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

[torkste]

Have you seen the movie Guardians of the Galaxy?
Was it the human character's or the green alien female, the talking raccon and the plantman that made this a hit?
Avatar likewise. Would that movie have been better by removing the blue aliens and replacing them with human characters.
So, yes, a movie with Minbari, who is not that different from the Trek, "any human with wrinkles on their nose or forehead is an alien" variant that the public is already familiar with, and lots of cool spaceships would do very well as a movie.

 

[hypatia]

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.

Jan

Thank you, Jan. You put that so much better than I was about to put it.

 

[HeinleinFan]

I haven't been around for a while, but I'm glad I checked in this evening. A new B5 film is great news, especially with the level of film making technology available today.

I'd be perfectly OK with new characters and a re-imagined story, but while sitting in that darkened theater I'd be remembering all those amazing people who are no longer with us. Elated and sad at the same time.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Has it really been 20 years?

 

[cheer]

I just want some cracking good writing. Give me that and I'll excuse most anything else.

 

[vorlonlovechild]

We have the #Freebabylon5 movement chugging along nicely - raising the profile of the show (which is great), we have some bright spark releasing the 'Into the Fire' game demo for download (again possibly raising the profile of the show), and we have JMS stating openly he's going to write a movie - a reboot of the series.......

How brilliant is that?

 

[Sannra]

I'd love to see a new B5 movie but I'm not sure if i'd like to see a reboot. Of course i understand the reasons for it: Some of the main cast died and the rest is older now. But that's the fate of time. I'd really love to see the original cast involved (especially Bruce Boxleitner, Mira Furlan and the actor who played Londo) but not in other roles. I can't imagine an other actor to play Delenn for example. Mira Furlan is Delenn. The characters of the series are attached to the faces we already know, so a change is something i really wouldn't like to see and i hope that they'll solve the problem in a good way for us all. The best would be imo to let the original cast play the roles they had in the series and group new characters around them.

 

[hypatia]

Didn't JMS consider making Delenn a male who turned female after the transition involving the big caterpillar-like pod?

It would be interesting to see who was cast to play that part, if he stuck with that idea.

 

[Jan]

The idea was for the character of Delenn to be male but played by a female, Mira Furlan. The theory was that females move differently from males which would cause a dissonance with the viewer. Between the electronic correction to the voice not working well and Mira being more than a little unhappy about finding out her character was supposed to be male, that part was dropped.

Jan

 

[Sannra]

i'm glad they dropped it. It would have been crazy in a way. I've nothing against experiments but when you see her later changed in this love theme you would always think: "she's male, she's male." So i prefer her being female right from the beginning.

are there already any movie news?

 

[Jan]

Nothing other than we already know: JMS plans to write it in 2015 and produce it in 2016. He'll invite WB to participate but plans to make it with or without them.

Jan

 

[Sannra]

Ah i see. Thanx for answering, Jan.
We'll find out soon enough. I guess some of the old cast will join and then i hope they'll play the characters they used to play again.

Merry Christmas

 

[Jan]

Here's the transcription I did of the part of the JMS spotlight at Comic-Con last July. It talks about using the original cast, but in a very different way that could be massively cool (IMO).

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.


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.

Jan

 

[Sannra]

Oh thanx for the forecast, it was very interesting to read.
Well, i am still not totally convinced but maybe i shall make up my mind a bit more and give it a chance. The script writer of the show has a great talent and it's only fair to trust him, although i think that creating a dream for an episode with the actors changing roles is one thing. Doing it for a whole movie is something totally different. But hey, maybe it works quite well. And i guess the author won't pick up the same plot shown in the series before, so being the earth president must not be something totally different for Bruce Boxleitner. But in case the author acts that way i would prefer having totally new characters around. When there still would be a Sheridan, a Delenn and a Londo being played by other actors the audience would compare to much. And that has nothing to do with intelligence.

 

[Jan]

JMS isn't talking about just switching the actors around for the feature film - he's talking about using an entirely new cast for the characters we know *but* also using the original actors in other roles. If the new actors are properly skilled, the audience won't be thinking about the original ones for more than a few minutes. After all, did we think about Chekov very much when Bester showed up? It's only right that the new cast should make the parts their own regardless of comparisons by the audience.

Jan

 

[Sannra]

IMO it isn't important if the new cast is skilled or not. They can cast the best actors in the world, when someone wants to compare, he or she will do it. No matter if the new actors do good or not. An author might write the story, the character and the passion of a role, but a specific actor gives it a spirit. When you change the actor, the character will be a different one in a way afterwards, even if it should stay the same.
I'm still not convinced because the roles are definitively connected with the old cast in my mind. But I'll wait and see. Maybe I'll surprise myself when I walk out of the cinema. And I'm looking forward to the discussions we'll have here.

 

[Springer]

I think it will definitely be easier to accept for actors that had heavy make-up in the original series. For example Peter Jurasik, out of that hair and with his normal accent, could play a completely different character and it wouldn't jar. For Bruce, every time we see him we're going to think of Sheridan (unless of course the character he plays does have heavy make up, or he plays the new character very differently).

Jan, I think when Bester first showed up, lots of people thought of Chekov (I know I did) and the producers were probably hoping at least in part that was the case, to try and draw in Star Trek fans. But it is to Walter Koenig's credit that we very quickly forgot about Chekov when watching Bester.

I think it would be fun to see the actors playing different characters, as long as it is done seriously, and not just as a nudge and a wink to fans. They still need to be the right actors to play those roles.

 

[hypatia]

I wonder if I'll even recognize the old cast, if they had heavy :klingon: and can change their accents.

It's going to be a long year. I hope we can get interesting tidbits, while we wait.

It's interesting to read everything that is involved with professional writing. I'd not thought about a fan-funded project, even though I'd heard them. It's very interesting to see his thinking on that.

I'm heartbroken to hear he never will actually profit from any kind of percentage of the series and its earnings. That's another area I will never understand, and am usually horrified to hear about the details.

 

[JonFrain]

I'm not really going to get excited or even believe it will happen until they actually start filming. To do otherwise is just begging to be disappointed. Glen Larson kept threatening to do the same thing with BSG and even got Mark Singer involved and that never came to fruition.

Does JMS' company even have the funding to go it alone? What about distribution? There are far too many reasons why it could fall apart.

It could very well just a bluff WB to reboot the show with his help. Although that seems unlikely.