Babylon 5 Movie through Studio JMS

[Jan]

Whew! Okay, I've finally transcribed the relevant portions from my audio recording:

JMS recaps what’s coming up and then:

So we’ve been having a really, really good year at Studio JMS. And where that comes in handy – where it’s kind of important involves this (B5 logo comes on screen). So… Fact: When I made the Babylon 5 deal with Warner Bros. it was just short of indentured servitude. Financially, I’ll never seen a dime out of Babylon 5 ever. I have no problems with that; I knew what I was signing when I go into it, but I mention it to piss them off every once in a while. One thing that I was able to withhold was the film rights. I still own the movie rights to Babylon 5. I’ve been pushing Warner’s for the last…ever since the early cretaceous period…to “Let’s do a Babylon 5 movie – a proper big budget feature film.” And they’ve always dragged their feet [because] that’s what Warner Bros. does. They knew that they had the upper hand because I couldn’t take it to any other studio because these days all the studios want all the rights. So if I brought it to say, Sony or Fox, they’d want the TV rights which Warner Bros. controls. Warner Bros. will never give those rights up so we were always handcuffed by that.

Turns out, however, there’s one studio in Los Angeles…Distributors, by the way, don’t care about the TV rights. Distributors just [care] about the movie, they don’t care about the TV part. There’s one studio in town that doesn’t care if it doesn’t have the TV rights…that wants to see this movie made and will do it with or without Warner Bros. (Studio JMS logo comes on screen).
Here’s the plan: We’re going to have, through Studio JMS, at least two, maybe three TV series on the air next year. We’re going to have at least one or two movies going ahead. And we’ll use that to parlay serious investment in the studio. I’m not talking Kickstarter, I’m talking about one hundred million dollars, two hundred million dollars; we already have people who are lined up and interested in doing that.

So in 2015 I will write a Babylon 5 screenplay. I’ll be giving Warner Bros. the opportunity – if they want to step up, “Help yourself”. If they don’t, 2016: We make it. I’m not going to wait around for more of our cast members to die. So that’s the long term plan and those are the current updates on everything that’s going on right now.

Question from a fan: Asked if JMS might crowd-fund for a million of the investment so that fans can be part of it.

JMS: I would rather not. Here’s the reason why, though. I come from the ranks of fandom – I’m as rank as any of you. To me, much as I understand that Kickstarter and crowd-sourcing are a way for those outside to get involved with the process, show their appreciation for the process, I am resistant to that lure because it feels to me like taking advantage of the fans and I have a hard time with that on a moral and ethical basis. I’d rather have an investor come up and say “Here’s a check for a hundred million dollars” - which I would gladly take, by the way; if anyone in the audience happens to have one of those lying around, let me know – than to come to the fans and try to get it. Science fiction fans, and horror fans, to a degree, are the most exploited folks out there. “Line up, buy the merchandise, watch the show.” And I just see this money suck happening. So the answer is no.

Question from a fan: Are you considering a reboot to bring in new viewers or are you thinking of a continuation with the cast and crew from the original series.

JMS: It would have to be a reboot because it’s now been twenty-plus years since we started that show and some of the age ranges wouldn’t always work with some of the characters. So we’d have to move a few people around. But what I want to do is use the original cast one way or the other and move a few things around. I’d love to see Bruce as President of the Earth Alliance; that would be the perfect role for him.

I love playing around with the cast anyway. The one story that I wanted to do for the original B5 and they wouldn’t let me do it was, when Londo was injured and had this dream sequence, I wanted to have different actors play different roles. So Jerry Doyle would play Londo. Claudia Christian would play Delenn and Delenn (Mira) would play Ivanova. Peter Jurasik would play Jerry Doyle’s role. Andreas Katsulas would be the Commander of the Station and Bruce would be G’Kar. They said, “People would be way too confused.” JMS: “They won’t be confused, trust me! Listen, they have the intelligence for this.” It was the only story that they said “No, no, no, no and by the way, no.” The chance to [ ] play around with the cast and have some fun with it could be a good thing.

