MGM’s new leadership simply isn’t interested in continuing the Stargate television franchise right now, according to actress Alaina Huffman.
“They tried very hard to put a movie together,” Huffman said in a stage appearance at the Wizard World Comic Con in Philadelphia last month. “[But] Spyglass is not interested in Stargate, so therefore would not fund the movie. So we — we, as in Brad [Wright] — had to look for money elsewhere, and came very close several times.”
Huffman played Lt. Tamara Johansen on Stargate Universe.
The historic Hollywood studio emerged from bankruptcy proceedings at the end of 2010 with Spyglass Entertainment chiefs Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum appointed as Co-Chairmen and CEOs. Formed in 1998, Spyglass itself is primarily a film studio, helping get movies like The Sixth Sense, Star Trek (2009), and The Tourist to screens.
In years’ past Stargate was a juggernaut for MGM’s television division, pulling in significant revenue from syndication, overseas markets (airing in over 120 countries), and the lucrative DVD market. Studio executives called it MGM’s most important franchise after James Bond. But those revenue sources just aren’t what they used to be.
Since emerging from bankruptcy MGM is back on its feet with a full slate of upcoming movie releases. It also continues to work in the television field, producing MTV’s new Teen Wolf series. But the studio has not made any official, public statements about the future of Stargate since the new execs took over.
The studio appointed Roma Khanna as its new President of Television Group and Digital last month. Khanna oversees all television sales, production, acquisitions, licensing, content creation and digital initiatives for MGM, as well as existing franchises like Stargate.
According to Huffman, the pitch that executive producer Brad Wright was making to the studio in early 2011 was for a pair of films.
“His plan, from what I understood … was he wanted to do two movies, one to finish out our storyline, and one [with] an all-star cast they that they would shoot in Hawaii. I don’t know why they couldn’t get the funding. I thought that would have been a really great way to close out the series.
“To me, it’s really unfortunate that the franchise and the producers didn’t get the opportunity, given their long track record, to finish out the story.”
Watch the video clip from Huffman’s convention appearance (with SGU co-star Julia Benson) below. The two will appear together again at Wizard World’s Chicago event, August 11-14.
(Thanks to Tyler for the tip!)
It is a sad day to see that Spyglass has no intention of continuing the second most important franchise it owns (next to James Bond). You would think Spyglass would give more respect to the long track record that Brad Wright has with Stargate.
Well, I will be boycotting any MGM releases…
It’s interesting to keep reading and hearing about more of these behind-the-scenes deals that are/were being negotiated.
I really wonder if SyFy isn’t/wasn’t incredibly leary about MGM/Spyglass’s future and thus the decision to push them aside by moving Stargate into position for cancellation so that they could claim it was MGM/Stargate’s fault. “All our other shows are doing just fine!” Meanwhile, Spyglass not giving any favors to the Stargate franchise is probably why the franchise isn’t getting picked up elsewhere.
or maybe they just aren’t interested in a failed show…
I think what bothers me the most is that we have a 17 season long sci-fi epic that, though it ended prematurely, really only needed these last two films to close the book. If the show airs in 120 countries, it doesn’t seem like a modestly budgeted film would have lost money.
As much as I miss Stargate, closure would’ve at least made the ending of the series acceptable. Instead, we’ve got hanging threads that may never get an ending.
@Cheshil whats worse is that there are hanging threads for 2 different series. Universe: will they ever make it home? will they ever complete the mission?
Atlantis: will Ronon and Teyla ever make it back home to their people in Pegasus galaxy? What happened to Todd?
And even in SG-1 there are a couple big questions I have: will the Stargate ever go public? Do we really have a moon base now?
It would be nice to get the stories finished!!!!!
What will it take to show them that we want this? EVERY Stargate fan I see is asking about future movies/television projects, will there be continuations of SG-1/SGA/SGU, etc. etc. I believe that MGM/Spyglass are missing out on a big financial opportunity with it, come on! Give us two last movies! You promised us two movies two years ago anyway and you didn’t deliver and you know what? ITS YOUR OWN DUMB FAULT! That’s right! Its not our fault, its YOUR fault for stupid financial decisions that placed YOU in bankruptcy and as a result you’re punishing US? I keep… Read more »
Was hoping to see some investigative reporting here. Or at least a “Spyglass turned down our requests for an interview.”
I can see why Spyglass might be leary about working with Brad and Co. again, he promised the moon and didn’t deliver. However, I see no reason why they couldn’t assign the franchise to someone else they trust to breath new life into Stargate. They must be very bitter about how things turned out to want nothing to do with the entire franchise. And good point by someone above, they are releasing a Blu-Ray of Atlantis, so they must feel someone wants to see a bit of Stargate.
