B5 Christmas '07?

[Tim_Fleming]

JMS has said that a likely release date for Lost Tales is late July 2007. Unfortunately this makes a second Lost Tales DVD an unlikely Christmas present for December 2007. This is true unless Warner decides early on (before any sales data) that a second DVD is the way to go. Is it likely that the pressure to have a new Lost Tales product out for Christmas '07 (especially if the first DVD sells well in Summer '07, as Warner expects it to) could motivate Warner Bros. to make an early decision on Lost Tales, especially if they are happy with the finished product (JMS does say that they were pleased with the early cut)?

[Lunan]

i doubt it, the wb has shown that money is top number 1 priority for them and thus i would expect them to wait for sales figures (not to mention that you have to worry about jms' schedual as well as the avalibility of all the actors involved) now if pre-sales start say in feb or march and are extremly high then i can see them pushing the greenlight button but i don't expect them to give the go aheaduntill a moth or so after tlt hits shelves 500 million in the bank or so will likly get a hell yes vote on making more

[Joseph DeMartino]

Nitpick: WB is a studio. "The" WB used to be a TV network. Now it gone, merged along with the former UPN into "The CW". (Warner Bros. has uniformly miserable taste when it comes to naming television networks.)

Onwards:

It is simply too early to even guess about any of this. JMS expects to have the final assemblage of the film ready for March. Despite the planned release date for disc 1 (which seems like it might be tied to the San Diego Comic Con, an increasingly important venue for Hollywood and the Consumer Electronics industry to make new product announcements) WB could well decide to press on with disc two right away. They could also use the finished film to make TV deals here and/or overseas, with or without including the B5 reruns in the package.

WB is also planning this as one release in a line of direct-to-DVD releases, by-passing the traditional TV networks and seeking a new distirbutiion channel for its product. In a sense this is PTEN-2, and B5 is once again the flagship show. But we don't know what other projects are in the pipeline and to what extent WB wants to "brand" all the direct-to-DVD originals as part of the same product line. So there are things entirely extrinsict to B5:TLT that could be at play here, and since we don't know anything about them (if they exist ) guessing - especially about what might be happening next Christmas - becomes kinda pointless.

Regards,

Joe

[vacantlook]

Joe, do you think that WB signing a deal with a network to air TLT could, in true business sense, prompt WB to ok production on disc 2 before disc 1 gets released (and thus before they get any sales data on disc 1)?

[grumbler]

Joe, do you think that WB signing a deal with a network to air TLT could, in true business sense, prompt WB to ok production on disc 2 before disc 1 gets released (and thus before they get any sales data on disc 1)?

I'd say they are most concerned about a revenue stream, and so if they get a broadcast deal it would make sense for them to start production on the follow-on quickly, because nine months between releases is forever in broadcast terms. In fact, the broadcaster might want them to hurry it up so that they can broadcast before DVD release, and get a second set in production while the first is being shown so that the first doesn't look like a one-shot deal and therefor less appealing to an audience.

[qstor]

Maybe it could air on the Sci-Fi channel.

Mike