It was probably a bit of a leak.
Jeremiah has been kind of an "open secret" for quite awhile now. When JMS and other SF writers did a panel discussion at the Museum of Raido & Television, both the program and the MoR&T website mentioned
Jeremiah as his current project. And he spoke about it very openly when he was getting things organized with Joe Dante and writing the pilot script.
JMS even went so far as to reveal a detail of the original deal: namely that Showtime agreed to green-light the series based on an acceptable pilot
script, without requiring that the thing actually be filmed.
Once he had a signed contract in hand, however, JMS was bound by Hollywood protocol not to say anything about the project until the studio and/or network made some kind of official announcement. But he
has said that he has a show-runner's contract for a non-
B5 project on "a major network", that he has to produce approximately 20 hours of material for the show (it isn't clear if the 2-hour pilot is counted in this 20 hour figure or not) and that production will start almost as soon as post-production is done on
Rangers.
The only other "major network project" that we knew he had in progress was
The World on Fire, the series he and Chris Carter all-but sold to CBS in 1999. Earlier this year, when discussing the "major network" show and a new
B5 project, JMS referred to a "surprise third project" that he had been offered. I suspect that this was
TWoF. But later he said he had decided to pass on that "for now" because he didn't want to spread himself too thin. (Launching two new television series, writing three or four comic books, an audio-drama and a feature film is a lot of work.)
So the only thing left that "That Which Cannot Be Named" can really be at this point is
Jeremiah. (It has to be a project for one of the pay cable services because basic cable works on a different pay-scale. HBO and Showtime are considered "major networks" along with ABC, NBC, CBS and now Fox. The WB and UPN still aren't considered "networks" under the WGA contract because they don't produce 7 nights of original material, so they're covered by the syndication terms of the Miminum Basic Agreement, as was Fox until the most recent contract. Basic cable has another fee scale entirely.)
"TWCBN" cannot be a show for the broadcast networks because all of their pilot, series and mid-season replacement plans for 2001/2002 have already been announced, and there is no JMS project among them. (These things are given to advertisers and ad agencies well in advance so that they can buy blocks of commercial time on new and existing shows. This isn't an issue with the premium cable services, so they can announce their projects whenever they like.)
So the odds are that the other project is
Jeremiah, but since it doesn't air until March 15, 2002 (per JMS) Showtime is probably in no hurry to announce it. Maybe they'll issue a press release when shooting starts ("right after Labor Day" according to JMS, barring an actors' strike.)
Regards,
Joe
------------------
Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net
