Stargate - Universe, Atlantis, SG-1 http://stargate.mgm.com Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:00:43 -0800 MGM's official site for Stargate Universe (SGU), Stargate Atlantis (SGA) and Stargate SG1 en-us Copyright 1998-2009 All Rights Reserved Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Elyse Levesque on Stargate Universe - G4tv.com http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1787/index.html Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:03:11 -0800 urn:Content-1787 Whatever happens in space, stays in space? Whatever happens in space, stays in space?  SGU's Elyse Levesque joins G4's Chris Hardwick on "Attack of the Show" and chats about the wonderful impossibilities that happen on and off the set of Stargate Universe.

Click here to watch the no holds barred interview.

]]> Cliff Simon Interview - Stargate Magazine #31 http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1768/index.html Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0800 urn:Content-1768 An interview with Cliff Simon (Barsquo;al) featured in issue #31 of The Official Stargate SG-1/Atlantis/SGU Magazine. An interview with Cliff Simon (Ba’al) featured in issue #31 of The Official Stargate SG-1/Atlantis/SGU Magazine.

Stargate Magazine: As someone who isn’t hell bent on galactic domination like Ba’al, how do you get into that villainous place?

Cliff Simon: I let the dialogue do the speaking for me, and I really try to play a lot of myself. For me, the best way to play a villain is smiling, because he comes across as a lot more dangerous.  The dialogue gives me the words that are villainous, so I don’t really have to play it “bad”.

When you play a bad guy “bad” the whole time, he can get a bit boring, so when you play him with a smile, it actually makes him more conniving. That’s the way I play him. I loved it—the minute I put on the beautiful costumes that they made for me, Ba’al’s boots and all that kind of stuff, I just fell into the character—he really became a part of me. I think it was perfect—everything about it was just right. I could have carried on playing that character for another 10 years!

You played a villain for several years—what elements, in your experience, make for a really good villain?

First of all he has to be very cunning, highly intelligent, and he mustn’t be bad. I love watching forensic shows, and if you look at all the most notorious bad guys, the worst serial killers, they were all very charming people—they were predators.

They got people’s confidence by being nice and drawing them in. I think that’s the best bad guy to play, a guy who’s charming and who people think they can trust… then he turns and gets them from behind! That keeps a character interesting. You never know how he’s going to react in a certain situation; he might be very nice, or he might pull out a knife and stab somebody!

When a guy is bad the whole time, you know where you stand with him. With a real bad guy, you should never know where you stand. You should never know if he likes you or if he doesn’t like you, or if you can trust him or not. Those are the elements he has to have—there always has to be doubt.

CliffSimon

Having played one yourself, you must have a favorite villain—who’s your all time ultimate bad guy, Stargate or otherwise?

Robert De Niro in Heat. That is my favorite kind of villain, because he was a villain, but he wasn’t really. He was a bad guy, but you felt sorry for him, you had some kind of compassion for him. That’s the kind of character that I would love to play. Characters like Ted Bundy—not that I think they’re great people at all, but characters like that are very dangerous.

In every movie or TV series that you see, it’s always the villain that’s remembered—the James Bond villains are what make the movies. There is a saying in this business: the good guy in a movie or TV show is only as good as the bad guy. So, the bad guy has got to be the extreme, he makes the good guy look really good. The good guy makes the bad guy look badder. They’ve got to complement each other in that way.

I think Ba’al and Jack as characters complemented each other. Jack would crack a joke and Ba’al would smile at it, so it worked well. It’s funny, actually. Richard and I have got the same-shaped face, and people in LA have mistaken us sometimes. Which is fine with me, I’m more than happy to be recognized as Richard! I wear a cap quite a lot, and one day Stargate had a big billboard up and Richard had a cap on, and I even had friends who drove past and were like, “Cliff you’re up on the board!” I see the billboard and I’m like, “Ah, it’s Richard of course!” I get compared to Jeremy Irons as well!

Read the full interview in issue 31 of The Official Stargate SG-1/Atlantis Magazine, on newsstands now!

