B5 Feature Film to be scriptedTRUE! There will be a feature film going into productio

[JoeD80]

I don't claim to know Joe's mind, but I know a lot of writers, and I'm an amateur myself.
...
In this case, I think it was ugly stupid reality. I honestly believe the Telepath arc was intended to be *INSIDE* B5 (or B5/BP) all along.

The thing is, we have a lot of Joe's notes, the closest we have to being in his mind. None of them point to the telepath war being set in season five, except for the Psi Corps bombing - which was seen in "Wheel of Fire." The biggest character arc of the telepath crisis (Ivanova) was morphed into Lyta's falling into Byron's cult. The script books are fairly detailed about these things. Now he did say he would use the war as background to Crusade - hard to know how much since that show didn't go past half a season and the Crusade script book series hasn't been finished.

 

[Republibot 3.0]

I don't claim to know Joe's mind, but I know a lot of writers, and I'm an amateur myself.
...
In this case, I think it was ugly stupid reality. I honestly believe the Telepath arc was intended to be *INSIDE* B5 (or B5/BP) all along.

The thing is, we have a lot of Joe's notes, the closest we have to being in his mind. None of them point to the telepath war being set in season five, except for the Psi Corps bombing - which was seen in "Wheel of Fire." The biggest character arc of the telepath crisis (Ivanova) was morphed into Lyta's falling into Byron's cult. The script books are fairly detailed about these things. Now he did say he would use the war as background to Crusade - hard to know how much since that show didn't go past half a season and the Crusade script book series hasn't been finished.

Playing my side is boring, so I'll play yours for variety's sake: if he didn't intend it to be in S5 or B5 at all, then he intended it to be the "Earth/Minbari War" of the Crusade storyline: the huge event that shaped everyone's destiny, but which we never see much of.

That said, iI think it was a collossally bad decision on his part, but, eh, whatever. It happens.

An important thing to remember, however, is that despite having a 'grand plan', B5 was in actuality a fairly fluid evolution of TWO series (B5 and BP) which got conflated into one. The idea to conflate them was obviously ocurring to JMS but he doesn't seem to have been completely sold on it until mid-late S2. Thus a lot of things that had been intended to be in the "B5/BP" storyline got absorbed into what we now call B5, and the stuff that wouldn't fit - such as presumably the Technomages and the Telepath Crisis - were likely intended to be part of BP all along, and to some extent Crusade was probably partially intended to conserve such unused elements of BP as JMS still thought were interesting.

(I mean, hell, remember that Babylon Prime had engines! It was technically a ship....)

 

[Alluveal]

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what the Babylon 5 universe can look like. On the big screen. With today's technology. I do think original B5 effects with space battles were so amazing, but the notion of seeing a Narn destroyer slowly inching its way across the screen in a giant theater makes me truly giddy.

I've seen the original series. I fell in love with the characters and the story arcs. But they are done. I'm okay with something new coming along. I will sit in the theater and revel both in the joy of the new changes and the thrill of being "in on the secrets" that stay.

And I could see using some of the former actors. The way they used Zarek, for example in BSG reimagined? Great stuff.

My only reluctance comes from the logistical side of things. Will this really ever happen? I want to believe, but until things are more firmly in place, I'm going to err on the side of caution. (I also felt this way about GRRM's GoT, which had a positive outcome.)

 

[Republibot 3.0]

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what the Babylon 5 universe can look like. On the big screen. With today's technology. I do think original B5 effects with space battles were so amazing, but the notion of seeing a Narn destroyer slowly inching its way across the screen in a giant theater makes me truly giddy.

I've seen the original series. I fell in love with the characters and the story arcs. But they are done. I'm okay with something new coming along. I will sit in the theater and revel both in the joy of the new changes and the thrill of being "in on the secrets" that stay.

And I could see using some of the former actors. The way they used Zarek, for example in BSG reimagined? Great stuff.

My only reluctance comes from the logistical side of things. Will this really ever happen? I want to believe, but until things are more firmly in place, I'm going to err on the side of caution. (I also felt this way about GRRM's GoT, which had a positive outcome.)

Like I said above, I'll go see it whatever happens. That said, I instantly started protecting myself becuse I don't think it's going to happen, and I'm tired of getting my heart broken.