PS – That gum chewing drove me nuts! (Cranky Old Woman here)
i know its a little off topic but i tend to think of it like this if say 400 people go to watch a movie in a cinema and say about halfway thru about 200 walk out how would the remaining 200 people feel if suddenly the lights came on,the movie stopped and then asked to leave by staff? if it was you would you ever go back to that cinema again? if it were me of course not so why do networks continue to do just that to us canceling good shows before they get a chance to finish?… Read more »
What’s most amazing to me is how on earth can it be that they are not willing,interested in making at least one stargate movie,if not two,just one to finish the SGU story,considering the fact that it is the second most lucrative,second strongest franchise after James Bond!? That is so completely puzzling,it seems as if something was so wrong with that picture. How is that possible,I will never understand,it could be properly done with $10 million budget at the most.And no one can tell me that they wouldn’t turn a considerable profit with that kind of money invested.I’m absolutely positive that… Read more »
This is disappointing news but I could see why continuing the franchise would give spyglass some pause. Ostensibly SGU was a reboot of the franchise and it ultimately flopped. Whatever the reasons continuing on that avenue would evidently be too big a financial risk. The original movie at the time it came out in 1994 was considered a big budgeted flop hence why it never got the sequel its producers wanted in last 17 years. Then the SG1 and SGA stories apparently fizzled out in the minds of SyFy, MGM, and the producers that got bored producing the two shows.… Read more »
@Zach236 Whil I kind of agree with you, the problem is, SG1 still has stories to tell (with Amanda Tapping, Chris Judge, Michael Shanks, RDA, etc), Atlantis still has plenty of stories to tell with (Joe Flannigan, David Hewlett, Rachel Luttrell, Jason Momoa, Paul McGillion, Jewel Staite, and Robert Picardo). And at we at least need to get the Destiny crew home (after finding whats out there) and the story needs to be told by (Alaina Huffman, Robert Carlyle, David Blue, Brian J Smith, Louis Ferrera, Lou Diamond Philips, Eleyse Levesqu (spelling), Ming Na, etc). My point is, while a… Read more »
I don’t know when MGM went bankrupt but if it was after 2007 when SG1 got cancelled then it makes sense! You don’t cancel your best TV franchise & expect to stay in business! I think Spyglass should @ least do the SG1 & SGA movies because they know they will make money off them. I would be leery of making an SGU movie too since the series wasn’t anywhere near as good as the other two series. I think they should have made SGU into one or two TV movies before making the series to find out how the… Read more »
Teen Wolf? Seriously? It was good as a movie, owing mostly to Michael J. Fox’s nerdy charisma. But everyone forgot they made a sequel, for good reason. Ah, well, at least they’re not making TV shows about wrestling.
@Dachannien wouldn’t a wresting shoe be a show about wrestling?
SGU never should have been made. I would have produced a SGA movie & another SG-1 movie at least once every other year to ride out the ecomony but keep the Stargate existence going. Now SG has it’s “Voyager” and/or “Enterprise” failed BSG ripoff series under it’s belt. Teen Wolf, what a waste.
Look, I love the show(s) as much as anyone, but let’s be real. SG-1 ran its course. The thing that killed it was everyone thinking that season 7 was the last. It would have been a good ending, too. But it got picked up for season 8 and that was a surprise. The threw it together as best they could, but since no one was expecting it the episodes were sub-par at best. It picked up in season 9 and 10, but season 8 was so bad that only the most die-hard of fans were left after that. Atlantis went… Read more »
@Jim:
“And no one can tell me that they wouldn’t turn a considerable profit with that kind of money invested.I’m absolutely positive that at least 2 mil ppl worldwide would buy that dvd/blue-ray,which means some $40-50 mill.in revenue..at least $35 mill.pure profit.”
Here on GW, on the forum, it was discussed the DVD sales for SGU. They sold something like 23 000.
MGM/Spyglass didn’t say no to Stargate as much as they said no to Brad Wright. Think about it. He took the most successful Science Fiction franchise in U.S. TV history and ran it into the ground with his failed Universe experiment. And he disrespected the previous two Stargate series and the fans in the process. Brad Wright is the Rick Berman of Stargate. Would you invest in his leadership.
When we do get Stargate again, and we will get it eventually, it will be under new leadership. Are you listening, J.J. Abrams?
