Tag: Michael Shanks

As we reported earlier, Stargate star Christopher Judge was a panelist at the recent San Diego Comic Con, representing the Dead Space Aftermath animated film for which he lent his voice as the character Nicholas Cutner. He also gave Comics Online an exclusive interview so that his fans could be updated on his projects, especially his script/concept Rage of Angels and his production of a re-imagined The Saint.

Rage of Angels has been a project close to Judge’s heart ever since word of SG-1‘s cancellation was received by the cast. Feeling that the only way to have a leading role was to write one for himself, Judge created a script and took it to MGM. It was to star Judge as the Archangel Gabriel and production partner Michael Shanks as Lucifer. For a while, nothing was new to report on the status of the project until it was announced that Starz Entertainment bought it and almost immediately green-lit it to series.

Judge has a new production partner in Bill MacDonald, who created HBO’s acclaimed series Rome, and Michael Shanks is no longer attached to the production. He told Comics Online how Shanks was removed from the project: “Once it went to Starz, Starz just wanted it to be its own animal and not have any kind of Stargate type—not that—but I understand why they did it: it’s going to be such a controversial thing anyway that they just wanted it to just stand on its own merits.”

Currently, they’re working on the show’s “bible” and the scripts for the first 10 episodes. Judge is still playing Gabriel, but the premise of the show has changed. Starz wants it to be as extreme and as dark as possible, so the setting is now going to be Earth during the Tribulation in which it will be Gabriel’s role to usher in the seven signs (from the Bible’s Revelation). The new show will go into production later this year and is not scheduled to premiere until late 2011 or early 2012.

In the meantime, Judge and MacDonald are also working on the re-imagining of The Saint. They have Roger Moore, who played The Saint on the television series, to portray The Saint’s mentor, and they’re working on getting James Purefoy, who played Mark Antony in Rome, to play The Saint.

Since moving to LA, Judge hasn’t gotten to see his Stargate friends very often, since most of them still live in Vancouver. He recently saw Richard Dean Anderson and Dan Shea in Australia, but lamented that even though he knew Amanda Tapping, Erica Durance (his sister-in-law’s sister), and Kevin Sorbo were present at Comic Con, he hadn’t had the opportunity to meet up with them.

When asked if he’d be appearing on Stargate Universe, Judge doubted it would happen and exclaimed, “I’m still an SG-1 guy.”

Make sure to visit Comics Online for the complete interview.