 
GW: Your shooting schedule is usually late February to early October. And then for the two movies last year, they didn't come for almost a year after they had been shot. Is that going to be typical, do you think?
BW: Well, Continuum was ready a lot sooner. We finished the film, but our in-house visual effects department was devoting its energy still to The Ark of Truth. So it basically sat on the shelf waiting for the opportunity to go through the post-production process, rather than hiring a whole new, second group -- knowing that there was going to be a significant window between the two releases anyway.
Ark of Truth wasn't a year -- it was less than a year. Continuum was, because of that wait.
GW: I see filming in '07 and then the movies came out in '08, and seemed to be doing so well in sales, that I just kept waiting for MGM to say, "Let's do more! Let's do more!" But now if we're looking at shooting them in '09, is it going to be 2010 before we see SG-1 again?
While waiting for the next movie, fans can at least look forward to the remix of the original SG-1 pilot. | |
BW: Well, it's funny that you should say that. It's not why I did it, but my "Children of the Gods -- Final Cut," which I think is what we're going to end up calling it, should be available in that interim. I think it's certainly not a new movie, but it's a new look at an old movie. And I think that people will like that. And maybe the releases of the two movies won't take quite as long as they did the first time around.
Keep in mind: Nobody really knew ... we had a lot of faith that the Stargate movies were going to do really well, but they surprised everybody. Robert and I maybe were the least surprised, because of our belief in what we were trying to do -- but maybe everyone feels that way who makes a movie! But they surprised a lot of people, and it did well enough that I think things might happen faster the second time around.
GW: That would be nice!
BW: It would be!
GW: Well, is there anything you can tell us at this stage about the Atlantis movie? Is it going to be resolving dangling storylines like Michael and the Wraith, and these new villains that are about to be introduced?
BW: No -- I can say only that it will be a movie that will be more accessible to new viewers than something that is trying to resolve dangling threads. It will be, hopefully, more of a stand-alone story.
GW: But Season Five does end on a cliffhanger, doesn't it?
BW: ... Depends what you mean by "cliffhanger." [Laughter] Not so much. Not so much. It's a great story that Paul and Joe wrote. It's a terrific script, and there's a "What now?" aspect of it. That's for sure. But there's no fingers dangling on the edge of a cliff, as we have done in the past.
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"Full Circle" provided some closure for SG-1 in case of cancellation, but left a lot open-ended. |
GW: Maybe more of a feel like what "Full Circle" did in Season Six?
BW: ... Maybe! [Laughter] I'm trying not to be too cryptic.
Honestly, if I can get one thing across, it's that this is not "spin." I really do feel good about it, and grateful that we're going forward in this direction. You cannot complain to a studio and network who are saying, "How can we best do this together? How can we best achieve a sense of going forward and sustain what is now a growing franchise with the resources we have?" I'm happy.
GW: This is a question that touches on something that we talked about back in April, when we were there. Cast availability starts to become an issue, once you get a few years out. Do the Stargate movies, in your mind, start to merge, start to have more cross-over movies and not necessarily a stand-alone track of Atlantis and a stand-alone track of SG-1?
BW: Well, one of the benefits of the Stargate universe is being connected -- meaning they're happening at the same time. Yes, we can definitely do cross-over. That is definitely a potential. And there are a lot of casts to draw from, in both series. So yes, the answer is yes -- there can definitely be cross-over.
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