Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Battlestar Galactica -SciFi Channel on You Tube

With many thanks to SF Signal for the link in its daily Tube Bits:


http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/006428.html


The SciFi Channel now has a channel on You Tube at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SCIFIChannel

And they're currently offering:



BattleStar Galactica Season 4 Launch

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0yn8cCJLDjs

BattleStar Galactica Revealed Part 1 (This special premieres on the SciFi Channel on Friday, March 28 at 10pm.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocse-Z-1Ggo


BattleStar Galactica Revealed Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coFAZlfqfMI

BattleStar Galactica Revealed Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo-VBkGswQw

BattleStar Galactica Revealed Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhlgi-BANZM

Stargate Atlantis / Universe - GateWorld: Cooper has plans for Atlantis, Universe

From GateWorld:

http://gateworld.net/news/2008/03/cooper_has_plans_for_iatlantisi_.shtml

(Please follow the link for the complete GateWorld article.)

Cooper has plans for Atlantis, Universe

THURSDAY, MARCH 20 (GENERAL)

EXCLUSIVE: Robert C. Cooper updates us on his involvement in Season Five, plus the status of the next spin-off.

Stargate - 24 Hours Vancouver - Amanda Tapping Interviews

24 Hours Vancouver has two interviews with Amanda Tapping.

All that nothing is really something


http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/Entertainment/2008/03/20/5054906-sun.html

(Please follow the link for the complete interview.)

By BRUCE KIRKLAND

Thursday, March 20, 2008



Next to giving birth to daughter Olivia three years ago, shooting Stargate: Continuum in the Arctic Ocean was the most extraordinary experience of Amanda Tapping's life.

The 42-year-old Canadian actress found herself with limited cast and crew on a drifting ice floe for eight days in March 2007 to shoot scenes of a nuclear submarine breaking through the ice. It was frigid. They were all wary of polar bears, which had been spotted nearby and were the reason co-star Christopher Judge refused to participate (he claims to have an aversion to be eaten by bears). They lived in
plywood shacks. It was the ultimate in roughing it.

Yet Tapping found herself humbled before the magnificence of nature. "It was just a really rugged, beautiful, harsh, pristine environment," she tells Sun Media.

"The clarity of thought, to me, up there is amazing because there are no planes flying overhead and no cellphones and no sirens or car horns. There's nothing. It is just absolutely pure. So it makes you focus, which allows you to have these profound moments to realize our very important insignificance, if that makes any sense.

"You realize we are nothing."

**snippage**


<><><><>

And..

Tapping creativity


http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/Entertainment/2008/03/20/5054901-sun.html


(Please follow the link for the complete interview.)

Stargate star constantly working on ways to keep her character fresh

By BRUCE KIRKLAND

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Proud Canadian actress Amanda Tapping has been playing the same American sci-fi character -- Samantha Carter -- for 11 years. That covers two TV series and now two direct-to-DVD movies. The risk of burnout is obvious.

"Absolutely! Of course," Tapping tells Sun Media about the possibility of getting bored and being boring to fans. "Actually, that is the biggest challenge in playing somebody for so long. The beauty for me is that the writers have always given me something to work with. The challenge for me is to not go on auto-pilot. It would be very easy. So you have to find a whole new way into the character and, every couple of years, you have to do that."

Sci-fi geek boys and fan chicks already know who Samantha Carter is and they love her for it. For the uninitiated, Carter was one of the core characters throughout the 10 years of the Stargate: SG-1 series, which docked in 2007 after 211 episodes. She is also featured in Stargate: Atlantis, the spinoff series.

In addition, Carter is a key player in the two feature-length movies, which Tapping says is her new way in to the character again. The first one, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, arrived on DVD March 11. The next one, Stargate: Continuum, is due in the summer.

**snippage**

Top Ten Reasons to Watch the New Season of Battlestar Galactica

And the list is:

Top Ten Reasons to Watch the New Season of Battlestar Galactica

10. (Read by actor Aaron Douglas [Chief Galen Tyrol])

In the dramatic season opener, we save 15% by switching our insurance to Geico.



9. (Read by actress Lucy Lawless [D'Anna Biers])

You'll find out what's in the hatch and who gets off the island...Crap, wrong show.



8. (Read by actor James Callis [Gaius Baltar])

My character creates his own line of honey roasted space nuts.



7. (Read by actress Grace Park [Sharon Valeria/Boomer/Athena])

What else are you going to do, read a book?



6. (Read by Tricia Helfer [Number Six])

There's a good chance you'll see me naked.



5. (Read by actor Michael Hogan [Col. Saul Tigh])

There's a good chance you'll see me naked.



4. (Read by actor Jamie Bamber [Lee Adama/Apollo])

New FTL drives will allow the colonial fleet to better adjust to gravitational variations and achieve maximum superluminal travel to outrun the pursuing Cylon basestars - I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.





