Tag: Michael Shanks

Articles including content about actor Michael Shanks

Michael Shanks Projects Nominated in Canada

Mr. Hockey movie poster
Mr. Hockey movie poster

The 2014 nominations for the Canadian Screen Awards (CSA) were announced today. The CSAs honor movies, television, and digital media created in Canada. We are very happy to see that Michael Shanks is nominated, and projects he has worked on in the past year are also honored with nominations. Here are the nominations for Michael and his projects (here is the full list):

Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story

  • Best Dramatic Mini-Series or TV Movie
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic
  • Program or Mini-Series: Michael Shanks
  • Best Direction in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series: Andy Mikita (also a Stargate director!)
  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series: Kathleen Robertson

Saving Hope

  • Best Original Music Score for a Series, Episode: Wishbones
  • Best Production Design or Art Direction in a Fiction Program or Series, Episode: The Face of the Giant Panda
  • Best Sound in a Dramatic Program or Series, Episode: Wishbones
  • Best Writing in a Dramatic Series, Episode: Wishbones
  • Best Achievement in Casting, Episode: I Watch Death

Saving Hope is currently airing its second season in Canada. Unfortunately, it is not airing in the US or most other countries. We are hopeful it will be released on DVD or on-line media for non-Canadian viewers very soon.

Congratulations to all of the nominees, and good luck at the awards events from March 3-9, 2014 in Toronto and Montreal!

 

Reminder: Saving Hope Returns to CTV Tonight!

Michael Shanks in Saving Hope S2
Michael Shanks as Dr. Charlie Harris in Season 2 of SAVING HOPE (Photo credit: CTV)
Stargate star MICHAEL SHANKS returns to our television screens tonight on CTV at 10PM ET with the Season 2 premiere of Saving Hope, “I Watch Death.”

Shanks was recently awarded Canada’s Leo Award for “Best Lead Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series” for his portrayal of Dr. Charlie Harris, the former Chief of Surgery at Hope Zion Hospital. In the first season, Charlie spent his time in a coma after the taxi he and his fiance Dr. Alex Reid is hit hard at an intersection while en route to their wedding. While Alex tried everything she could to get him back, Charlie roamed the hospital in spirit form, caught between the living and the dead. He was able to see and talk with the spirits of other coma patients and the recently deceased and offered some kind of support in their journeys. At the end of the season, Charlie awoke, hoping to pick up where he left off and marry Alex, but he’s distracted by the realization that he can still see the spirits of the dead.

Season 2 will pick up a little while after the end of Season 1 in tonight’s premiere, described by The Examiner: “In the Season 2 premiere, entitled ‘I Watch Death’ (Tuesday, June 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV), Alex (Erica Durance) and Charlie (Michael Shanks) are caught in the middle of a shooting on their way to their first shift back at Hope Zion. It’s all hands on deck when the victims of the shooting end up at Hope Zee. In the midst of the commotion, Alex treats a bullied teenager and deals with her own emotions about everything that’s happened in the past year. Meanwhile, Charlie is caught off guard when he realizes that he’s still able to see the spirits of deceased patients. As well, new Chief of Surgery Joel (Daniel Gillies) works alongside Charlie’s ex-wife Dawn to perform an intense surgery.”

Here’s a video preview from CTV:

Watch Michael Shanks As Gordie Howe This Week!

Mr. Hockey movie poster
Mr. Hockey movie poster

Michael Shanks’s new movie, Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story, is finally premiering in Canada and the US in the coming week! Michael plays the title role in the story of the comeback of one of the greatest hockey players of all time, Gordie Howe.

In Canada, the movie airs on the CBC (channel 13) on Sunday, April 28, at 8 pm.

In the US, the movie airs on the Hallmark Channel on Saturday, May 4 at 9 pm/8 pm central.

The DVD, including Blu-ray, first becomes available at Walmart stores in the US on May 7 and then expands elsewhere on July 9.

Michael has been featured in several fun interviews about the roles:

And some very nice reviews have already come in:

So, show your support for Stargate alum Michael Shanks, and watch the movie!

