Today’s bento breakfast, compliments of Akemi. It gave me the much-needed energy I needed to watch the dailies from the European shoot while listening to tracks upon tracks of potential music for our new show, Transporter: The Series. Some truly amazing footage coming in from Berlin and Nice. Fantastic work on the part of our European crew led by Camille Delamarre and Stephane Leloutre, with Exec. Producer Klaus Zimmerman overseeing the action. Grab a sneak peek (and brush up on your French) by checking out the video…
And the accompanying article: http://www.nicematin.com/article/cinema/tournage-course-poursuite-sur-la-promenade-des-anglais
Speaking of interesting articles, I received the following from former Stargate Production Coordinator Tanja Balic: http://blogs.forbes.com/michaelhumphrey/2011/06/13/dude-and-50k-friends-serious-about-saving-stargate-universe/
Can’t tell you how touching it is to read that fan efforts are still ongoing despite what most (myself included) consider very long odds. According to Tanja, half of the FX stage (that once held the village and hive ship sets) is filled with stuff from the shows. I believe there will be a public sale of items this Friday and Saturday. Sad, sad, sad. 🙁
Back on the Transporter front – today, I continued work on the rewrite of my second episode. Also, got together with rest of the writing team to discuss: Frank’s watch (are we going with the Panerai from the movies?), spinning and breaking the final three episodes, and the fact that we could save ourselves a lot of time and energy by just casting Carl Binder as Dieter the mechanic. He’d be perfect!
A little bit of a panic over on the neighboring Little Mosque on the Prairie production offices when a french bulldog named Norman went missing this afternoon. A search team was organized and I was just about to head out myself when I received word that, happily, Norman had been found safe and sound, in the building, sleeping under someone’s chair. Whew! Reminds of the time we first got Jelly. She was so tiny that, when Fondy and I came back from a night out and couldn’t find her, we initially assumed that one of the cats had eaten her. After a thorough search of the premises (and several dirty looks at the feline onlookers) we eventually found Jelly curled up in the lining of the underside of the living room couch. The incident turned out to be a hint of what was to come. I can’t tell you how many times we panicked, assuming Jelly had somehow escaped and was running wild in the neighborhood, only to discover her tucked away in the back of a closet, snoozing away, oblivious to the pandemonium.
Off to dinner with Alexander and Sarah tonight for a multicultural double-date that will see representatives from France, Japan, Germany, and Canada in attendance. And we’re going out for Italian!
Any word on Rob or Brad popping in for some questions?
Have we mentioned before that Lou Anders, editor of the famed MASKED anthology, is a Guest of Honor at ArmadilloCon, August, Austin, TX, USA?
http://www.armadillocon.org/
So sad about the Liquidation Sale. Here’s an article with the flyer from the auction house:
http://www.cinemaspy.com/entertainment-news/stargate-goes-up-for-sale-in-pieces-8506/
Loved the breakfast picture and the video. I think I’m going to encourage my homeschooled high schooler (who will be in 9th grade in the fall) to study French as his foreign language. Then I can study it with him and actually understand the videos you send out from the European locations. 🙂
Hope you have a great dinner!!
Wish I could edit my first post, but here’s another Stargate related item:
Carter and McKay made it onto Phil Plait’s “Astronomer: 7 TV scientists that even real scientists approve of” list at Blastr. (“Phil Plait is an astronomer and major sci-fi geek. He writes the Bad Astronomy Blog for Discover Magazine and is also the host of the Discovery Channel’s science show “Phil Plait’s Bad Universe.”)
http://blastr.com/2011/06/a-scientistss-top-7-favor.php?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
As a member of the save SGU page it’s great that producers such as yourself can see the love we held for your shows. I have just started watching SG1 from the beginning again for the wife as she loved Atlantis and SGU. Alas the poor save SGU Facebook group has been hijacked by a hacker with terrible English and the original founder cannot retrieve the page and is getting no help from Facebook themselves. Also all efforts thought up by the creator of the page were sporadic and other groups were doing other things so not enough of a combined effort.
Sad news about the prop and set piece auction. Syfy emailed registered members to option out key pieces such as SG1 offworld gates (full size) which I found rather sad as they obviously want to reap as much from it as possible and getting a recovery is even harder when they need to rebuild sets.
Loving the transporter footage and info by the way; I wait with baited breath for the pilot!
Yes, it was indeed inspiring to have the SAVE Stargate Universe Facebook site (and effort) written up in such a large and prestigious place as Forbes. Thanks for posting the link to the informative article! I joined the Save SGU page a while ago and enjoy witnessing the energy, passion and commitment of die-hard fans, who will NOT surrender.
