Yep, only six days until the world premiere of Stargate: Universe!  Have you told everyone?  And I mean EVERYONE?  Your pharmacist?  That ex-girlfriend you dumped in college?  The Hungarian woman in Accounts Receivable from your last job?  No?!!!  Well, what‘re you waiting for!

We’re not waiting.  For October 2nd that is.  Today, we held a special matinee screening of SGU’s first three episodes – Air I, II, and III – for the cast and crew.  I’ve gotta say, there’s nothing like seeing it on the big screen.  The performances were spectacular, the visuals stunning, and the last ten minutes of Air III had me on the edge of my seat (despite the fact that I’ve already watched it about a half dozen times).

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Lawren, Ashleigh's guy, and Ashleigh.  Before leaving the office on Friday, I asked Ashleigh to text me a reminder about the matinee.  About an hour before the matinee, having received no reminder text, I texted her: "Hey, am I supposed to be somewhere today?"  A moment later, I received her response: "No.  It's Saturday.  You're free."  Later, I received a follow-up text: "Oh shoot.  The premiere is today.  I hope you can make it in time."  I got it about five minutes after I'd taken my seat beside her in the theater.
Lawren, Ashleigh's guy, and Ashleigh. Before leaving the office on Friday, I asked Ashleigh to text me a reminder about the matinee. About an hour before the matinee, having received no reminder text, I texted her: "Hey, am I supposed to be somewhere today?" A moment later, I received her response: "No. It's Saturday. You're free." Later, I received a follow-up text: "Oh shoot. The premiere is today. I hope you can make it in time." I got it about five minutes after I'd taken my seat beside her in the theater.

The eccentric Carl Binder and my writing partner Paul Mullie.
Producers Carl Binder and Paul Mullie grow increasingly anxious for the movie to start.
Actor David Blue (SGU's Eli Wallace) scopes the crowd prior to the screening.
Actor David Blue (SGU's Eli Wallace) scopes the crowd prior to the screening.
I look like one of those eccentric European fashion designers.  Zis seazun zebra iz in!
I look like one of those eccentric European fashion designers. Zis seazun zebra moccassins are een!
A candid shot of David Blue enjoying a little popcorn.
A candid shot of David Blue enjoying a little popcorn.
Show Creators/Executive Producers Robert Cooper and Brad Wright give a speech before the screening.  "The blue honda hatchback, license number 987 DFJ - you are parked in a fire lane.  You WILL be towed!"
Show Creators/Executive Producers Robert Cooper and Brad Wright give a speech before the screening. "The blue honda hatchback, license number 987 DFJ - you are parked in a fire lane. You WILL be towed!"
SGU Director Will Waring strikes a pose.  Then remembers too late he is camera shy.
SGU Director Will Waring strikes a pose. Then remembers too late he is camera shy.
Actor Brian J. Smith (SGU's Lieutenant Matthew Scott) intermissing at intermission.
Actor Brian J. Smith (SGU's Lieutenant Matthew Scott) intermissin' at intermission.
The lovely Kerry McDowall shows off her Irish beau Alan.  Do I sense a little magic in the air?  Oh, no, sorry.  I think that's flare from the black light.
The lovely Kerry McDowall shows off her Irish beau Alan. Do I sense a little magic in the air? Oh, no, sorry. I think that's flare from the black light.
Actor Jamil Walker Smith (SGU's Sgt. Ronald Greer) wonders whether I'm going to keep the camera after I'm done.
Actor Jamil Walker Smith (SGU's Sgt. Ronald Greer) wonders whether I'm going to keep the camera after I'm done.
The ever pleasant Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman (SGU's Airman Darren Becker) shows off his stylin' headwear.
The ever pleasant Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman (SGU's Airman Darren Becker) shows off his stylin' headwear.
VFX Supervisor Mark Savela supervises the crowd at intermission.
VFX Supervisor Mark Savela supervises the crowd at intermission.
Yowza!  Actress Elyse Levesque (SGU's Chloe Armstrong) reminds me of those beautiful starlets from the 30's and 40's.
Yowza! Actress Elyse Levesque (SGU's Chloe Armstrong) reminds me of those beautiful starlets from the 30's and 40's.
Director Andy Mikita and his better half, wife Candace.
Director Andy Mikita and his better half, wife Candace.

