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Ideas for Future B5 Movies and Series

B

Bab5nutz

Regular
Right, I know that the idea for a film/series about the Teep War has been touted quite a lot. Good idea - it's something that I would like to see - whether on the big screen or the tv screen.
But here are one or two other ideas.
ABabylon 4 series/movie. Okay, we got the graphic novel In Valen's Name that filled in some of the gaps. But how about a movie/series about Sinclair/Valen after he went back in time.
The Dilgar War J'ha'dur in Deathwalker really gave me the creeps - how about a tv movie about the Dilgar War. Sinclair's father fought in that, so there is a continuity thread there.
Just a couple of ideas. Anyone else like to see threads from the original series turned into tv movies/series?

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How about something more in depth on the Earth-Minbar war? "In the Beginning" gave us an overview of the war, but how about just one mammoth battle, similar to "The Longest Day" about the D-Day invasion. The Telepath war, and the Dilgar war would be very interesting as well. I think the chances of a film about the ancient war with Sinclair and B4 is slim. For a film to appeal to a larger audience there would at least have to be one human protagonist. Post-transformation Sinclair doesn't fit the bill unfortunately.

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You're right about needing a human viewpoint character, especially for a mass audience, which does limit the chance of a Shadow War: 1260 C.E. movie or mini-series. (Well, that fact and the genius who both posted to the newsgroup and e-mailed a story idea about this very subject to JMS.
smile.gif
)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>...but how about just one mammoth battle, similar to "The Longest Day" about the D-Day invasion.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The problem with this idea is that any such battle would end up with the Humans getting wiped out.
smile.gif
In the Beginning shows the only genuine Human victory of the war. We lost pretty much all the other battles. Guys like Garibaldi and Amis were lucky just to have survived. Remember Londo's whole "3 years" voice over with the montage of Minbari killing Humans. Do you really want to sit through two hours of that?
smile.gif


Besides, something in any way analagous to The Longest Day would be way too expensive to make. It would be one long FX extravaganza, impossible on a TV budget and impractical on a feature budget. (I'm not sure the B5 audience is big enough to make a 100 million dollar film profitable.)

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>
..but how about just one mammoth battle, similar to "The Longest Day" about the D-Day invasion.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, JMS would be very Unlikly to have any interest in such a project. He's posted several times that Battles, Explosions and long special effects scenes bore him. As a Writer, his interests are in the People.

Think about what he's _Already_ written.

B5 had 4 wars and any number of skirmishes with bad guys of one sort or another. Battle scenes took up less than 1% of the screen time. Special effects were used Only to advance the story, not to fill up screen time and make people go "wow, neat, gee whiz".


On the plus side, if the people who send JMS story ideas stick to stuff JMS would never write in the first place, we don't have to worry about losing the stuff he WILL write.
tongue.gif


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Yes, I like cats too.
Shall we exchange Recipes?
 
How about this for a new series:

The Adventures of Senator Hidoshi

I'm sure the networks will be lining up to air that one.

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All my life I've had doubts about who I am, where I belong. Now, I'm like the arrow that springs from the bow. No hesitation, no doubts. The path is clear.
-Ambassador Jeffrey David Sinclair, War Without End
 
Or why not a story about an author, G'kar lets say, that jumps out and beats up people who offer story ideas? I gather JMS is getting sick of it. I think there is a line in his moderated group specifically stating that story ideas are NOT welcome. (He must get 100 a day!)

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"Why not? Only 1 Human captain has ever survived battle with the Minbari fleet. He is behind me, you are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."
 
I would like to see either a movie or series on the Dilgar War, or maybe the 1st Shadow war with the 1st ones.

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"All ships open fire! Repeat! Fire!"
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR> I gather JMS is getting sick of it. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


JMS has a simple policy about Story Ideas:

If stupid people persist in posting story ideas, even after being asked not to, he will _Leave_ the forum where they are being posted.

That's one of the reasons the newsgroup is being Moderated. The moderators try to get rid of the story ideas before JMS sees them.




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Yes, I like cats too.
Shall we exchange Recipes?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by bakana:

JMS has a simple policy about Story Ideas:

If stupid people persist in posting story ideas, even after being asked not to, he will _Leave_ the forum where they are being posted.

That's one of the reasons the newsgroup is being Moderated. The moderators try to get rid of the story ideas before JMS sees them.


<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Does anyone know why he's so upset about it? Is it just too much too often? Or does he feel fans are usurping him somehow? Probably just burn out.



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"Why not? Only 1 Human captain has ever survived battle with the Minbari fleet. He is behind me, you are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."
 
