New Pic of Jason Momoa as Conan

This new Conan picture is from Nu Boyana Film Studios, the film's official production company, and it shows star Jason Momoa (Ronon Dex in Stargate Atlantis), in the role of Conan.

The famous barbarian was created by Robert E. Howard, and was previously played in two 1980s movies by now Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Conan is directed by Marcus Nispel and also stars Rachel Nichols, Stephen Lang, Bob Sapp, Leo Howard, Ron Perlman, Said Taghmaoui and Rose McGowan. It will be released in 2011.

[Nu Boyana Film Studios, via Coming Soon]

Jason Momoa Rocks it as Conan!

These brand new pics of Jason Momoa (Ronon Dex, Stargate Atlantis) in full Conan garb have just appeared online.

I have fond memories of the very first Conan movie, Conan The Barbarian, with now governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger and then hit girl Sandahl Bergman. The 1980s were the good old days of Sword and Sorcery.

Exclusive Dawn Olivieri Interview: Heroes's Mysterious Lydia!!!

The lovely Dawn Olivieri as Lydia with Bad Boy Sylar played by Zachary Quinto

Recently, I had the great pleasure of sending some interview questions to the lovely Dawn Olivieri who is one of the newest cast members on Heroes. Miss Olivieri plays the mysterious Lydia, who has some sort of empathic power where she can see and give information about the people appearing on her tattoed skin with the ink provided by Samuel. The character was even featured in the Web Exclusive Sprint series Slowburn.

Miss Olivieri is no stranger to Sci-Fi, having appeared in a guest role on the last season of another famous franchise: Stargate Atlantis, as a thief by the name of Neeva, as well as on Knight Rider. On Heroes, she brings much poise and luminosity to the show and it is always a pleasure to see her.

As the mysterious Lydia, you are one of the newest cast members in the Heroes family. How do you feel about coming into such a big ensemble show?
If i had really stopped to think about it too much it would have probably been more overwhelming then it was. I was lucky because i joined the show at the very beginning of the new season and ushered in a much needed, well received chapter in Heroes history.

We do not know yet whether Lydia is a good or bad character since most of Samuel’s and the Carnival’s history and motivations are still hidden from the viewers (as of episode 5). Have the writers given you any hindsight into who she is and where she comes from in order to play her?
When i was brought on as Lydia, I had a brief meeting with some of the writers regarding her but not much character direction was given. They expressed their intention of "letting me discover her" so creating Lydia was a collaborative effort. In the original breakdown, it described a "gullible" tattoo girl...this i chose to ignore, No one with all of her insight and knowledge would be "gullible" at least not REALLY;)

We have learned that Lydia’s a mother from the webisodes and that only Edgar seems to know her secret. Do you think she has more surprises down her sleeves?
Sleeves?? lol Lydia rarely sports sleeves, tattoo sleeves maybe. and if she did have them they would be full! Lydia's powers seem almost mystical in nature; she seems to see the future and makes predictions through the ink used by Samuel on her skin.

Will we get to learn more about her powers this season?
Her powers will become more defined in the episodes coming in the new year.

What was your first reaction upon learning what your character could do?
well, like many of the fans, there was so much that was unanswered. I had so many questions that i had to fill in the blanks myself. As an actor, its part of the job:)

What kind of powers would you, yourself, like to have?
hmm...to heal others

How did you prepare for the role? Did casting tell you that you would be covered with that many tattoos?
they did ask us all at the audition if we were claustrophobic in any way haha. And yes we did know it would involve tattoos. I loved the thought of it all though.

The show is hinting at a romance between your character and bad boy serial killer Sylar. Romances on Heroes have never been successful. If that is the case, how do you think this could bode for Lydia?
I cant say much about this because there will be more to come involving this storyline in the new year. Lydia is a different kind of girl;)

Heroes is not your first foray into Sci-Fi television. You’ve had quite a prominent guest part on a season 5 Stargate Atlantis episode called ''Identity'' where you played Neeva, a thief who switches bodies with Dr. Keller. Is science-fiction a genre that ever appealed to you?
I LOVE sci fi!! I would be happy if that was the only genre I ever worked in again!! It is by far my favorite subject to read, to watch, to act....

Miss Olivieri, can you talk to us about your upcoming projects?
Well, I have two films coming out that i shot actually BEFORE Heroes one called Dozers and another called Drop Dead Gorgeous. Both are fun sci-fi films in which I play a lead role.

One last question: When you are not working on Heroes, what are your guilty pleasures on television?
Due to my profession, I try to watch a little of everything. This can be exhausting and unfortunate because even the shows i love to watch do not get their fair share of watching. I also tend to favor shows i would love to be a part of such as: True Blood, Dollhouse, Dexter, Californication, Fringe, Heroes, the Discovery show (i do not need to be on this one lol) unless i was doing a travel show which i would not be opposed to! Old westerns are fun. You know every piece of cinematic art i have not had the pleasure of watching i try to see and that is a lot. It is my classroom after all.

I want to thank Miss Olivieri for having taken the time to share with us Heroes and Sci-Fi fans alike. I am looking forward to seeing more of this lovely actress, and her character Lydia, in the coming months.

Exclusive Robert Picardo Interview: Part 1

Picture 1: Robert Picardo as Stargate Atlantis's new leader, Richard Woolsey, and Paul McGillion as Beckett

Picture 2: Robert Picardo as the Doctor and his creator Lewis Zimmerman and Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi in the Voyager episode ''Life Line.''

