News, spoilers and updates in the Stargate world
Stargate: The Ark of Truth is now available for download at iTunes. Downloads include those for rental ($3.99) or for purchase ($9.99). You’ll need the iTunes player, available for download at the site.
The movie is also available in HD on Apple TV (subscriptions for which start at $229, see site for more details).
“Today for your reading pleasure, we have an exclusive celebrity blog from Michael Shanks, who plays Dr. Daniel Jackson in Stargate: The Ark of Truth, the follow-up to the Stargate SG-1 series,” stated David in his entry at Amazon’s Screening Room Blog. The brief interview covers Shanks’s experiences in science fiction, starting with his viewing Star Wars when he was seven years old to his recent screening of Will Smith in I Am Legend.
“For me, it’s all about the characters; the audience must be able to believe them and empathize with them,” Shanks said about what makes sci-fi stories long-lasting. “The more that they resound as real people and react to different situations—no matter how seemingly far-fetched—appropriately, the more the audience will believe in them and their reactions in otherworldly situations.”
Shanks also discussed the differences between producing SG-1 stories in the new direct-to-DVD format and the making of the television show. “The monumental difference in shooting the feature-length Ark of Truth was that we had more time, money, energy, and resources to tell the story properly. The writers, producers, director, actors, and crew were able to take the time to do what they love rather than be forced to take the assembly-line approach that comes with the territory of having to shoot 20+ episodes for a series, which never turns out exactly how you hoped it would because of the fast production pace.”
To read the brief interview and to watch a clip from the movie (Teal’c and Tomin), visit Amazon Screening Room Blog: Cosmotopia: Sci-Fi celebrity blog from Michael Shanks.
MGM is adding slot machines to their product line in the Stargate franchise, their second largest after James Bond, Atronic recently announced in a press release. Travis Rutherford, Executive Vice President, MGM Consumer Products stated: “MGM Consumer Products is pleased to partner with worldwide market leader Atronic to further expand the record-breaking Stargate franchise.”
“Atronic is thrilled to add Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis to our library of licensed products. We are going to build on the popularity of the TV series by bringing the excitement and intrigue of the shows to the casino floor,” Ken Bossingham, COO, Atronic Americas, said in the press release.
According to the release, “A series of machines is planned for development, including video linked, video stand-alone, and reel slots. … The Company has signed a three-year licensing agreement with MGM Consumer Products and the first placement of the slot machines will be unveiled in the fall of 2008.”
To read the full press release, visit Yahoo Biz: Atronic to Create and Distribute ‘Stargate SG-1’ and ‘Stargate Atlantis’ Branded Slot Machines. Visit the Atronic website at http://www.atronic.com/.
Stargate: The Ark of Truth is coming to Pay-Per-View and Video-On-Demand this Friday, April 11, according to the MGM official website.
Starting today, those in the United States that have Windows XP can download the movie for rent ($3.99) or purchase ($14.99) from Amazon Unbox.
The movie has already been released on DVD in North America, New Zealand, and Australia, and has been broadcast on Sky One (and Sky Two) in the UK. Additionally, fans attending the Supanova convention in Melbourne and Brisbane were treated to a screening. The rest of the international DVD release schedule looks like this (thanks to our readers for helping to put together this list):
If you’ve heard of other dates, please leave a comment below. Thanks.
Fans at the Vancouver Creation Con held this past weekend got treated to a new trailer for Brad Wright’s Stargate: Continuum, due for its release directly to DVD on July 29, 2008, in North America (Region 1). One of the fans has placed the screening on YouTube for you to enjoy, but be aware that the video and sound quality aren’t top-notch.
The fans who were given the chance to see the full movie have given quite favorable reactions thus far, but they’ve been sworn to secrecy, having had to sign non-disclosure agreements. They’ll have to suffer in silence as the rest of us anxiously await the official release this summer (below’s a countdown for us):
Amazon Unbox is offering four episodes for free download, normally at a cost of $1.99 each.
Here’s Stephanie Reid-Simons’s announcement in the Amazon Screening Room Blog:
Free Downloads: Our Stargate Favorites
The Stargate experience — about interplanetary journeys made possible by cool, circular portals and liquid f/x — started as a movie. Then it became a series that hopped from one network to another and didn’t necessarily look like one of sci-fi’s icons in the making … except to its legions of fans. The show’s landmark, 10-year run produced a spinoff (Stargate Atlantis), books, and the usual pop culture footprints, including episodes people still talk about. Here are three of our favorites — free, for a limited time*:
The Torment of Tantalus (season 1, episode 10): A vital chapter in the secret history of the Stargate on Earth is revealed, as we meet a man who went through the gate in 1945 — and never made it back. The team finds him, and, maybe, the secrets of the universe. And yeah, that’s Paul McGillion (later seen in Stargate Atlantis) starring the flashback sequence.
