MGM Interview: (Update) RC Cooper interview (final product)

[wraithfodder]

Okay, I finally got to see the entire RCC interview, so here's the whole thing (I only posted part at the previous post). Some spoilers apply.

From interviews located at http://stargatesg1.com/Interviews

 

 

ROBERT C COOPER interview (42 minutes)

 

Brad is in charge of SGA overall while RCC was in charge of SG1. He directed the last episode of SG1 (“Unending”). They also thought the show would continue and had the cast all signed for deals for season 11. They were going to do a cliffhanger at the end of season 10.

 

Robert Cooper said when Sci-Fi didn't renew the show, they were concerned on how to end it. They didn't want a cliffhanger and 'out of respect for the fans' have the episode have a 'spirit of closure, a sense of ending without it being an ending,' so they called it "Unending." The team gets stuck in a spaceship in a time dilation field (just the one team) and live out about 50 years(!) so you see the relationships that develop and evolve and as scifi allows you to do, "we undid it all." (reset button!) They don't want to end it, as a finale, as they want fans to feel the universe is ongoing (AKA, keep the franchise going). Rob said he and Brad wanted to have a bigger budget and longer form (movies) so they have more freedom to do what they want to do.

 

There will be no 11th season. The movies will appear on DVD and perhaps some "form of broadcast" on a network somewhere - has not yet been confirmed. What is confirmed is cast of SG1 (season 10) will be in both those movies and "our hope" is that the movies will be springboard to become a series of films (if they make enough money off them). There is the "opportunity" to do a third season and include elements of SG in it.

 

Will Sci-Fi channel air the movies? Doesn't know. MGM has financed the film based on DVD release and working hard to trying to get broadcast deals.

 

RCC is executive producer of both films and is writing/directing the first movie. The movie is a continuation of what has been happening on the series (the first movie). They will "probably" produce a one-hour special to be included on the DVDS to catch you up if you haven't been following the series. It will continue and tie up loose threads left dangling after season 10. The SECOND MOVIE "definitely plays on a lot of the characters and brings back people, maybe favorites, for the fans." It's a 'one off' that 'hopefully will get people used to the idea of sG1 movies.' and make them feel that they want more movies. Doesn't have to be about Ori or the series but new adventures. They feel they have an obligation to finish the story they stated telling. And Charlie Cohan is a big fan of the show and that's why he's paying for the first movie so he can find out what happens with the Ori (must be nice to have that kind of money!).

 

They're doing a one-hour special called 'Stargate Mythology' which is not just a clip show but will explore the concept of mythology as it relates to the SG universe and on mythology in general.

 

RCS is very big into the Merlin mythology.

 

As for extras for DVDs, RCC says they think of things to add to the DVDs. It’s the way to go these days. “What are people interested in relation to the SG universe.”

Casting for the movies. “Right now we know for sure the main cast of season 10 will be returning. … Beyond that, we’re still working on it. I know Brad’s put a call into RDA and Rick, as well call him. … we’re hopeful he’ll make an appearance. Whether he’s in both or just one, we’re not sure yet.” Not planned to have Atlantis people on it.

 

“Amanda Tapping will be joining the cast of Stargate Atlantis for 14 episodes for season 4.” There’s going to be fans of Atlantis who feel like they don’t want to see SG1 people coming over, they feel like Atlantis is their own thing now and they’ve embraced that thing… but you know…(BIG Pause) Amanda and Carter are such a likeable character, she’s such a good actress, I don’t see how anybody can have a problem with it once they see it. It’s a natural fit for the show and for the franchise to keep a little bit of SG1 going in Atlantis.” … “Hopefully for us we’ll get people who love Carter and love SG1 watching Atlantis where they might not have before and I think the people who really love Atlantis for what it is, are not going to see that spoiled or tarnished in anyway.”

 

Will Atlantis benefit without SG1? He doesn’t know. “How it does in terms of ratings or how it performs is really up to the network. I think that having both shows together has always been a good thing…. I think SciFi is going to have to do something different in order to make sure people know that Atlantis is still on.”

