Michael Shanks Teleports To Burn Notice

Michael Shanks may be away on a family holiday with his wife Lexa Doig and their children, but the multi talented actor has still managed to squeeze in a telephone interview.

Here is an excerpt of the interview:

Calling from atop the CN Tower in Toronto, where he’s on a family vacation with wife Lexa Doig and their children, “Stargate SG-1” star Michael Shanks is happy to take time to talk about his latest TV venture.

On Thursday, he launched a recurring role on the USA Network espionage dramedy “Burn Notice.” He’s playing Victor, a blacklisted spy sent to Miami by Carla (Tricia Helfer), the new handler of also-blacklisted spy Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), to wrangle Michael into supplying technical assistance for a new operation.

“It’s one of those roles where I get to chew every bit of scenery in town,” Shanks says, “which is always fun to play. When you have that kind of artistic license to go big or go home, it can be a bit of a romp.” In addition, it afforded Shanks a chance to leave Canada and warm up in the Florida sunshine.
“It’s Miami,” he says, “so it’s hard to be in a bad mood there.

“I’m doing the last three episodes of the season. I’m not entirely sure what the story line is. Matt (executive producer Matt Nix) teased me with a few tidbits, which I can’t really reveal.” Unfortunately, Shanks didn’t get to do any scenes with Bruce Campbell, who plays Michael’s spy buddy Sam Axe.
“Bruce is a personal hero of mine,” Shanks says. “Guys of my generation, after watching ‘Army of Darkness’ or the ‘Evil Dead’ movies — Bruce becomes a type of superhero to you.”

Most recently, Shanks could be seen in the DVD release of “Stargate: Continuum,” a stand-alone movie featuring the “SG-1” characters.

Last month, at Comic-Con International in San Diego, “Continuum” writer and executive producer Michael Wright said he’s been asked to write a script for another “SG-1” movie, but, as Shanks says, “That’s, of course, far off from us getting in front of the camera to do it.”

“It was my first big job, and it’s been going on for a dozen years now, and it still goes on.”
According to Shanks, development continues on “Rage of Angels,” a TV-series project he’s working on with “SG-1” co-star Christopher Judge. The fantasy pilot casts Judge as the angel Gabriel, with Shanks as Lucifer.

“It looks like a great, well- respected show-runner has come onboard and is working on a seven- year plan for it,” Shanks says. “I get all of my information from Christopher, so I have to take everything with a boulder of salt.”

He has no plans to appear on “Sanctuary,” the new Sci Fi Channel series from “SG-1” and “Stargate Atlantis” star Amanda Tapping, premiering Oct. 3.