3. (Read by actress Katee Sackhoff [Kara Thrace/Starbuck])

We engage in a life and death battle against evil robots, you know, same ##### as last year.



2. (Read by actress Mary McDonnell [Laura Roslyn])

I take on the most challenging task of my political career - doing a lame top ten list on a third-rate talk show.




AND the Number One reason to Watch the New Season of Battlestar Galactica:

1. (Read by actor Edward James Olmos [Admiral Bill Adama])

Watch me lead us into war against the Cylons without an exit strategy.

Video: Battlestar Galactica Presents the Top Ten Reasons to Watch the New Season of BSG

Stargate Atlantis - Season 5 Production Photos

Courtesy of Joseph Mallizzi's blog update for March 19, 2008 (please follow the link for the full-sized, high-resolution versions of these photos):

http://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/march-19-2008-a-trip-down-memory-lane/


A brief excerpt:

Carl put out his first draft of Tracker today. In a word: awesome! McKay and Ronon make a terrific team. We also sat down to a director’s cut of The Seed. Great episode. Poor Zelenka.

**snippage**

Photos from the Stargate Atlantis season five episode, "The Daedalus Variations" production

Chuck the Technician has been promoted to Capt. Chuck! (Chuck Campbell)



Col. Steven Caldwell (Mitch Pileggi) and Maj. Marks (Martin Christopher). I believe the director is Andy Mikita.



Col. Caldwell, the back of Lt. Col. John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan), Rodney McKay (David Hewlett), Maj. Marks, and on the far left side, Ronon Dex (Jason Momoa).



Col. Caldwell, Maj. Marks, Shep, and McKay

Stargate: Ark of Truth - Sky One: Publicity Photos

Sky One (UK) has a photo web site for Stargate: Ark of Truth, which will be broadcast on Sky One on Monday, March 24th at 9pm. Their press release is available here:

http://www.skypressoffice.co.uk/SkyOne/News/showarticle.asp?id=2423

And the Ark of Truth photo web site is here:

http://www.skyone.co.uk/programme/pgefeature.aspx?pid=6&fid=1125

Most of the photos have been released previously through MGM Stargate and other sources, but there are a few that looked unfamiliar:









Stargate: Ark of Truth - Sky One: Ben Browder Interview

From Sky One (UK):

http://www.skyone.co.uk/programme/pgeInterview.aspx?source=db&ptid=0&pid=6&iid=90

(Interview excerpt from the Official Stargate Magazine, issue #21, pages 72-75. Please follow the link for the complete interview excerpt.)


Ben Browder – Exclusive Interview




Q: What’s Mitchell up to in Stargate: The Ark of Truth?

BB: "Mitchell is taking a big ol’ ass whoopin’! That’s what I remember of that! My last four days of shooting were literally about me getting my ass whooped. Rob Cooper’s wish fulfillment I think! ‘Give him more! Throw him against the wall one more time!’ It was tremendous fun, it was playtime, where I get to throw myself around and pretend I’m still a boy. At least I was the last time I checked!"

**snippage**

Stargate: Ark of Truth - Sky One: Julian Sands Interview

From Sky One (UK):

http://www.skyone.co.uk/programme/pgeinterview.aspx?pid=6&iid=92

(Interview excerpt from the Official Stargate Magazine, Issue #21, pages 40-43. Please follow the link for the complete interview excerpt.)


Julian Sands – Exclusive Interview



Q: What was your experience of the shoot?

JS: "The people who made The Ark of Truth, they’re very professional; they’re very committed to their show in a very personal way. They’ve been with it for such a long time that there is a level of vocational fulfillment on the part of the crew and the creative team working on the Stargate experience, so they made it personally as comfortable as it could be. I was wearing always these wretched contact lenses, these full white lenses which make things inherently uncomfortable, partly because I don’t wear contact lenses and these prosthetic contacts are always quite thick, which means that you are robbed of most of your sight!"

**snippage**

Stargate: Ark of Truth - Sky One: Michael Shanks Interview

From Sky One (UK):

http://www.skyone.co.uk/programme/pgeinterview.aspx?pid=6&iid=93

(Sky One has a photo of Ben Browder at the site. This interview is an excerpt from the Official Stargate Magazine Issue # 21 - the Ark of Truth/Continuum movie special [page 20-27]. Please follow the link for the complete interview excerpt.)


Michael Shanks Exclusive Interview



**snippage**

Q: Does it help having the Stargate SG-1 fanbase behind you?


MS: "I think it does, but like everything else in Hollywood, it gets compartmentalised. People want to typecast you, they want to be able to put a thumb on you, and know how to deal with you, I think because, on television, sci-fi is becoming less of a niche market, it’s getting little more recognition that there might be some marketability."