Long live Stargate!
Huzzah —
2cats
Off to dinner with Alexander and Sarah tonight for a multicultural double-date that will see representatives from France, Japan, Germany, and Canada in attendance. And we’re going out for Italian!
sounds like a lunch at the UN. can’t wait to hear about the menu.
@Bailey
Ironically 4 of those comments on your link sum up how I feel about the Stargate props etc being sold off, but I don’t use that kind of language, in order, first one being No way, next one being thats *insert word here*, then the other being *Insert bad word here* shame, and lastly the *bad word here* Syfy. It’s like those commenters saw my emotions from reading that LOL
Destiny was a beautiful set, It’s ridiculus that the whole lot is being auctioned off and sold, it makes a mockery of the Stargate name and the shows.
SGU deserved a Season 3, and no doubt had it had one, Joe would be teasing everyone with Season 3 tidbits instead of Transporter ones 😛
Somehow, it just tickles me to imagine Transporter the series filming next door to Little Mosque on the Praire. I was gifted with 3 seasons of dvds of the latter, and it is just brings evil thoughts about crossover stories…
Definitely sad to think of props and such from SGU going up for auction. Sadder that I have neither time nor space to purchase them to save. If the local tractor museum ever closes, their floor space would make a nice spot for the start of a Sci Fi museum. Perhaps Bill Gates could be talked into buying everything and setting up such an establishment..
ah well. Enjoying the Bento designs, and appreciate you sharing. Thanks as always for taking the time to post for us.
Hey joe look at firefly the fans efforts got that show made into a major motion picture aka serenity well see what happens with sgu let’s cross our fingers
Joe, il FAUT engager la petite grand-mère. Elle serait formidable.
Je la vois très bien la mamie avec une machine gun. tatatatata
Personne ne verra ca venir. Cela ferait un effet de surprise TOTAL!.
Mieux, vous pourriez écrire une historie ou mamie est un AGENT DOUBLE !
Double surprise LOL
Sérieusement, c’est vraiment cool que la ville de Nice soit aussi accueillante.
Et alors, y avez vous essayé la nourriture de là-bas ? Un gourmet comme vous, ca doit être le paradis le sud de la France!
And I can’t wait to see that Transporter show. When is it starting again ? Beginning of 2012?
take care.
Sad about the props but we knew it was coming. Sad too I don’t have enough money to buy any of it!
Series looks fun. Breakfast delightful.
LOL on the cats eating Jelly. My sister came home to a GIANT glob of thrown up hair. She thought the Rottie had eaten and thrown up the cat. LOL they were in a panic til they found her. The Rottie had a serious carpet licking issue. They put her on catlax, which seems appropriate since much of the hair she licked was cat hair, evidently.
Akemi’s breakfast’s are getting more and more realistic all the time. Pretty soon they will bark at you when you open the lid.
La vielle dame me souviens de ma mere. Now I’ll be worrying if she get home okay, and if she needs help getting her groceries. The shoot looks just like movies, very cool production values. No French Riviera for the writers?
Glad to see fans fighting for SGU if only to make sure that Syfy continues to air Syfy shows. It’s worrisome to see the network go all bland and turn its back on the fans.
All right. Little translation of the video for the fun:
************
First the journalist says that during last Tuesday morning a part of Nice was very animated. A part of traffic jam and a part of Movie shooting cars stunts like in a Hollywood movie (understand blockbuster)
the reason for the noise: the production of the Transporter series.
Bernard Bouyges explains why they chose that location.
Bouygues says:
We wanted to keep a link between the 3 movies and the series.
So a geographic link and a character link “we have one of the main actors of the movie played by Francois Berléan in the role of Tarconi who was also in the movie. So we wanted to remain linked to the 3 movies made before.
The scenes shooting is very ‘heavy’. We had to reserve ‘la promenade des anglais’ (decks and road zone on Nice’s sea shores) a very long time in advance.
We have to say that Nice city has been extremely welcoming and helped us a lot in the shooting of the series.”
Journalist says that the series shooting attracted a lot of curious people come to see the cars speeding in the streets.
Grandma talks:
“Its a lot of fun, voilà. And its a super nice distraction”
Woman with sunglasses:
“I find this formidable. We don’t see this every day. Its super.”
Man with cap:
“Personally, it doesn’t bother me at all. I am just a pedestrian looking at cars. I am retired… It’s a nice distraction in the neighborhood. Its fun, I like it.