A German friend of mine who was absolutely vastly passionately more obsessive about B5 than I once said this: "Babylon 5 is like a package vacation that a Travel Agentconvinces you to go on, despite having never heard of it, and no real interest in it. It turns out to be the greatest thing imaginable, and you're blown away. The next vacation, you go to the same agent and say "Book me another one!" So she sends you someplace, and it's ok, but not as good, and you have to leave early because of a Cyclone. You go to the travel agent again and again because of how great the first trip was, but each subsequent vacation is just that much less than the one before, and finally she just ends up showing you brochures for hotels that haven't even been built yet. So you give up and go to Canada instead."

 

[falstaffe]

OK, so it looks like it's going to be a re-imagining of the whole shebang. I can see that. The original show was constrained by the technology and budget limitations of the 90's, telling the story from the pov of the ambassadors stationed at B5. But a reboot could open it up to a galaxy-wide cast of characters and locations. Coupled with modern f/x and modern, grown-up tastes in dramatic television, this could be very, very awrsome. (Think "Game of Thrones.")

HOWEVER,

The point I'm murky on is how this works without a commitment from some network somewhere beyond the movie. I mean, is the movie a pilot of sorts? That means Warner Bros has to start making decisions on B5 again--Joe has control of movie rights, but they own the broadcast end.

Ugh. Warner Bros hasn't shown themselves to be very good caretakers--it's almost as if WB is trying to bury the show. Hard to see any kind of relaunch without addressing this issue head-on, like buying out their stake in B5.​

 

[hypatia]

Couldn't it be done as a single movie, or a series of movies?

 

[Ubik]

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what the Babylon 5 universe can look like. On the big screen. With today's technology. I do think original B5 effects with space battles were so amazing, but the notion of seeing a Narn destroyer slowly inching its way across the screen in a giant theater makes me truly giddy.

I've seen the original series. I fell in love with the characters and the story arcs. But they are done. I'm okay with something new coming along. I will sit in the theater and revel both in the joy of the new changes and the thrill of being "in on the secrets" that stay.

And I could see using some of the former actors. The way they used Zarek, for example in BSG reimagined? Great stuff.

My only reluctance comes from the logistical side of things. Will this really ever happen? I want to believe, but until things are more firmly in place, I'm going to err on the side of caution. (I also felt this way about GRRM's GoT, which had a positive outcome.)

Like I said above, I'll go see it whatever happens. That said, I instantly started protecting myself becuse I don't think it's going to happen, and I'm tired of getting my heart broken.

A German friend of mine who was absolutely vastly passionately more obsessive about B5 than I once said this: "Babylon 5 is like a package vacation that a Travel Agentconvinces you to go on, despite having never heard of it, and no real interest in it. It turns out to be the greatest thing imaginable, and you're blown away. The next vacation, you go to the same agent and say "Book me another one!" So she sends you someplace, and it's ok, but not as good, and you have to leave early because of a Cyclone. You go to the travel agent again and again because of how great the first trip was, but each subsequent vacation is just that much less than the one before, and finally she just ends up showing you brochures for hotels that haven't even been built yet. So you give up and go to Canada instead."

Kevin, good to see you back! Yeah, I'll go see it too... in a heartbeat. Fingers crossed it actually happens. I still think funding could be an issue.

 

[hypatia]

I have gotten the impression that even after the money is no longer an issue, even after filming is no longer an issue, sometimes films still never get distributed. So there is never a 'guarantee', until you see it in the theaters.

What I don't know is how likely it is to get this far in the process, and still have it fail.

Will backers see B5 as having been quite successful, originally? I see it as a fantastic success, but would someone backing it see it as a large enough audience?

I wish it were easier to make films that could be marketed without having them cost such incredible amounts of money to make. It's like a real all or nothing gamble, these days, to put out a major motion picture.

 

[Jan]

The point I'm murky on is how this works without a commitment from some network somewhere beyond the movie. I mean, is the movie a pilot of sorts? That means Warner Bros has to start making decisions on B5 again--Joe has control of movie rights, but they own the broadcast end.

It's a feature film, not a pilot- though I suppose it could work as one if successful. While other studios might care about the TV rights, Studio JMS doesn't have to. I don't remember if I posted it here or not but here's the actual announcement that I video'd. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10152646425713588&id=31257643587

Jan

 

[falstaffe]

Ubik, I'd disagree on the "diminishing returns." I personally found Crusade's first season (currently rewatching-just got the dvd's) to be full of fun and drama on par with B5's first season. Dureena, Galen, the Excalibur, the Apocalypse Box...tis a pity and a shame that network meddling tanked another great show before it could reach its full potential. Even Legend of the Rangers had promise (despite the "gunnery" setup -- blech.)