 

Atlantis Showrunners? Says that Joe and Paul have been producing their own episodes for a long time (long pause). “Brad and I have been trying to step back and do other things for a while. We want to develop another Stargate series – we’d like to develop another series that’s not Stargate related so it was time and the fact that we have these movies and they’re going to take up quite a bit of our attention – Joe and Paul were ready to step up.”

 

Difference between series and shows. Says TV shows are approached in terms of structure – tease, five acts, etc. Episodes are aired in 16x9 widescreen but they always to keep the visual content within a 4x3 image so it will accommodate the TV screen and it’s not always the best visual composition. Halfway between shooting for a widescreen TV and square TV. With a movie, they can shoot more like a movie (visually). They have a slightly bigger budget than on a typical episode but “nowhere near” what a feature has.  He said they’ve always had an interest in doing a non-Stargate project but don’t know what it is. … They want the franchise to continue but “it will be fun to do other things too.”

 

The third series. “That’s definitely in the works. That’s something the studio is very actively pursuing and we have a concept that we’ve come up with that … in the past we often take in ideas that were going to be feature films [and put them into the show instead], and that kind of happened again. We came up with an idea that we thought would be a great Stargate feature that really was a separate third entity to the two existing series but it’s entirely possible we’ll be turning that into the third series.” He can’t say too much about it right now. They don’t know in terms of airing. “We don’t even have a script order or an official pickup. We’ve talked at length with the studio about what the concept is for it and the ballpark right now is to hopefully have something in active development by the summer. Our focus is on the movies.” Pre-production begins in March and shooting begins on April 15^th for the first movie. Take two months to shoot. Four weeks for each movie. Plus postproduction, etc. “The goal would be to have it on the air sometime in early 2008.”

 

They just got the pitch for the Stargate theme park pitch. “Lot of fun. It’s based on Stargate Atlantis, includes the Atlantis characters. If they do what they say they can do, it will be spectacular.” As to the online game. “I haven’t seen too much of what the actual content is going to be.”

 

Next part was talking about precisely what Brad Wright talked about what they did on off-time and how they assemble an episode (outlines, scripts, etc.). And meetings.

 

His favorite part of the process? “Editing. I definitely think the editing process is where you really re-create the show that will actually exist. The writing stage is kind of what I refer to as the ‘dreaming stage’ – it’s where you’re kind of writing what you want it to be and then in the harsh reality is the shooting, where the budget and the logistics and everybody’s else’s opinions kind of muddy up the works and…. And then in the editing process where it’s back to you again and the editor…. And this is where you kind of go through the 12-step process. It’s like ‘oh my god, I can’t believe this is what was shot!’ and then acceptance. ‘Oh, I guess this is okay and this will work…’ and you really have to throw the script out. The mistake is to try and make the footage into the script. What you have to do is look at what’s been shot and somehow turn that into a good hour of television. .. .It’s a very strange, plastic process where you’ve written a script that’s so long and you’ve shot something that ends up being 48 or 52 or sometimes short and you have to add time. I find editing is the time in which you actually decide what that show is going to be. You can affect performance in such an incredible. It’s amazing how good or how bad you can make an actor look in the editing room. You can take elements that worked or didn’t work in the script stage and fix them. That’s where the magic happens, I think. A well-cut show can just save it all.”

 

With the movie, “instead of cutting things because you have to (for ads), you cut things because you want to. You cut the stuff that doesn’t work and you leave in the stuff that’s great and you create suspense and/or comedy or action. You create a tempo and a timing that’s based on the nature of the material rather than the length of the material.”

 

Will be involved with SGA? “I’m executive producer still even though I won’t be technically showrunning and… I was there for the breaking of all the stories and put my two cents’ worth in whether it was appreciated or not and I’m writing an episode and directing an episode of Atlantis early on and potentially will write another one. I’m not sure yet. Depends on how the schedule goes. … I co-created the series. It’s still something I have a very strong interest in and I really like the show. I’m a fan of the show so of course I want to be involved. I still have my office and I’ll still be here everyday. It’s going to be interesting to watch someone else run with it the way Joe and Paul will – I always found it interesting to watch the decisions that Brad made as the showrunner and see how that all unfolded.”