Same grandma talks again:
“OMG I am too old for that s***. I am just looking. I am not at all into car races”
Journalist says:
Stunts are planned by the millimeters by Michel Julienne, son of Remi Julienne, used to do car stunts in the South of France, and very aware of the disturbance created by blocking la promenade des anglais for a full day.
Michel Julienne:
It’s an extraordinary luxury. And one more time, I would like to apologize to the Nicois (inhabitants of the city Nice) we may be bothering with the traffic jams and blockades. If only they could know how safe and comfortable the scenes shooting this blockades allow us to be, its fabulous.
Bouygues says:
To the Nicois, we tell them a big thank you. Nice Matin (newspaper) warned the Nicois of the troubles the series shooting may create. But we hope that in compensation, we will be rendering a good image of the city Nice around the world. 80 countries will be seeing Nice through that new series.
***********
That’s it for the video. You can Google translate the article 🙂
Joe, let me know if you need some stuffs translated (videos or whatever).
I’ll be honored to help.
Cheers
Guillaume
wow, even the original stargate has been sold off. i thought that might have been kept just for future reboot value.
http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/could+part+universe+Stargate+props+auction/4953064/story.html?cid=megadrop_story
Coucou !! 🙂 comment allez vous??!! Moi très bien!!
Yahhhh merci pour cette video, elle est super! je crois bien que cette expérience va vous permettre d’améliorer votre français! 🙂
Vous devez regretter de ne pas être sur un tournage pareil, plage, soleil, cocotier..le rêve :)!!
je suis tellement impatiente de vous voir!
Gros bisous,
Anaid
I was in Nice last year, beautiful city! Jo you were in France?
Strasbourg is also very pretty lol !
Am loving Akemi’s Bento Boxes, they’re fabulous! She’s a talented girl.
With the liquidation sale of the Stargate Universe’s set does any glimmer of hope remaining for the 50,000 or so fans finish?
the dude who hacked it is much more interesting than the other dude.
Yes we finally got some rain last night and this morning,(Fl) so now I can ignore that call from the water company checking on my higher than normal water usage or if I have a leak.
—Nice bento box Akemi, Joe you are so spoiled. This entry had food pictures, dog story and a promise of more food stories, How was the dinner?, don’t forget pictures. Have a wonderful day!!
Sad about Vancouver. I need new glasses, I like yours. Thanks for the deleted scenes. Nice to hear the show is coming along. Sad about Stargate auctions.
DD
To paraphrase Teal’c: “I do not believe that the Cannucks of Vancouver are the superior warriors.”
Glad to see other fans are also still passionate about the SG franchise. 🙂 I support any rational movement to promote or “save” Stargate. I know I’ll be watching the DVDs for many years to come.
*puts on negative cap* I’m not on that Facebook page cuz @TheDudeDean has too many Twitter sockpuppets, was trying to use the Save Stargate campaign to win a Shorty Award for himself, and I didn’t care for his treatment of other fans a few months back.
*takes off negative cap* Luckily, he sounded pretty normal in the Forbes interview.
—
In regards to disappearing puppies, our lab, Simon, went missing when he was a tiny puppy. We found him sound asleep in the dirty clothes bin. (So adorable!) Less adorable was his attachment to my hubby’s socks, which he ate several times in his first couple of years.
Hope everyone is OK in Vancouver!
AV eddy
well maybe we can all learn something from this. that “hacker” guy probably cracked the password. So if your password is 1234 or an actual word or phrase then you should change it into a really long gibberish with different characters, or else any kid can hack it. like this: gkoWb$lL#&!opabnfsAHyyo@*2Gsh see that one is really easy to remember and will keep your pages hacker proof unless the hacker is a dedicated pro. oh and dont use same password with other sites you register.
The hacker seems indonsian, here he is: http://www.facebook.com/itsmesepul
now spam his page!
if facebook is letting a whole group page get hacked and do nothing about it, what do you think they will do if your profile page gets hacked?? lol
personally i dont condone what hackers do and they have been really a pain ever since wikileaks and then lulzsec going after game companies, im sure they will get bored of that and go for another target that will affect us. So there is a hacking craze at the moment. The only way this will end is by gov policing the internet, there is no other way.
on second thought i dont think you can brute force facebook and the guy calls himself YuLoX which leads to here http://www.facebook.com/YuLoX or that guy http://www.facebook.com/boss.jan
would be cool for someone to hack it back although I cant imagine someone pulling off something simple like that against another hacker.
Those Bento breakfast are getting more complex. I’m wowed!
So dogs do the hiding thing too, huh? I thought it was just cats. Dogs are so eager to please. I’m surprised.
