Sci-Fi Storm

Stargate Command, the new online home for all things Stargate, announced that Ellie Gall (A Midsummer’s Nightmare) will take on the starring role of the young Catherine Langford in the upcoming event series Stargate Origins.

Those familiar with the franchise will remember that Langford was present with her parents when the Stargate was unearthed in Egypt and spent her life trying to decipher it and make it work, which she was unable to do until helped by Daniel Jackson (James Spader in the film, Michael Shanks in Stargate SG-1). The series will follow her as she attempts to unlock the secrets of the Stargate. I suspect there may be some canon-bending involved…

Connor Trinneer (Star Trek: Enterprise), who had a recurring role in Stargate Atlantis, will return to the franchise to play Catherine’s father, Professor Paul Langford.

Get your gear ready – we’re going back through the gate!

MGM announced today that the franchise will return in a 10-episode event series titled Stargate: Origins, and it will focus on a younger Catherine Langford – the woman who as a young girl was present where her archaeologist father discovered the Stargate in Egypt and eventually hired Dr. Daniel Jackson to translate the inscriptions on it, and “explore a new chapter in her early history surrounding the portal. Young Catherine embarks on a new unexpected adventure to unlock the mystery of what lies beyond the Stargate in order to save the Earth from darkness.” It seems to imply that Catherine will go through the Stargate earlier than has been established in the franchise, yet they described the series as not a reboot but an expansion of the existing canon…

The series is being produced by MGM and New Form for the new subscription-based “Stargate Command” digital platform, which from descriptions will also provide episodes of previous series as well. “We saw a need for a definitive hub for the Stargate fan base to continue to enjoy news and content, both old and new,” according to MGM President of Worldwide Television Distribution and Acquisitions Chris Ottinger. “Stargate Command will open a new door for the community to celebrate and interact with all content in a way that has never been done before.”

Production will begin next month, with Mercedes Bryce Morgan (Virtual Morality) directing and Mark Ilvedson (The Booth at the End) and Justin Michael Terry (#FromJennifer) writing the scripts. The show should premiere later this year.

Check out the teaser below.

While it’s been a couple years and it doesn’t seem like much movement forward since we reported that Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich still planned to reboot the Stargate movie franchise, the fact that they are still talking about it is a good sign it might still happen, and it appears they are actively developing it at Warner Bros.

After MGM took the rights and decided to develop a TV series without the duo, also responsible for Independence Day and it’s upcoming sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence – the first sequel that Emmerich has actually worked on, apparently – spawning two additional TV series, the studio now considers the TV franchise as “played out”, sitting idle since 2011, opening the door for the reboot. The various regime changes at MGM likely has helped as well.

“It was taken away from us, and it’s tough to have your children raised by other parents, even if they do a very good job…for us, it’s not putting down what has been done. It’s to let us finish telling our story,” according to Devlin.

Devlin and Emmerich have always talked about how they planned Stargate as a trilogy, but now with over 20 years having passed since the original movie, instead of just moving on to a sequel the two feel an entire reboot would make the most sense. It will be interesting to see – it worked for the Battlestar Galactica reboot.

It’s been a long time in the works, but Stargate will finally get a reboot, with original creators Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich returning to take the reins.

Devlin and Emmerich have always wanted to finish the story they started in the original Stargate movie, with ideas for two more movies. But MGM, who owned the rights, eventually decided on a different direction, instead opting for a TV series that didn’t involve either Devlin or Emmerich, which bloomed into a successful franchise.

Most recently Emmerich spoke of the idea of rebooting it altogether, with the plan to do all three movies with new actors given how much time has passed since the original. Now that appears to be the plan, with the announcement that MGM and Warner Bros. will team up to create whole new re-imagined trilogy, with Devlin and Emmerich back in charge.

Apparently we were a little overdue for our annual Stargate movie update… 🙂

We’ve heard for years about how Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin intended to make two more Stargate movies after the original, but instead MGM decided to take the franchise to television instead in the form of Stargate SG-1, plus the followups Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe. But now a few years removed from the television franchise, Emmerich appears poised to bring the movie franchise back on track – but as opposed to making outright sequels to the original, he wants to start over, given the amount of time that has passed.

In an interview with Digital Spy, he said, “We went to MGM, who has the rights, and proposed to them to do a sequel, but as a reboot… and reboot it as a movie and then do three parts. Pretty soon we’ll have to look for a writer and start.”

As for the original actors returning, “The actors look totally different… it would not work,” he stated. Thus the impetus to start fresh.

The Hollywood Reporter interviewed filmmaker Dean Devlin, who also currently is the executive producer and director on TNT’s Leverage – and it seems that with Devlin re-uniting with partner Roland Emmerich, who together created Stargate and Independence Day, sequels to both movies are still possible.

Having resisted the idea of an ID4 sequel for 16 years despite its box office success, he things they’ve got the right concept. “I feel like we got it,” he said. “I think it took a long time, but I feel like we finally got something that really feels like, ‘that’s worth seeing as a sequel to Independence Day.’ ”

And it appears they are already talking to the cast about possibly returning.

As for Stargate, “Stargate has always had this empty hole,” he confessed. “When we made the first one, we always intended on doing part two and three, and we were prevented for years. And our hope is that we can get another chance at Stargate and tell the entire story we wanted to tell.” I presume “prevented” means that while the TV franchise was active, MGM wouldn’t entertain the idea of movies that were outside the the universe established the series. But we’ve heard this from Devlin before – just a few days more than a year ago – so we’ll wait and see.

If you remember way back when in 2006 when Dean Devlin mentioned that Stargate was originally envisioned as a trilogy of movies (doesn’t everyone do that now?) but with MGM having control and moving to a series he and co-creator Roland Emmerich disavowed, it seemed unlikely that they would get made…but now that the Stargate TV franchise is at least in hibernation, Devlin is still hopeful that parts two and three could still happen, although it may be changed a bit from their original ideas owing to so much time having passed.

I’m still not sure that a movie franchise that ignores the multiple series would help, but who knows…with the state of MGM and how much the word “reboot” is thrown around Hollywood, is they can see any money in it they’ll do it…

Need a Stargate to finish off your living room? Military uniforms? A Stargate Command chair? Well, now’s your chance – at least if you can be at Bridge Studios in Burnaby, BC, Canada this Friday and Saturday. Liquidator Maynards is is conducting a liquidation sale of assets associated with the Stargate franchise. It doesn’t appear that you can purchase anything online, however :(.

Breaking news from Vancouver: Information is coming from a variety of source via Twitter, but it is official – there will be no Stargate Universe movie, and even the written SG-1 and Atlantis movies (as they are now) won’t happen, according to Brad Wright (and confirmed by SGU actor Brian J. Smith), who is moving on to other projects. The franchise is still in MGM’s hands, and there seems to be plenty of hope that the franchise will live on…

A good summary of what is known so far can be found at the Stargate Solutions Blog.

So it appears that the Stargate: Resistance game was not as immune after all to the fallout from the Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment bankruptcy and losing the license. According to the official web site (via Gateworld), Cheyenne can no longer sell the game – which was an online-only game. They will, however, continue access to those who already purchased the game through January 15th, 2011. But in reading the Gateworld article, things are far from clear of the overall state of things in general…