Actress Julia Benson (SGU's Lieutenant Vanessa James) and actor Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman (Airman Darren Becker)
Actress Julia Benson (SGU's Lieutenant Vanessa James) and actor Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman (Airman Darren Becker)
Actress Julia Benson (Lieutenant Vanessa James) with husband and fellow actor Peter Benson (playing himself).
Actress Julia Benson (Lieutenant Vanessa James) with husband and fellow actor Peter Benson (playing himself).
Exec. Producer Robert Cooper snacking it up before Air III.
Exec. Producer Robert Cooper snacking it up before Air III.
Actor Peter Kelamis (SGU's Adam Brody).  And rumored french bulldog owner.
Actor Peter Kelamis (SGU's Adam Brody). And rumored french bulldog owner.
The beautiful Ming-Na (SGU's Camile Wray) with hubby.
The beautiful Ming-Na (SGU's Camile Wray) with hubby.
Special Features Producer Ivon Bartok.  Hey, where's his camera?  Shouldn't he be getting all this for the DVD extras?
Special Features Producer Ivon Bartok. Hey, where's his camera? Shouldn't he be getting all this for the DVD extras?
Check out the hot couple!  Actress Alaina Huffman (SGU's Lieutenant Tamara Johansen) and husband John.
Check out the hot couple! Actress Alaina Huffman (SGU's Lieutenant Tamara Johansen) and husband John.
The lovely Jennifer Spence (SGU's Lisa Park).
The lovely Jennifer Spence (SGU's Lisa Park).
Actor David Blue let me post the first two goofy pics so long as I posted at least one good photo.  This one's going to be my desktop wallpaper.
Actor David Blue let me post the first two goofy pics so long as I posted at least one good photo. This one's going to be my desktop wallpaper.

Finally, as I was driving today, listening to the radio, I heard a radio advertisement for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in which they mentioned some upcoming performances,  among them Itzhak Perlman and Lang Lang.  Seriously!  Lang Lang!  Who wouldn’t pay to see a panda play the cello?  I can’t wait!

42 thoughts on “September 26, 2009: Six Days to the Stargate: Universe Premiere! A Sneak Peek for the Cast and Crew!

  1. Wearing shades…in a darkened theatre.

    Yep, definitely eccentric. 😛

    Some of the SGU folks have been tweeting about this over at Facebook…er, I mean, twitter. They loved it! I can’t wait to share in that experience (well, somewhat, since I’m watching it on my piddly 21-inch TV) in 6 days!!

    As for advertising the series, well, I’ve been increasing my references to Stargate among my fellow Physcists (to their amusement, as I can connect ANYTHING to Stargate), and I’ve continued adding “#SGU” at the end of every tweet. Best I can do, for now. A bunch of us are getting together the Thursday after next to watch the premiere on a projector screen. Hopefully that’ll convince anyone who didn’t tune in to the premier to tune in for its concluding 3rd part!

  2. David Blue looks as if he has lost some “weight”
    since filming the first few SGU episodes.

    …and now that I think about it….him losing some
    “weight” in real life might actually play into the new
    situations that his character finds himself to be in
    onboard the Destiny in the SGU storylines.

    It kind of makes me wonder…did David Blue
    actually “bulk up” *before* the start of filming
    the first few SGU episodes?
    Was this something that was planned ahead of
    time for the growth of his character?…or in this
    specific case…the “lessening” of his character?

  3. Great pics. Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, though… in one of my marketing classes last semester we did a case study on their marketing woes… from the 1980s. Apparently they got through those troubles…

  4. Yeah…thanks for the pictures! Glad a fun time was had by all! Can’t wait for Oct 2nd!

    Cheers

  5. Great pix! I’m sure I’m not the only one who wishes they had been there….

    I’m not positive, but I think Lang Lang was the panda that played at the Beijing opening ceremonies… or was that the one who sang? Wink!

    Lisa

  6. Looks like you all had waaay more fun than I did. The apartment blocks sewerage line backed up. Into my apartment. I’m still cleaning.

    but at least I still have the premiere of Stargate Universe to look forward to!!! (Oct 2!)

    Shaggygirl

  7. Great pics of everyone, thanks! Were you the only person sporting designer shades *inside* the theater? — Hey, I’ll bet your Milanese fashion-show look caught Will Waring off guard, so you could get a nice photo. — In the shot of Carl and Paul, Paul does a fairly convincing anxious look (or else, “Joe, they’re waiting for you to sit down!” look), while Carl appears uber-confident and tough. In fact, to me his expression is very like that of Special Agent Gibbs of NCIS. Maybe that’s my cue to quit watching reruns 3x per week – ya think, DiNozzo? – Oh, sorry, just recalling a fav line.

    Re: getting the word out, yesterday I dropped by the office of one of the docs here. It’s been a while since I last bugged him, so he was very congenial: “Come in, come in! Please, sit down and tell me how you’ve been.” Anyway, we chatted a bit, and I asked him what he watches on TV these days. When it was his turn to ask me the same, I talked about this good-looking new Syfy series called Stargate Universe. He just laughed, “You Americans and your science fiction!” (I don’t think it would’ve helped if I’d pointed out that most/many of the cast and crew are Canadians.) Then he went all psych on me, wanting to understand the appeal, etc. – No converts there, but the only metaphorical stone left unturned is the patient population. And given the patients with whom I work, that would be a major no-no.

