JMS series in development

[Jan]

Part of a post that just appeared on the newsgroup:

Title: some news from jms
Author: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:56:34 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <[email protected]>

<snip Brave and Bold comic info-see Comics forum>

That said...a bit of news. In addition to the feature work, I now
have a mainstream prime-time drama series in development with one of
the Big Four broadcast networks. Not cable, not syndication, one of
the Big Four. (I can't say which yet, pending an announcement.) The
pilot script will be turned in by year's end, and after that they'll
decide if they want to shoot it. As noted, it's primarily mainstream
with a touch of genre to it, and it should be a lot of fun.

<snip tease that might make Mac's blood pressure rise>

jms

[Jan]

A snippet of news about JMS' series in development in an interview with JMS that I found this morning:

REPUBLIBOT 3.0:
Damn. So without betraying any trusts or giving away any spoilers, can you tell us what your latest project is?
STRACZYNSKI:
Remaking Forbidden Planet for Warner Bros, I have Ninja Assassin coming out in November, I'm adapting Lensman for Ron Howard, and I just placed a pilot project (mainstream) with the Fox Network. As well as writing comics for DC.

Emphasis added by me.

Jan

[Milkman]

Fox.... im still upset with them about firefly...

[Jan]

^ yeah, that was one of my thoughts, too. Too early to worry about, though, since JMS has yet to hand in the script by which they'll decide whether to do a pilot. Could be a loonngg wait before we have to worry about Fox's habit of early cancellation.

Jan

[Spoo Junky]

Oh good, I thought it was just me who was a bit leery about Fox Network. I hope it works out when the time comes.

[Jan]

Let's just hope that JMS gets those three sweet words (Total Creative Freedom) written into his contract. And that by the time the show goes to series there's a set of execs who understand that it takes a little while to build up an audience. I like the trend these days of showing an episode at least twice per week.

Jan

[Andrew_Swallow]

Let's just hope that JMS gets those three sweet words (Total Creative Freedom) written into his contract. And that by the time the show goes to series there's a set of execs who understand that it takes a little while to build up an audience. I like the trend these days of showing an episode at least twice per week.

Jan

Or the contract allows JMS to take the programme to a different network. Treat Fox as a nursery.

[Jan]

Or the contract allows JMS to take the programme to a different network. Treat Fox as a nursery.

I'm not sure but I think that's not how things generally work. When you sell a series, you literally sell it. Which is why JMS only owns the movie rights B5. There are all sorts of deals, though, and if there's a studio involved which licenses the show to Fox, I suppose it's a possibility.

Jan

[Macbeth]

We all like to bash on Fox for doing things like canceling Firefly but we must give them at least as much or more credit for creating and airing the show in the first place.

Fox may have cancelled Firefly but they also paid for it. I for one would rather have the Firefly episodes we got than none at all.

The same goes for B5 - better the Crusade we got than none at all.

[JasonDavis]

There are all sorts of deals, though, and if there's a studio involved which licenses the show to Fox, I suppose it's a possibility.

In broadcast television, the idea of a studio licensing a series to an unrelated network is now virtually extinct. Nowadays, the parent studio airs all its programs on a sister network: Universal on NBC, Disney on ABC, and Fox on...well, Fox. The only surviving exception that comes to mind is Universal's HOUSE, M.D. airing on Fox (and, of course, it pre-dates the current state of vertical corporate integration by a year or two).

If Joe's doing a show for Fox, it's almost assuredly a Fox production to be aired on the Fox network. And, to be fair, Fox has been much better about canceling shows only after they've given the audience two years to fall in love

[JasonDavis]

Must have botched my quote tag in the prior post -- credit to Jan for the first sentence.

[JoeD80]

Nowadays, the parent studio airs all its programs on a sister network: Universal on NBC, Disney on ABC, and Fox on...well, Fox. The only surviving exception that comes to mind is Universal's HOUSE, M.D. airing on Fox

House is filmed at Fox Studios as well, so even though Universal finances it, Fox pretty much does everything with it. I did think of one that's fairly new: CBS is Viacom (Paramount) but The Mentalist is produced by and filmed at Warner Bros.

[JasonDavis]

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was another recent example -- Warner produced show aired on Fox. Presumably, that was a key factor in deciding whether Terminator or Dollhouse continued into this season (the latter being owned AND aired by Fox).

[frulad]

Didn't Medium migrate networks this year? Don't watch the show myself, but I recall hearing something about that...

[JasonDavis]

Medium and Scrubs have both migrated to the networks allied with their production companies -- CBS/Paramount and ABC/Disney, respectively.