London Film and Comic Con: An Interview with Ben Browder

This interview can also be found on Step2TV.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again – I bloody love Stargate! As such, it was beyond brilliant meeting with the man who portrayed Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell – Ben Browder.

Browder, probably best known for his role as John Crichton in Farscape, joined the cast of Stargate SG-1 (along with former Farscape co-star, Claudia Black) for it's final two seasons, leading the team after Richard Dean Anderson left the show. Although Anderson's role as Colonel Jack O'Neil was certainly a tough act to follow, Browder proved to be a fantastic addition to the cast.

From the moment I heard Ben Browder would be attending LFCC, I couldn't wait to interview him!

BJ: Hello, Ben Browder! How have you been enjoying the weekend so far?

BB: Well it's been fun, although I'm a little jet-lagged. My soul is still somewhere over the Atlantic.

BJ: I guess you arrived recently then, just for this event?

BB: Yeah, flew in on Friday, so I'm almost up to Greenwich Mean Time.

BJ: Well, give it a few more days! When do you have to head back to the States?

BB: I head back on Tuesday.

BJ: Blimey, so you don't have a lot of time to acclimatise!

BB: Nah... I might see a mate or two on Monday, and then head back home so... I'm not staying for the Olympics, not going to see the Wimbledon final...

BJ: Can't blame you for not staying for the Olympics! It's going to be rainy, all the transport's going to be delayed... Very British concerns!

BB: Ya know what, it'll be fun. The Olympics is a great event.

BJ: No doubt about that, but I bet you a fiver it's going to rain on the Opening Ceremony!

BB: You're on!

BJ: Anyway, you starred in both Stargate and Farscape, two very prominent SciFi series. What was it like working on such critically acclaimed shows?

BB: It was a brilliant experience, I loved it. It was great. Farscape with all the amazing things we had on set, the prosthetics and animatronics, the fact we were shooting in Australia which has a very free-wheeling sensibility about it. It was great. Stargate, by the time I got there, they'd been doing the show for eight years so they knew what they were doing, and my job was to fit in; basically getting along with the cast, and they're fantastic people! Chris is very, very funny, Mike's a consummate actor, Amanda's just lovely and Claudia came along for a bit of the ride as well. Both were really great shows.

BJ: And you actually wrote a couple of episodes for both series as well.

BB: I wrote two full episodes for Farscape, and for Stargate I had a story idea which I gave to the writers, and they used it – I didn't actually write the script for that one.

BJ: One of the great things about Stargate was how hands on the cast were with writing and directing episodes, which I think really strengthened the cast with their input and the show as a whole.

BB: Well, I think it was a very good cast. They're obviously a very talented group of actors, many of them multi-talented. … Star Trek did that as well; Jonathan Frakes is an excellent director, so it's not that unusual to see that kind of thing happen. But definitely, all of the Stargate cast are terribly talented.

BJ: Absolutely – personally I reckon Stargate is one of the best SciFi series out there! Now, on the topic of brilliant SciFi, you're also going to be appearing in an episode of Doctor Who in the upcoming series.

BB: Aha, yes.

BJ: Are you able to reveal anything about that, or would a sniper take you out if you said so much as a word?!

BB: I'd probably be deported if I said anything. I can't tell you anything. If I said one thing and then Matt Smith says another thing, or someone else says something, by the time it all gets put together you might have the entire setup.

BJ: You've foiled my plan!

BB: Ha! So, no, I can't tell you anything, other than that it's a Western and that it was a lot of fun – I had a great time.

BJ: Had you been a fan of Doctor Who before-hand?

BB: Yeah, I've actually seen all of the new series. My kids absolutely love it, so you know, it was a no-brainer. When the question came up “do you want to do Doctor Who?” it was immediately “when and where?!”

BJ: Well, I'm thoroughly looking forward to it and... There appears to be a queue forming, so we're going to have to wrap it up.

BB: See, you're stood here for more than three minutes and people queue up behind you... It's England!

BJ: Can't resist a good queue! Anywho, I'm thoroughly looking forward to that episode! It's been an absolute pleasure talking with you.

