Ark Makes Stargate Bigger

By  Mike Szymanski

Ben Browder, who reprises the role of Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell in the upcoming DVD film Stargate: The Ark of Truth, told SCI FI Wire that the movie was shot on 35mm film and will therefore look sharper than SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1, on which it is based.

Ben Browder, who reprises the role of Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell in the upcoming DVD film Stargate: The Ark of Truth, told SCI FI Wire that the movie was shot on 35mm film and will therefore look sharper than SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1, on which it is based.

The TV series was shot on high-definition digital video. "I think 35 looks better than HD does," Browder said in a phone interview. "The HD technology is good, but I still don't think it's as good as film, at least not at this juncture. So I think it looks bigger, [and] it looks better."

The movie, which picks up the story from the finale of the decade-long series, also features more camera movement than was possible in the series, which was shot on a short time frame. "[Director] Robert [Cooper] chose to move the camera in ways that we usually didn't move it in the series," Browder said. "A little more time is taken in advance, in preparation and, you know, a fraction more time on set. You're still working at an incredibly rapid pace to shoot a movie like this in 15, 16 days or whatever it is. It's a rapid pace, but it's a little more time than we would normally have per minute than on the series."

Ark ties up the Ori storyline and answers questions left hanging when SG-1 ended last year. It's the first of two planned straight-to-DVD Stargate films, with Stargate: Continuum following in a few months.

Ark reunites SG-1 cast members Browder, Amanda Tapping (Col. Samantha Carter), Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson) and Christopher Judge (Teal'c).

Because of Ark's epic scale, Browder and his cast mates didn't have a lot of on-screen interaction, he said. "In order to do everything that needed to be done, we were split up quite a bit, so ... there wasn't a lot of sort of what you'd call 'character scenes,'" he said. "We were split up and talking to each other over the radios quite a bit. [What] I would say is that I think Rob did an excellent job of giving every character something to do and giving everyone a chance to shine."

The Ark of Truth DVD, which features behind-the-scenes interviews and an hourlong recap of the series, is now available.

SciFi Wire