    Thanks again for posting so many fun pics, and to all who graciously consented to the impromptu snaps.

    PS: Are you going to go to Itzhak Perlman’s concert? The man’s a legend. – Telling you what you already knew, right?

  8. Coucou Joseph =P

    ça va bien? Lol, comme je vous les dit, je ne peut prévenir que les fans de stargate de la sortir de sgu….car les autres ne pourront pas apprécier les épisodes à leurs juste valeurs si c’est en anglais mais surtout en streaming, je vais attendre la diffusion en France.

    Yahhh! Quel chance sur grand ecran ♥ Cela à du vous en mettre pleins la vu =) !! Merci pour toutes ces photos, je n’en retiendrais qu’une…c’elle d’un producteur qui met des lunnettes pas odinaire lol!

    Passez une bonne journée!
    Bisou!

  9. is it Ming-Na or Ming (middle name) Na?

    either way she and her husband look like such a great couple

  10. Hello Joe!
    Thanks for the pictures! 🙂

    I am a Hungarian pharmacist, so your SG:U calls united in me. But I don’t live in the USA, so I don’t count for the rating. 😉

    Good luck for the series!

    Ákos

  11. Hey Joe,

    Cast pictures, you are brilliant. Loved each and everyone, especially yours with those glasses (still fav Brian…hmmm, maybe David).

    Just makes me smile thinking of all you there enjoying the experience together. Wow, you are coming up on the end of the production season and some are seeing it for the first time.

    You of course I notice said you watched it several times before the screening. I will record and watch it several times too. Did I say record, that is illegal and I would never do such a thing. It is Syfy I will watch over and over.

    Thank you for the treat. All your hard work, I am touched by your talent and the gift you give to me. You once again, never disappoint.

    Best to you Joe,
    Cheryl 🙂

  12. Very nice pictures, and great captioning. One thing seriously missing though. The screaming, raving fans. what a wasted opportunity! A little advance notice and you might have had hordes of fans behind those silken cords(or police tape) while you and the other illminaries walked up a red(or faded pink) carpet. If enough fans couldn’t be rounded up in time, I’m sure some others might have been induced to join. Like, for instance, some anti-foie gras folks and maybe save-the-seaslug types. Then the media could have been positioned in a way that photos they took made the crowd look even larger, resulting in yet more of the precioius publicity. Oh, and I’m getting weird looks at my coworkers at this very moment as I announce Universe’s imopending premiere( this is the gang from the other station, not the folks I usually work with).
    On an unrelated topic, Joe the Icepick just doesn’t cut it. While your wit is certainly piercing, it’s just too hard to picture you trepanning someone like that. I’ve been pondering some other monikers. Maybe some others will throw in a few choices of your own. Certainly you deserve to be addressed as more than “Joe”, or even Mr. M. So, try these out. Mallozzi the Magnificent. Mallozzi the Munificent. Mallozzi the Maligned. Joseph and the Script of Many Colors. His Evil Warlord, Joe, Leader of the Pack, His Creative Geniusship, Mallozzi the Foie-Gras guy. Mallozzi the Vancouver High Gourmand, Mallozzi of the great show scripts, cool comic series, wonderous short stories, unparallelled blog postings, hilarious dog pictures, and all round cool dresser and ok guy.
    On that note, thanks for the fun post and now I’ll go slip off and take my meds…

  13. I’ve been looking pretty silly wearing them so I’m glad those zebra moccs I got for 2 bucks are finally going to be in style.

    Thx for the pix and agreed on Ming-Na
    DD

  14. Lovely pictures, everyone looks so great, happy and younglooking, in them and yes even that superfly behind those foster grants, haha. Maybe its your camera that is magic,(or the photog) it sure does take a lot of fantastic shots.
    That Ashleigh, shes good for you Joe, keeping you on your toes I bet. (and on your guard) How funny!
    I hope everyone enjoyed their performances as much as we will in just a couple days now.
    Is that an actual theatre downtown or is there one on your studio lot?

  15. Oubliez ma précédente question car je me suis rappeler avoir vu Carter en blonde dans un trailer de sgu.

    J’en ai une autre:
    Avez vous des informations concernant la diffusion en France des épisodes de sgu?

    Merci =)

  16. That is great about the premiere. That explains why you aren’t having a debut party. All of the cast/crew looked wonderful! Thank you for the pictures!!!!

    Tam

  17. Oh man! Six days and counting. I just finished my home theater collection. THX Ultra 2 receiver a 1080P Epson projector and high end polk audio speakers (newegg.com has great half off or more deals on occasion so I got about $4000 worth of equipment for under $2000 shipped). So this is exciting to get sci-fi HD (grr syfy) with the latest and greatest sound and picture visuals you guys can throw at me. Excited? You could say that.