Window of Opportunity (season 4, episode 6): Stargate gets all Groundhog Day on itself with an episode where two characters find themselves reliving the same few hours — and doing some pretty wacky stuff (including gate-golfing). I’ll put it this way: It’s a fan favorite for a reason.
The Lost City, Parts 1 & 2 (season 7, episodes 21 & 22): The two “Lost City” episodes were originally intended to be a second Stargate movie, and a conclusion to the series and the ambition shows. It ended up as the seventh-season finale and launch pad for Stargate Atlantis.
About Amazon Unbox: “Before you can download your Unbox video, you need to install the Amazon Unbox video player. The Unbox video player is more than just a player, however: It also allows you to re-download any of your purchased Unbox videos and to view additional information about your video from IMDb.com. Currently, the Unbox video player only works on PCs running the Windows XP operating system and is only available to our customers located in the United States.”
* There was no date given as to when this “limited time” offer ends. Links to each of the downloads are provided in the announcement at Amazon.
Composer Joel Goldsmith was recently interviewed by Mike Szymanski for SCI FI WIRE about the scores for the two direct-to-DVD movies, Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum.
“First of all, I could use a symphony orchestra rather than electronics that simulate an orchestra,” Goldsmith said. In the Uncovering The Ark of Truth special feature of the DVD, fans are given a behind-the-scenes view of how the movie was put together, including watching as the Seattle Northwest Sinfonia performed Goldsmith’s score.
Writer, director, and producer Robert C. Cooper corresponded closely with Goldsmith as the music was written. “He would explain the emotion and the subtext that he wanted or needed in the scene.”
Cooper said in a recent interview for MGM’s official website that the music was one of the highlights of the movie. “That was one of the most fun aspects of the process that I’ve ever experienced, going down and seeing the score performed by tremendously talented people in an orchestra.”
Goldsmith told Szymanski, “And because the Ark movie wrapped up some of the stories so well, I reached for a few of the familiar themes from the Ori and Replicators and then created different situations and new themes for Teal’c. Of course, everything was more cinematic.”
For Brad Wright’s Continuum, Goldsmith was also given the opportunity to draw upon some of the older themes that he established since working with the production back in the days of the pilot in 1997. “It is a great, old-fashioned SG-1 film. It is more retro-Stargate, and, without giving away too much, it’s going back to some more things from the past.”
The soundtrack for The Ark of Truth is currently slated for release on April 18, but you can pre-order it through Goldsmith’s FreeClyde website, which states, “Along with this epic score is a 16-page full-color booklet that includes articles by Robert C. Cooper, Brad Wright, and Joel Goldsmith. Stargate Fans will be thrilled by the original artwork designed by the FreeClyde team and exclusive photography from the film.” The website also has small sound clips of five of the pieces from the soundtrack.
To read the complete Goldsmith interview, visit Sci Fi Wire: Goldsmith Talks Stargate DVD Scores.
Here’s an update on what Brad Wright is doing with the Stargate franchise, some of which has been derived from the recently-published interview he held with the fans at GateWorld as they attended the Creation Convention held in Vancouver this weekend.
Wright confirmed that the first stand-alone direct-to-DVD movie Stargate: Continuum will be released in North America on July 29, 2008. The writer and producer told the Official Magazine recently about working this date around the San Diego Comic Con, which is being held from July 24 to July 27. MGM has prepared for the event by covering ten buses with Stargate ads and by scheduling a panel (like what was done for Cooper’s The Ark of Truth last year).
Wright was kept busy last year with the two SG-1 direct-to-DVD movies while the production of Season Four of his and Robert C. Cooper’s creation Stargate Atlantis was in full swing, but he still attended production staff meetings for the show. He also managed to get in a story idea (“This Mortal Coil”), but didn’t have the opportunity to write.
But that’s changed for Wright this year during the production of Season Five: He’s written the episode “The Shrine of Talus”, which is currently being prepped for shooting. It is slated to be the sixth episode of the new season. The episode has been described by executive producer and co-showrunner Joseph Mallozzi as “a David Hewlett tour de force” that made actor Jewel Staite cry. Wright has written a “tour de force” episode before when he produced SG-1 Season Seven’s “Lifeboat” for Michael Shanks, who won a Leo Award for his performance.
Cooper and Wright have recut the Stargate SG-1 pilot “Children of the Gods” to make a Special Edition DVD, scheduled to be released by the end of this year.
“I saw it on television, and I thought, ‘We can do better than this,'” Wright told GateWorld. “And it wasn’t just the visual effects—it was the whole thing. It was the way we tell story. It was the whole 4:3 thing. And I thought the score and the music was so heavy-handed. And, frankly, there was some bad writing.”
Of particular concern to Wright is Sha’re’s full frontal nudity scene, about which he said, “It doesn’t belong in Stargate.” That scene has been cut out of the new version, which will run approximately seven minutes shorter than the original.
The goal of the new version is to make the pilot a “movie”, rather than a two-part television episode. “Twelve years on, what is worth making is the movie — the story of ‘Children of the Gods’ that is the movie. We spent a week or so recutting, editing, pulling some stuff out, updating the visual effects in many cases, [and] cutting out things I thought never belonged there.
