Joseph Mallozzi's Blog, page 237

May 1, 2019: Week’s Best Comic Book Covers!

These were my faves…

Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History #3 (cover art by Gerardo Zaffino)

Green Lantern #7 (cover art by Steve Oliff, Liam Sharp)

Harley Quinn #61 (cover art by Guillem March, Tomeu Morey, Arif Prianto)

Hashtag Danger #1 (cover art by Richard Williams)

Justice League #23 (cover art by Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey, Alejandro Sanchez)

Transformers #4 (cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher)

So, which were your favorites?

April 30, 2019: This entry with 200% more bunnies!

Well, well, well.  If it isn’t one of my all-time favorite editors, Nicholas Wong (he of such amazing Dark Matter episodes as: My Final Gift To You, Isn’t That A Paradox, One Last Card To Play, and It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This).  And look! In honor of our first official producer’s cut sit-down on this new show, he wore his pug-themed shirt.

It’s always a pleasure collaborating with Nick who has done great work on our first two episodes.  We’re still a ways from an actual finished with footage still to be shot, visual effects to be finished, and scenes to be scored and mixed, but it’s slowly coming together.

Whenever there’s a whiteboard in the area, even if it’s not my office (Okay. ESPECIALLY if it’s not my office.) I’m always to jot something down, just to see if anyone notices down the line.  Story Editor Sam Godfrey, who sat in on yesterday’s edit, snapped one of my latest inspired contributions…

Boy, I’m going to feel guilty if this is eventually used as evidence in Nick’s murder trial.

What’s in the box?  What’s in the f&%$ing box?!!!  Well, if you must know, it’s an injured rabbit Mean Jean Brophey found on her way in to work this morning.  We contacted the Toronto Wildlife Centre where we had one of our drivers drop him off.  No news on the little guy’s condition yet, but the entire crew is anxiously awaiting an update.

Hey, speaking of bunnies, check out this little in-show children’s story (words by Sam Godfrey, pictures by Roxanne Borris) sitting in props…

What kind of final act Deus Ex Machina is this???  Where is our protagonists’s agency?!  The Death of Dreams?  The Crossing of the Third Threshold?  The Catharsis and Resurrection?!

April 29, 2019: Toys, mom, and Sheppard as Iron Man!

To those of you asking whether I managed to take some time off from writing this weekend – the answer is “Yes!”.  I set aside my laptop for a few hours on Saturday so that I could clear out my storage locker, moving my toys into the spare bedroom.  And by “toys” you’re no doubt assuming some manly tools or cool tech – but no.  I’m am literally referring to TOYS –

Note they’re almost all super-villains.

This past Christmas, my mother wondered whether I had gotten around to purchasing a spare bedroom for the guest room.  When I told her I had not – and wasn’t planning to – she was very disappointed.  What if she came to town?  =Where would she stay?  I informed her that we’re right next to one of Toronto’s best hotels and that I would happily put her up if she ever decided to visit.  THAT did not go over well.  She was offended.

Mom: Whenever you come to town, you prefer to stay here with me instead of at some hotel.

Me: No, I’d actually prefer to stay at a hotel.

Mom: You don’t mean that.

I don’t know.  It’s an old-fashioned European thing I’m thinking.  But I don’t want to seem like an ungrateful ingrate.  So maybe we can find a compromise.  I can continue to use my guest room for storage and just find a bed slim enough to slide in here –

What’s slightly smaller than a single?

Today, I leave you with another page from the Stargate: Extinction script, and one of my favorite scenes in the planned movie – Sheppard does Iron Man!

April 28, 2019: Suji Sunday! With Special Guest Star – Lulu!

Snoozy.

Sushi select.

See?  This is what happens when I leave my credit card unattended.  She goes shopping at Soma.

Out on her fancy walk.

Lulu shatters kale chips!

April 27, 2019: Aaaah, time to relax. Sort of.

I’m usually in for call, our first blocking of the day, which is scheduled for 7:30 a.m., meaning I’m up at 6:00 a.m. every morning.  We run a pretty tight ship, 12 hour days including lunch, so I’m often home by 8:00 p.m. (a very reasonable hour given my line of work) which gives me time to say hello to Akemi and the dogs, shower, deal with any issues on the home front, and then be in bed for 10:00 p.m. where I’ll usually read, view, rewrite, or provide notes in preparation for the next day.

Which is why the weekend is such a nice change of pace.  I get to sleep in, spend time with Akemi and the dogs, go out for lunch, do some shopping, and – do production passes on scripts for Episodes 107 and 108, revise the script for 109, plot out the season finale, and review cuts of Episodes 101 and 102 in advance of Monday’s session with editor Nick Wong.  Sooooooo relaxing.

Hey, if you’re not following me on twitter (@BaronDestructo), you’re missing out on a new daily feature: #ThisDayInSupervillainHistory…

Educational AND entertainment.  That’s edutainment right there.

So that Stargate: Atlantis movie would have had some pretty amazing visual effects sequences.  Like, for instance, the one described on this here:

Oh, hey, I hear Rick and Amanda were at a con today where both expressed their support for a possible Stargate reunion miniseries.  Time to get the band back together!  Whaddya say?

