Success! I finished my rewrite of The Hunt, finally nailing that tricky fourth act scene. I’ll re-read it sometime this weekend and put it out on Tuesday after which my entire week will be free to spin episode 20, the season finale, that Paul will probably be writing (unless the approaching rewrites prove too time-consuming in which case I’ll be doing the honors).
Yesterday, I gave you a sneak peek at one of the super secret sets in progress. That was Stage 6. Today, check out the even cooler super secret set in progress on Stage 5…
Intriguing, no?
I reminder that this month’s Book of the Month Club discussion fast approaches. If you’ve already secured your copies of the superhero-themed anthology, Masked, then finish up and start formulating your thoughts. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet – there’s still time! This is one discussion you won’t want to miss because, in addition to yours truly who will be fielding your questions on his contribution to the collection, other guests will include (schedule permitting): Paul Cornell, Gail Simone, James Maxey, Matthew Sturges, Marjorie M. Liu, Daryl Gregory, Mark Chadbourn and Lou Anders.
If you’re interested, editor Lou Anders and I discussed my story, “Downfall”, with Shaun Farrell over at Gateworld: http://www.gateworld.net/news/2010/09/joseph-mallozzi-breaks-into-print/
Mailbag:
DasNdanger writes: “I really wish you had waited until October for the Maskeddiscussion. I fear I won’t be finished now.”
Answer: Well, at the very least weigh in on the stories you have read. I’m sure Gail would love to hear from you.
JulieAloha writes: “Are they going to incorporate the spiral staircase into the set?”
Answer: Nope. That’s a leftover from the Atlantis set.
Sean D. writes: “Is SGU season 2 episode 18 entitled “Radio” or “Epilogue”?”
Answer: Radio has been renamed to the far more appropriate Epilogue.
link022 writes: “Is the project arcturus had been totally abandoned by the ancients ?
Have they taken their ressearch during their exile of pégase to resume this one of the beginning and finish it ?”
Answers: Don’t know. Probably.
pg15 writes: “No Gauntlet for the season finale? Wonder why that is. It’s a pretty sweet name.”
Answer: It IS a sweet title – but no longer applicable.
Major D. Davis writes: “When are you shooting for a release of the trailer? Will it be released onto MGM.com or this blog?”
Answer: I hope to have it online everywhere the week prior to our premiere.
Paul Moody writes: “I’m ashamed of you; what happened to the ‘trio of deserts’ or ‘one of each item from the menu’ as normally seems to be the case when I read of your culinary escapes in your blog each day?!”
Answer: I’m trying to get in shape for my Tokyo trip in December. The last thing I need is for me to grow out of my suits halfway through my two week stay.
Dodoalda writes: “1) Few days ago you mentioned Joel Goldsmith and his musical score for one of S2 episodes (I don’t remember, which one is that. Is Joel preparing new “previously on” theme like he did for S1.5, or it’s going to be the same music?
2) When does the episode inculuding SGA guests start filming?
3) Can we expect any new cast promotional photos for season 2?”
Answers: 1) Joel has come up with something new.
2) Next week. I think.
3) Unlikely.
chevron7 writes: ”
1.The production design of the alien creature reminded me of asabertooth tiger. Did they base the design on that?
2. I read an article where researchers designed a CAD system to study living and extinct organisms. Have you seen this?
3. We saw how Ashleigh was dressed, she looked very pretty….you did compliment her didn’t you? How were you dressed?
4. Is skipping dessert a first for you? I felt a rumble in the universe.
5. How have the other dogs reacted to Jelly’s new lease on life?
6. Care to share any good juicing recipes?
7. If the trailer is full of holy shit moments, what will we say holy shit to when it premieres? Oh and the super awesome news is that Aus are getting SGU only 3 days after the US.
8. AussieCon4, the World Science Fiction Convention is on at the moment. Anything you want?”
Answers: 1. Possibly. More of a questions for Production Designer James Robbins.
2. Nope.
3. I was dressed casual – jeans and a dress shirt. I think the cufflinks were a giveaway though.
4. I’ve cut down on desserts, limiting myself to one a day. For the time being.
5. The other dogs certainly find her more annoying since the stem cell treatment. A lot more yappy.
6. Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve juiced. I overdid it. Still, beets and ginger are a great start. Work your way up from there.
7. Oh, there are plenty of Holy Shit! moments this upcoming season to go around.
8. Thanks, I’m good.
Zoomeister writes: “Furthermore, how does that stack up to what we’ll see in season 2 of SGU?”