 

Season 4 of SGA. “I’m very excited about it. I think there’s some very interesting developments in the storylines and you know… (pause) I think I overhead Brad saying we’re finally at a stage where there’s a lot of various touchstones to hit on. When you first develop a series you kind of have to open all those doors slowly, one at a time, and now there’s a lot of open doors to choose from. There’s the Genii and the Wraith and the human-form replicators and I think that the one thing that Joe and Paul are doing – they’re continuing to open some new doors. There’s some cool new aspects to the show that are going to be in season 4.”

 

Highlights of ten years on SG? He cites “200” as a great memory – “getting in the Guinness book of world records.”  The MGM party, directing his first episode and he looks back fondly on certain aspects of season 7 when he took over as showrunner, in particular “Heroes” 1 and 2.

Comments

[clarkangel.livejournal.com]

He really is an idiot if he thinks SGA fans are going to be thrilled to have Carter. I love SGA cause it's SGA with SGA characters and not SG-1 characters. IF I wanted to watch SAM, I'd have watched SG-1 all these years. INstead, she's the reason I stopped watching the show in the first season. My burning hate for Sam Carter. HATE!

So...RCC? As an SGA fan who never EVER watches SG-1 because I hate it and especially SAM CARTER. I HATE HER COMING TO SGA and I HATE ALL YOUR STUPID RETARDED CHANGES!

And on that note I will console myself with the reminder that Joe thinks season 4 will be good. I will watch him and only him and remember the days when SGA was...ya know..SGA!

Maybe, if they give me lots of Shep whump/Shep past/Shep and his gene storylines, I'll even like season 4 a bit. But I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks for posting, and for letting me vent. LOL

I feel better now. :D

[clarkangel.livejournal.com]

That was supposed to read, thanks for posting this interview. LOL

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Well, that's why lots of have LJs- to vent! ;) Better than holding it in and at least you can commiserate with like souls.

[stclare.livejournal.com]

oh my god what you said right there was exactly what I was thinkin! i was trying to be all polite in another discussion post about the changes untill i saw the bit about the 14 eps! 14!! WTF 2 maybe i could deal with but 14!
I guess we are all gonna have to wait and see how season 4 will turn out maybe carters only on screen for a few mins each ep that i could cope with using my very handy fast forward button!

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

The problem with the writers already planning 14 episodes with Carter means... well, what? I mean, is Carter going to ditch SG1 to live on Atlantis? Or will she be Earthside taking calls? Or saving the day, or arguing with Rodney? I'd rather have her in 4 episodes and have them be good character episodes, than scatter her about. I fear they'll do the same thing they did with Jack in SG1 before he left... a couple minutes here, a couple minutes there, for no real good reason.

[stclare.livejournal.com]

see my problem is i dislike carter so eps based around her would have me switch-in over. when she was in mckay& mrs miller it was ok because she was only in it for minimal time and the story was not focused on her.

unfortunately the longer we wait for info on story lines ect the worse the scenarios are that flit through my mind. ive gone through carter being head of science to leading sga1. which is probably and better be ridiculous.

i hope my fears are unfounded and when we finally get season 4 ill enjoy it as much as i have season 3, unfortunately all this confusion and unease in parts of fan-dom is ruining my anticipation, which just genuinely sucks big time!

[audreyscastle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this...my feelings on RCC have been ranted about before, but....sigh, yes. I just hope the wank toward Amanda Tapping herself (not Carter) dies down...I mean, she had a contract, they told her where they were putting her. I know you guys haven't been trashing her, and some of the angriest rants about casting decisions I've seen on my f-list have mentioned no ill will toward Tapping, but I've seen a lot of wank against her on other forums, and it's really not HER fault.

TPTB however, have some issues.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

No, it's never an actor's fault if they take a role. She signed a contract, they exercised her option. Simple as that. However, the producers just don't seem to realize that Atlantis fans want Atlantis to be Atlantis, not a dumping ground for SG1 characters. I mean, they're all going to the movies, after all....

So far I've missed wanking on AT herself, have seen it on Carter here and there, but mostly on TPTB for making this decision. Most reasonable fans know it's out of her hands.

[audreyscastle.livejournal.com]

The keywords there are "reasonable fans" ;)

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Ah yeah, there are some pretty unreasonable fans out there. Seen 'em.