Friday, August 22, 2008

Stargate Atlantis to be replaced by Universe ***UPDATED***

Atlantis will finish this year but it will live on as DVD movies just like SG-1, and will be replaced by Stargate Universe.

Not long after it's milestone 100th episode. The spin-off Stargate series will end it's episodic run after 5 years. Show runner Joseph Mallozzi noted in his blog that the odds get stacked against a series after five years -- and that the rising Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar has made this and other Vancouver-produced series more expensive to make.

As MGM this year released two financially successful straight-to-DVD movies made after Stargate SG-1 ended a 10-year run of first-run cable episodes on Sci Fi; An Atlantis movie was quickly greenlit.

"We're excited to tell Atlantis stories on a bigger canvas,” Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, co-creators of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis and currently executive producers on Atlantis, said in a statement. “The successes of the two original Stargate DTV movies The Ark of Truth and Continuum have shown us the opportunities that the movie format offers. We have plans for both SG-1 and Atlantis to remain vital as we expand the franchise."
The Stargate franchise as a whole is not finishing new episodic TV permanently however. SCI FI has announced that it has green-lit production on Stargate Universe, the third live-action television series.

Universe will have a 2-hour premiere in 2009, and land in a regular time slot next summer. The Hollywood Reporter said the show will be set on board a previously unmanned ship called the Destiny, and will involve more space-based action than its predecessors. "Unable to return to Earth, the crew must fend for themselves aboard the ship, which has a preprogrammed mission taking them to the far reaches of the universe."

The producers are reportedly looking to cast a known actor for one of the leading roles, and fresh faces to round out the cast. This would follow the pattern of SG-1, which earned a lot of marketability from leading man Richard Dean Anderson when it premiered in 1997, rather than the largely unknown cast of Atlantis. The new series will also be aimed at a slightly younger audience, SCI FI president Dave Howe said. "This is an opportunity to reinvent this franchise and make it relevant to a new generation," he said. "We really don't want to be more of the same. It's going to build clearly off the existing franchise but with a cast that gives it a younger vibe."
"In Universe, we plan to keep those elements that have made the franchise a success, such as adventure and humor, while breaking new ground in the relationships between mostly young and desperate explorers, thrust together and far from home," series co-creators and executive producers Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper said. "Above all, we believe the Stargate itself remains an enduring icon with infinite potential as a jumping-off point for telling stories."

More soon.

Source: Sci-Fi, Multichannel News, Eamo, Gateworld

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

They can't return to Earth?, not ever?, Lt.Col, please tell me you've been reassigned to Stargate Command.

Anonymous said...

hmmmm aimed at a younger audience , it sounds like the spoof they did in the 200th episode of SG1!!!! And the ship you say can't get home you say?That sounds familiar , almost like Space 1999 or what was the name of that other show, Traveller? Journey? no wait I know VOYAGER!!!!!!(Sarcasm Alert)

Major General Creedon said...

@ Civvy: My time with SG-5 is complete for now. I return and lend my expertise now and then but I won't be going on any one-way trips if I can help it. Not after what happened my pal Colonel Sumner.

@ Vaughan: Stop reading the AICN talkbacks.

Anonymous said...

Lt.Col, didn't you recommend Colonel Sumner for his last mission?

Major General Creedon said...

No, your thinking of Col. Everett who I was supposed to go instead of but there was a last minute change in plan...

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