STARGATE SG-1 UNLEASHED Gives Fans New Adventures for Original Team

The original SG-1 team is back for another adventure! This time in Stargate SG-1 Unleashed, a tablet game to be released on iOS and Android platforms. “Episode 1” is slated for release this coming March. Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, and Amanda Tapping have all tweeted about doing voice work for the game (we’re hoping that Christopher Judge recorded for the game, too, so that the original team is reunited once more)!

Embedded below is the teaser. What do you make of it? Will you be playing this adventure game from MGM and Arkalis Interactive? What season do you think is the setting and who is that Goa’uld that is threatening Earth? Make sure to register to leave your comments below (if you’re on LiveJournal, we’ve got a thread going there as well).

Actor and Stargate News

More updates from the past couple of months, in case you missed them elsewhere on the web!

In exciting and mysterious news, both Michael Shanks and Amanda Tapping have tweeted that they’re voicing their SG-1 characters for an SG-1 game or app. Michael tweeted: Rumors are true: voicing new SG1 app game. #stargateUnleashed #epicness#badassery pic.twitter.com/OMOfCTS2 We haven’t found other news about the app, but this would be at least the 3rd attempt at a Stargate game, and we hope it finally comes to pass!

Michael’s show, Saving Hope, has been renewed for 18 episodes for Season 2. It will air in Canada and has been sold to foreign markets, while as of now it hasn’t been picked up by a US network. NBC canceled it just before the end of its first season run, but perhaps another network will pick it up for next summer.

Ming Na has been cast as a lead in Joss Whedon’s upcoming super-hero Avengers’ spin-off series, S.H.I.E.L.D. This is a huge deal, as the show is highly anticipated in the US markets at least. We give Ming our hearty congratulations!

Paul McGillion appeared in an episode of Fringe a few weeks ago. Try to catch it if you missed it — it’s called “The Recordist”. Paul was also recently filming another episode of Once Upon a Time, presumably to reprise his role as the Knave of Hearts. Keep an eye out for that one.

Joe Flanigan recently traveled to Austin, Texas to film a pilot for a possible new series on the Lifetime network called The Secret Lives of Wives. He would play the husband of Reed, who is played by Salli Richardson, who co-starred on Syfy’s Eureka.

Ben Browder will appear in an episode of the hit series Arrow. More details here.

Brian J. Smith tweeted that he’ll be appearing in the Tennessee Williams play The Glass Menagerie with Zachary Quinto and others, in a Boston, MA production. More details here at Playbill. He will also be in one episode of the new Syfy series Defiance.

Louis Ferreira appeared in four episodes of the second season of The L.A. Complex. Fans should look for the show on-line or hopefully soon on DVD.

Finally, Stargate writer-producer Carl Binder will be heading back up to Vancouver, this time to be the show-runner for Hallmark’s new series Cedar Cove, starring Andie MacDowell.

Stargate Actor Updates

Hey, we’re still here! Here’s a round-up of the various bits of news that have come out recently about our beloved Stargate actors.

In disappointing news, the US network NBC dropped the final two episodes of Saving Hope from its summer schedule. But US fans of Michael Shanks and Erica Durance can watch the episodes on-line at NBC.com’s Saving Hope videos page. Episode 12, “Ride Hard or Go Home” is up now, and we expect the season finale, “The Sleeper Awakes” to be up later this week. The show has been renewed by CTV in Canada for Season 2, to air next summer. We hope the show will be released in the US in some form, if not on a network! It’s a pity that 3 million viewers were not enough to keep it on the air in the states.

Meanwhile Michael Shanks has stayed very busy since Saving Hope Season 1 finished filming. As he has been tweeting (@MichaelShanks), he’s currently in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada filming a bio-pic. He’s playing the lead role of Gordie Howe in the film, called Mr. Hockey. Gordie Howe is a hockey legend, and Michael is clearly thrilled to be playing the iconic role, while using his real hockey skills as well. No word on a US release yet, but we will keep an eye out.

