\"TWCBN\" Named and \"B5:LR\" Review
<font size="+1">"TWCBN" Named and "B5:LR" Review</font>
<font size="3">A little news trickles in</font>
It figures. The one day I'm too busy with RL to get on the computer until afternoon is the day when some actual news turns up. So I've been badly scooped by a number of "B5:LR" readers who have already started threads about this stuff, and have been e-mailing me to tell me about it. I may have to turn in my press pass.
Item:
"That Which Cannot Be Named" can finally be named. JMS's new series, which starts shooting September 4th will indeed be "Jeremiah" for Showtime, as *some* of us have been predicting for some time.
The show is an MGM production with Paramount (of all people) providing some of the financing. I got a tip earlier in the week from someone who had seen MGM setting up their booth at the San Diego Comic Con and had spotted a poster for the show, but he swore the title read "Joshua" even though JMS was listed as producer. I decided to wait for confirmation before posting anything to the site about it.
The only thing I know about it plot-wise are some hints JMS dropped almost two years ago, when he was first tinkering with the idea. Once negotiations started he could no longer identify the project, and pretty much stopped giving specifics, only talking about the progress being made on the production side.
So the description that follows may be a little of because (a) I'm doing this from memory and (b) some things may have changed when it came time to actually write the script(s).
"Jeremiah" is a post-apocalyptic tale, loosely based on a French comic book from the 1960s. A mutant plauge bug wiped out every human above the age of 30 or so (a 60s fantasy if ever I heard one.) This leaves the children and young adults to fend for themselves, and it is not clear if the survivors will *also* start kicking off when they hit 30 or if the bug is dormant or dead. The story is rumored to start about 10 years after the initial catastrophe, and center on a now 16-year old kid named Jeremiah and his attempts to survive in this brave new world.
You can read the details from JMS's post in the forum. Something JMS can't yet talk about, because Showtime gets to make such announcements, is who will be writing, acting and directing for the show. But I wouldn't be surprised if Joe Dante ("Gremlins") directs the pilot. Dante has been involved with the "Jeremiah" project since its inception around the time that "Crusade" folded.
Item:
"Ain't it Cool News" is running a "review" of a rough cut (no music or FX) of "Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers." Their correspondent doesn't give any hints about how or where he happened to see it, but it at least *sounds* genuine, based on what we already know about the movie. It contains spoilers, but doesn't go into great detail. If you cut and paste the URL below into your browser, it will take you straight to the review. Frankly, I wouldn't recommend reading it. Those who want to avoid spoilers shouldn't, while those who want to know everything won't find much that is really new.
The most interesting thing about the review for me is that it was written by someone who doesn't seem to be a big "B5" fan, and knows so little about "Crusade" that he speculates that the *music* is what caused its demise. In other words, he's exactly the kind of SF fan that the movie is going to have to attract to score well in the ratings, someone who isn't a dyed-in-the-wool "B5" fanatic. And he was impressed, giving the cast high marks, saying the characters are interesting and that the whole thing had something of the feel of the original "Star Trek." (OK, some people have a very limited frame of reference. At least he didn't compare it to "Voyager."
)
The main thing is that it was a positive review and, in the view of the writer at least, the story has real potential as an eventual series.
Here's the URL:
www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=9622
More news approximately when it happens...
Joe
<font size="+1">"TWCBN" Named and "B5:LR" Review</font>
<font size="3">A little news trickles in</font>
It figures. The one day I'm too busy with RL to get on the computer until afternoon is the day when some actual news turns up. So I've been badly scooped by a number of "B5:LR" readers who have already started threads about this stuff, and have been e-mailing me to tell me about it. I may have to turn in my press pass.
Item:
"That Which Cannot Be Named" can finally be named. JMS's new series, which starts shooting September 4th will indeed be "Jeremiah" for Showtime, as *some* of us have been predicting for some time.
The only thing I know about it plot-wise are some hints JMS dropped almost two years ago, when he was first tinkering with the idea. Once negotiations started he could no longer identify the project, and pretty much stopped giving specifics, only talking about the progress being made on the production side.
So the description that follows may be a little of because (a) I'm doing this from memory and (b) some things may have changed when it came time to actually write the script(s).
"Jeremiah" is a post-apocalyptic tale, loosely based on a French comic book from the 1960s. A mutant plauge bug wiped out every human above the age of 30 or so (a 60s fantasy if ever I heard one.) This leaves the children and young adults to fend for themselves, and it is not clear if the survivors will *also* start kicking off when they hit 30 or if the bug is dormant or dead. The story is rumored to start about 10 years after the initial catastrophe, and center on a now 16-year old kid named Jeremiah and his attempts to survive in this brave new world.
You can read the details from JMS's post in the forum. Something JMS can't yet talk about, because Showtime gets to make such announcements, is who will be writing, acting and directing for the show. But I wouldn't be surprised if Joe Dante ("Gremlins") directs the pilot. Dante has been involved with the "Jeremiah" project since its inception around the time that "Crusade" folded.
Item:
"Ain't it Cool News" is running a "review" of a rough cut (no music or FX) of "Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers." Their correspondent doesn't give any hints about how or where he happened to see it, but it at least *sounds* genuine, based on what we already know about the movie. It contains spoilers, but doesn't go into great detail. If you cut and paste the URL below into your browser, it will take you straight to the review. Frankly, I wouldn't recommend reading it. Those who want to avoid spoilers shouldn't, while those who want to know everything won't find much that is really new.
The most interesting thing about the review for me is that it was written by someone who doesn't seem to be a big "B5" fan, and knows so little about "Crusade" that he speculates that the *music* is what caused its demise. In other words, he's exactly the kind of SF fan that the movie is going to have to attract to score well in the ratings, someone who isn't a dyed-in-the-wool "B5" fanatic. And he was impressed, giving the cast high marks, saying the characters are interesting and that the whole thing had something of the feel of the original "Star Trek." (OK, some people have a very limited frame of reference. At least he didn't compare it to "Voyager."
The main thing is that it was a positive review and, in the view of the writer at least, the story has real potential as an eventual series.
Here's the URL:
www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=9622
More news approximately when it happens...
Joe