BB: Great, thank you.

London Film and Comic Con: An Interview with Chris Judge

This interview can also be found on Step2TV.

I've been a fan of Stargate SG1 for as long as I can remember, and it still holds the number one spot on my list of all-time favourite science fiction series. Naturally, when I heard that one of it's stars, Chris Judge, would be at London Film and Comic Con, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to chat with the man who so outstandingly portrayed one of my favourite characters!

Starring in SG1 as Teal'c – a Jaffa warrior who defects to join the people of Earth, and fights to lead his people to freedom – Chris Judge is very much a part of the show's DNA and is deeply ingrained in Stargate mythos, having been on the show since it's inception in 1997 to it's finale in 2007.
It was an absolute honour and a privilege to finally meet him.

BJ: Hello, Chris Judge! How are you enjoying this weekend?

CJ: It’s been great. The people are just nice, the energy’s good and everybody’s happy, and meeting with the fans has just been great. This is one of my favourite conventions. I never cease to be surprised by how many Stargate fans there are!

BJ: Fantastic, glad to hear it!
Obviously you’re probably best known for your role as Teal’c in Stargate SG1, having been there since the show’s inception. What was it like working on such a popular franchise?

CJ: We were so kind of insulated when shooting in Vancouver, we just got on and did our job and no-one made a big deal out of it or anything, and so when we started travelling I guess that’s when it really hit us that the show was that popular. It’s still mind-boggling that we stopped shooting it 2007, and it’s almost like there are more fans of the show now than there were when we were shooting it! But yeah, it was great.

BJ: In some ways Stargate has gone down in SciFi history much like Star Trek - it may not have been as long lived, but its legend is one that’ll be remembered.
And whilst you were starring in SG1, you also wrote quite a few Teal’c-centric episodes that further developed his character...

CJ: Well I had to! [He laughs] It was hard for the writers, because if you wrote a Teal’c or Jaffa episode everyone had to speak in that way, and they always involved a lot of armour, so they were our most expensive episodes. It was really nice that Brad [Wright] actually let me start writing, because the only people that really enjoyed writing Jaffa episodes were [Damian] Kindler and [Peter] DeLuise. So yeah, it was really cool that Brad let me do that.

BJ: To what extent were you involved in the scriptwriting process for those episodes? Did you write the whole thing, or was it the storyline that was then developed by the writers?

CJ: I wrote the whole thing.

BJ: Ah magnificent!

CJ: And Brad even let me do that outside the box, because... Well, there’s a writers’ room, and they have a bunch of pitches that have been accepted and they spitball stories, and I really wanted to know if I could actually write so he just let me go away and write. So it really was a boost to my confidence.

BJ: One of my all time favourite episodes was The Changeling...

CJ: Ah thank you.

BJ: I loved how it deviated from the normal formula of the show, and toyed with the concept of reality - flitting between the two very different versions of reality.

CJ: I was always a big fan of alternate reality shows, where you can’t keep straight what reality we’re in or what version of Earth we’re in. But that’s why we stopped doing them because we didn’t know which Universe we were in any more! So it was nice to go back to that for an episode.

BJ: And I noticed you have a role in the upcoming Dark Knight Rises - can you reveal anything that?

CJ: It’s going to be great!

BJ: Well, no doubt about that!

CJ: There is some crazy stuff happening. I don’t want to go out on a limb, but it’s going to be the best movie ever!

BJ: What was it like working with Christopher Nolan?

CJ: He’s a genius. Everything everyone says about him is completely true. The dude is a genius. He sees what works, what doesn’t work, he can see where the camera should be... And he doesn’t micromanage you, he kind of tells you what the big picture is and it’s up to you to play it how you want to play it. He really doesn’t micromanage actors at all. It was just really cool to work that way and have that much freedom; a little disorientating at first - at least, for me - because he didn’t really say a lot direction wise, so I was kind of asking “is this alright?” and he’s like “no no no, if it’s not I’ll tell you!” It was just great to work that way.

BJ Fantastic! Well, I’m certainly looking forward to seeing it. Have you been working on any other projects recently?