Jewel Staite continues to co-star in The L.A. Complex, which airs on The CW in the US. Martin Gero, a writer and producer on Stargate, is the creator and executive producer of the show, which is set in L.A. and is filmed in both L.A. and Toronto, Canada. There is no word yet on a Season 3. US ratings were low on Tuesdays, but improved when it recently got moved to Mondays. Follow Jewel on twitter here: @JewelStaite

Jason Momoa has been cast as a villain in the upcoming film Wolves, as reported here. He’ll play the evil werewolf patriarch of a town. This project was recently announced, so no word on release date yet. Jason appears in Bullet to the Head with Sylvester Stallone. It’s scheduled for release on 1 February 2013.

Paul McGillion is a new daddy of baby Hugh, born in early August! And he just filmed an episode of Fox’s Fringe. Follow Paul on twitter: @PaulyMcGillion.

Joe Flanigan has a couple of things coming up for release. First is Six Bullets, which he filmed with Jean Claude Van Damme in eastern Europe a while back. The film will be released on DVD in the US this Wednesday September 11 (order from Amazon here). A review of the movie is here, and has this nice thing to say about Joe:

One of the biggest surprises in the movie was Joe Flanigan who was great as the desperate father willing to do anything to get his daughter back. He definitely has the potential to become the next big action star.

Joe’s other role filmed a while back was an episode of Metal Hurlant Chronicles, which appears to be nearing release in France, then possibly in Germany and the UK. There’s no word on a US release yet. You can view a trailer here at Collider.

Many Stargate actors attended DragonCon 2012 in Atlanta last month, including Richard Dean Anderson, Joe Flanigan, Torri Higginson, Cliff Simon, Robert Picardo, Tony Amendola, Peter Kelamis, and probably others we don’t know about! We didn’t hear word of any new projects from the actors, but that could simply be because we’re not watching the right internet spots. Likewise Joe Flanigan, Michael Shanks, Paul McGillion, and others attended the Creation Stargate convention earlier in August, but not much word of new work has gotten out. If you heard of any big news, please let us know!

 

Reminder: Michael Shanks in “Saving Hope”

Tonight’s the premiere of MICHAEL SHANKS’s new show, Saving Hope! You can catch it at 9/8c on NBC in the United States and CTV in Canada!

Michael plays Dr. Charles Harris, the Chief of Surgery at Hope Zion Hospital. He’s engaged to Alex Reid (played by Erica Durance from Smallville). On the way to their wedding, they are in an automobile accident that leaves Charlie in a coma. Now Alex must learn to live with the uncertainty of his fate, as well as perform her duties as a surgeon without him as a crutch. In the meantime, Charlie “haunts” the hospital in spirit form and now must adjust to being cut off from the love of his life. He can see her, but she can’t see him.

Here’s the latest promotion from CTV:

Michael Shanks is Tweeting!

On March 19, the folks at michaelshanks-online.com turned over the @MichaelShanks twitter handle to Michael himself. Perhaps motivated by his upcoming role in Saving Hope (imdb, twitter), Michael decided to start tweeting himself, and he’s started off with a bang! He’s been saying hi to fellow Stargate alums, responding to fans, and even exchanging tips with his wife Lexa Doig (@LexaShmexa). So if you’re not on Twitter, this might be your reason to finally take the plunge. After all, Michael swore he’d never do it either!

Or, visit our page of all Stargate twitter users!

The michaelshanks-online.com twitter account is now MichaelShanks-Online — give them a follow as well.

 

Shanks’s Saving Hope Picked Up by NBC

Saving Hope, a medical drama starring Michael Shanks and Erica Durance, has been picked up by prime-time US network NBC. Its 13 episodes will air on both NBC and the Canadian CTV this summer. Filming starts March 12 in Toronto. It’s not clear if the pilot episode will be used as already filmed, or re-shot in some way.

This marks the first time Michael will appear as a co-star in a regular series airing on a major US network!  We wish him every success and we’re sure we speak for all of his fans in looking forward to seeing him on our TV screens again.

For more information on Saving Hope, check our recent blog postings here.

ETA: The premiere date has been set by NBC: June 7, 2012, at 10 PM ET.