If you’re holding your breath for the more direct-to-home-theater movies featuring the cast of “Stargate SG1” and “Stargate Atlantis,” you might want to exhale before you pass out.
Producer Robert C. Cooper recently told SciFi Wire that the ideas are there for more direct-to-DVD movies set in the first two universes of the “Stargate” franchise, but the current economic downturn will keep them from seeing the light of day for a while.
“We’re just waiting for the right opportunity,” he said. “We want to be successful with it. The studio wants to be successful, and we really don’t want to proceed with something in the wrong climate, which I think financially it is right now.”
While both “Stargate” spin-off movies sold well when they debuted on DVD, Cooper acknowledges they came out during a different economic climate. And with a recent downturn in DVD sales, studios are more carefully evaluating whether or not to finance and produced direct-to-DVD films like those done for “Ark of Truth” and “Continuum.”
“It’s tough, because we were very successful with the first two SG-1 movies,” Cooper said. “Since then, the economics have changed a little bit. DVDs aren’t selling the same way they were when we released those even just a year, and a year and a half ago.”
And fans hoping to get MGM’s attention by purchasing the recently released “Best Of” Blu-Ray from “Stargate Atlantis” may not get the results they want.
“That, obviously, is already produced,” Cooper said. “Putting it on DVD or Blu-ray is not the same as the investment it would take to start from scratch.”
There are also reports that it may be some time before MGM is willing to release the series on Blu-Ray.
When the movies do come out, they will be independent of the upcoming third series, “Stargate Universe,” says Cooper.
“They would stand alone,” Cooper said. “The Atlantis one takes place shortly after the end of season five. The SG-1, I think, takes place sometime in an intermediary period between when the SG-1 movies left off and when Universe began.”
Until then, fans will have to make do with new episodes of “Stargate Universe” which start later this year on SyFy.
Perhaps they can use this time to get some competent writers to redo the scripts for these movies? The last ones have sucked horribly.
What are you talking about? I loved “The Ark of Truth”. I thought it was a great way to end the Ori story arc.
The Ark of Truth was decent. It’s one major flaw was that it is was a quest for a deus ex machina that came after 2 seasons dominated by quests for several deus ex machinas like finding the grail or Merlin’s ascended being killing machine.
The second movie wasn’t that great. They had done the alternate reality/time travel bit several times over the course of the show, so it was a played out idea. We knew from the beginning that characters like O’Neill weren’t going to really be dead by the end of the movie. The main positive was getting to see many of the old system lords like Apothis, Chronas, and Yu one last time.
“movies set in the first two universes of the “Stargate” franchise”
Two universes? It’s the same continuous universe.