“We went back to dailies [that were shot in 1997]. We are rescoring. There is new material, but most of the new material is visual effects or scenes that have been cut. It is tighter. It is significantly tighter. The editing pattern is different, and therefore the performances are different. It’s a different movie.”
Cooper and Wright pitched the concept of the third television series Stargate Universe to the Sci Fi Channel back at the end of October last year, right before the Writers Guild of America strike. Sci Fi has not given the new show the go ahead just yet, though.
“The pitch was received very well,” Wright told GateWorld, “[but] we pitched an expensive series—the idea we have is not cheap. I think we’ve proven ourselves, so … ‘Can we please have enough money to do it right this time?’ And, if not, then honestly I don’t want to do it. Why do it wrong?”
Originally, the show was going to be a stand-alone movie … a Stargate movie designed to bring in new viewers. It is still set in the present day, but is not an SG-1 story nor an Atlantis story.
“The idea of Stargate Universe is that it is set on a ship that was part of an Ancient experiment that was set in motion probably millions of years ago—one that they never saw to fruition, but that we can. They got busy with the whole ascension thing.”
Wright explained that the experiment was “to send a ship across the universe, and to send one ahead of it to seed the galaxies with Stargates, and that they would one day use the ninth chevron to get there [to the ship]. And that’s what Stargate Universe is.”
As to when the show, if approved by the Sci Fi Channel, will get started, Wright said, “Internally, Robert and I are a little bit torn, because we had such a great time making The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum. Making one or two of those a year would be a damn fine thing to do! Honestly, it takes up a big chunk of time writing it, a big chunk of time making it, and then the post on a movie is more than twice as complicated as post on the biggest episodes. So it’s not like you can just knock one off while you’re making a television show. It’s just too much.”
Wright explained to GateWorld that “too much” also included the production of 40 episodes concurrently like what was done with Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis for three years in a row. If Sci Fi Channel does come through with the money, it’s not clear when the new show will be produced, but apparently scheduling considerations will be at the top of Wright’s list.
In the April issue of TV Zone Magazine, Stargate Atlantis star Paul McGillion talks about Dr. Carson Beckett’s return in Season Four’s “The Kindred” and in Season Five’s “The Seed”, written by Paul Mullie, and “Whispers”, written by Joseph Mallozzi.
McGillion said of coming back to film “The Kindred” after nearly a year away, “The cast and crew made the whole experience special for me, and I could tell they knew that, too.” He also gives his fans much of the credit for Carson’s return and greatly appreciates the work that writer Alan McCullough, who was new to writing for Stargate Atlantis starting in Season Four, did on part two of “The Kindred” script. “Alan really got the essence of the character, as well as the humanity of the character.”
Season Five will see McGillion reprising his role for at least five episodes. The first episode, “The Seed”, is scheduled to be the second episode in the new season.
“It was wonderful to be back onset again with all of my cast mates. I guess you can call this the episode where they take Beckett out of the deep freeze! Atlantis is in peril and my character is the one who needs to take action and hopefully figure a way out of this dilemma before it’s too late and we lose some of our close friends!
“The crew as always was fantastic and welcomed me back with open arms, as did the cast. I could tell it was back to work like old times because of the constant taunting back and forth between Hewlett, Flanigan, Momoa and myself, which makes for good times.
“Will Waring was the director, and he has such an understated humour and a clear vision of what he wants, so it’s always a pleasure to work with him. In fact, he’s directing the next episode we find Carson in, “Whispers”, which is a lot of Becektt and Sheppard on a planet with an all-female SG team, thank you very much. Sorry, no ladies for McKay this time.
“So that should be a lot of fun, and the best part is I’m doing at least five episodes this season, so we shall see where things go for Beckett.”
To read the full interview, which also includes a small teaser about McGillion’s role in the new Star Trek movie, which is due for release on May 8, 2009, pick up your copy of the magazine available in stores and for ordering at the publisher’s website.
From SCI FI WIRE:
FreeClyde Music announced a limited release of the soundtrack to Stargate: The Ark of Truth, the straight-to-DVD movie based on SCI FI Channel’s original series Stargate SG-1, featuring music by the show’s longtime composer Joel Goldsmith. The CD drops on April 18, but can be pre-ordered online.
The CD features music recorded live with the Seattle Northwest Sinfonia and includes a 16-page full-color booklet with articles by Ark of Truth writer/director Robert C. Cooper, executive producer Brad Wright and Goldsmith. The CD will also feature original artwork by the FreeClyde team and photography from the film.
The first 100 pre-orders will be signed by the composer. The CD can be purchased at Goldsmith’s official Web site.
At Goldsmith’s website, visitors may also listen to soundbytes for five key scenes in the movie. Pricing for the CD is $19.95 plus shipping & handling, which is $4.95 for domestic (US) orders and $7.95 (USD) for international orders.