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Big news from JMS by late June or so

That's good, at least, Jan. :beer:

Here's hoping. If it's being eyed as Ron Howard's next film.. would that mean casting and maybe even beginning of filming in 2007? I'm ignorant of the time scale involved in something like this.
 
I think it depends on what they've got going on and their ambition. Tom Cruise's War of the Worlds, I believe started a while after the other 2005 one, but was fast tracked. I think it was less than a year from start to finish, because they were doing a "oneupsmanship" thing.
 
I wonder if they'll change the title - there's currently a US film in post-production, slated for 2007 distribution, with the title "Changeling."
 
Classic JMS in that post there Jan....talking like its practically a done deal. Boy that sounds familiar doesn't it folks?

Er, no, not really. JMS has generally been very cautious about his announcements and even his hints. If anything the fans have gone overboard on hyping every stray word of his. JMS announces things when contracts are signed and money has changed hands, not before. But, as noted above, he doesn't have total control over these things and the fact that a script gets sold doesn't mean the movie gets made - or that a series necessarily follows from a pilot.

But Universal shelled out to buy the script for Imagine entertaiment because Ron Howard expressed an interest ought to tell you something. :)

Regards,

Joe
 
Classic JMS in that post there Jan....talking like its practically a done deal. Boy that sounds familiar doesn't it folks?

Er, no, not really. JMS has generally been very cautious about his announcements and even his hints. If anything the fans have gone overboard on hyping every stray word of his. JMS announces things when contracts are signed and money has changed hands, not before. But, as noted above, he doesn't have total control over these things and the fact that a script gets sold doesn't mean the movie gets made - or that a series necessarily follows from a pilot.

But Universal shelled out to buy the script for Imagine entertaiment because Ron Howard expressed an interest ought to tell you something. :)

Regards,

Joe

Plus JMS specifically said "Folks are talking as if it's a sure thing this is gonna be made, but, it ain't a sure thing" (paraphrased)
 
And a bit more info:

Title: Re: ATTN JMS: Vol 8, page 14
Author: jmsatb5@aol.com
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 22:26:47 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <1151533517.775378.228400@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>

Wendy of NJ wrote:
> Does your "something of interest to convey in Volume 9" correlate in
> any way to the advice to scan Variety this week?
>
> hopeful,

That's one of them, yeah...remember, we're looking at multiple
announcements about all kinds of things. This is one of them.

And to clarify since there appears to be some confusion...this isn't an
option of a book, I wrote the screenplay. It isn't an if-maybe-option,
it's a full-out purchase of said screenplay, in which they back up the
money truck and big parcels come out. The purchase is a done deal, and
Imagine is going to produce it. Because if you're nost sure you're
going to make something, you option it. If you want to make it for
sure, you buy it...and as the page one article in Variety points out,
this was a purchase.

This also for those out there on various groups who so hate the idea
that my career is alive and well that they would chew off their own
arms before acknowldging this situation. Which is, of course, a large
part of the fun at my end....

jms
 
There can still be many a slip and all that, Warner Bros. bought any number of Superman scripts in the past couple of decades, always with the intention of filming them. But things are certainly looking very good for JMS. The mere fact that Imagine bought (not optioned) an original screenplay of his because Ron Howard was interested and might direct it (and will probably produce it even if he doesn't) definitely puts JMS on the radar screens of a lot of people who would not have been aware of him.

I note a few facts, without drawing any conclusions or making any suggestions:

If Howard makes the film, the script needs either no rewrites or JMS does the rewrites on time and to order for Howard, he moves way up on the Hollywood fod chain. Moreso if the film itself does well. (Though most of Hollywood will give all the credit Howard and the cast. Everybody in the business knows that films only flop because of their scripts, they never succeed because of them. :))

Rance Howard, who played Sheridan's father, is Ron Howard's real father. Wonder if giving the old man a job back in the day helped JMS in this deal? :). Ron Howard does have a reputation for being loyal to his cast and crewmembers, and rewarding loyatly from them. Maybe he learned that from his dad. :)

One of Ron's filmmaking mentors is George Lucas. Hmmm....

:)

Regards,

Joe
 
Am I the only person on this board even slightly concerned that JMS has drawn a parallel between himself and Akiva Goldsman ... purveyor of such SF classics as Batman & Robin and Lost In Space?

