Atlantis movie shelved ‘indefinitely’

[Brent]

http://www.gateworld.net/news/2010/12/atlantis-movie-shelved-indefinitely/

Some good info in there about the future of the franchise. Seems SG-A movie is shelved, SG-1 is not on the table, and they are trying to complete SGU in some way, but it isn't looking good.

At this point, it seems the franchise, as far as TV and Movie, is dead it seems. The cancellation of SGU was bad for the SG-A movie happening apparently.

Also some strong words there that I like at the end, about the move in scheduling causing poor ratings, SyFy deserves most of the blame here, especially for not even giving them one more season to wrap things up.

I do hope they can some how wrap up SGU, if not another season, then at least a movie or two.

 

[Skywalker]

Also some strong words there that I like at the end, about the move in scheduling causing poor ratings, SyFy deserves most of the blame here, especially for not even giving them one more season to wrap things up.

While I agree that Syfy deserves a bit of the blame for the rescheduling, I don't think it's fair to place most of the blame on them. The writers and producers deserve most of the blame for failing to put out a quality product in a timely enough fashion to maintain or grow a sufficient audience.

 

[Brent]

Also some strong words there that I like at the end, about the move in scheduling causing poor ratings, SyFy deserves most of the blame here, especially for not even giving them one more season to wrap things up.

While I agree that Syfy deserves a bit of the blame for the rescheduling, I don't think it's fair to place most of the blame on them. The writers and producers deserve most of the blame for failing to put out a quality product in a timely enough fashion to maintain or grow a sufficient audience.

I honestly think it wasn't that bad, the move to Tuesday hurt the show badly, and Syfy's scheduling was more than confusing, the huge breaks in the middle of the seasons did not help the show. Syfy is in charge of all of this, and I blame them for the scheduling.

That said, SGU being canceled is bad news for the Atlantis movie.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

The show's ratings before the Tuesday move weren't so hot to begin with. It's totally bullshit to lay this entirely at SyFy's feet. Yeah, they can take the hit for the move to Tuesday but what was the show's excuse when it was on Fridays?

 

[PsychoPere]

[...] SG-1 is not on the table [...]

I wouldn't infer that from the article. It only states that SG-1 was not discussed in Mallozzi's blog post. If anything of this incarnation of Stargate moved forward, I would expect it to be the SG-1 movie because it's the most proven series. The other home video movies had to have done well enough for MGM to even consider an SGA movie, so I wouldn't be surprised if MGM decided in a year or so to move forward with one more SG-1 movie, for a quick, short-term cash infusion if nothing else.

(Note: The above does not mean that I actually expect MGM to produce another SG-1 movie; it simply means that I would not be surprised because it is the most logical avenue for them to pursue from a business standpoint.)

Also some strong words there that I like at the end, about the move in scheduling causing poor ratings, SyFy deserves most of the blame here, especially for not even giving them one more season to wrap things up.

I don't even understand your last "point" about "giving them one more season to wrap things up." Syfy decided the show was not profitable due to its ratings. I do not see how anyone can then expect the network to order another expensive season just for the sake of finishing the story. That's bad business. As for scheduling, the move from summer to fall and from Friday to Tuesday were both blunders, but audiences tuning in for Syfy Network shows should by now expect the mid-season hiatus because it's been part of the network's scheduling plans for years.

Furthermore, the producers stated they had a five-year plan for the series that could be wrapped up in one year. That was suicide for the series from the very beginning because it quickly became apparent as season one unfolded that the show was taking way too long to gain any real purpose. If you have a five-year plan, have a five-year plan, not a five-year plan that could be condensed into one year. Otherwise your audience is going to figure out that you're filling the rest of the show with ridiculous padding.

The show's ratings before the Tuesday move weren't so hot to begin with. It's totally bullshit to lay this entirely at SyFy's feet. Yeah, they can take the hit for the move to Tuesday but what the show's excuse when it was on Fridays?

Exactly. Even then it was a creative failure, which was not Syfy's fault.

 

[Starbreaker]

They should just have a Stargate movie that wraps up all three series. Everybody goes home happy.

 

[The Wormhole]

While the move to Tuesday sure as hell didn't help the show, I doubt it would have continued even if it were still on Friday. You can point out other factors which contributed: split seasons with long hiatuses, people viewing the episodes through alternate means, but the one thing responsible for SGU's failure: it just wasn't a good show.

 

[archeryguy1701]

While I've enjoyed the series throughout, it has gotten substantially better towards the end. And, as much as I enjoy blaming everything on Sy-Fy (really, they rarely do any of their shows any favors), there was one major thing that helped kill the show that I haven't seen mentioned too often: the serialized set up of the show. For a show where every episode builds on the previous ones, you need to have an audience in place very early on and you can't lose them. No matter how good the show was getting, it was way too late for someone to just jump in unless they were willing to dedicate the time/ money into getting caught up. A purely episodic format would make it easier to build an audience up, but the serialized format means that what you start off with early in the series is probably what you're stuck with.

 

[Jax]

I doubt it would have continued even if it were still on Friday.