CJ: Well, after this I have a film called To Have And To Hold which comes out in February, I go to Cambodia in a couple of days to start a new movie, and a TV series that’s just going into prep.

BJ: Fantastic, sounds like you’ve got a lot on at the moment! Is there anything you can reveal about this new show?

CJ: What I can say is that it’s a SciFi show, and it’s going to be announced soon - maybe in the next month or so. We’ve signed a deal with a certain company, and we’re in negotiations with another company - they’re doing some of the best stuff in film right now - and this will only be their second foray into television. I can’t wait to let it out of the bag; the fans are gonna get a kick out of it!

BJ: I wait with bated breath! Thank you for chatting with us, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

CJ: Thank you, you too.

London Film and Comic Con: An Interview with Alex Winter

This interview can also be found on Step2TV.

Alex Winter, probably best known as Bill S. Preston, Esq. in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, has an extensive CV as both an actor and a director, ranging from directing music videos for the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Helmet to co-writing, co-directing and starring in the surreal 1993 film Freaked. With his Napster documentary, Downloaded, recently completed and word of a third Bill and Ted film circulating the space-time continuum, I was thoroughly looking forward to talking with him at London Film and Comic Con.

BJ: Hello, Alex Winter! How’s it going?

AW: Not too bad, still conscious! There’s still some brain left in my head, but I can’t guarantee how much longer that will last.

BJ: Did you only recently arrive in London then?

AW: I got here yesterday.

BJ: Blimey, you must be bloody knackered!

AW: Yeah, yeah. Here, do a bit, go home.

BJ: That jet-lag’s going to be fun... But then again, you are used to travelling through time!

AW: Yeah, yeah. [He chuckles]  Well, I am used to travelling anyway, so it’s all easy.

BJ: Now this is probably a question you’ve been bombarded with since you arrived here, but, there’s been word about a third Bill and Ted film...

AW: Yeah, there’s a script and we’re playing around with it. It’s not definitive at this stage, but... That’s all I can say.

BJ: So you haven’t got producers, directors etc. signed up for it yet?

AW: Nothing I can talk about, nothing official. We’ll go official with it as soon as we can, but we can’t really say anything more than that. It may happen, it may not happen, we won’t know for sure, but we did have to do a script.

BJ: Did you and Reeves have a lot of input with the script?

AW: Oh yes, me and Reeves did, yeah.

BJ: Ah fantastic! I think with yourselves being so intrinsically part of the characters...

AW: Yeah, and with us and the script! It’s kind of all woven together.

BJ: Can you reveal anything about the script?

AW: I can’t because it’s not going. Once it’s going, I can say it’s going, but we’re not going yet. I mean, that’s not even a hint, that’s just the truth. We’re trying, it’s early, but it’s still moving.

BJ: Ok, well hopefully there’ll be official news somewhen soon!

And you’ve also been working on a documentary about Napster; Downloaded. What can you tell us about that?

AW: I’ve been working on that all year, just finished it about a week ago, and it’ll come out theatrically and on VH1 next year.

BJ: Ah fantastic.

AW: Yeah, so it’ll be a VH1 VOD Doc release, and then it’ll be out in theatres.

BJ: Have you got plans to hit any film festivals with it?

AW: Yeah, we’re just starting to put that together now. Definitely want to do some festivals here in England, because I love both the London Film Festival and Raindance.

BJ: Both are fantastic; I loved Raindance last year.

AW: Yeah, I love that festival. It’s a question of timing, so... But I’m aiming to do at least one of those, so that’d be good.

BJ: That’d be brilliant!

AW: Yeah it’d be great. Fingers crossed!

BJ: I’d love to see it at somewhere like Raindance; they certainly have a wide range of fascinating documentaries.

AW: I had a movie there eleven years ago, and they’ve done great things with that festival. They do good seminars and stuff for up and coming film-makers, helping new people get involved in the industry, I like that.

BJ: I don’t know if they ran this eleven years ago, but they’ve got this thing now where the festival’s winning film-maker creates the trailer for the following year’s Raindance - which I thought was rather cool!