To subscribe to Stargate Magazine click here.

To receive Stargate Magazine exclusives, including sneak peeks, interviews, promotional offers, and sweepstakes, click here.

]]> David Blue Interview - Stargate Magazine #31 http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1767/index.html Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:58:39 -0800 urn:Content-1767 David Blue talks about playing the brains of the outfit in Stargate Universe. The latest issue of Stargate Magazine features an exclusive interview with David Blue. In the following extract, the actor talks about playing the brains of the outfit in Stargate Universe, computer whiz Eli Wallace…

“Eli knows he’s smart,” explains Blue. “He’s not a genius in that he was born an Einstein, but he can figure things out and see patterns in things. One of the reasons I think he has a good sense of humor is that he can see patterns in the world and find the humor in certain things. That’s who Eli is, and because he applied his intelligence to random things, he never truly found his way. He dropped out of MIT and had a whole bunch of stuff in his life that took precedence.

“People ask me about my character being a videogame geek, and Brad and Robert may disagree, but I’m a huge fan of Eli not being a videogame geek. It’s just that he enjoys challenges. If he sees a challenge, like in the occasional videogame, and someone tells him he can’t beat it, he’s like, ‘Screw that, I’m, going to beat it.’

“So that’s where my character started from. As for where Eli is at now, well, as a kid I liked Star Trek: The Next Generation and like any sci-fi fan, I had that little fantasy that one day Riker [Jonathan Frakes] would ‘beam’ into my living room and go, ‘Yes, it’s real.’ That’s essentially what happens to Eli. All this stuff that he joked about with his friends as being real, and hoped was real, is, in fact, out there. So for the first few episodes of Universe everything with him is, ‘Oh, my God,’ and then life and death struggles ensue. I think we’re at the point with the episode we’re filming now [Time] where Eli is starting to accept that this is his family now. These are the people who he not only needs to rely on, but must somehow convince to rely on him. For that, he has to find his place.”

Read the full interview in issue 31 of The Official Stargate SG-1/Atlantis/SGU Magazine, on newsstands now!

To subscribe to Stargate Magazine click here.

To receive Stargate Magazine exclusives, including sneak peeks, interviews, promotional offers, and sweepstakes, click here.


]]> Stargate Convention This Weekend http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1766/index.html Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:44:39 -0800 urn:Content-1766 The Official STARGATE SG-1/ATLANTIS/UNIVERSE CONVENTION returns to Los Angeles this weekend! The Official STARGATE SG-1/ATLANTIS/UNIVERSE CONVENTION returns to Los Angeles this weekend, November 6-8, 2009 at the Marriott LAX Hotel, and you're invited! It is a three day celebration of all things Stargate and Creation Entertainment is ramping up for an especially exciting gathering highlighted by in-person stars (Michael Shanks, Ben Browder, Joe Flanigan, Robert Picardo, Paul McGillion, Cliff Simon, Ryan Robbins and Gary Jones), on-stage events, contests, parties, autographing and photo opportunities. Join fans from around the globe for the festivities! 

Tickets to see it all are as low as $25 a day, available at the door.  Get full information here.


And, as an extra cool bonus this year, the Farscape Convention will be taking place in the hotel the same weekend! This means 2X the guests, 2X the fans, 2X the fun!


]]> SG-1 Dialing Up Sweepstakes http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1765/index.html Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:54:55 -0800 urn:Content-1765 Keep the legacy alive!nbsp; Enter now for your chance to win. Stargate SG-1, the longest consecutive running North American sci-fi tv show is beloved by critics and fans around the world. 

Keep the legacy alive!  Enter now for your chance to win* a copy of the Stargate SG-1 Dialing Up: The Official Guide to Seasons 1-5.  Many will enter, but only 5 lucky winners will be chosen at random!

Enter Now!



*No Purchase Necessary.  Void where prohibited.  Subject to Official Rules.