I disagree despite the issues friday would of seen it get at least a 3rd season IMO. Sanctuary is holding at about 1.4 million on a better sci fi fall night then SGU, which was was around 1.1 million on a heavily battled tuesday night. SGU on friday would of gotten at least 1.5 million while nothing amazing enough to get a 3rd season most likely.

People also point out Eureka and Warehouse 13 which are on the summer though probably would still get close to 2 million on tuesdays in the fall BUT if they had started on that night and not built up an audience away in the summer, then they would of suffered a similar fate.

SGU audience was there just locked away in DVR...more on tuesdays than friday.

 

[SG-17]

No matter where SGU went they should have kept it paired with Sanctuary. Most of Sanctuary's fanbase exists because of Amanda Tapping being on Stargate for so many years. There is much more crossover between the fans of SGU and Sanctuary than SGU and Caprica. As well since both Caprica and SGU were 'dark' shows pairing them together... well as they say 'too much of a good thing...' Had they kept the 'dark' show SGU paired with the 'fun' show Sanctuary I think that both show's ratings would be higher.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Sanctuary can get away with lower ratings because it's a cheaper show. SGU, like most shows of its type, is expensive. It probably costs a good $2 million per episode to produce.

I suspect Sanctuary episodes get by on a good bit less than half of that, as do shows like Eureka, Warehouse 13, etc.

 

[Jax]

With the airing of Smackdown, there was no way to keep SGU and Sanctuary together airing at the same time but they both could of used the slot and then you got a good year round use of the 10pm friday slot from 2 Sci Fi shows. As for the budget yeh it wasn't totally cheap but haggle with MGM and trim the budget a little it would of been worth a 3rd season on friday nights.

 

[Starbreaker]

How the hell would they have trimmed the budget of SGU? They already sit around on the set in complete darkness and whine about their lives for 42 minutes.

 

[SG-17]

They could have done green-screen for the non-Vancouver Forest planets instead of actually going to a desert.

 

[bullethead]

They could've killed off Young, Scott, and Chloe and done greenscreen for most of the corridors.

 

[SG-17]

They actually reuse much of the corridors as well they have interchangeable parts to make them seem different. Both the SGC and Atlantis were relatively small sets too. The main things were the gaterooms and control rooms, most else was re-purposed empty rooms and corridor(s).

 

[The Wormhole]

How the hell would they have trimmed the budget of SGU? They already sit around on the set in complete darkness and whine about their lives for 42 minutes.

Actually, they only do that for 40 minutes followed by a 2 minute montage of basically the same thing.

 

[bigdaddy]

Also some strong words there that I like at the end, about the move in scheduling causing poor ratings, SyFy deserves most of the blame here, especially for not even giving them one more season to wrap things up.

While I agree that Syfy deserves a bit of the blame for the rescheduling, I don't think it's fair to place most of the blame on them. The writers and producers deserve most of the blame for failing to put out a quality product in a timely enough fashion to maintain or grow a sufficient audience.

The show's ratings sucked on Friday, the show just sucked.

Stop blaming SyFy for every damn thing people, the show's ratings were bad, the move was stupid but didn't do anything more to hurt the show than what the writers were doing. the writers can't admit that and hopefully the new owners of MGM will fire the "writers" of Stargate.

I do find it odd that SyFy did order a 3rd and finale season of the show, even if it were only 13 episodes. Even if it wasn't a huge money maker it still had the Stargate name to it.

SG-1 and Atlantis years ago cost $2.5 million an episode, Universe was probably closer to $3.5 million if not even more.

They could've killed off Young, Scott, and Chloe and done greenscreen for most of the corridors.

They could have written a better show.

They could have done green-screen for the non-Vancouver Forest planets instead of actually going to a desert.

They could have written a better show.

 

[bullethead]

SG-1 and Atlantis years ago cost $2.5 million an episode, Universe was probably closer to $3.5 million if not even more.

According to Robert Carlyle, the budget was $2 million per episode.

 

[SG-17]

Also some strong words there that I like at the end, about the move in scheduling causing poor ratings, SyFy deserves most of the blame here, especially for not even giving them one more season to wrap things up.

While I agree that Syfy deserves a bit of the blame for the rescheduling, I don't think it's fair to place most of the blame on them. The writers and producers deserve most of the blame for failing to put out a quality product in a timely enough fashion to maintain or grow a sufficient audience.

The show's ratings sucked on Friday, the show just sucked.

Stop blaming SyFy for every damn thing people, the show's ratings were bad, the move was stupid but didn't do anything more to hurt the show than what the writers were doing. the writers can't admit that and hopefully the new owners of MGM will fire the "writers" of Stargate.

I do find it odd that SyFy did order a 3rd and finale season of the show, even if it were only 13 episodes. Even if it wasn't a huge money maker it still had the Stargate name to it.

SG-1 and Atlantis years ago cost $2.5 million an episode, Universe was probably closer to $3.5 million if not even more.

They could've killed off Young, Scott, and Chloe and done greenscreen for most of the corridors.

They could have written a better show.

They could have done green-screen for the non-Vancouver Forest planets instead of actually going to a desert.

They could have written a better show.

That affects the budget how?