JMS post 6/23

[Jan]

This post appeared late last night. The archives seem to be running a bit slow so I thought I'd post it here for those who don't follow the moderated group:

Title: jms in north carolina
Author: [email protected]
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 02:12:18 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <[email protected] com>

For the local B5 folks in and around Charlotte...I'll be there for the
Heroes Convention the weekend of June 30th, doing a lot of signing,
some panels, my usual one-person song and dance (minus the singing and
dancing, natch).

Also, being up to my tuchis in deadlines and general nonsense, I forgot
to put out a note that volume 8 of the B5 scripts went up yesterday,
which has the last few scripts from season three, including obviously
our season finale "Z'ha'dum," and the first batch of scripts for season
four. What's really cool is that, in addition to the new intro --
which reveals for the first time how we literally nearly lost the show
because of an accounting error, among other cool stuff -- features a
bunch of full pages of Peter Ledger's original concept art for B5,
including the first drawings of our characters at that time, as well as
the world of B5 itself. Most of it has not been seen before, certainly
not in anything more than postage size images on a PTEN flyer.

There may also be some interesting announcements coming soon on the
film/tv front. Whether or not I will be able to talk about them by
Heroes Con, I don't know, but if not, certainly by San Diego (by which
time a lot of it will have been announced in the trades anyway). No
fair guessing, because trust me, most of this is stuff that can't be
guessed.

jms

I like the sound of that...announcements-plural.

Jan

[FuryPilot]

I like the sound of that...announcements-plural.
Jan

Hrm... "No fair guessing, because trust me, most of this is stuff that can't be
guessed."

Sounds like a contest to me.

Here's my guess: Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory... Oh, wait. Wrong game.

FP

[Sigma]

This was just posted:

Keep an eye on the Hollywood trades for the coming week. (It could
slop over into the following week, but I doubt it.)

One of the biggest things to happen to my career is about to happen.

jms

I have NO idea what it might be. Film or TV?

[Garibaldi's Hair]

He's been cast as the lead in Joss Whedon's new show?

[Whyruss]

This was just posted:

I have NO idea what it might be. Film or TV?

hmmm looks like a movie to me ^^

[Jan]

Could be either, in light of his previous post. We know that more than one studio was eying the 'Rising Stars' project and we know about the 'Borrowed Lives' treatment being in development. No telling what else he might have come up with, either.

Meanwhile, I've got the only two Hollywood trades that I'm familiar with (Variety and the Hollywood Reporter) bookmarked.

Jan

[Sigma]

If its TV, the question is why announce it in coming week(s)? Pilot->series pickup season is over, and i think its too early for his series pilot order.

JMS seems like quite hyped up - it could be about 1) the character he always dreamed to write, 2) the people who he always dreamed to work with, or 3) the new venue to him (like a feature movie).

[phazedout]

<wildy speculative mode>
Mabe TMoS or crusade has been ressurected </wildly specualtive mode>
I do know Aaron Makin (over at sci-fi dig) is going to the con so I'll message him and see if he can get a recording of any pnaels/Q&A sessions JMS is on.
Phaze
on the "now skypeable as phazecast"

[AmyG]

I highly doubt it's anything Babylon 5 (i.e. a movie or a series, which is what people are leaning towards with their assumptions about this announcement), for several reasons. One of which being, with Andreas and Rick so recently gone, I don't know that his heart would be in writing something where he'd have to write around them, ya know?

From a personal standpoint as a fan, I actually hope it isn't a Babylon 5 film or tv project. Any kind of original-cast B5 project along those lines would have a very large and obvious hole in it. Absent friends, in memory still bright. Anything new in the B5 universe, in the original cast timeframe, I'd prefer to see in print only.

Also, with the anguish of TMoS so recently behind us, I don't even have the oomph left to want to speculate, or choose "Eep" days, or anything like that. I've been sitting back and watching on the moderated newsgroup as people jump to say their congratulations, to make their guess, etc. I figure I'll wait to say my congrats when there's something concrete on the table. Because as so often happens when we're waiting for a JMS announcement, I'm reminded once again of an episode of a very old sitcom called "The Mothers-in-Law" that I saw as a child. Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard played in-laws who were always getting into wacky situations with their married children and their husbands, and in one episode, one of the husbands had a business deal cooking. He told the wife, but told her not to say anything because he was superstitious, and that she'd jinx it if she blabbed. That phrase became a running gag throughout the episode as everyone told everyone else the news (of course), cautioning them not to tell anyone else (because you'll jinx it if you blab), culminating with Kaye Ballard's character singing "You'll jiiiinx it, if you blab!" to the tune of "Santa Lucia."

So, I'll sit back quietly - and sort of patiently - not getting my hopes up - and wait to hear.

[b5finland]

I hope that something new is coming from B5 universe. But if im honest to my self i think B5 is dead because Joe is such control freak concerning B5 stuff.

I dont care if there are new actors or something like that. Babylon 5 deserves more spin-off series/movies...

If B5 story arc would been longer than 5 years there would be 1 or 2 spinoff series by now.. Like SG1 has Atlantis and new spinoff for the same universe is coming in near future.

Sorry for the poor english.

[Jan]

I hastened to say congratulations because...well, it seemed polite in my view. If JMS is saying to watch the trades in the next week or so, it would seem that there's a press release imminent.

As for whatever he referred to being B5, no, I don't think that JMS would describe anything related to that as being the biggest thing to happen in his career. It's got to be something more than a syndicated or cable series but that leaves whole lots of things open.

B5Finland, your English is fine. I disagree with you, though. One of the things that made B5 so unique was that it was one man's vision. I also was firmly against recasting when the subject came up. More B5 just for the sake of more B5 would tarnish the memory, imo.

Jan

[frulad]

I'm holding out for the JMSChannel, coming soon to your cable service!

[Jan]

Wouldn't that be an interesting mix? Let's see...Captain Power, The Real Ghostbusters, He-Man, She-Ra, Jake and the Fatman, Walker,Texas Ranger, Murder, She Wrote, Babylon 5 and Jeremiah...quite a mix there. Did I miss any?

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

Twilight Zone.

[Jan]

Gaahhh! Of course. Thanks, Joe.

Jan