@orfeu But,see that is something completely different.Those SGU DVDs sold were of the show that had already aired.And they have only been released for so long,so they are still being sold. I’m talking about completely new DVD/Blue-Ray of a story’s closure that would have not been shown anywhere previously. What you’re saying would be like comparing the sales of The Arc of Truth and Stargate Continuum direct to DVD with the sales of SG-1 and Atlantis seasons on DVD.When those two categories cannot be compared.Those two straight to DVD movies had sold in at least ten time larger numbers than… Read more »
Business is all about the numbers. Just like major movies that rake in hundreds of millions of dollars play with the numbers to make it seem like they lost money to avoid paying extra royalties, television gets the same kind of ‘creative accounting’. It comes down to the fact that they could make the bottom line look better by cutting the show rater than by supporting it. It’s unclear if the show was actually making money or losing money, but even if it were making money, it wouldn’t have been making enough to get the attention it needed. Fans may… Read more »
[…] haben. Das haben Sie nämlich nicht. Das ist alles nur ein bißchen kompliziert … derzeit. [Gateworld, Stargate Project] […]
First off I wanted to say I called it when Devlin commented on wanting to do the sequels to the Stargate movie two weeks or so ago. Check the boards. I asked a question on here, but no one answered me because it probably would be insane right, but they, the producers, have always said they wanted to do a triology and I think we need this to show Spyglass that there is money in Stargate as a TV show. If they go ahead and do the triology WE, the fans of the TV show, have to unite and go… Read more »
@mythos Yes,that’s most probably just it.But it is highly unfair towards fans,cause if they’re making even minimum profit while giving us closure with a couple of movies,they should do it,before going to hybernation.
As for something completely new and fresh..closure aside,that should definitely wait few years.
@daug21 – It wouldn’t be a “failed show” if they’d cowboy up and order more episodes.
I don’t know what to say. Something that for so long has brought them money. Enough money probably to keep them going during times when they had nothing else making money….and they just throw it out the window.
Looks like MGM’s new leadership is more interested in greed. Very unfortunate and my respect level for the company has gone way way down.
This news coupled with the recent fire-sale of all physical assets of the show lead me to believe that the Stargate property will be up for sale very soon (if it isn’t already)
As usual, SGU bashers are here to blame Brad. For crying out loud give a rest for your hateful theories, you are just being childish. World economy tanked. DVD market tanked. Suddenly it wasn’t bringing so much money as before. MGM went for sale. New owners were interested only and only for very profitable parts of package – not SG which could bring in money, but not lots of them. It is very high propability that whole SG franchise will be up for sale quite soon.
I want to point out that Roma Khanna is former NBC Universal. Yeah, current SyFy owners.
They simply wants SG to die. Sci-fi TV is too expensive and with too low profit margins for them. Period.
@Brian2k7 – MGM isn’t some indie studio. Greed is definitely their motivation. If their driving force were fan appreciation, of course they’d make the movies. But, particularly having just come out of bankruptcy proceedings, the very most important thing to them was showing a good bottom line. @saxgod – Such movies would not likely affect the Stargate TV franchise. Things don’t really tend to work that way. If they did, then the creative team behind the movie would have been the driving force behind the show. It was different people who drove the show. Stargate is actually the only successful… Read more »
What’s is that we simply support the franchise. The fan base needs to be united. We can’t have anymore hate groups against Universe or whatever. SGU season 2 was just released on DVD. If you don’t have a blu ray, then buy that set! If you do, wait for it to come out on blu ray and buy it then! Also, Atlantis is coming out on blu ray, buy that too to show your support! If there’s a whole in your collection, a set you don’t have pick it up! This is what we need to do to show them… Read more »
if spyglass/mgm isn’t interested in stargate anymore, sell it to someone(s) that is!!
@majorsal – Agreed!
Unfortunately though, just like Mr. Burns and Smithers so too would Spyglass/MGM rather bury SG with their worthless carcusses. Well …ok, I’m sort of kidding.
I recently got my brother and his girlfriend to watch SG1 and now they are hooked, and these are people that watch only about 12 hours a year of sci-fi/horror type tv compared to my approximately 600+ hours a year. Now if they can just get 4 more people to watch my work will be done.
Yes to all non-believers, SG is really that good! Of course I’m preaching to the choir on this site so my words are mostly pointless.
Well okay its more like 450+ hrs of sci-fi tv and about 150+ hrs of sci-fi/horror movies a year.
I thought about that a little too much.
Darren, thank you for being at least “somewhat” apologetic (this time around) about this bad news. I have been mad at Gateworld lately because the last few morsels of bad news which SG fans have received from Gateworld were served up to us gate-lovers as if they were Bon-Bons … yeeesh! Right now we SG fans have nothing but re-runs and DVD’s to enjoy. As you know, SyFy is starting to pull the re-runs now too, so it seems that the more that we say we want more Stargate, the less Stargate they give us. This is just wrong on… Read more »
@Jim:
I can not see SGU having those kind of numbers. Stargate maybe has a lot of fans, SGU not so much and the DVD sales provided a final nail in the proverbial coffin.