Any errors are mine. Feel free to share.

Jan

[Delenn_of_Mir]

Excellent, thanks Jan!


That would have been fun seeing G'Kar play Sheridan.

[Marsden]

I love playing around with the cast anyway. The one story that I wanted to do for the original B5 and they wouldn’t let me do it was, when Londo was injured and had this dream sequence, I wanted to have different actors play different roles. So Jerry Doyle would play Londo. Claudia Christian would play Delenn and Delenn (Mira) would play Ivanova. Peter Jurasik would play Jerry Doyle’s role. Andreas Katsulas would be the Commander of the Station and Bruce would be G’Kar. They said, “People would be way too confused.” JMS: “They won’t be confused, trust me! Listen, they have the intelligence for this.” It was the only story that they said “No, no, no, no and by the way, no.” The chance to [ ] play around with the cast and have some fun with it could be a good thing

I would have liked to have seen that.

[I love Lyta]

If the movie really is to be the kick-off for a reboot I would also like a story set right after mankind recovered from the cursed earth. Dunno, maybe the new prez could have a pic of Sheridan on the wall or watch some found holos of him giving wise advice to his successors every now and then or such.
Just as long as it isn't coming to finding the remains of Ivanova in some adrift leftover ship's transporter matrix...

[Delenn_of_Mir]

A lot of people of facebook don't believe the news or haven't heard anything yet. Jason Carter made a small announcement on his page and lots of people were shocked or were asking if it was real. One guy even said he'd heard it was a hoax.

I think it will take a couple years and at least a script or maybe even a trailer before fans believe its real and get excited.


Also, on the word "reboot". Didn't I hear JMS call "Midnight On the firing line" a reboot, as well? Because it had been a year since the gathering, and so many characters were new, but yet he still managed to connect the two seamlessly together.

[JoeD80]

^
He called "Midnight" a "second pilot"

[Dan Dassow]

Whew! Okay, I've finally transcribed the relevant portions from my audio recording: ...

Any errors are mine. Feel free to share.

Jan

Jan, Thanks for the transcription. I came across this article just prior to seeing your transcription:

http://sciencefiction.com/2014/08/08/looks-like-j-michael-straczynski-working-film-reboot-babylon-5/

It Looks Like J. Michael Straczynski Is Working On A Film To Reboot

Posted a day ago by Stuart Conover

It has a transcript of jms's panel. I realized after comparing it with your transcript, they probably quoted your transcript without credit.

[Jan]

Saw that, Dan. Either it's my work or they have the same punctuation and questions I have. ;-) Doesn't bother me at all. When I posted it on FB and other places I said to feel free to copy and share.

What does bother me is that there's a WHOLE FREAKING PARAGRAPH MISSING from my transcript above. Probably the glitch, because it took me a few tries to get it posted. Here's the whole thing:

JMS recaps what’s coming up and then:

So we’ve been having a really, really good year at Studio JMS. And where that comes in handy – where it’s kind of important involves this (B5 logo comes on screen).

So… Fact: When I made the Babylon 5 deal with Warner Bros. it was just short of indentured servitude. Financially, I’ll never seen a dime out of Babylon 5 ever. I have no problems with that; I knew what I was signing when I go into it, but I mention it to piss them off every once in a while. One thing that I was able to withhold was the film rights. I still own the movie rights to Babylon 5. I’ve been pushing Warner’s for the last…ever since the early cretaceous period…to “Let’s do a Babylon 5 movie – a proper big budget feature film.” And they’ve always dragged their feet [because] that’s what Warner Bros. does. They knew that they had the upper hand because I couldn’t take it to any other studio because these days all the studios want all the rights. So if I brought it to say, Sony or Fox, they’d want the TV rights which Warner Bros. controls. Warner Bros. will never give those rights up so we were always handcuffed by that.