    The neighbors wont know what hit ’em.

  18. Nice pictures, Joe! Now that you mention it, das, he does look rather like a villain from a bad James Bond movie… Anyway, I’m looking forward to SGU next week!

    And Lang Lang is a human, Ling Ling is a panda; but you already knew that and are just being silly.

  19. @Thornyrose: Get real, check out that photo with the shades…I think Malevolent Overlord or Joey the Icepick fit perfectly.

    HI JOEY! Great pics, all of us here should’ve been invited at the studio’s expense, don’t you think? Thanks for putting up with some of us…:)

  20. Your photos are just awesome! Makes the wait even more agonizing…but will be in the assigned recliner in front of TV for the premiere and the second showing as well.

    All distractions for Oct 2 have been cancelled, blanked out, or just ignored!

  21. Hi Mr M!!

    Got a text to my phone, to check out the blog. So, here I am in the Internet Cafe on a Sunday!
    Wow, great snaps of the cast/crew. Reminds me of the Continuum Cast and Crew Screening last year. Mr W looks so serious!!
    Glad all had a good time. The Twitter talk on it was super-positive.

    Totally hyped about the premier!!

    Best to all

    S’n’T

    PS: Will be making the usual Mama Mallozzi’s Friendship Cake (which has become a regular feature of Season premiers here). Our best to her and her recovery!

    @Carl Binder: Saw “Up” = Brilliant!

  22. Thanks for all the great pics Joe, I am stoked for the premiere this week. My wife has even given me permission to skip my son’s basketball practice to stay home and watch it! I’m thinking it’s for this week only, but we’ll see.

    Hey, Syfy had a marathon of SG-1 on Friday and for the first time in a very long time I watched Wormhole Extreme, and loved all of the cameos. Have you done any other cameos beyond asking about the donuts?

  23. @ Quade1: Ming Na’s full name is Ming Na Wen, so Ming Na is her first name.

    It’s an interesting thing with Chinese names, as I don’t think we have middle names per se. There is one word (or in Daniel Jackson’s terms, one pictograph) symbolizing the family/last name, and several other words that symbolize the given/first name. Usually “several” = 1 or 2. For instance, by Chinese name is Zhi Fang Gao (though in Chinese, you say the last name first, so it’s Gao Zhi Fang), with the first two words being my first name, and Gao being my last name.

    I hope that helps.

  24. @Deni. I’ll conceed Malelovent Overlord works well for Mr. M. But Joey the Icepick? Just don’t see it. WAAAAY too well dressed for that moniker. But I’m just trying to see what sort of nicknames we can come up with, for the fun of it. Besides, nothing says the man has to have only one title….

  25. Hey Joe,

    What would you recommend, Watch the SGU premiere next week or wait an extra week and watch all 3 parts of SGU’s “Air” in one row?

    Yes I know you guys want us to watch next week, But I’m curious if part 3 of “Air” is important enough to wait for (If you’re one of those people who can wait an extra week)

  26. Hi Joe,

    Just so you know, people from HUNGARY (as in I and many others) DO KNOW and are excited to see this new show. 🙂
    (now we just need a little push to get it on one of our channels here…)

    Good blog, it amazes me that you have time for that every day… What’s the secret?

    Cheers,
    Réka

  27. Nice collection of photos! thanks for posting 🙂 And yes, Ivon should have been filming it all. Bad bad Ivon 😉

  28. Nice pics- everyone seems to be having a great time and are not in the least camera-shy (except for Paul). Maybe you should re-think the shades- a little too slick for the “Icepick” look.

    @Thornyrose, Deni – someone came up with the “Blog Father” the other day. I kinda liked that one.

    Close to only five days left…..

  29. Hey Joe !

    Long time reading first time writting.
    I just wanted to tell you how much I love your sunglasses.
    You’re one of the classiest man ever !

    And I can’t wait to watch SGU, very exited me !!! (even if I don’t know when -or if- it will be aired in France :/)

    Have a good week 😉

  30. Hi Joe!

    Well, it’s not exactly a party, but we do have the tradition of launching a new Stargate season at our house with a big bowl of blue Jello. It’s unlikely the Destiny will be stocked with the ubiquitous blue powder, so I’m rather doubting that the dessert favored by USAF officers of two galaxies will be putting in appearance any time soon. Still…blue Jello and Stargate…they’re inseparable.

    And speaking of food…will Mr. Waring be continuing his pineapple tradition in SGU or are they too un-alien for the Universe universe?

    SBS

  31. Oh sweet! Thanks so much for ALL the awesome pictures! Umm, not sure if this was the intent of those first two pictures of David Blue, but I’ve kind of fallen in love with him…

  32. J’ai hate de voir les épisodes mais paceron t’il en france ???

    Merci pour tout ce que vous partagé avec les fan 🙂

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