B5:TLT Actual DISCUSSION Thread

[Mindwalker]

I'm buying 2 copies then...

[hypatia]

Well, a late-night update from JMS. From the moderated group:

Fast follow-up....

Just got back tonight from Vancouver, and we've now nailed down/hired
nearly all of our key department heads and the Director of Photography
who I'll be working with closely during production. We spent today in
the first informal production meeting going over how we're going to
shoot this, reviewing the storyboards, determining what's going to be
green screen and what's going to be practical set...this should be a
pretty cool looking project, with some sights we haven't really seen
before as well as some more familiar sights.


What I can say about the three episodes is that we go to Mars, Minbar
and of course B5, we introduce a new kind of Minbari cruiser, and
there's a rather startling sequence on Earth. I've decided to shoot
each segment a little differently from each other, so they each have
their own visual style that complements that particular story. On
Monday the B5 team up north will be checking out the stages, and about
a week or so from now the actual B5 offices will open up and folks will
start moving in.


It's starting to feel a lot like fun.


We'll also be working with WB to put together a special reel from the
shoot that we can bring to debut at San Diego Comic Con next year.


Meanwhile, not only has the Universal feature deal noted in another
thread been finalized, so I'm writing that now, but the Paramount
feature deal has *also* been closed, so now there are two big-budget
feature screenplay assignments that I have to write, the first due by
late November/early December, the second one sometime to be delivered
shortly after the first of the year. A third assignment is kind of
nibbling around the edges which could be very cool, even though I
couldn't start writing it until I finish the other two, which means
it'd have to be spring 2007 to turn in the script if the assignment
comes in.


Finally, now that Ron has said it's okay to bring in other directors on
Changeling, there's been a small flood of a-list directors coming
around to try and pick up the assignment. Part of the attraction is
not just the script, but the acting talent involved...as noted in the
LA Times piece, Reece Witherspoon (and two other oscar-winning leading
female actors) are extremely interested in the lead role. I imagine
we'll start having meetings in the next few weeks to narrow down the
list of directors.


It's crazy-busy, but good.


jms


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[Joseph DeMartino]

Well, a late-night update from JMS. From the moderated group:

There, you see? This TLT thing is obviously going nowhere. JMS has fooled us all again and I, for one, am getting tired of it!

Joe

[Joseph DeMartino]

I believe that the 3 TLT DVDs will be made and sold. Warner Brothers appear to have given him the money as a sort of pilot.

As noted by others, there is going to be one disc with three stories on it, readily convertable to a "two hour" TV movie if a network or cable channel is interested. And WB hasn't just handed over a big bag of money to JMS and said "go to it". Expenses are being paid by the studio week by week as they are incurred.

Whether a fourth one will be made is a different matter. I suspect that TLT-4 and a series will not be green-lite until the sales are in.

Hard to say, actually. WB probably has a pretty good (conservative) esitmate of how many TLT sets it is likely to sell, based on what is now a very extensive set of numbers from the original movie disc, B5, the movie set, Crusade and the Rangers pilot. If they can control costs, they may be confident that there is no way they can lose money on this project, and they may go right into the second batch of tales and continue on from there without waiting for sales figures or a TV deal for the first disc.

Even then there will be an argument within the various parts of Warner Brothers. If they treat it like a film they will want sales to be 10 times the production and marketing costs.

I see you're still using the Big Book of Made-up Statistics as a reference for your posts.

1) Warner Bros. cannot arbitrarily "decide to treat" a given project as a theatrical relase, DVD original or etc. Union contracts treat different types of releases differently. And you can't "treat" a DVD produced for DVD "as a film" if it has never been releaed theatrically because the consumer isn't going to treat it that way.

2) The DVD is presumably being procduced by/for the new Direct-To-DVD division of Warner Home Video. So there is really only one "part of Warner Bros." that JMS has to deal with.

3) "...they will want sales to be 10 times the production and marketing costs." I assume you got this out of some (not terribly accurate) article about either theatrical releases and ticket sale, or releases of theatrical movies on DVD. Either way it doesn't apply, and nobody use such an arbitrary formula for calculating much of anything. (The old "rule of thumb" for theatrical films is that domestic gross ticket sales had to equal 3 to 4 times production cost - exclusive of prints, advertising and promoiton - for a film to break even . That was before international sales were as big a factor as they are now and before home video. So obvisouly "10 times production costs" is way too high an amount to demand for going forward with a project Nobody would make a film if they had to be assured of $10 in gross sales for every dollar spent in producing and selling a film.)

For a DVD release of a theatrical film there are no "production costs" because the film itself has already been produced and been paid for (one hopes) by worldwide threatrical ticket sales. A DVD release need only make back its own masting and extras production costs, plus enough to cover residuals.

For a direct to DVD project the actual content production costs obviously have to be factored in. But since, by definition a direct to DVD project is not a theatrical film and can't be "treate" like a theatrical film, your "10 times cost" figure can't even be considered an estimate since it isn't in any way based in reality.

Regards,

Joe

[Shaal Mayan]

Well, a late-night update from JMS. From the moderated group:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



There, you see? This TLT thing is obviously going nowhere. JMS has fooled us all again and I, for one, am getting tired of it!

Really ???? I always thought the same thing

[Lousy_Dodgers]

I am hoping that even the pre-orders will be enough to convince WB to make more. I know I will likely place my order as soon as I see it listed on Amazon, even if I have to wait a few weeks for it to ship. Although I fear WB will cancel the project at the last minute and try to keep my money

[hypatia]

If Amazon is doing pre-orders, then Amazon will take care of you.

It also means the project is finished. They'd really have no reason to cancel it at that point in time.

[Lousy_Dodgers]

Well, they tend to do pre-orders for books and other DVDs so I would think they would do it for this as well. I think it is too early for that though...maybe we will see something on the site early in 2007. Have there been any updates on when we could expect to see these appear?

Well, they would have one reason to cancel it at that point in time: it would irritate me.

[hypatia]

I'm pretty sure by the time Amazon.com starts taking pre=orders, it knows the product is going to be for sale.

[Joseph DeMartino]

Yeah, Amazon doesn't offer items for pre-order until the publisher/manufacturer notifies them that the item is in the production process and that a release date (and earliest pre-order date) has been set. And they don't charge your credit card until they actually ship the item. (And Warner Bros. doesn't get your money. Amazon pays them a wholesale price when they order a title in bulk, then they collect from you and keep all of your money when VISA or Mastercard sends them a check at the end of the month. )

Have there been any updates on when we could expect to see these appear?

Just a guess here, but I'd say it would probably some time after they start shooting. Right now the paint probably isn't dry in the production offices.

JMS has indicated 2nd quarter 2007 for a release, and pre-orders typically appear a couple of months ahead of the release date.

It also means the project is finished. They'd really have no reason to cancel it at that point in time.

Yeah. By the time a pre-order is up the show is shot and all the expensive post-production CGI is done and the thing's been mastered. At that point WB has spent all the money they're going to spend on the project except for replicating and distributing the DVDs and the only way in the world they'll ever make that money back is by selling the DVDs. Let's have a show of hands, please - How many people think they're going to cancel the relase just to piss you off?

There is a difference betwen trying to not go overboard in enthusiasm for a new project and paranoid, hysterical fantasy and conspiracy theories. It doesn't take a profound knowledge of the DVD business to know that some of this stuff is ridiculous. It just takes a little common sense and some critical thinking to avoid posting nonsense like some of the things that have showed up in some of these threads lately.

C'mon guys. Deep breaths. Decaf. Maybe yoga.


Regards,

Joe