Turns out, however, there’s one studio in Los Angeles…Distributors, by the way, don’t care about the TV rights. Distributors just [care] about the movie, they don’t care about the TV part. There’s one studio in town that doesn’t care if it doesn’t have the TV rights…that wants to see this movie made and will do it with or without Warner Bros. (Studio JMS logo comes on screen).
Here’s the plan: We’re going to have, through Studio JMS, at least two, maybe three TV series on the air next year. We’re going to have at least one or two movies going ahead. And we’ll use that to parlay serious investment in the studio. I’m not talking Kickstarter, I’m talking about one hundred million dollars, two hundred million dollars; we already have people who are lined up and interested in doing that.

So in 2015 I will write a Babylon 5 screenplay. I’ll be giving Warner Bros. the opportunity – if they want to step up, “Help yourself”. If they don’t, 2016: We make it. I’m not going to wait around for more of our cast members to die. So that’s the long term plan and those are the current updates on everything that’s going on right now.

Question from a fan: Asked if JMS might crowd-fund for a million of the investment so that fans can be part of it.

JMS: I would rather now. Here’s the reason why, though. I come from the ranks of fandom – I’m as rank as any of you. To me, much as I understand that Kickstarter and crowd-sourcing are a way for those outside to get involved with the process, show their appreciation for the process, I am resistant to that lure because it feels to me like taking advantage of the fans and I have a hard time with that on a moral and ethical basis. I’d rather have an investor come up and say “Here’s a check for a hundred million dollars” - which I would gladly take, by the way; if anyone in the audience happens to have one of those lying around, let me know – than to come to the fans and try to get it. Science fiction fans, and horror fans, to a degree, are the most exploited folks out there. “Line up, buy the merchandise, watch the show.” And I just see this money suck happening. So the answer is no.

Question from a fan: Are you considering a reboot to bring in new viewers or are you thinking of a continuation with the cast and crew from the original series.

JMS: It would have to be a reboot because it’s now been twenty-plus years since we started that show and some of the age ranges wouldn’t always work with some of the characters. So we’d have to move a few people around. But what I want to do is use the original cast one way or the other and move a few things around. I’d love to see Bruce as President of the Earth Alliance; that would be the perfect role for him.
I love playing around with the cast anyway. The one story that I wanted to do for the original B5 and they wouldn’t let me do it was, when Londo was injured and had this dream sequence, I wanted to have different actors play different roles. So Jerry Doyle would play Londo. Claudia Christian would play Delenn and Delenn (Mira) would play Ivanova. Peter Jurasik would play Jerry Doyle’s role. Andreas Katsulas would be the Commander of the Station and Bruce would be G’Kar. They said, “People would be way too confused.” JMS: “They won’t be confused, trust me! Listen, they have the intelligence for this.” It was the only story that they said “No, no, no, no and by the way, no.” The chance to [ ] play around with the cast and have some fun with it could be a good thing.

Missing part bolded. Kind of a crucial part, too. Sheesh...

Jan

[becket]

Just came across this. Not sure if it was posted yet.

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/scifi/michael-straczynski-working-babylon-5-feature-film-2016.html

[phazedout]

So I almost did not read beyond the first sentence. "ever since the show was cancelled..."

Babylon 5 was not cancelled, it had the 5 year run and came to and end, eez, if they cannot do basic research, why bother.

Returning to TV sets? JMS owning th rights to B5 ot warner bros? This article is as the young people say "full of fail", sigh.
Phaze
on the "I seem t be growing less tolerant, I quit reading an article purporting to be sceintific when they kept using non metric measurements" ID

[Jan]

Found it! I've been looking for a particular post of JMS' from back when the failed reboot series was still being talked about back in 2011. Alas, I didn't link directly to JMS' Facebook reply but here's where I copied it and here are some points he made that may or may not still be relevant for the upcoming movie.

Take G'Kar, for instance. In my notes, there is no new character named G'Kar because for my money, no one else can ever BE G'Kar, so G'Kar is a religious figure, a legend, not unlike G'Quon.

