B5LR on DVD?

[sputnik]

does anyone know what the scifi channel are like for releasing DVD's of their own series'?

trapped out here on the rim (aka the uk) there's no way that we're gonna get TLADIS on TV til at least next year (as our scifi channel is no longer a part of the us sfc) so i'm hoping that its released on DVD sharpish...

do any us based rangers have any info?

...he prays...

cheers!

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[drakh]

That dicision would be Warner Bros' (who own the show), not SciFi's (who just air it). And I think they will want to see how the release of The Gathering/In the Beginning does before they start thinking of any other releases.

 

[Kribu]

I don't want to even think about the time when it's released in the US...

That half of me that does definitely not want to know any spoilers says that I should then keep away from this site and others...

The other half of me desperately wants to know everything there is to know about the movie... and to keep visiting the boards...

Ouch. I have a feeling that there will be at least a year between the release in the US and the earliest time it gets shown around here...

Well, now that I've had the chance to get that off my mind, I can return to my usual happy mood.

A DVD would be nice. Although I'd settle for a PAL video release as well.

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"You've misspelled this. There's no 'Y' in liberties."
"Oh, go away. Repress someone else."

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Warner Bros. also might want to wait until the movie has actually been finished and they have an order for a series before investing a lot of thought in this.

BTW, JMS did mention that he's exploring the possibility of having the CGI rendered at 16:9 and output to film as they go along this time, to avoid the dual-composition and cropping problems that they had with the widescreen B5, which would certainly have implications for a future DVD release.

AFAIK both the Sci-Fi Channel (U.S.) and the Sci-Fi Channel U.K. are still owned by USA Networks. This doesn't mean that shows carried by one are automatically be shown on the other, however, and never did. Standard contracts do not allow for that sort of thing. Warner Bros. will certainly attempt to sell the show to someone in the U.K., given how popular B5 always was over there. And someone will almost certainly pick it up.

But it is unlikely that you'll see the TV movie/pilot over there any sooner than next year. (Hell, we may not see it over here until next year. Sci-Fi has not set an air date for it, but are reportedly considering October 2001 or January 2002. If they approve the series based on the pilot they may decide not to air it until just before the first episode - which couldn't be aired until mid-to-late 2002 at the earliest, due to production requirements and JMS's commitment to produce a full season of a non-B5 show for another network.)

Apart from some anitmated children's stuff, B5 on VHS and the recent "Best of Friends" DVD, Warner Bros. has never released TV shows on home video here in the States, so they don't really have what you'd call a track record. As a rule, most studios don't release shows on home video until after they've been released into syndication, and that can't happen, by contract, until a show has produced around 3 years worth of episodes.

I would imagine things work differently in the U.K., so if I were looking for a model of what is likely to happen with Rangers I'd check the release dates of the original B5 season tapes. How long after a given season finished airing over there did the tapes come out?

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

[This message has been edited by Joseph DeMartino (edited May 27, 2001).]

 

[gkarfan]

Joe DM, I thought I heard that WB wasn't going to release B5 on DVD after all. Or are they just going to wait until next year?

Tammy

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[Joseph DeMartino]

Tammy:

A website the covers Region 2 (Europe and Japan) DVD releases reported a few weeks ago that an "inside source" had told them that B5 would be released in R2 in November. Last week they posted a follow-up story saying that the title had been "dropped" from the "list"

So basically they posted a rumor retracting an earlier rumor, niether of which had anything to do with the U.S. release.

Naturally this has been reported all over the web as "Warner Bros. isn't releasing B5 on DVD." Even ISN News picked the story up, although they posted a correction the next day.

As of today there has been no official announcement from Warner Bros. about a DVD release one way or the other, anywhere in the world. But we do know that JMS was going over cover art with Warner Home Video (U.S.) staff back in February, that they had already spent $100,000 mastering the first two movies by March, and that a B5 add was among the proposed advertising banners Warner Home Video sent to a DVD website in the U.S. for use this summer.

I'd say that all signs currently point to a DVD release later this year, whether or not WHV meets the August release date that JMS mentioned. (Among other things I was told point-blank by a Warner rep that the show was on the schedule for 2001 in a face-to-face discussion Los Angeles last November. Everything else he told me about 2001 DVD plans, including the Superman release, has checked out, so I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of his - limited - B5 information.)

Warner Bros. has just started releasing details about its August and September titles, so I'm not surprised that there has been no official word as yet. I assume there will be some kind of announcement in June if they're going to make an August or early September release date, but wouldn't expect to hear anything definite before July if it is any later.

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

 

[sputnik]

ahhh, that'll be my mistake then... i was under the (false!) assumption that WB wasn't involved, as the SFC have said before that they prefer to own their shows rather than buy them in from elsewhere...

note to self: remember, remember, assumption is the mother of all f**k ups...

If we're gonna have to wait for WB then we are indeed up the proverbial creek sans a canoe... tho they weren't too bad at releasing B5 on video (by which i mean they were usually a year or so behind the TV broadcasts), so i have some hope... ;-)


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[AntonyF]

Joseph, I hate to query the oracle of B5... but are you sure Sci-Fi UK is owned by USA Networks? I thought it wasn't, and that it's different to the US Sci-Fi Channel... owned seperately after Sci-Fi pulled out of Europe.


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Glory: "Please, call me Glory. And get up, looking at you is hurting my neck."
Dreg: "Forgive me, shiny special one. I beg of you to rip out my inadequate tongue."
Glory: "Gimme."

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Antony:

Well, I did say, "As far as I know"...

Actually I'm not sure what the current relationship between the two is, or even if there is one. I know that USA did own Sci-Fi UK at one time. There was a brief flurry of excitement on this side of the Pond when someone did a search on B5 on the U.S. www.scific.com site and was directed to a page listing airtimes and downloadable promo spots. (Including the wonderful "nude" Claudia Christian "uncut" spot.) People were breaking out the champagne and celebrating B5's release from TNT-bondage when someone realized that the link went to the Sci-Fi U.K. site and that the show was not being carried in the U.S.

I was hoping that someone from over there could answer this question.

But the fact remains that ownership of SFC U.K. would have no direct effect on whether or not it airs the movie, and none at all on the status of any future DVD release.

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

 

[sputnik]

er yeah it IS definite. SFC UK is totally different (now) to SFC US...

to quote from the faq:

--start quote--
Originally SCI·Fi in the UK was a subsidiary of the US channel. However, following various deals, the ownership of the two channels was split, resulting in the severance of any formal connection between them. Consequently, SCI·Fi do not have any privileged access to the US Sci-Fi Channel's productions and must compete with other channels in the usual way when acquiring their output for broadcast in the UK.
--end quote--

this is from their website which is... www.uk.scifi.com (!). so technically separate beasts but not in cyberspace it seems! ;-)

and regrettably the uk SFC is unlikely to have the financial clout to get hold of B5LR, with either (terrestrial channels) BBC2 or C4 or (satellite) Sky One getting their mitts on it...

*sob* all i want is a dvd, i don't care what region... *sob*

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