STARGATE SG-1 Crew RISK their LIVES

Well, it wasn't really intended, to make the news in precisely this way, but thankfully everyone is ok.

Now that everyone is safe, we can share some of the excitement.

In case you don't know, or didn't read it on THE SUPERGATE yet, we have a film crew of 15 people up at the North Pole filming shots for one of the brand new Stargate SG1 movies. Including Ben, Rick, and Amanda....

REUTERS NEWS WIRE!
STARGATE SG-1 Filmmakers risk their lives in Arctic Circle

Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:29PM EDT

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - As the submarine slips under the ice, water splashes a cameraman who is lying on the ice's edge with a submersible camera. Here in the Arctic Circle, the temperature is minus-37 degrees Fahrenheit -- the point at which mercury turns solid -- and this crew member is in immediate danger of freezing.

Martin Wood, the director of the direct-to-video movie "Stargate: Continuum," quickly radios for help, and the cameraman is whisked away by helicopter to the base camp. He's treated and will be OK.

The shoot is taking place as close to the North Pole as possible -- at the Navy's Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station, 3,000 kilometers north of Vancouver and 200 nautical miles north of Prudhoe Bay, the northernmost city in Alaska. A team of about 15 crew and actors arrived Thursday for a seven-day shoot of six scenes for MGM's $6 million-$7 million extension of the long-running sci-fi series "Stargate."

The "Continuum" production, headed by Wood and writer-producer Brad Wright, is housed in prefab plywood huts with stove heaters called hooches. Drinking water is obtained by going outside, grabbing a chunk of ice and melting it in a container on the stove. The closest Internet connection -- and shower -- requires a flight to Prudhoe Bay.

Charles Cohen, MGM senior executive vp finance and corporate development, sat in on the Navy briefings before the shoot and stressed two points.

"One, if you fall in any water, it's so cold that you have about 10 seconds to get out or you're dead," he said. "And two, the polar bear situation."

"A bear and a cub were spotted 14 miles away when we first got here," Wood said in an interview via satellite telephone. "(The other day) they were five miles away, so we're expecting them (to come) closer."

Riflemen stand guard in case they do.

The complicated sequence, filmed last weekend, called for the USS Alexandria to break up through the ice, surprising a lost Stargate team. The submarine was rigged with a camera, and a hole was cut through the 4-foot ice so that a submersible camera could be placed about 18 feet below the surface. The ice was then cleared of snow, with an 'X' marking the area where the sub would, in theory, break through.

On the first try, the whole sub came up pounding though the ice. On the second take, it fought to grind through, not quite hitting the mark. Each time, the crew and actors were surprised.

"They say if you want to be in the safest position when the submarine comes up, stand on the 'X' because it never hits it," Wood said.

The landscape changed daily, because of the constant breaking and reforming of the ice atop of the Arctic Ocean. But Wood said continuity wasn't a problem. "Because everything that we're looking at is pretty much ice and pressure ridges," he said. "It's as nondescript a background as you can get."

The production opted for the difficult terrain because the filmmakers were convinced it couldn't be replicated in a studio or computer-generated environment.

"I don't think it could have been done with the same sort of intensity that you're going to have by shooting it real," Wood said. "I don't think you can capture the right feeling and sound if you tried to re-create it in an unnatural way."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

SOURCE: REUTERS

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In a Related Story:
Two are killed in Arctic submarine accident
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

HMS Tireless

-Two sailors were killed on Wednesday aboard the nuclear submarine HMS Tireless, the Ministry of Defence said.

The accident took place while the vessel was submerged in the Arctic during a British-US exercise, a spokesman said.

The two men have not been named but their families have been informed, he added. Apiece of air-purification equipment was thought to be responsible for the accident. The forward compartment of the Trafalgar class nuclear submarine was damaged in the accident and the crew was forced to surface quickly through the ice.

A third submariner was injured and was airlifted to hospital. His injuries are not life-threatening, the MoD said. The nuclear reactor of HMS Tireless was unaffected and the ship itself was not in danger, a spokesman added.

HMS Tireless is a hunter-killer submarine and does not carry nuclear missiles. An MoD spokesman confirmed the piece of equipment which malfunctioned was fitted to all Trafalgar class submarines.

He said its use on other boats had been restricted until safety checks could be carried out. Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent last night offered his sympathy to the families of the two men who died and paid tribute to the crew of HMS Tireless.

He said: 'I very much regret that this incident has occurred and my thoughts go out to the family and friends of the men who have lost their lives.

'I also wish to pay tribute to the crew of HMS Tireless that this incident has been dealt with and contained in such a professional manner.'

NOTE: This 2nd accident is Not us. This other submarine accident just happened during the same time that the STARGATE SG-1 team set out for a similar ARCTIC mission to film the Stargate SG-1 movies. Our hearts and sympathies go out to those who died on the British arctic submarine mission on the 21st of March 2007.
:(

Luckily everyone with SG-1 is ok so far...

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