Answer: The Visual Effects for episode 3, Awakening, are probably the best we’ve done to date.
Randomness writes: “Any anime updates Joe?”
Answer: Nope. I haven’t been all that impressed with the last few titles I checked out. Watched the first two episodes of Eureka Seven. Meh.
Quade writes: “And what is a press junket? You just invite the media over to promote the show, talk to the cast?”
Answer: Pretty much, yeah.
anais33 a ecrit: “Si ce n’est pas déjà fait je vous conseille de lire “Stupeur et Tremblement”…on comprend tout de suite mieux.”
Reponse: Je l’ai déjà lu (le mois dernier) et vu le film. Maintenant, Akemi est entraine de le lire.
Nicholas T. writes: “Out of curiosity, do you all plan to have a big party for the season 2 opener?”
Answer: Nope. Why? Are you hosting one?
Deni writes: “Hi Joe, just curious, where was “Nightwalkers” filmed?”
Answer: I believe someone has already revealed the location was Steveston. Great place for fish ‘n chips!
Brian C. writes: “1. The main gun on destiny seemed kinda… lame. Can we assume that is suffering from disrepair will we see it repaired int the future for some space combat actions
2. The ancients surely packed more than two shuttles right?
3. The dome room that nearly swallowed Scott and co in the first episode, that looked pretty cool, any chance of seeing that again. It occurs to me that with some lighting that it would make an awesome arboretum.
4. Several not so spoiler friendly sites/shows have already shown [spoiler edit]. Will we get an answer to what happened to Dr Franklin now that we have core access.
Answers: 1. It’s not in disrepair but we have yet to really see it’s full potential.
2. If they did, they’re long gone.
3. Yep and you don’t say…
4. Stay tuned…
Am I first? Am I really?
Hi Joseph
Would love to be in on the discussion of Masked… got a review copy and love the collection of stories in it … willbr posting my thoughts soon… I am in Pacific coast time let and would dig knowing whe the book club is also what is next up…
Very intriguing photos. Looks like something fits into the thing that looks like the sun on the ground. Or, it could be some ancienty form of a hot tub time machine (well not really, but I just like saying that for MGM’s sake).
Another incredible thing happened tonight that I don’t mind being in the public forum. Putting on his shirt has been a goal at school for the past, what, 3 years? This year they were going to use a “template” to try to help him position it correctly on a surface so that he could put it on correctly. Tonight, I gave him a break (PBDad has been in Connecticut and Patrick’s been missing his dad). Instead of trying to make him put on his shirt first before helping him, I laid it out on the bed with the tag in the back. He picked it up and crumbled it all up, was going to try to stick his head through the top of it, but realized it was wrong, turned it around so that he had the bottom opening at his hands so he could pull it to his head. He stopped for a good 30 seconds. I said, “You’ve got it! You’ve got it! He got annoyed with me for a second (I suppose he was just needing time to think for a moment and didn’t appreciate my cheerleading moment interrupting his thought processes), then he pulled it over his head and pulled it down. Granted it was backwards but WHO CARES! It stays on backwards. Now we’ve been working with him at home these past 3 years trying to get that shirt on him as well with no success because home program and school programs were dyssynchronous. In 15 school days, he put on his shirt by himself. The secret? The teaching techniques and the approach and that we are both approaching it with the same mindset. This is nothing. You should hear about the leaps in his communication that happened the first week (gosh, I feel like Joe letting out little tidbits of SGU as teasers).
Thanks guys for caring so much.
1. As of answering this question, how many episodes have completed scripts?
2. How many episodes are in post production?
3. Are those Blueberry Aliens the only race that’s been interested in Destiny or have others just ignored it?
Uh yup.
Hi Joe!
So can ya help us play the guessing game with the teaser photos of the SGU sets? Like, 3 guesses per set? 🙂
3 guesses for Stage 6 with the ceiling thing:
1. Is it part of Destiny?
2. Is the cylindrical thing in the middle going to have pretty shiny lights?
3. Is the thing in the middle going to be a vending machine full of Ancient candy?
3 guesses for Stage 5 with the circle thing with 4 lines in the floor:
1. Is it part of Destiny?
2. Is the circle thing that will go in the middle going to have a spinning or rotating motion to it?
3. Is the stage Rush’s private lavatory and is the circle thing in the middle going to be his personal commode?
😉
Sean D.
Heya PBMom…great tidbit.
Cool, now we get “leaks” from 2 sources! And, both are very much appreciated.
Thanks for sharing. And, appropriateness to share being your decision, PLEASE ma’am, may we have more?