:p
 
Am I the only person on this board even slightly concerned that JMS has drawn a parallel between himself and Akiva Goldsman ... purveyor of such SF classics as Batman & Robin and Lost In Space? :p

No. :) As a matter of fact, I mentioned my concerns to JMS on the moderated newsgroup. (He has not chosen to respond so far):

jmsa...@aol.com wrote:
> It is, without question, the biggest deal I've ever made

Congratulations. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy. As
for the Akiva Goldsman comparison - it is always hard to tell when an
writer just goes off the rails with a script and when a perfectly good
piece of writing is destroyed by the studio, the director and/or the
actors. But here's hoping your future scripts are handled by honorable
and honest people, and therefore come out like the Akiva Goldsman of
Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind and Practical Magic (an
underrated little charmer) and not the Akiva Goldsman of Lost in
Space
and Batman & Robin. :)

Regards,

Joe

"Arnold Schwazeneggar spoke at a gathering of the gay and lesbian Log Cabin Repulbicans last night. The event marked the first time Arnold has appeared before a mostly homosexual audience since the premier of Batman & Robin" - David Letterman

:D
 
Well, to be fair, the statement doesn't really make any comparison whatsoever between their respective talents or successes. It merely said "propelled into A-Listness immediately, like what happened to Akiva Goldsman." (paraphrased)
 
Exactly. Reread what JMS wrote and you'll see it's just as Sindatur says.

and it moves me from being marginally known in the film business right into the catetory of a-list writer overnight, which parallels what happened with Akiva Goldman.

:)
 
Well, to be fair, the statement doesn't really make any comparison whatsoever between their respective talents or successes. It merely said "propelled into A-Listness immediately, like what happened to Akiva Goldsman." (paraphrased)

Except that being propelled to the "A" list precisely is a measure of success, and therefore part of the comparison JMS was making. And, as I noted, very good films as well as very bad ones have been made from Goldsman scripts - and it is often hard to tell from the finished product how good or bad the screenplay was. (Since directors routinely re-write scripts, actors ad lib and films can be entirely remade in post-produciton. Listen to Barry Sonnenfeld's commentary track on Men in Black sometime to find out how little the finished film may have in common with what was written and even what was shot.)

Regards,

Joe
 
That's one of the encouraging things about it being Ron Howard who is interested, isn't it?

He isn't known to be a butcher of stories, is he?
 
He isn't know to be a butcher of stories, is he?

Exactly, that's one of the very good things about Howard being interested in the script.

As for Goldsman:

Writer Filmogrpahy:

1. I Am Legend (2007) (pre-production)
2. The Da Vinci Code (2006) (screenplay)
3. Cinderella Man (2005) (screenplay)
4. I, Robot (2004) (screenplay)
5. A Beautiful Mind (2001) (written by)
6. Practical Magic (1998) (screenplay)
7. Lost in Space (1998) (written by)
8. Batman & Robin (1997) (written by)
9. A Time to Kill (1996) (screenplay)
10. Batman Forever (1995) (screenplay)
11. Silent Fall (1994) (written by)
12. The Client (1994) (screenplay)

It does seem that most of his better scripts were adapted from other works, but doing a good adaptation is a talent all its own. Notice that three of them were for Ron Howard. :) Goldsman is now also a producer, and is listed as such on the upcoming remake of I am Legend, the Richard Matheson non-supernatural vampire story previously filmed with Charleton Heston as The Omega Man and with Vincent Price as The Last Man on Earth

Regards,

Joe
 
Just to stir the pot a bit -

on page 14 of the Volume 8 of the scripts series, JMS mentions a recent meeting at Warner Bros. about the possible future of the B5 universe. He doesn't put much emphasis on it, and allows how such meetings have taken place a number of times since the show went out of production, and that nothing concrete has come of any of them. But he does say that this meeting might have a little more going for it. For one thing they flew a WB exec from New York in for the meeting, one who had been involved with B5 and PTEN in the old days. For another he got to point out to the WB brass that they were still taling about B5 all these years later, not Kung Fu: The Legend Continues or Time Traxx or any of the other old PTEN shows, and that B5, not the others, that had grossed over half-a-billion dollars in worldwide DVD sales.

And all of that was before the news about The Changeling had been made public. (Although it is impossible to know what might have been going around the industry grapevine at the time.)

I find all of this ... Interesting. That's all I'll say, just ... interesting. :)

Regards,

Joe
 
I smell new Babylon 5 episodes straight to DVD, cutting the middle men out. No tv studios messing this one up or taking all the profits. They may release the episodes for download.
 
I'll be attending San Diego Comic Con next week and JMS is scheduled there. At Charlotte he hoped to be able to make the announcement at SDCC so I'll be sure to post anything he reports.

Jan
 
WB have just started a new straight to DVD division. In the podcasts from Charlotte (now removed) what JMS hints at does seem to very much tie in with a straight to DVD release B5 some-thing-or-other. I would say more, but as JMS clearly didn't want the postcasts up, I think those of us that have heard it need keep our lips sealed for a bit longer. :)

Personally if this were all it turned out to be, I would be a bit disappointed. I would like to see JMS do something on a bit larger scale, e.g. Telepath War mini series.
 
I'm not jumping up and down over this news. As much as I'd love to have new Babylon 5, I'm not really eager to have new Babylon 5 without G'Kar. And, honestly, it sticks in my craw just a little that it took WB this long to grok the moneymaking potential of original-cast B5. Just late enough that Andreas won't get to benefit from it.
 

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