Despite what some folks say, the fact is that saying "reboot" is like saying "science fiction," it means what you're pointing at, and there are all kinds of permutations of what that means. It (and remember we're talking about something that is not currently on the boards) can't be a straight-ahead sequel because the market can't sustain it when the show hasn't been on the air in the US in over a decade. That's never, ever going to fly. It can't be called Babylon 5 if there isn't a place called Babylon 5, so the station has to be in existence, otherwise you can't use that name. You could do a show about the telepath war, but you couldn't call it Babylon 5 unless there's a Babylon 5 there, otherwise it'll confuse the hell out of new audiences (oh, that's named for a station that used to be there in another series you never saw).

The challenge I set for myself in this is very simple: knowing what I know now, having grown a lot as a writer since 1992 (or for that matter the late 80s when I started writing the pilot), having the experience of the original show in what worked and what didn't, and with all the technology available to us now that wasn't there in 1992, if I were to put the show together right now, what would it look like? That, for my money, is what a reboot is

Wish I could find the original post but it was in response to somebody and it seems impossible to scroll back through those for very far.

Jan

[Babel-17]

By way of arstechnica, /. now has the story.

http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/14/08/10/1435233/babylon-5-may-finally-get-a-big-screen-debut

Ars Technica reports that "J. Michael Straczynski will shortly begin work on a rebooted big-screen version of his 1990s sci-fi TV series [ Babylon 5]." From the article: According to JMS's latest announcement, the new script will be targeted at a 2016 theatrical release and will be a reboot of the series rather than a continuation. This is necessary for both dramatic and practical purposes—the series was in regular production from 1994-1998, and the cast has simply aged too far to credibly play themselves again during the series’ main timeline. Additionally, several of the foundational cast members — Michael O'Hare, Andreas Katsulas, Richard Biggs, and Jeff Conaway — have passed away. ... The movie rights to the Babylon 5 property remain in JMS's hands, but the creator is hopeful that this time around, Warner Bros. will choose to finance the film instead of passing on it. Nonetheless (at least according to TV Wise), JMS is prepared to fund the movie through his own production company if necessary — something that wasn't a possibility ten years ago — suggesting that B5 will in fact come to the big screen at last.

[Jan]

It's like watching a game of 'telephone' seeing all the inaccuracies creep in.

...the new script will be targeted at a 2016 theatrical release

Where'd that come from? What was said was that it would be *made* in 2016, not released. Post-production takes a long time these days.

Jan

[Babel-17]

Yeah, but thankfully people on sites like that are hardened to getting misleading articles.

On gaming websites, "when it's done" has become a standard response from game developers when asked to respond to stories about the imminence of a game's completion. With hardware like videocards, "Release" now comes in two flavors, soft and hard. "Soft" is when a company announces the release, and maybe lets a reviewer see it, and "hard" is when people can buy it and use it.

http://arstechnica.com/author/lee-hutchinson/ That's the author. I think that site is used to editing their articles, if you want to contact him.

[JesseW]

Forgive me if this has been brought up/discussed already...

If the new rebooted film is financially successful (And for the record, I understand why this movie has to be a reboot, and I am very excited for it), does anyone think JMS will ever play in the original continuity again?

I would really like to see some of the stories JMS had planned, but never told, come to fruition. For example, I'd love to see the story of the telepath war told in detail, whether it be in novel form, comics, or live action.

But I wonder, would JMS still care to tell those stories if he's producing movies in the new B5 continuity? Does the new continuity mean the death of the old continuity in JMS's mind, or can they co-exist? Will he want to tell stories in both? I for one hope he does. Even if it means only getting old B5 stories in the way of novels or comics.

I know this is looking ahead quite far, and it's assuming the best case scenario that the movie happens, is financially successful, and WB actually gets off their encounter suited butts and does something with it, but this kind of speculation is what this forum is for, right?