And by betraying the fans or whatever, most fans already felt betrayed when SGU was green lighted and it was made clear that it was not for them.
@orfeu SGU is Stargate as well,DVD sales as you’ve presented them are apples and oranges..I’ve already explained that and if anything provided a final nail in the coffin is the split among the fans.Split because of which now none of the fans of stargate,whatever series in the franchise they prefer won’t get anything. Also it is absolutely not true that most fans already felt betrayed when SGU got greenlit,cause season one wouldn’t have finished with 1,6 mil viewers and there wouldn’t have been season two at all.Season two that in the view of majority of ppl was in fact better.… Read more »
Actually I have to correct myself..I don’t really think that stargate fans deserved what they got.What I had in mind is actually the vocal minority,that for one reason,or another still can’t get passed SGU.In reallity they really don’t matter at all,nor should we care about them. What’s really a shame is that none of us who are true fans of stargate won’t get to see closure of those few stories from all three series,that could have been brought to us with just few movies.Just as it is unfair that the creators of the show we love didn’t get that final… Read more »
@Jim:
No one believed those movies would be made. TBTW lost the confidence of the fans the second they announced SGU. I cannot see SGU as Stargate and, from the look of things, many people can’t.
They screwed up a lot and now they are out of a job. But they had to respect their artistic soul or something. The DVDs sold poorly. There was no split between the fans, only agreement: we don’t like SGU.
@Jim: “Brad Wright,with insults and lack of respect he had to put up from ppl that no nothing about creative process,or tv business and that had forgotten overnight that he was the one who brought them 15 seasons of show they fell in love with in the first place..” Of course, and he did this out of the goodness of his heart. Let’s get real. He did it for money. The moment he could not please the fans, which SGU did, he got fired. He turned his back to everything that made him look smart, which just proves he didn’t… Read more »
@Pioneering: You took the words right out of my mouth. Now that exes know that creative producers can loose their touch like Berman did, they are mindful of these sort of flops. Universe NEVER should have been made. It was nothing more than a grandiose Power Point presentation. Imagine if Roddenberry actually produced a “WAGON TRAIN TO THE STARS” series… Bradwright was just an ego and that happens over time when the fans tell you that everything you do is WONDERFUL AND AWESOME. If you want to keep your edge you get better by challenging yourself not staying the same… Read more »
“His plan, from what I understood … was he wanted to do two movies, one to finish out our storyline, and one [with] an all-star cast they that they would shoot in Hawaii.” I wouldn’t have been interested in any of the movies. I also don’t think combining SG1/SGA with SGU would have worked because of the whole style of those series. SG1/SGA are just completely different than SGU. The SGU parts/characters would have been a foreign object in the movie. Or if they would have made the movie in an SGU style, they probably would have changed the personalities… Read more »
I don’t understand why so much of my previous comment got moderated. I think it is a valid opinion, that the crossover movie would have never included all SG1/SGA characters. That would have been too many in addition to characters from SGU. I definitely would have missed some SG1/SGA characters. And I simply don’t like the SGU characters, which makes their inclusion a negative aspect for me. They would have been an annoyance for me, something which makes the movie worse. They would have taken away screen time from the SG1/SGA characters, I am interested in. I am sure I… Read more »
psw said: “I am sure I am not the only one, who don’t like all Stargate series. I bet there are a lot of people out there, who only like one or two Stargate series. Not every SGA fan likes the SG1 characters, not every SGU fan likes the SGA characters, and so on.” —– i’m one of those ppl that only really likes sg1, BUT, it’s this mindset that’s dividing fandom so much, and possibly making it *so* hard for the spyglass ptb to actually know what to do. it’s like whatever spyglass does, someone(s) are going to not… Read more »
@btc909: It was never a BSG ripoff & you know it. You’re beating a dead horse with a non-existent imaginary stick.
@orfeu When you say we don’t like sgu,you should say I don’t like sgu,because there’s a lot of ppl that like it..at least as much as the ones that don’t and most probably more. And even among those who do not like it,there’s a minute,miniscule groupe of ppl like you who for some reason feel the need to offend and spue hate towards Brad Wright.Now I don’t know why that is,but it only shows that you were never real sg fans,cause stargate is HIS creation.And not only his..the entire crew of producers and most writers went on to SGU. You… Read more »
@majorsal I tend to agree with you.If just most of fans where like you,we would have the show now.I too like some of it more than others,but ultimately,I like all of it,cause I just like that world,universe.whatever.
But there are ppl who when they don’t get exactly what they want,how and when they want it,start acting like someone ran over their cat.
They should be pittied,cause I can imagine them not functioning very well in real life either.