I think with an industry that’s so hard to break into, it’s fantastic that festivals such as Raindance are supportive of rising talent, be it through the screenings, seminars, or newsletters.

AW: They’re incredibly good at nurturing new film-makers. Even in the states, they send out regular bits and they’re good with all that stuff. I’m on their newsletter, I like reading what they have to say.

BJ: There’s always something interesting, things like 25 Tips for Aspiring Writers or 5 Things Film-Makers can Learn from Andy Murray.

AW: Exactly, I love all that stuff. So yeah, we’ll be doing the festival run, and then we’ll go out digitally as well; iTunes, VOD, that kind of stuff - that’ll all be next year.

BJ: Well, I’m certainly looking forward to it, and best of luck!

AW: Thank you, yeah it’ll be good fun.

BJ: Thank you for your time, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

AW: Thank you, you too. Take care.

London Film and Comic Con: An Overview

This article can also be found on Step2TV.

Last weekend, the Olympia Grand Hall in Kensington played host to the prestigious annual London Film and Comic Con. With over 90 guests from popular series such as Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars and Stargate (hang on, I’m seeing a trend in science fiction titles...), as well as renowned comic book artists and writers, and a plethora of guests from numerous other genres, this year’s LFCC promised to be one of the biggest yet! And with it’s array of guests from cult TV shows to blockbuster films, there was certainly something for everyone.

This year marked my one-year anniversary of convention going, with last year's LFCC being my very first experience of this unusual world of costume-clad fans and overly long queues. I had hoped to celebrate with a bottle of champagne, but the best I could do was a large coffee and a blueberry muffin... C'est la vie!

For the preview night, I had arranged to meet friend and colleague Josh Harris at Clapham Junction – a convenient mid-point for the both of us and a short Overground service to Olympia. This worked perfectly for the first night, but apparently the Gods of London Transport thought otherwise. Our plans to arrive early on Saturday were foiled by the Overground being closed between Clapham Junction and Olympia (how typical!). Not wanting to be any later than necessary, we optimistically chose to take the replacement bus service in the hope it would get us there not-that-much later. We were wrong. Buses are invariably a poor transport choice in central London, although they are a nice way to see the scenery (a dubious looking cafe, several closed post offices and a man yelling at a letterbox). We were dropped off at Earls Court station, so we only had a 20 minute walk ahead of us, but that was exactly the moment it decided to rain. Heavily. It took at least an hour for my hair to dry out!

But none of that was anything compared to my Sunday travel escapades... (Best sung to the tune of “Twelve Days of Christmas...”) Three replacement buses, two delayed trains and a one mile long walk! A mile's walk is normally absolutely no problem – that's literally a walk in the park! - but when a journey that should take me only 40-50 minutes from my front door ends up taking 2 hours, that little extra bit to walk is God's final insult to my “early start.” I'm thoroughly looking forward to trying to navigate the city during the Olympics...

Anyway, enough of TFL woes, on to the weekend itself! Aside from the misadventure of trying to get there, the event was really quite brilliant overall. With talks and Q&As with a number of the guests, meet & greet/interview opportunities and a couple of exclusive screenings, there was a lot on offer!

Dredd Panel

Saturday saw the very first, world exclusive preview of Dredd; a new cinematic adaptation of 2000 AD comic book character Judge Dredd, starring Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings, Star Trek) in the titular role, and Olivia Thirby (Juno, The Darkest Hour) as Judge Anderson. We were escorted in by men clad in the iconic Judge armour, and were treated to a few minutes from the film, along with a half-an-hour panel featuring Dredd himself, Karl Urban; producer Allon Reich (28 Days Later); concept artist Jock (Battleship) and screenwriter Alex Garland (28 Days Later). There was also a brief competition to win one of five exclusive posters, but not being particularly familiar with Judge Dredd lore the questions that were being flung seemed to me as if they may as well have been asking about the implications of discovering the Higgs Boson and how it will influence the future development of the human race.