April 26, 2019: Weird Day! Stargate drop!

Well, today has the distinction of being the weirdest day of the year so far. While I really can’t go into the reasons why it’s been so weird, suffice it to say I’d feel safer just going straight to bed. But I have a late dinner meeting to attend – and a blog entry to publish!

So, I’ll keep it short, sweet and Stargatey with this awesome BTS drop.

First a peek at yet another assortment of behind the scenes footage making its way to MGM (and, eventually, your screens):

Adria, the Ori, fights, explosions, RDA in a wave pool, and footage from the SG-1 series finale!

Second, here’s another page from the unproduced Stargate: Extinction script –

Time ship, he says!

I leave you to discuss amongst yourselves.

April 25, 2019: Ice cream and t.v. themes!

WHAT is this?  Why, it’s the ice cream truck – courtesy of Block #2 director Sudz Sutherland.  A special treat for the crew on his last day.

Story Editor Sam Godfrey goes twist with a chocolate dip.

Finally started work on the script for the season finale today.  Lots of balls in the air.  The trick, as always, is to dovetail the varied arcs and storylines in dramatic and satisfying fashion – and also leave the door open for a second season.  But once that’s done and I deliver Episode 10, it’s smooooooth sailing!

Hard to believe we’re a little over a third of the way through the season.  The first cuts are coming in, our second to last block starts official prep tomorrow, and discussion has begun on the opening title sequence.  Surprisingly, it looks like we may actually do a full and proper one for this show.   I’ve always been a big fan of those extended sequences with their memorable opening themes that always set the tone for the series.  I mean, can you imagine Stargate’s SG-1 or Atlantis or the Star Treks without their stirring orchestral intros?  Or The Sopranos without Tony’s long drive through Jersey set to Alabama 3’s “Woke Up This Morning”?  Or a roaring dragon in place of Game of Thrones’ sweeping instrumental-backed overview of Westeros and Essos?

Quick!  Name your Top 3 favorite t.v. themes.

 

 

April 24, 2019: Week’s Best Comic Book Covers!

These were my favorites…

Age Of X-Man: X-Tremists #3 (cover art by Rahzzah)

Doctor Strange #13 (cover art by Jesus Saiz)

Heroes in Crisis #8 (cover art by Mitch Gerads, Clay Mann, Tomeu Moray)

Thanos #1 (cover art by Jeff Dekal)

The Warning #6 (cover art by Ed Laroche)

So, which were YOUR faves?

April 23, 2019: More from the Stargate trove!

So, last night I found myself with a window of free time between my two scripts and my episode 1 cut (that never materialized) and seized the opportunity to go through the various discs, DV’s, and hard-drives I’ll be shipping out to MGM this week.  I can’t access a good 95% of the material, but if the descriptions scrawled on the labels are any indication, fans are in for a real treat…

Interviews with Michael, Chris and Colonel Carter no less.  Also crash burn and explosion tests.

Oodles of Atlantis stuff: McKay playing with a wraith torpedo, Atlantean gadgetry, and…the SG mascot?

Burning Vala, Atlantis stunt coordinator James “Bam Bam” Bamford, the complete Atlantis set, and a cast read-thru.

THIS is gonna be fun.

Also a lot of fun is this short excerpt from that Stargate: Extinction script.

Atlantis destroyed?

Future Todd??

WHAT is going on here???!!

April 22, 2019: Thousands of hours of unseen behind the scenes footage from Stargates SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe!

So, yesterday I uploaded the following photo online –

With the caption: “Thousands of hours of unseen behind the scenes footage from Stargates SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe – Back when he was the Special Features Producer on Stargate, Ivon Bartok spent years capturing behind the scenes footage on all three shows. Unable to make arrangements to send the footage to MGM after SGU was cancelled, he was at a loss as to what to do with all those tapes and discs taking up space in his apartment. I offered to take them in and, for the past seven years, they’ve been sitting in storage. Well, I’ve finally made arrangements to have everything shipped to MGM where a dedicated team will peruse the digital contents in the first step of making this goldmine of never-before-seen footage available to the fans.”

I figured fandom would be thrilled – but, alas, fandom being fandom, there was a vocal minority who was downright angry because –

1 – I’m not backing up all these files before sending them to MGM.

2- I haven’t personally uploaded them directly online.

3 – They’re going to MGM who will review, catalogue and ultimately make them available.

Look, I get it.  I empathize with those worried about being able to access these materials, especially fans living overseas.  However…

1 – I don’t have the time, money, or equipment to back up these files.  And while, yes, it would be great to take fans up on their kind offers to do it for me, these files are the property of  MGM Television.  Which brings me to…

2 – These files are the property of MGM Television.  This isn’t simply a case of me uploading an image here and there.  This is thousands of hours of video and supporting materials.  I have a great relationship with a number of the executives there, many of whom are Stargate fans as well, and they are overjoyed at the prospect of revisiting all this material and, eventually, making it available to fandom at large.  I don’t own the right to the Stargate franchise.  They do.  So they will be the ones to  make the call on what is released and how.  I am simply returning something that is rightfully theirs.  And no, I’m not taking any payment for this.

3 –

Lovely.

To tide you over, here’s another page from the Stargate: Extinction script: