June 12, 2009: My Four Dads, Cracking Casting, Star Runners, and Mailbag. - Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

 

Kerry and Kerry

 

Qu’est ce que c’est ce prop? Good question.

Military presence.

Sharing the spotlight with the delightfully delightful Jennifer Spence. Rock on!

We were standing in the hallway, making plans for that night’s outing, when I threw a glance to Ashleigh and asked whether she’d be joining us. No, she explained, she was meeting a friend for dinner.

“Hey, maybe you can bring her along,”I suggested.

“Yeah,”she replied as though I’d suggested she should compete in the Olympic decathlon. “Me and my four dads.”

Dads?

“Wait a minute!”Lawren piped up, looking back and forth between me and Carl, then back to Ashleigh. “Who’s the fourth?”

“The other guy,”she replied, motioning back down the hall.

“Uh, you mean Paul?”I asked. The guy you’ve been working with for the past few months?

“Yeah,”she said, all smiles.

“But I’m younger than you!”protested Lawren. “I’m, at best, an older step-brother!”

For his part, Carl seemed to find this hilarious. In all fairness, however, he’s used to fielding gags about his age. I mean seriously. Last time he told someone how old he was, they assumed he was talking in “dog years“. My response, however, was less than amused. I believe it was something along the lines of “Hunh.” as I turned and headed back to my office.

Now I’ve never considered myself as old.  Until now of course.  Generally, I’ve dealt with people as personalities rather than age groups although I realize that that isn’t the norm.  And I usually wouldn’t give the ageistic realities of our society a second thought – except that, now that the subject has been broached, I’m forced to admit that it’s only a matter of time before I’m headed into that twilight territory where “fun” gives way to “charming” and the best one can score is the inoffensively neuteral (sic) “distinguished”.  All at once, the inter-office hilarity becomes somewhat less so because, in the back of your mind, you imagine the person you’re sharing a laugh with heading back home, stepping through their front door, and loudly proclaiming: “You’ll never guess what that adorable old coot said today!”.   Suddenly, you’re the crazy uncle, ole so-and-so whose antics liven up the workplace much to the delight of your fellow employees who can’t quite tell whether you’ve been gifted with a wonderful sense of humor or simply surendered to the eccentricity that, years down the line, will see you leaping through the aisles of your local supermarket wrapped in toilet paper screaming “Squeeze the Charmin!  Squeeze the Charmin!”         

Anyway – the next morning, when I rolled in, I was asked what I’d done the previous night. “After dinner, I stopped by to watch some commercial construction for an hour,”I answered. “Then I got home, had a glass of Metamucil, soaked my feet in Epson salts, and fell asleep in front of the t.v. watching some nature show.” Yep, it’s all downhill from here.

Yesterday, we watched the latest cut of Life. A brilliant episode (written by Carl Binder, directed by Alex Chapple) with some great performances – and here I must make mention of two guest starts in particular: Sarah Smyth, who delivers a wonderfully nuanced performance as the struggling Annie Balic, and Reiko Aylesworth (Hey, eagle-eyed Lost fans!) whose touching turn as Sharon proves alternately uplifting and heart-rending. Great casting.

Speaking of which – actress Jennifer Spence plays the role of Dr. Lisa Park in Stargate Universe, a character who has developed quite nicely since the pilot. Here’s a classic case of a supporting player who, over the course of several episodes, catches the attention of the writer/producers on the basis of an impressive initial performance. Based on that initial performance, the actor is given more to do – and hits it out of the park, which gives rise to more interest and meatier scenes. Jennifer‘s growing role on SG:U is just one example of the many such instances I‘m seeing develop as we make our way past the season one midway mark.

Received an email from writer-producer Rafael Jordan who tells me his latest SciFi original movie, Star Runners, premieres tomorrow night. All you Connor Trinneer fans may want to check out (http://www.youtube.com/user/rafael607).

Mailbag:

Belouchi writes: “I have a quick question regarding the Stargate Universe upcoming series: you mentioned on an earlier blog entry that you were waiting for the opportune time to release to us fans some cool concept arts of the Destiny and other tech related props. Any idea when that time will be, if you can post them that will be great.”

Answer: Alas, still waiting for the okay from the studio with regard to much of the behind-the-scenes pics I’ve taken. I’m hoping things will relax after Comic Con.

Louis writes: “Joe I was just wondering if you have ever read any books by Stephen Baxter?”

Answer: Not yet. I have The Time Ships sitting on my to-read pile.

Nadine writes: “Loved the pic of Lulu today.. Will she actually chase the ball, or does she prefer tug-of-war type games?”

Answer: Oh, she’ll chase it, chew it, then nudge it into some inaccessible spot (ie under the couch) and bark until I rescue it for her. Then she’ll repeat the process.

Nadine also writes: “ I seem to recall reading that the pictures on the sidebar are randomly generated, but have you read them all? I swear I saw a pic of Mary Doria Russell’s “The Sparrow”.

If so, have you read it? Did you enjoy it? Was there ever a BotM discussion for it?”

Answer: It wasn’t a book of the month club selection, but I did read and enjoy it.

Major D. Davis writes: “Almost one year ago, Brad had an interview in which he said the Atlantis movie would be made in the near future(Also, he already knew you guys were doing Universe, so I am assuming he had that in mind during the interview). Almost 10 months later the actors haven’t even been contacted yet. I mean how can this not be considered a delay?”

Answer: Ah, if only it were as simple as simply picking a date and making a movie. Unfortunately, it’s a process complicated by deal aspects I’ve already enumerated in a previous entry (look it up, ed.) in addition to the stark realities of a suffering DVD market (the victim of a perfect storm of circumstances – the evolution of alternate media platforms, the recession, and – my #1 suspect – Blu-ray). In order to set an official date for the commencement of principal photography, the studio – which is taking the lion’s share of the risk by bankrolling the production – must first sort out a number of issues. Still, as I’ve been saying all along, we all want to make this movie (me most of all as, from a purely mercenary standpoint, I’ll be producing it – and not for free), and we now have a first draft script in place.

ZeroPointBatteries writes: “How does the filming of sgu work while Lou is on a supposedly ‘live’ television show at the moment?”

Answer: No differently than when we have to shoot around the commitments of other actors. Happens all the time.

Nicole writes: “ I’ll be driving out to the east coast (Canada) this summer with stops in Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City – a day or two per city. Could you recommend some must try restaurants – and maybe chocolate shops?”

Answer: Sorry, I know nothing about the Ottawa and Quebec City dining scene and, quite frankly, very little about the Montreal dining scene. If you like foie gras, I definitely recommend Au Pied de Cochon (I go for dinner every time I’m in town). As for some Montreal chocolate shops, I’d suggest checking out Les Chocolats de Chloe located, conveniently, practically right across the street from Au Pied de Cochon.