Ive noticed based on some of the exterior of the Destiny, that there are 3 shuttle docking areas. And since 1 was missing in Air Part 3 when the camera zooms out from Matt’s room at the end. I would hazard a guess that it was either destroyed, or it was flown away… Will we find out what happened to the 3rd shuttle?
Looks like an engine room!
Bonjour Joseph.
Les sets sont très beaux, j’adore.
Sur un forum on s’est posé une question hier:
Quelle est la taille du Destiny ? Si vous le savez, pouvez-vous me le dire ? Ou bien alors, pouvez-vous demander à quelqu’un qui le sait lorsque vous passez dans les studios ?
Merci d’avance et bonne journée Joseph.
@Kevin – the first shuttle was lost in Air Part 3. The second damaged shuttle was left with the people who decided to stay on the artificial planet in Hope and the third and the only one fully functioning is still on board the Destiny.
Unless there are more docking areas hidden somewhere else?
the priors of oris used stargate to go to our galaxy
Was it due to their powers ?
Did they use a power source like ZPM ?
There is a big difference of size between a supergate and a stargate.
Is it a problem if we send a traveler without ship by this one to contact a stargate ?
Why atlantis would vaporize if we used the engine with whirlpool?
Is it possible to mitigate this problem?
hey Joe, is this a scene from SGU season 2? lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E19D_-h9MIo
for those sets, i dont know, looks interesting but im not one of those people who wants the show to be about progressing from one destiny room to the next.
anyway holy bananas, i met jim lee today
@ PBMom – Yay! Patrick! (I don’t think he’ll mind having a secret cheerleading section on the interwebs. 😉 ).
@ Joe – I think I burned Gail out over that little Ragdoll obsession of mine. 😛 I really have to learn not to be so excitable and bouncy (i.e. obnoxiously overbearing) when I get interested in stuff. Why can’t I just be cool about it all? Why can’t I just say, ‘I really got into such-and-such a character…a really intriguing guy’…and just leave it at that? Why do I have to put in the Woots! and the Guhs! and the Hawts!?? Why do I have to go on about sexy fingers or lovely long locks or beautiful eyebrow-challenged faces??! Ugh. I hate it when I can’t contain myself…but I only realize that I can’t contain myself AFTER I hit the submit button…HEY! did you know if you google ‘button’, the first images/descriptions that come up are not for the buttons on clothes, but for buttons on the web, like submit buttons and stuff? Isn’t it weird that people now relate the word ‘button’ more with the internet than with the things that’ve held our clothes together for the last 5000 years?? I wonder if buttons on clothes will ever become obsolete? Will they all be replaced by zippers, or snaps, or velcro, or some futuristic fastener not yet invented? Makes you wonder what will become of the humble, underappreciated button, doesn’t it? And whatever happened to corset laces?? They’ve been replaced by hooks…little angry hooks that you only find on underclothes, of all freakin’ places. Ever have one of those things on your bra get bent out of shape, only to dig into your back all day like The Tingler on Vincent Price’s spine??
WHERE THE HELL WAS I??!!
Anyway…I’ll see what I can do, Joe, but hopefully I’m getting Villains United in the mail today (if my comic book order is on time), and…ya know…uh…it has Ragdoll in it (WOOT! GUH…he’s SO HAWT!!!), so no promises. 😉
das
I always like the behind-the-scenes stuff. They really give you an appreciation of how much work, by how many people, goes into what you see.
Do you all have your own lumber yard? That is a lot of wood there, great pictures, appreciate you sharing some more of the behind the scenes show magic. Such a wonderful group of talented artists.
@pbmom, great news, another step forward. we take for granted alot that comes easy for most. a good day.
@das, good to hear storm not headed for u all. in FL, we never know, glad its missing us, will send rain your direction if you really want. haven’t seen it for a couple days here. but when I do…
Dave’s Fish & Chips, where a scene in Nightwalkers was filmed, has yummy fish and I don’t even really like the stuff! Could possibly have been the 3 hour tour I’d just taken. Sought out J pod, made famous in Free Willy. Granola bars only go so far.
Well…. I know this was last week but ive been meaning to post thoughts here sooo..
Chicago Con was AWESOME. I got to meet all the SGU stars, have a photo op with them, chat with them, meet Mrs. Sherry, meet Michael Hinman, meet Chad Colvin from gateworld, meet Dan Shea and ride on the same shuttle to the airport (I actually got to have a cool conversation with him.. really funny guy) and meet MANY MANY awesome fellow SG fans(and campaigners too). Quite a few people I met knew about the campaign. It was quite cool.
