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!)
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View Comments
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 on thinking back to Star Trek. With Star Trek there was somewhat of a sense of satisfaction because each series (except TOS of course which really didn't need one) had a finale and had closure. SGU and SGA had finales, but they weren't searies finales as much as they were season finales. Instead you throw money at a useless series called VIKINGS which will fail just like Camelot has failed on Showtime because nobody will watch it, why not throw that same money at a few Stargate movies to conclude the franchise and finally put it to rest? You're even releasing Atlantis on blu ray! If you didn't think Stargate was still profitable you wouldn't be releasing it on blu ray!
When Star Trek ended its TV run, there were 5 seasons and well over 400 episodes between the five seasons. People were sick of it. Stargate is nowhere NEAR reaching that limit. People still want more. Everybody I know who is a Stargate fan, on the Internet, etc. says when will we get more? Even on Star Trek sites people want more Stargate!
I have no problem with Dean Devlin going back and finishing his trilogy, in fact, I'm interested to see what he would have done differently. HOWEVER, before you do that why not give closure to the TV franchise so fans are ready to move on?
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)