Anyway, having little to no knowledge of Judge Dredd, I could observe the preview from an unbiased position. Dredd looks futuristic in the dystopian kind of way; it's less shiny metal and skin-tight silver uniforms, and more crumbling, disused shopping centres, irradiated wastelands, screaming civilians, and ethical ambiguity in a totalitarian future state enforced by a super-soldier police force. In short; it looks like it has the potential to be brilliant!

I've always been dubious about the adaptation of comic book characters to the big screen, but in the case of films like the Batman/Dark Knight saga and The Avengers these have turned out exemplary. I should have more faith in the film industry when it adapts comic books (although I'm already feeling uncomfortable about the new Superman film, Man of Steel, and I know nothing about it except the title!), but with so many superheroes clamouring for my attention at the box office it's hard not to feel a little wary...

That being so, from the clip shown Dredd looks like it has the potential to be an enjoyable and action packed film. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what the rest of the film is like when it's released on 7th September this year!

Frank Spotnitz and Melissa George

Sunday treated us to another exclusive preview screening, this time for BBC One's upcoming contemporary spy drama Hunted, produced by the makers of Spooks and written by Frank Spotnitz (best known for writing nearly 50 episodes of The X Files). Starring Melissa George (Alias, Grey's Anatomy) as Sam, a highly skilled operative for an elite private intelligence firm, and Adam Rayner (Hawthorne, Mistresses) as her colleague and love interest, Hunted is the the story of a spy with a bull's eye on her back, a human target unable to trust anyone at any time, even the man she loves.

The 10 minute preview was certainly a tantalising glimpse of what's to come. It was remarkably tense and engaging, to the extent that I'd completely cut out the rest of the Olympia Grand Hall and completely immersed myself in this clip. It's certainly placed itself at the top of my must-watch list! Hunted will air 26th October this year on BBC One.

Hayden Panettiere

Over the course of the weekend, there were also many talks and Q&As, to the extent my schedule had a number of conflicts with an array of Q&As with the likes of Jewel Staite and Adam Baldwin, Jeri Ryan, Hayden Panettiere, and the cast of Game of Thrones. On the whole, these were enjoyable, but in some cases the huge gap between guest and audience led to a communications barrier. This was most noticeable during the Game of Thrones Q&A, as the guests couldn't hear the audience's questions, and nor could the audience hear the guests' answers! More often than not, even when one could hear what the other was saying, the sound quality was somewhat muffled (no small part due to the overwhelming volume of the packed-out venue!) - it's certainly made trying to transcribe some of the Q&As an interesting challenge! There was even a moment when a mobile phone caused quite chronic interference during one of the Q&As, but was masterfully turned into a brief Morse-code sketch by Adam Baldwin which came together so perfectly that one would think he'd staged the whole thing!

Chris Judge and I

I was fortunate enough to grab a couple of interviews with some of the people I'd most wanting to chat with; I briefly spoke to Alex Winter about his recent work on Downloaded, a documentary about online music store Napster, as well as the word going around about the hypothetical Bill and Ted 3. I also managed to catch a few words with Ben Browder and Christopher Judge in-between signings, speaking about their time on Stargate SG1, Browder's guest appearance in the next series of Doctor Who, and Judge's experience working on Dark Knight Rises, as well as a new show that's on the horizon which he wasn't at liberty to say anything about!

Sadly, I was unable to interview Hayden Panettiere, as whenever I walked past her stand she was either under a mountain of fans or on a break. I had been looking forward to chatting with her, especially about her work campaigning to save whales and dolphins, her involvement with the Whaleman Foundation, and – having met up with a friend on the Sea Shepherd stall – ask for her support for Captain Paul Watson, who was unjustly imprisoned in Germany over false charges (more on the matter can be found on the Sea Shepherd website and on my blog). Alas, it was not to be...

Overall, London Film and Comic Con 2012 was certainly an enjoyable experience; meeting and interviewing many fantastic people, watching some rather exciting previews, and just generally having a brilliant weekend.

More pictures from LFCC can be found on my website at www.bronjames.co.uk
Transcripts of interviews and Q&As will be posted during the coming week or two, and will be linked to below this line...

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An Interview with Alex Winter
An Interview with Chris Judge
An Interview with Ben Browder