An acting veteran with a career that spans more than 30 years and covers over 40 movies for both television and the big screen, as well as appearances in over 80 television series; Robert Picardo is well known for his roles on China Beach as Doctor Dick Richards and on The Wonder Years as Coach Cutlip. A stage actor first, Mr. Picardo once shared the theatre stage with the great Jack Lemmon, Danny Aiello and Diane Keaton amongst others.

Nowadays, he is more widely known to Science-Fiction fans as the Doctor on Star Trek Voyager and as Richard Wolsey on the Stargate series.

It was a complete honor for me to interview Mr. Picardo during the 2009 Star Trek Convention, as I am a great fan of his, and also because the Doctor is one of my favourite Star Trek characters ever.

In the first part of this interview, I wanted to talk about what he liked the most as an actor, what his feelings were on the subject of being part of both Star Trek and Stargate, and how he found the Doctor’s voice as a writer in both the Star Trek: Voyager episode called ''Life Line'' and in his very funny book: The Hologram’s Handbook.

Inside Trekker : You’ve had a very diverse career. You’ve acted in plays, movies, TV series – and you’ve also done some voice acting in animated movies and video games. Which medium do you like the most? What makes you the happiest?

RP: I think probably I’ve had the most fun working on stage. The actor is most in control when you’re working live. Even though you develop your performance under the supervision of a director, every night you are responsible for recreating your performance; so that, I think, is really the most exciting, especially for someone who started as a stage actor. However, it’s a great joy to work in all media and I love doing what I’m doing, which is everything. I like to do theatre work; I like to work on film and television, and I also like to do animation, as well. They all have different challenges and their different rewards. So I like it all. It’s good to be busy!

IT: You’ve been in two of the biggest and longest-running Sci-Fi franchises of all time – as the Doctor on Star Trek [Voyager] and Richard Woolsey on Stargate. How do you feel about being part of two huge franchises?

RP: I am proud to be the only actor who’s played a starring role in both of the major franchises. I am happy that the characters were distinct and different, and I’m really particularly happy that the Stargate fans accepted me – not only as a different character, if they were familiar with my work on Star Trek, but that they also grew to accept me as a leader. Because my character was pretty much introduced as a bad guy… or you thought he was a bad guy, then it turned out he was a just an obnoxious guy who meant well… and then he slowly, you know, they gave him some comic foibles and all that, but he was never meant to be a leader. He was someone who evaluated the leadership of others. He was like a think-tank person or a briefing room person who was all theory but no execution. [laughs] ''Here’s what you should have done.'' So the fact that the audience grew to accept me as a leader, I was proud of, because that was a difficult transition, I think, to take the character through.

IT: And you were a great leader. I loved you, actually.

RP: Thank you! Well, I’m happy to hear that because he’s not by nature a brave individual. We had established that. Also, he’s not very much of a people person; he doesn’t have very good interpersonal skills. He had to learn an awful lot, but mostly he had to learn to trust his senior officers. And he had to trust his own instincts and willingness to put the rulebook down and go with his gut, which was the hardest thing, I think, for him to do because he’s a very intellectual person.

IT: You have a writing credit on a season 6 episode (of Star Trek Voyager) called ''Life Line'', and you wrote The Hologram’s Handbook. How hard or easy was it for you to write that book in the Doctor’s voice?

RP: [Laughs] Well, I don’t have the discipline to sit down really to write scripts or to write a long-form book. But I loved playing that character and I missed him as the show was ending and that’s one of the reasons why I had the idea. But also, I thought of funny situations and ideas that we had never dealt with on the series. It really came out of the episode ''Message in a Bottle'' where I’m bragging to Andy Dick’s character, EMH Mark II, that I’ve had sexual experiences and I said to the writers: When did I have them? [laughs] When did it? How did this happen? The audience saw me first activated on Voyager and then they’ve been keeping in touch with me every week. When did all this stuff happen? No one had any answers for me, so I went and decided to write my own back story to different things that had come up on the show that I wanted to know [laughs], you know, what the background was. So it started just as humorous anecdotes.
And then I also have always been amused by all the psychology self-help books that are at supermarket checkout counters and all that. So it’s really a satire of the self-help book. It’s a ''if you’re smarter than everyone else that you have to work with, it’s how to get along with inferiors.'' So it was mostly just for fun. And my friend Jeff Yagher, who’s a wonderful actor and sculptor and cartoonist, he did the cartoons for the book. And we had been working together – he was guest starring on Voyager – and the idea developed for us to do something together, so he would do the art for the book and I would write the chapters. So that was also a fun way to collaborate with him and help him pay for his wedding.

IT: I read that [The Hologram’s Handbook]. It was a great book. I enjoyed it very much, and I even got the audio book

RP: Thank you! The audio book – it’s fun to hear me doing it, I think, because, you know, you get to hear the old windbag himself again if you miss him.

IT: Yes, I do miss him.

RP: Thank you! About the episode, one of my favourite plays is I Never Sang for My Father, so I thought it would be interesting to sort of borrow the structure of that play. It’s all about the disappointments from both directions – parents toward children and children toward parents. Parents, you know, ''why aren’t you what I’d hoped you’d be?'' And children’s point of view is ''why can’t you accept me for what I am, and why don’t you love me as I am, and look at what I can do and look what my strengths are?'' So, it was basically a father-child drama adapted for a programmer and a hologram.

The interview continues in part 2.