Since B5, JMS has grown greatly as a writer--Changling, Thor, and Rising Stars and more show him to be someone who is exploring new ideas, new challenges. I'm looking forward to seeing JMS revisit the B5 universe, and give us new ideas, new characters, new stories and a fresh take on one of my favorite franchises.

My best guess is that while the station will still play a prominent role in the show, that this time around we're going "into the trenches" of Minbar, Mars, Earth and elsewhere. The original setup made sense for economic and technological limitations of the mid-90's. Today, there's almost no limit to what you can do or show (in every sense of the word. For examples, see: HBO's Game of Thrones.)

But that's only a guess. I'm sure JMS will surprise us all.

 

[vorlonlovechild]

it's not a show. It's a film. He's rebooting it as a movie. (hopefully)

So keep everything crossed that it finally happens......

 

[falstaffe]

Yes, I know it's just a movie. The *hope* is that it turns into something more.

However, I guess we have to acknowledge the possibility that the movie is just a one-off, to leverage WB to treat the B5 episodes they're sitting on with more respect (wouldn't a deluxe edition be nice?)

But, if that's the case, I'm not sure why Joe would want to do a reboot--there are still stories set within the original cannon left to tell that would NOT require the audience to have a working knowledge of B5. For example? The original shadow war with B4 and Sinclair--simply have him suffer from amnesia due to the time jump and you've got a classic "stranger in a strange land" yarn. Other ideas that jump to mind: the telepath war OR the Dilgar war.

But, as I said, my *hope* is that the movie happens and that it leads to new B5 material-comics, books, webisodes or a new non-network-tv series.

 

[Jan]

My personal feeling is that we might want to concentrate on what we can do to make the film a success. To my mind, that's growing the fan base and reminding old fans how great the show is.

I think we should be aware of how Serenity simply didn't do well in theaters despite a fervent fan base. B5 is going to have to do better if there's ever a hope for more after this film.

Jan

 

[Springer]

My personal feeling is that we might want to concentrate on what we can do to make the film a success. To my mind, that's growing the fan base and reminding old fans how great the show is.

I think we should be aware of how Serenity simply didn't do well in theaters despite a fervent fan base. B5 is going to have to do better if there's ever a hope for more after this film.

Jan

I've not seen Firefly or Serenity, but was Serenity pitched to the fans or to a broad audience? I think that will be the key to success: having popular appeal across a broad audience regardless of whether they've heard of B5 or not. As much as I loathe it, that's why the 2009 Star Trek reboot was so successful. Of course, I'd like a B5 movie to be a little more intelligent than that film.

 

[falstaffe]

Agreed. Much like the JJ Abrams reboot of Trek (like it or not), it needs to stand completely on its own. The good news is that JMS has pretty much said those words in response to the question of "Why a reboot and not a continuation?"

He's a smart cookie, and I think he'll find a way to bring fans--old and new--together. Personally, I think the way to thread that needle is to take some of the focus off the station and see more what's going on around the galaxy "on the scene" rather than just hearing reports. Just a guess. Maybe I'm reading too much of the Sens8 setup into it.

 

[hypatia]

Could this open up possible syndication availability of the original B5 series?

I would love to see it have another airing on television. It might help stir the fan base, as well.

 

[vorlonlovechild]

More B5 is great. Feature Film, Series, anything really. I'm all for it. It's just i'm a little nervous (in a way) after previous attempts to bring it back. I hope it happens I really do. Film first, then who knows? Video Game? MMO? TV Series? World Domination for JMS?

 

[RW7427]

Could this open up possible syndication availability of the original B5 series?

I would love to see it have another airing on television. It might help stir the fan base, as well.

We need a like button here.

 

[torkste]

I would like a movie set 1000 years ago during the last Shadow war with B4 and a recast Sinclair. Call it Babylon 4 and you could cast a woman to be "modern". Eye candy and ballbuster in one package, everybody loves that. If they say that the new movie are for all the new people out there with no connection to B5, you could call it whatever you want, so why not Babylon 4.

Second choice would be the Dilgar war. That movie wouldn't interfere with the tv series we all love, and still be expandaing the B5 universe. Lots of new ships and villains with cat eyes. Would be lots of fun. Name it the Babylon Wars.

 

[Jan]

Seriously?!? "Eye candy and ballbuster" is the only use you can see for females and that's only for the sake of being 'modern'? How utterly tasteless and backward of you.

However, to address the rest of your post, how likely do you think it would be for either of those scenarios to end up being a smash hit with almost no human characters, especially in the B4 idea?

Jan