Has Sense8 been kicking around since at least 2006?

[Triple F]

Noticed this a while back. If it is the same project, just goes to show how long these things can take to be picked up.

http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-3718

For the last year, very much under the radar, I've been working with two film makers who have created some of the biggest SF movies in the last twenty years on a television project. (I can't reveal their identities, but pick any three of their movies and you have box office of over two billion dollars.) We've been quietly writing and creating the first three scripts for a new SF series that would pretty much revolutionize the form, and which have gone out to the networks for
auction. Offers are coming in. Whether or not the offers are enough to make the project work -- it's huge -- remains to be seen. Where this goes will be determined in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

[Jan]

I wouldn't be surprised if it were the same thing or an offshoot. I recall there being a project that generated a lot of interest but also shying away because it was so different from what had been done before.

Pretty much all of the press releases said that Sense8 came about from a discussion several years ago so this certainly qualifies.

Jan

[JDSValen]

Based on BoxOfficeMojo.com, the Wachowski's films prior to 2006 only total roughly $1.64 billion worldwide, but I think JMS was hyperbolizing to make a point.

It's very possible that some exec who now works at Netflix heard the initial pitches for the series back then while employed at a different company and revisited the idea, knowing that Netflix has money to throw around and is looking to make a splash.

So, yeah, it probably is.

[JoeD80]

A good comparison - Babylon 5 pilot aired in February 1993. Joe wrote the treatment and put together the initial team (Thornton, Iacovelli, Netter, Copeland) in 1988.

[Jan]

Posted these on the main thread but in case anybody missed them, I found the posts I was looking for where JMS talked about the show.

http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-3718 (which Triple F also linked to)

http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-3702

http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-3703



Given what we now know about the show, I'm glad it got shelved until the time was right for Netflix to pick it up.

Jan

[sense8ional]

Yeah, definitely.

[Triple F]

A good comparison - Babylon 5 pilot aired in February 1993. Joe wrote the treatment and put together the initial team (Thornton, Iacovelli, Netter, Copeland) in 1988.

Good comparison. Though just to clarify a bit on that. While the show had been punted around for a few years and the likes of Copeland and Netter got involved back in ’88. Ron Thornton didn’t join the team until 1991 to help with a pitch to WB – which was ultimately successful after he brought along the idea of using CGI for the FX – the cost of producing that stuff via traditional means was a BIG problem in previous pitches to studios.

In 1991, Ronny was working for Todd Rungren in Sausalito doing the 'Change Myself' rock video which was done on Macs controlling Amigas (don't ask) running Toaster/Lightwave. Anyway, he was approached by John Copeland and asked if he could produce something to spice up an upcoming B5 pitch at WB, because they were getting tired of them going nowhere. Basically, JMS had pitched B5 to the networks for years and they'd consistently turned him down because the effects would blow any budget.

Ronny thought it through and wondered if it would be possible to do the effects CG. The two of us discussed, in detail, the technological, logistical and economic feasibility of it as nothing like it had been tried before. Ronny designed and built a simple planet and CG ship and animated it doing a whip pan past a star and approaching the planet. It was a simple shot but revolutionary considering our meagre resources. We rendered it using (I think) 3 Amigas with 3 300mb drives that we (ahem) acquired. We then copied the sequence together into one animation and using the toaster frame buffer, manually laid of the entire 300 frame sequence twice onto a single frame recording security VCR.

Ron then met up with the others and the WB execs at their offices, just across the road from our apartments. JMS did the B5 pitch and as usual the inevitable question arose "How are you going to afford to do the effects for this show?". He and Douglas Netter basically then turned to Ronny, who said something along the lines of "like this", and played the ten second animation sequence sitting on a VHS tape. I think they liked what we did, as soon after that meeting WB green-lit the show.

[JoeD80]

Yeah the CGI idea came later; Ron was there in 1988 for the concept of building models for b5, which he was doing for Captain Power.

[Triple F]

Where do you get the idea Ron joined the group in ’88? As mentioned in the previous quote, this occurred in ’91.

Originally I’d been approached by John Copeland to bid on Babylon 5 using miniatures and motion control as well. But it would have been prohibitively expensive to do, and they had very little money. Once a model for the station had been built and set up there would have been enough left to perhaps do 8 to 10 shots. That’s why I suggested using CGI, though wasn’t exactly sure if it could be done as nothing had been attempted for television on that scale before.

[JoeD80]

I get that idea because Joe and John Iacovelli both said Ron was part of the original team. I don't understand why you think "been approached by John Copeland to bid on Babylon 5 using miniatures and motion control as well" can somehow only happen in 1991. They all met working on Captain Power. What year was Captain Power? Hint: it wasn't 1991.

Take a look at Iacovelli's recollection from 1989:

Gathered that day, in addition to writer/creator/executive producer J. Michael Straczynski, were executive producer Doug Netter, producer John Copeland, visual effects supervisor Ron Thornton, and me.

http://www.adg.org/?art=perspective_...ectiveId=34802

Thanks. John, Doug and I had originally worked with Ron on Captain Power, so that's where that connection comes from.

[Delenn_of_Mir]

Cool. It's fun looking back in history, since history already happened and is certain. I like certainty. I also like to listen to smart/confident people discuss/argue things.



Um. Wow, Sense8 has been in the works a long time! I'm also glad no network got the chance to butcher it. Go Netflix Go.