JMS can't use stories posted by someone else because of the legal battles involved. He once had to scrap an episode he had started because someone posted him a similar idea. He can't take a chance on screening something and then having someone come along and claim it as their idea. It ends up in expensive lawsuits.

On the subject of new stories, I would enjoy something like Thirdspace which has nothing to do with the main story line, just a side story with the same cast that takes place on or around B5.

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Passing Through Gessemene almost did not get made. It was planned for much earlier in the series when someone wrote a message similar to 'what if someone on the station found out they had imprinted personality and that they had done something terrible' after Quality of Mercy aired. It was not until JMS was able to track the guy down and get a notarized statement saying it was JMS' idea that the story was made. Since someone does not have to be able to win to sue and the time and money lost in defense he tries to avoid giving someone the opportunity for suit. If a story idea is somewhere where he COULD have seen it it is possible for him to be sued.

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Bus
"Authorities say the phony pope can be recognized by his high-top sneakers and increadibly foul mouth." Kent Brockman
 
I had forgotten about that business withPassing Through Gethesmene. So, okay. perhaps my idea wasn't such a good one. I'd still like to see the series/movies I suggested, but I know that they'll probably never get made. A shame. Oh well - we had five years of B5, four soon to be five movies - and perhaps another series. Can't wait.
My apologies to JMS, and anyone else I might have offended.


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How about a sitcom about six twenty-somethings living in the same part of B5?

Oh hang on...

wink.gif


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With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
 
Post all the story ideas here you like, just make sure they are clearly labeled so JMS can stay a mile or two away from them.

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Bus
"Authorities say the phony pope can be recognized by his high-top sneakers and increadibly foul mouth." Kent Brockman
 
I always thought that the events of 2281, involving the death of Londo, would make for a great feature. The story could be told through the eyes of David Sheridan and could be entitled "Coming of Age".

However, this particular story has already been told in the form of the 3rd book of the Centauri trilogy.

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Be seeing you
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>I always thought that the events of 2281, involving the death of Londo, would make for a great feature.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Londo dies in 2278. Sheridan dies in 2281.
smile.gif


Regards,

Joe
Official Timekeeper of the Babylon 5 Olympics

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net
 
On a more serious note, I don't think the events of the last Centauri novel would work as a feature at all.

A feature film needs several things to work: A self-contained story that is easy to follow for someone who has never seen the show. The maximum number of regular characters for the core audience that has. A story that takes maximum advantage of the extra time and money that a big screen feature offers.

Almost any story that has been proposed except the Teep War story falls down in one or more of these areas. The essential Teep War story (despised minority seeks retribution) would take no more screen time to establish than the similar normals vs. mutants story in X-Men. You don't need to show the hundred year story of Psi-Corps and you don't need to explain how the Interstellar Alliance came to be, or how Sheridan got to be President. Those things can just be presented to the audience as a fact, the way Star Trek presented the Federation, and Earth's membership in it as a fact.

The Centauri story would directly involve too much of the personal stories of everyone involved to be told in the compact form a movie requires. (And it lacks several key regulars because of the time period.) The Valen story of 1,000 years ago has all of these problems in spades, and so on.

I think the Teep War is it, and for good reason.

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net
 
I expect the first movie to be the Teep war, but not because such a movie would Have to include all the "regulars". It'd be nice if it did, but JMS tends to write Stories that work. I suspect he won't give away any "walk on" spots just for the sake of showing someone's Face. Any character who is in the movie will have to Earn his screen time by being essential to the story.

If this leaves someone out, well, that's why there has to be a SECOND, THIRD, etc. movie.

JMS has already responded to comments about G'Kar being the only Regular in Rangers using that same logic. If he's going to Pay for an actor, they need to have a Reason for being in the story. G'Kar is Necessary for this one. Other characters will be Necessary for others.


This "everyone has to be in it" sort of thinking is part of why most of the Trek movies were so weak. The old faces actually _Detracted_ from the story. Trotting them out just for old times sake turned them into "rubber" characters sitting around on the shelf as if none of them had any importance when they weren't part of Kirk's Story.



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Yes, I like cats too.
Shall we exchange Recipes?
 
how about a sicom all about Drall and the Zathras brothers? I tcould be called JUST THE TEN OF US.

Thump thump thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump WHAM*WHAM*WHAM*WHAM*WHAM*.......

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Marcus, "Well They said I was carrying around a lot of repressed anger.
Lennier, "and?"
Marcus, "I'm not repressed anymore."
 
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