Stargate Atlantis - Starburst Magazine # 361 - David Hewlett Interview

From Visimag:

http://www.visimag.com/acatalog/VI_DIRECT_Catalog_Starburst_2008_257.html#a361

(Please follow the link for the complete Table of Contents for this issue.)

Starburst #361, April 2008 - Now Available



116 pages of Sci-Fi Entertainment!

Doctor Who (2000s) Everything you need to know about the upcoming fourth season

Harry Potter FX Exclusive Special effects supervisor John Richardson

Hellboy 2 On Set! Actress Selma Blair on the return of pyrokinetic Liz

Stargate Atlantis

The Starburst Interview

• Star David Hewlett, aka the roguish egotistical Dr McKay, lets us in on some of the treats in store during the series' fourth season


Star Trek: The Tour Join a group fans visiting the exhibition in Long Beach, California

Battlestar Galatica (2000s) Exclusive Actor Bodie Olmos his role as Lt `Hot Dog' Costanza

The Colour of Magic We talk to stars Karak David and Liz May Bryce

Tin Man We chat with actor Alan Cumming, who portrayed the empty-headed but lovable Glitch

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Exclusive We talk to make-up artist Robert Hall

The Starburst Vaults Reappraising genre classics – This issue: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Richard Dean Anderson - Photos from APLIS - Continuum set

With many thanks to Gerda at the Richard Dean Anderson Fans Forum:

http://rdanderson.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=56897#56897

for the following photos (please follow the link above for the full-size, higher-resolution version of the photos.)

From the Stargate: Continuum filming location at APLIS (Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station) on the Arctic (near the North Pole) from 2007:








Stargate: Continuum is a made-for-DVD movie that is scheduled to be released in July 2008.

Amanda Tapping - Flick Filosopher: SciFi Upfront Event

From the Flick Filosopher blog:

http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2008/03/in_which_i_manage_not_to_be_a.html


(Please follow the link for the complete article.)

in which I manage not to be a total dork at a Sci Fi Channel event

The Sci Fi Channel threw this big bash in New York last night, and I was there. It was kind of an “upfront,” which is when a network invites a bunch of journalists and a bunch of advertisers and plies them with booze and lets them meet stars and tells them why the network is so going to rock in the upcoming season. So this was Sci Fi explaining how awesome its 2008/2009 is going to be, and I was there on behalf of Film.com. But that doesn’t mean I can’t tell you about it, too.

**snippage**

Yes, that’s Amanda Tapping from Stargate and the new Sci Fi series Sanctuary (which I’ll be writing more about soon) with Grace Park, aka Boomer from BSG. It’s okay to scream and swoon. I did... on the inside, at least. Holy crap, you cannot believe how gorgeous these women are in person. However gorgeous you think they are on TV -- and I mean not just Sam Carter and Boomer but all the BSG chicks: Starbuck, Six, Roslin -- multiply it by ten. I wouldn’t have thought that would be the case, but it’s true.

**snippage**

I was totally a fangirl with Amanda Tapping, but she was sweet about it. I thanked her for Stargate’s Sam Carter, because there aren’t anywhere near enough depictions on TV of smart women doing interesting things (which I said to her), and she thanked me for saying so.

<><><><>

Photos from the event (courtesy of NBCU):

















Sanctuary - About.com: Tapping on Atlantis and Sanctuary

From About.com's SciFi & Fantasy section:

http://scifi.about.com/od/tvshowsaz/a/SciFi08upfronts.htm


(Please follow the link for the complete article.)



Notes from the Sci Fi Channel 2008 Upfronts

From Mark Wilson,

The stars of Sci Fi's biggest shows turned out for the Sci Fi Channel's 2008 upfront party on March 18. The Morgan Library on Madison Avenue was the cozy venue, making the party touting the network's

**snippage**

Tapping on Atlantis and Sanctuary

Alongside the full casts of Eureka and Battlestar Galactica, Amanda Tapping looked a little lonely as the sole representative of the Stargate franchise. In fact Tapping was doing double duty, as she's splitting her time these days between Stargate Atlantis and Sanctuary, the web-originated Victorian-era fantasy series created by Stargate writer Damian Kindler that was picked up by Sci Fi in January. Tapping told me she thought Sanctuary was a great fit for Sci Fi, saying that the new series was turning out "even better than I expected," partly because the network has a real knack for this kind of material. She does seem happy to be playing a maverick like Helen Magnus, someone who's "the opposite of Carter" in many ways.

Regarding her reduced involvement in season 5 of Atlantis, Tapping said she didn't know how many episodes she was in this year: she filmed the start of the season with the Atltantis crew, then switched over this month to the 13-episode run in front of the green screens with Sanctuary. Once she's done there she returns to Atlantis to film at least part of the end of season 5. When I asked if she's ever get to do a show that wasn't on Sci Fi, she laughed and said, "Sci Fi pretty much owns my ass."

