Update from JMS

From a recent newsgroup post:

To the many questions that have arisen here of late...yes, as I mentioned before, there is the possibility of something Babylon 5 related on the horizon, but again I don't want anyone getting excited until we know if either one of these two projects is going to actually come to fruition. We should know where this lands in the next few weeks. The only thing I will say is that they're not print projects, so if you were to assume it's for TV or film you wouldn't be too far off... but that neither of them are series. And that's all I'm going to say about them for now.

Hmmmm... I didn't know that there were two possible projects in the talking stage. It's going to be a long "several weeks" waiting to hear what is up.

Later,

Joe

Good job, Joe, you beat me to posting this by about one minute! ;-)

Here's the full link to the entire post; there's a good explanation of Jeremiah's status as well:

Post Available at JMSNews

Enjoy!

-Tim

Hey Joe,

Even though I have not participated for a long time as an "active" member of this forum, I always read msgs from this forum and WB official B5 forum.

Well, your news it is REALLY something that must be answered. I suppose the whole community is REALLY REALLY happy about it. And what it makes me evenmore happy is because all of us contributed to make something PROBABLY turning possible, namely: a brand new B5 project, buying the DVDs seasons.

Congratulations again to inform us about this important news..... I know that we must have some precautions not being too much excited, but, I believe JMS ans you can understand it is difficult not to feel enthusiastic about it.

My guess: Will be for the BIG SCREEN....and may be we can start dreaming about getting the OSCAR AWARD... Who knows? Now....we can dream, cant we?

Regards,

CADU
Zahadum

Great news. Hoping for something nice to happen... is my second favourite activity in the universe (the place of most favourite activity is reserved to seeing/making something nice happen).

Hmmmm... I didn't know that there were two possible projects in the talking stage. It's going to be a long "several weeks" waiting to hear what is up.

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You're not kidding!

I'm hoping for The Telepath War feature film, and a Crusade TV miniseries. <fingers crossed> Futile, yes I know, but what the heck. <shrug>

Ah, I've said before that I'd sure as hell would like a theatrical movie. Now... well, maybe...

There is talk of Marcus being part of a project. One of the films could be set during the third or fourth year.

There is talk of Marcus being part of a project.

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Well, there's talk and there's talk:

I spoke to Doug about this today, and he indicated to me that this conversation never happened. It's either a misstatement from Jason or an inaccurate fan rumor.

jms

One of the films could be set during the third or fourth year.

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I'd be very surprised if they did anything "mid-story". I suspect that whatever projects are knocking around will involve the gulf between "Obejcts at Rest" and "Sleepping in Light".

Regards,

Joe

Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank you Joe! On the ball as usual. Great Job!

Hmm... considering the success of the DVD sets, is something direct to video one of the possibilities here???

Hmm... considering the success of the DVD sets, is something direct to video one of the possibilities here???

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Personally I doubt it, given the "cream" they have been able to skim off the series via DVD. It could be, and this only a guess, a "backdoor pilot" film, much better produced than Legend of the Rangers. I say "backdoor pilot" since JMS said the two projects under consideration were not "series" but a backdoor pilot would not be a "series." :devil:

Hmm... considering the success of the DVD sets, is something direct to video one of the possibilities here???

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NO!.

Cheesey sequels to animated movies aside, no major Hollywood studio does anything direct-to-video on purpose. Anything that gets released that way first gets bounced from TV or tests so badly that it is unreleasable in theaters. (And when you consider that they did release Gigli, you can see how bad most of this stuff is and what an admission of failure it would look like to the rest of the industry.) Besides, you just don't make that much money on direct-to-video, especially in the realm of DVD. One of the reasons that WB is doing so well out of the discs sets is that the show itself is long-since paid for. All they have to recoup are the mastering, production and marketing/distribution costs of the DVDs, plus the small amount they pay out to cast and crew in royalties. Everything they make above those costs is pure profit. That would not be the case with a made-for-DVD movie, in which the $3 or $4 million dollar cost of the film itself would have to be earned back by the DVD release along with all the other costs before the studio saw a dime of profit.

What the success of the DVDs is telling Warner Bros. is that there is a very big audience for B5, an audience willing to spend money for the appropriate product, something that the lukewarm ratings for the reruns (admitedly on their umpteenth cycle and at 9 AM on a low-rated cable channel) could not reveal. If they're doing any market research or collecting any demographic data I suspect that they're also pleasantly surprised by what a broad audience the show has found, and how many women find it appealing.

Odds are that some network, cable channel or syndicator has heard how well the discs are doing and has expressed interest to Warner Bros., or that the studio itself is thinking about exploiting the interes in B5 in the only way where it would have total control and wouldn't need a partner - that is, as a theatrical film. (Less likely given JMS's hints is that a second problem involves something like a computer game with live action footage ala the late, lamented, Into the Fire from Sierra.)

Regards,

Joe

Well, they could do something like what the BBC has been doing with Dr. Who (not the new live series, but the animated webcasts):

Direct to the internet (free or through pay subscription) and then to video.

I'm just suggesting these because JMS said that TV and film are not far from the truth... that makes me think it is something slightly different or unusual.

Yes, that "not far from the truth" caught me too. Could be he's just trying to be cryptic at this early stage. Or, maybe the projects really AREN'T TV or a movie, but something LIKE that, say a video game. I hope it's not just a video game!

Does anyone else think that the way JMS phrased it leaves open the possibility that the second project is really just the first one in an alternate format...like a story that WB may want as a feature film, but their backup plan is to do it as a mini-series?

Does anyone else think that the way JMS phrased it leaves open the possibility that the second project is really just the first one in an alternate format...

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Not me. You might downgrade a feature film to a TV movie, or even upgrade a TV movie to a feature film (which is essentially what Paramount did with what would have been the Star Trek 2 pilot.) But you don't turn a 2 hour movie script into a 6 or 10 hour mini-series script. The whole nature of the story you can tell in each form is totally different. One does not easily become the other.

BTW, and totally off-topic, but am I the only one who sees Chris's last name and immediately thinks "Squarepants"?

Regards,

Joe

Hmmmm... I didn't know that there were two possible projects in the talking stage. It's going to be a long "several weeks" waiting to hear what is up.

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Hehe, I guess I am one of the few who have been paying attention as I knew there was more than one B5 project in the works.

Aug.29.2003
Yes, there's one or two things percolating n the B5 universe that may be of interest, but neither of them are series deals.

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The next few weeks will be torture!

Intersting I guess will have to wait and see.

Odds are that some network, cable channel or syndicator has heard how well the discs are doing and has expressed interest to Warner Bros., or that the studio itself is thinking about exploiting the interest in B5 in the only way where it would have total control and wouldn't need a partner - that is, as a theatrical film.

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...or a TV miniseries on a Warner Brothers affiliated network? (unless you'd consider them to be a "partner." Depends on how disfunctional you consider the WB family to be, I guess.)

(Less likely given JMS's hints is that a second problem

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"project"

... involves something like a computer game with live action footage ala the late, lamented, Into the Fire from Sierra.)

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Hope not. Another start at the game that'll never be finished.