]]> Atlantis Wins 2 Gemini Awards http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1706/index.html Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:52:47 -0700 urn:Content-1706 Stargate Atlantis received 2 Gemini Awards at the 2009 Gemini Awards industry awards presentation. Stargate Atlantis received 2 Gemini Awards at the 2009 Gemini Awards industry awards presentation. 

Best Writing in a Dramatic Series went to Brad Wright for the episode The Shrine.

Best Achievement in Make-Up went to Todd Masters, Leah Ehman, Holland Miller, Brad Proctor and Kyla Rose Tremblay for the episode Vegas.

For a complete list of the winners and nominees, click here.

]]> Robert Carlyle on The Late Late Show http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1701/index.html Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:59:08 -0700 urn:Content-1701 Robert Carlyle visits Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show. Robert Carlyle visits Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show where they talk Stargate Universe, Glasgow and Vancouver.

To see the full episode from CBS.com, click here.

]]> Stargate Universe on G4! http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1668/index.html Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:12:57 -0700 urn:Content-1668 G4's Attack of the Show visits the Stargate Universe set. Blair Hertner from G4's Attack of the Show visits the Stargate Universe set and talks with Lou Diamond Phillips, Elyse Levesque, Louis Ferreira, David Blue, Special FX Supervisor Mark Savela and Stunt Coordinator James Bamford.

To watch the G4 exclusive video, click here.

]]> SGU on the Today Show! http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1667/index.html Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:04:34 -0700 urn:Content-1667 Robert Carlyle, Ming-Na and Lou Diamond Phillips visit the Today Show. Robert Carlyle, Ming-Na and Lou Diamond Phillips visit the Today Show to talk about Stargate Universe.

To watch the video of thier interview, click here.

]]> SGU Trailer In Theaters Again! http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1493/index.html Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:32:49 -0700 urn:Content-1493 A Stargate Universe trailer will be playing in theaters this weekend. See Stargate Universe on the big screen!

A Stargate Universe trailer will be playing in theaters from 9/18 to 9/24 before all R-rated titles, including "Jennifer’s Body" and "The Informant".  The trailer could play up to 20 minutes before the movie starts, so be sure to arrive early.

To find a theater playing the trailer near you, click here.

]]> Dialing Up http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1484/index.html Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:30:00 -0700 urn:Content-1484 New book available from Titan Books. Dialing Up

Starting where the blockbuster Stargate movie left off, Stargate SG-1 quickly became a sci-fi phenomenon in its own right. The record-breaking ten-season series continued the story of Colonel Jack O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) and his elite military team as they probed the secrets of the Stargate.

This bumper volume takes you back to the beginning, covering all the episodes from the first four seasons of the show, and is packed with full color imagery, exclusive interviews with the cast — including contributions written by them, giving their own take on their character — and crew, and behind-the-scenes secrets.

An official full-color companion that’s a must for fans of the show!

Dialing Up will be available September 22, 2009.

To visit our store where you can order Dialing Up and other Stargate books from Titan Books, click here.]]> SGU Makes TV Guide List http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1483/index.html Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:10:00 -0700 urn:Content-1483 SGU makes TV Guide's 10 Most Anticipated New Shows List. What Are the 10 Most Anticipated New Fall Shows?

Stargate Universe makes TV Guide's 10 Most Anticipated New Shows List

Click here to see the full list.
]]> SGU TV Squad Interview http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1450/index.html Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:17:33 -0700 urn:Content-1450 David Blue talks to TV Squad about the realistic tone in Stargate Universe. Stargate Universe.

Check out the interview at tvsquad.com.]]> SGU Canada.com Interview http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1449/index.html Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:07:23 -0700 urn:Content-1449 Brad Wright and Robert Cooper talk SGU with Canada.com. Stargate Universe with Canada.com.

Read the interview here.
]]> SGU TV.com Interviews http://stargate.mgm.com/view/news/1448/index.html Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:56:41 -0700 urn:Content-1448 Lou Diamond Phillips and David Blue give TV.com interviews at the TCA's.
To see Lou Diamond Phillips' interview click here.

To see David Blue's interview click here.]]>