Battlestar Galactica - Video: SciFi Channel Taps Stars for Upfront

From Multichannel News:

http://www.multichannel.com/flashVideo/element_id/2140179683/taxid/30316.html

(Formatted in Adobe Flash Player 9.)

Features Joe Morton from Eureka; SciFi President Bonnie Hammer; and Edward James Olmos from Battlestar Galactica (ahem...the reporter demoted him from Admiral to Captain)...



Star Trek - Cinefantastique: George Takei Interview

From Cinefantastique Online:

A summary from the interview:

"In Part I of this chat with George Takei at the [Oct.] 2007 San Diego Asian Film, the actor talked with SDAFF founder and executive director Lee Ann Kim about his experience on STAR TREK and his relationship with Gene Roddenberry. In Part II, he discussed lobbying for Captaincy in the STAR TREK movies, his memories of being forced to live in a Japanese internment camp during World War 2, why he came out of the closet, and his disdain toward Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and President George W. Bush. In Part III he reveals his satisfaction doing the William Shatner Roast on Comedy Central, how he got involved in THE HOWARD STERN SHOW and HEROES, and how he met Bruce Lee. As with the first two parts, rather than write this as an article, I felt that it would be more respectful to share Takei’s words using Q&A format so nothing is taken out of context."



Sulu in San Diego: Intimate Interview with George Takei - Part I

http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2008/02/10/sulu-in-san-diego-intimate-interview-with-george-takei-part-i/

(Please follow the link[s] for the complete interview.)


Sulu in San Diego: An Intimate Interview, Part II

http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2008/02/17/sulu-in-san-diego-an-intimate-interview-part-ii/

Sulu in San Diego: An Intimate Interview, Part III

http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2008/02/24/sulu-in-san-diego-an-intimate-interview-part-iii/

Stargate / Sanctuary - North Shore News: Amanda Tapping Interview

From North Shore News (North Vancouver, BC, Canada):

http://www.canada.com/northshorenews/news/pulse/story.html?id=d459e32b-af2d-4dc2-9de8-7b3a3b577d69

(Please follow the link for the complete two-page article.)

Gifted group behind Stargate's success


Rosalind Duane, North Shore News

Published: Friday, March 07, 2008

**snippage**

Finding remnants of TV and film productions about town is nothing new, and odds are you or someone you know has a tale to tell about Stargate. The long running, popular sci-fi drama has been shooting here for more than a decade -- starting with Stargate SG-1 and continuing with Stargate Atlantis -- and one of the show's stars, West Vancouver resident Amanda Tapping, says that's a good thing.



"Aside from the fact that our funding comes from the United States and our first-window broadcaster is in the U.S., other than that it's fully Canadian. This is really a local show. And all the ancillary, all the post-production is done here. Over the course of 11 years now that the Stargate franchise has been operating in Vancouver, it has employed a lot of people. I'm pretty proud of that," she says.

Currently shooting season 5 of Stargate Atlantis at The Bridge Studios in Burnaby, Tapping finds a short window of time between scenes to talk about the longevity of the show. She attributes its success to a gifted group of writers, who "wove this amazing mythology," and who have managed to keep the storylines fresh over the years.



"The show held up its production value, the quality was great and we had so much fun making it, and I think as hokey as that may sound it translated onto the screen, and it made it enjoyable to watch," she says of SG-1.

**snippage**

Tapping then reprised her role for a full season of Atlantis, and is returning for a few of episodes in Season 5
. She also appears in the straight-to-DVD feature Stargate: The Ark of Truth, being released Tuesday, March 11. The DVD (along with a second feature to be released in the summer) wraps up a major storyline (the Ori arc) from seasons nine and 10 of SG-1. The resolution of the storyline will allow for future stand-alone movies that don't have to keep reaching back into the mythology of the show, explains Tapping.

She adds that it was "a blast" reuniting with the SG-1 cast.

**snippage**

Tapping played the role for the run of the show's 10 years, and is appearing in only a few episodes of Atlantis this season.

She is scheduled to start shooting 13 episodes of a new show called Sanctuary, also a sci-fi series, at the end of March. She also serves as executive producer for the show, which had its premiere on the Internet last May, and has since been picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel and TMN. With a $4 million budget for the pilot, Sanctuary earned a nod from the Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest cost for a web-produced show.



"It's such an interesting model. And I think it is the way that things are going to be going. We were riding the crest of that wave," says Tapping of using the web to broadcast the pilot. "And I'm not going to say that TV will ever become obsolete because I don't think that it will, but a lot of people are going to the web for their entertainment. We just wanted to try it out."

After three sci-fi series, Tapping is looking forward to possibly more Stargate features, and says she is also itching to do a period piece.

"I'd love to do a period drama. Starting out on stage and doing a lot of classic theatre, I'd love to get back to that."

Hellboy II: The Golden Army Trailer