@AV eddy
Speaking of that, I don’t think thats you being negative too, I think the same, however any Stargate campaign to save it needs a vocal person to pretty much get in everyones faces such as what he’s been doing, so in other words, his own personal gains could end up helping the people he’s campaigning to save, so I have no objections personally.
That said, hes done what most campaigns havent done and has actually spoken with Engler/Syfy over the phone.
At this stage there is no point campaigning anymore, as this incarnation of Stargate is currently dead, and all hope really should be on the next Stargate series, which I think, judging by the sale of props etc will be a reboot.
Hi Joe something just hit me in sga “enemy at the gate” when Atlantis on route to Earth suddenly jumps out of hyperspace at the end of Pegasus Galaxy maybe was this a safeguard built into the hyperdrive to prevent Atlantis leaving the Pegasus Galaxy instead of tripping the self-destruct mechanism which would have featured in the next story?
Now I know what people are talking about on here, just saw the SaveSGU page, what a load of garbage. Why hasn’t facebook suspended that page, if someone has hacked it, it should be suspended and returned to the rightful owner.
All I can say is that I guess I’ll just never see eye to eye with those guys at Save SGU.
@Randomness – I see what you’re saying.
From my experiences, which are not universal (or MGM…hee hee), it can feel good if a fan who “represents” a large number of fans can express the general fan opinion to The Powers That Be. I don’t know if it actually makes a damn bit of difference, but sometimes thinking we were heard makes us feel better.
I’ve never found that the “fan leaders” who’ve ultimately shown they are in it for themselves have ever helped fandom in general or any campaigns they “lead,” but YMMV.
I agree that any campaigns to save SGU are moot, which makes me rather sad. I really would’ve loved a third season – having just watched S2 (except for the LAST ep – that’s this weekend!) – the show was really taking off, heading right towards awesomeness.
eddy
@AV eddy
Basically, at this point just let the guy think he’s god and let him get on with what he’s doing, if anything no one with a shred of intelligence actually thinks he’s doing it all for the fandom, so if what he’s doing actually helps then simply put, ignore him and move on, and enjoy any Stargate that may come out of the situation.
I know it sounds erm cruel but just dont take him seriously and just let him do the work for you. lol
I’m saying this because of the way he acted months ago towards the fans, to me, he isnt someone worth respecting.
More than a month after the conclusion of SGU I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you and to the cast & crew of all three shows for entertaining and enriching me through 2/3 of my life.
I was intrigued by the grandiose notion of an archaic ship hurling towards the edge of the universe as well as by the hidden message, and really enjoyed the perfect, meticulous execution of the story. I often feel the insignificance of my existence in the grand scheme of things when watching/reading about space, therefore it was particularly depressing to be left behind by Destiny, not seeing her fulfil the mission (the shutdown and its soundtrack mirroring the series premiere was really touching). When Rush was worried about missing a piece of the puzzle while in FTL, were you perhaps referring to the structure of dark matter underlying the void of the universe? I hope someday it will be revealed in some way, shape or form.
By the way were you aware of this article discussing the premise of SGU and the theory of two physicists that there might very well be a pattern in the background radiation? Here it is: http://news.discovery.com/space/cosmic-rebirth-encoded-in-background-radiation.html
I also applaud the genius of Joel Goldsmith. A while ago I read in a post that you would e-mail him regarding the possibility of releasing a soundtrack. Frankly I have some catching up to do reading your blog, but I hope there are some good news in this department. Although I wasn’t a big fan of the SG1 and SGA soundtracks, the scores in SGU really got to me. For this reason Simeon’s rampage with its cruel and unforgiving musical and cinematographic beat, the rush of Greer and Scott at the end of Air (3), the subtle yet sinister score while Rush implements his plan in Divided, and of course the beginning of Air (1) and the ending of Gauntlet are to remain my all-time favorites.
I am also looking forward to the Transporter series, and, as I’m Hungarian-born, particularly to the performance of Ms Osvárt. Music-wise some high-tempo electronic music mixed with some orchestra might work during the action sequences. You should check out some tracks from Hybrid, and perhaps the work of Jesper Kyd in the Hitman videogame series.
All in all, thanks again for years of quality entertainment!
Joseph, I’m going to keep the fight alive, despite the one of my assistant admins being hacked and some personal set backs. Sometime today we should hit 60,000 fans.
If Spyglass/MGM ever sort out their affairs and see the light on the Stargate Franchise, I hope everyone can return.
Honestly I think the second half of the second season was your guy’s best work.