Also the highlight of the convention was helping out with the auction for charity. Right before the auction started I went up to Adam (the guy who was running the con) to thank him for something he did earlier(the SGU discussion) and then out of the blue he’s like…. ” You wanna help out with the con? I was like.. HELL YES!
All in all I got to spend about an hour on stage helping auction autographs and posters in front of hundreds of people. One poster I got to hold while it was being auctioned was this GIANT signed poster of the WRAITH QUEEN AND TODD!… It must have been 6-7 feet tall. The minute I saw it I thought of you @*Das* 🙂
I was tempted to buy it for you, but it was a little outside my budget. 😉
I also got to hold numerous props from the show like mission report files, team patches from SG-1 and SGA, and get this.. I got to hold one of the Puddle Jumper Control Crystals. I swear.. it was the most intense geekgasm ive ever had im my life. 🙂
@das
Also.. the giant wraith poster I was talking above sold for like 100 bucks… most other posters sold for like 200… you should totally go next year. 🙂
Looks like the bridge to me, although I’m intrigued that we may be seeing it (whatever the set turns out to be) from the outside (spacesuit visitation?!).
Looking good, Joe, keep up the good work, can’t wait for when SGU returns, the cast certainly seemed excited by what was in store for season 2 when I met them at the Creation Con this April (although they remained annoyingly mute when it came to details… you’ll have to have words with them about that!).
Sooo do you think those guys could manage to build me a deck? *wry giggle*
Kymm
I’m wondering about the chessboard on the wall. Rush has really gone over the top with that, it’s just a tad big for the little pieces he was carving.
Coucou =)!! ça va bien,?
Moi super, j’ai passé une journée inoubliable avec ma meilleur amie!!…là j’ai un petit coup de déprime car le jour “J” approche et je vais quitter tout mes proches…
Merci de m’avoir répondu, je ne savai que vous l’avier lu…il faudra que vous me dites ce qu’en a pensée Akemi:)
En ce moment j’essaye de lire “Le visage de dieux” mais je n’ai pas grande motivation..
Bon week end!
A demain,
bisou =)
I said
Q. The dome room that nearly swallowed Scott and co in the first episode, that looked pretty cool, any chance of seeing that again. It occurs to me that with some lighting that it would make an awesome arboretum.
Joe Said
A. Yep and you don’t say…
Pleeeeease dont let this be a red herring. Im mean they could take whole plants from different plannets and have them growing. Oooh and then that could cause a mcguffin for an episode, like two plants interact and make people crazy or something.
Anyways thanks for answering that. Your Awesome!
Well first I would like to say that the sets are looking fantastic as always. And thanks for taking some pictures for us because we are all anxiously awaiting the SGU premiere and that helps somewhat! 😀
I have a question about One of Atlantis’s episodes.. “The Prodigal” Before the gate’s shield is lowered they say that it’s “Major Nelson’s IDC” How was Michael able to find out an IDC let alone get a hold of a IDC input device? Even if he somehow had the device (possibly from an earlier encounter) that still doesn’t explain how he knew Major Nelson’s code.. And even if he did somehow know the code he would have to know for sure that the team was off world otherwise it would be a dead give away and they would just change the code. Also while he was able to “borrow” the jumper, (As he said “The ship I borrowed from your people. It has provided me with a wealth of information and technology and the key to infiltrating this base.”) the jumper have nothing to do with IDC’s so it’s not as if it would be in a log. So that would leave me to believe that he somehow located Major Nelson’s team and managed to get the IDC from him. How was he able to locate them in the first place?
The last super secret set pic of the layout of something.. Is it all one room on the Destiny or several?
Jeeze, either I haven’t been in stage 6 for a while, or our construction department is REALLY fast. ‘think I’ll go for a walk on Tuesday…..
Hey Joe
Question for mail bag
I have a theory
lets say someone goes into a gate with no point of exit (other gate might be locked out/temporarily unavailable/destroyed), we know the gate will store him in a buffer right? so when that other gate becomes available/rebuilt and somebody else dials and our hero comes out through the other end, will he age? or is this a form of stasis using gate travel?
also I persuade you please dont give up on Eureka Seven, admittedly I fell asleep watching the first 4 episodes, but it really does pick up after that, I was expecting Gundam type fan service action but I got an emotional character driven science fiction story.
Trust me you’ll love it Joe
A person I know just refuses to accept that the 1994 Stargate movie is separate from the current Stargate franchise. Because you’re someone involved with the franchise, could you convince him otherwise?