Category: people

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Tidbits from the sci-fi world…

Some little bits from the world of genre:

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Gate Geek – Fun, Stargatey things to do

Still waiting for the announcement of the women of Stargate Universe that was supposed to be out by now.

In the meantime, CJer Michelle let me know that MGM is continuing to engage fans in their prep of Stargate Atlantis Best-Of compilation for Blu-Ray with a “design the cover” contest.  They are also announcing the episodes that won. (Most of the ones I wanted…yays)  Annoying Flash design prevents us from linking directly, so go click around.

In other fun Stargate-related news, Amanda Tapping continues to show that she is one of the nicest people in show business by offering up some really cool auction items to benefit a Vancouver-area school.

And the charming Cliff Simon (Ba’al) talks with GateWorld about Stargate and his ongoing interest in helping people get their brains going.

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Gate Geek – New cast member gets really excited

Now, everyone giving Stargate Universe a hard time should stop and appreciate the enthusiasm coming into this project (well, if Brian J. Smith is any indication).  The brave man takes his first step into fandom by granting an interview with GateWorld.  He can’t be all bad, though.  He admits to being a “Trekkie.” <sic>

In related news, writer Joseph Mallozzi shares that Robert Carlyle will get to keep that lovely accent for the show.  (Ahh…Scottish accents on Stargate.)

Those still mourning Atlantis and worrying about the fate of her actors will be happy to know that David Hewlett appears to be making progress on his sci-fi comedy Starcrossed first featured in his movie A Dog’s Breakfast.  Keep your fingers crossed it makes it out of Development Hell.  We don’t need any more ghost shows on SciFi.

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Carrie Fisher has a blog (and was on NPR)

First the book, now a blog! She’s been posting regularly for the last couple of weeks on a weblog at CarrieFisher.com. Topics so far range from a party for Milk (with Ewan McGregor!) to the metal bikini and dwarf-eating hippos. A pretty good start, if you ask me. (via)

In related news, Fisher was on NPR this weekend, as a guest on the quiz show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! You can listen to the show online at the link. (via)

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Gate Geek – Author John Scalzi Creative Consultant for Universe

Joe Mallozzi has announced that author John Scalzi (Old Man’s War, The Android’s Dream) will now be a creative consultant to the new Stargate Universe series.  (Plus, the announcement includes a really delicious-looking trip to Vancouver restaurant Fuel… except for that foie gras… yuck.)

If you have read his books (and if you haven’t, why not?), this certainly hints at an interesting direction for the show.

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Ricardo Montalban off to the next great journey

The man who brought us Khan lives no more.  Ricardo Montalban passed away yesterday morning at the age of 88.

CJ honors the passing of a great contributor to the geek world, from his roles as Star Trek’s Khan, to movies including Naked Gun and Spy Kids, and of course Fantasy Island.  There are also many CJ’ers who are fans of the series Kim Possible which he contributed to recently.

Raise a glass of Romulan ale and toast farewell with us!

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Eye Candy: Searching LIFE for Star Wars

LIFE: Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness and Mark Hamill @ ANH 10th anniversary party

A couple months ago, the LIFE photo archive went up in Google, fully searchable. Plenty has been done with them since then, but it didn’t occur to me to look for Star Wars until today. There isn’t a ton there – the bulk of images that come up are from The Phantom Menace premiere – but there are a few things of interest, like Time covers, some vintage toy pics and this shot of Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness and Mark Hamill at a party celebrating the tenth anniversary of A New Hope. You get about the same amount of shots searching for just George Lucas, and even more for Harrison Ford, but clearly Sir Alec wins. (Wait! Was it really a party for ANH? Now I doubt.) But perhaps most amusingly: Jar-Jar and Madeline Albright? Or Peter Cushing in Hamlet?

Off the fannish track, two of the more interesting uses I’ve seen around the web have been Jezebel’s The Way We Were features and Typophile’s book cover meme.

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The Clone Wars: TFN talks to Filoni and Gilroy

Dave Filoni and Henry Gilroy answer fan questions on The Clone Wars over at TheForce.net. A lot of interesting tidbits on the show, its relation to the EU, George’s involvement and other food for thought, like Gilroy’s comments on the unique challenges of writing a digital show:

It wasn’t really an issue of balance. When I wrote the first episode, I wished I could have used the entire Jedi Council, but because we were just building the studio, the only characters I had available were Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda. Mace wasn’t originally in the movie story, because he wasn’t built yet, he was added way later. This was the incredible challenge as the head writer, I was tasked with writing Star Wars and making it feel as big as Star Wars, but only allowed to build ONE new character per episode (I started with 9 — can you name them?). So Luminara and Kit showed up at the very first chance I could put them in the show.

Oh, and there’s also something in there about George and the Wookieepedia. Yes, seriously.

In other interview news, EUC has one with The Force Unleashed’s Sam Witwer, and is taking questions for Matt Stover.