Category: Babylon 5

Joe Straczynski is paring down his burgeoning memorabilia collection on eBay. On the block right now … one of the duplicate medals for survivors of the Line, from the B5 pilot.

Cool. Though I don’t think Margie’s going to pony up $2500-odd bucks (and this 5 days before the auction is up) for that Fathers Day gift …

The current (over the past year) iteration of efforts to get a B5 feature film off the ground appear to be dead. From the B5JMS list (posted by JMS himself):

The rule of thumb in Hollywood is that for every thousand scripts that get written, only a few dozen get into development, and out of those, only one will ever get made … if that.

A little over a year ago, I was approached by a company that wanted to make a Babylon 5 movie. They optioned the rights, and commissioned a script. (It’s worth mentioning that I, not WB, own the rights to a B5 movie. When we were negotiating the original B5 deal — by whose terms I will never see a dime in profit — the one thing they did let me have were the movie rights, figuring they’d never be worth anything in the long run.)

Anyway…on December 27th of 2003, the script for “The Memory of Shadows” was turned in, and the process began of trying to make the deal work with all the various forces involved. It is, to say the least, a very difficult process on any movie where the studio does not directly take the financial reins. In terms of B5, Warner’s position was esssentially, “We only do big-budget movies with big names, so you’re on your own.” If there were big-name movie actors in the film, they’d get behind it; without that, things become very problematic, especially as far as the financing was concerned. You much have to put together a consortium of international interests and business plans rivaled in complexity only by the Allied invasion of Normandy Beach.

Nonetheless, every attempt was made by the people involved to get this deal in place. This was not being done by Doug or myself, but rather by the company/individuals who approached us and optioned the rights. At times, it seemed we were inches away from a deal … stages were reserved at Elstree, actors were contacted, a director was in place, the script went through many revisions, a few key staff were hired, again not by me … it was really a year-long roller coaster ride.

During that time, the people involved, with every good intention, tried very hard to pull the necessary pieces together on the deal. The option expired in late December 2004, but I renewed it without cost, to give those involved more time to try and make things work.

In the end, however, the deal could not be put together, and it did not look as if that was going to change at any point in the foreseeable future. So the option has reverted, and to all intents and purposes, the project has dead ended. Nor do I think this particular incarnation will arise again at any point in the future, though prognostication has always been a tricky art, especially if you have to do it without the benefit of hindsight.

This was not the first time someone’s taken a run at a B5 feature film, and it will not be the last. Eventually it will happen, because such things are simply inevitable. If they can do a Brady Bunch movie, you can be sure that sooner or later, somebody’s going to do a B5 movie.

The only thing I can say without equivocation is that when that day comes, as the rights-holder, I will make darned sure that it’s done right, because I’d rather have no B5 movie than one that doesn’t live up to what fans and I myself would want to see.

To that end … I can wait.

Well, rats.

From the B5JMS List:

* the exact meaning of “TMoS” has not yet been revealed …

Other info on other stuff, too, including steady progress on an upcoming run on Dr. Strange — which should be a blast.

On the “Hmmmmm, interesting” front, I note that the first season of Jeremiah is coming out on DVD. That’s the Showtime series created by Joe Straczynski, erstwhile creator/producer/writer of B5.

JMS is labeled as the creator, but it’s acutally based on the Belgian graphic novel series by Hermann Huppen. The basic premise:

Set in the future, the series focuses on Jeremiah (Luke Perry) who must navigate his way through a world populated by the survivors of a deadly epidemic that spared only those who had not yet reached puberty. Now those same survivors must find their way in a decadent civilization and attempt to create a new world order of hope.
Jeremiah, a loner by nature, is joined by the naïve yet colorful Kurdy (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) on a quest to find the mysterious “Valhalla Sector”. Together they set out on a journey during which they discover rival social factions at war and young people who must make decisions without wisdom from those who lived before them.

So, a classic “differerent world” sort of episodic TV sf show, with plenty of JMSsy goodness.

Has any regular reader here actually seen the thing? Me and mine, no Showtime have we. So I’m kind of curious — not quite enough curious for $68, but I could be possibly convinced …

Hmmmm. Firefly news? Check. Cool new movie news? Check. That just leaves …

Aha! Babylon 5 news.

From the B5JMS List yesterday, a few tidbits:

• New DVD set next year with all of the stray B5 movies, including the pilot, with JMS commentary. (Alas, I fear still with the revised music on the pilot. I prefer the Stewart Copeland soundtrack myself.) My Wish List is adjusted accordingly.
• All of Crusade (a flawed but promising series) also out in a box set.

• Some sort of “eep” secret project about to come to fruition:

  On the B5 front, there has been something of rather substantial proportion that’s finally gone from talk to money, such that I’m now working frantically to meet some deadlines, but there’s nothing I can say about this until after January 15th, probably closer to the end of that month.
  The only thing I can say is that phase one of the new project is a go, hence the furious writing schedule at this end of things […]. I’ve been writing my little brains out.
  I know the immediate result of this will be speculation, but if we could keep that to a low roar on the nets to avoid precluding anything, that would be a wonderfulness. But trust me: I wouldn’t go on about something in this way if it wasn’t a significant development. Just trust me on this one for a bit and hold fire until further word.
  (Longtime followers of the various news groups know that an eep means that something significant has happened, but that I can’t talk about it…the eep is just a way of saying, on the QT, that something has, indeed, happened and it’s real, not just speculation or maybe-gonna-happens. So on that basis, you may consider this an eep.)

  Joe is notorious about not blabbing about things until they are done deals. So one can but wait eagerly.