April 14)
April 29, 2008: Italy
May 2, 2008: Germany
June 25, 2008: Spain
July 28, 2008: Czech Republic

If you’ve heard of other release dates, please leave the information in our comment section below. Thanks!