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Big news from JMS by late June or so
- Thread starter hypatia
- Start date
Joseph DeMartino
Moderator
"Something is going to happen."
"What? What's going to happen"
"Something wonderful"
Exchange between Dave Bowman and Dr. Heywood Floyd, 2010
"What? What's going to happen"
"Something wonderful"
Exchange between Dave Bowman and Dr. Heywood Floyd, 2010
darth_librarian
Regular
Is it me or Comic Con now the Cannes for geeks? Everything I have an interest it, from video games through to movies, TV and obivously comics seems to wait till Comic con to do the big announcments.
We shall see... but I wonder if he's not finally agreed to do Warner's animated B5 project...
We shall see... but I wonder if he's not finally agreed to do Warner's animated B5 project...
Joseph DeMartino
Moderator
That's a pretty good description.
This is all the natural result of the convergence between old and new media: the overlap between the comic biz, movies and Silicon Valley. This, along with the timing of the con in July, makes the San Diego convention a good place for product launches and announcements. It is convenient to Hollywood, the major studios, networks and the outposts of the New York comic book publishers, a relatively cheap flight from the Bay area (an easy day trip for people only doing one event) and a handy event to build other meetings around. (The east and west coast branches of a publisher like Marvel can simply plan an annual meeting during convention week and save both themselves and the con operators money on things like airfare because the company can include the con expenses in its meeting costs. Back in the 70s Leonard Nimoy used to get himself booked on The $10,000 Pyramid, a game show that taped in New York, for the week of the annual Star Trek convention. That way ABC-TV paid for his airfare and hotel, and the con didn’t have to finance his trip out of ticket sales. Nice guy and a smart man.) The hardware geek nirvana is probably more CES in Las Vegas (ComDex having declined in importance, again due to convergence. It makes more sense for a Sony that sells computers, or a Dell or HP that sell HDTVs and media center PCs, to target the show with the broader audience where they can also showcase all their non-computer products that work with the computer stuff than the narrower computer industry show.) But stuff many of the same companies that hit a mostly industry show like CES will also want to be seen at SDCC because that’s where a lot of their target audience is going to be and – again – because most of the companies have a presence in California, especially southern California, so it is relatively cheap and easy for them as well.
I must have missed a memo. Did Warner Bros. ever propose an animated B5 project?
Regards,
Joe
Joseph DeMartino
Moderator
It must be that new series with 'Duck Dodgers'
They should include some of the old Duck Dodgers cartoons on some future B5 DVD release. The 2-disc collector's edition of The Adventures of Robin Hood (The 1938 Errol Flynn version) has two Robin-related Looney Toons, one starring Bugs, the other Daffy. (The Casablanca set has a documentary that includes scenes from the Bugs short Carrot-blanca, but doesn't include the cartoon itself, which I think is a shame.)
Regards,
Joe
GaribaldisHair
Regular
Duck Dodgers Rules ...
Joseph DeMartino
Moderator
It's all owned by Warner Brothers, right? Wow, I hadn't thought about that.
Wow, that would be a neat addition.
Yup. that's how they were able to use the footage and the Daffy image in the episodes. It would probably have been too expensive otherwise, but since WB was basically giving itself permission to use its own material, this wasn't a problem. (If some freelancer had turned in a script with a plot point that involved a Disney or Hannah-Barberra cartoon you can bet the scene would have been rewritten. Disney would have wanted more than the typical episode budget for a minute of something like Snow White.
) Regards,
Joe
Joseph DeMartino
Moderator
It was the Turner-Time-Warner deal that landed MGM films like Forbidden Planet in the Warner DVD Library and the AOL-Time-Warner deal that led to the B5 podcasts.
Regards,
Joe
Mindwalker
Regular
From the comic con website
Sounds like the big screen deal is a cinch...I never read the changling is it still in print?
Sounds like the big screen deal is a cinch...I never read the changling is it still in print?
vacantlook
Super Moderator
My understanding is that The Changeling is a film script jms wrote, not something like a book or such that's going to be adapted into a film. In other words, it's never been something that could be "in print" for you to read. (I could be mistaken though.)
Joseph DeMartino
Moderator
The Changling isn't a novel and never was. It is an original screenplay that JMS sold to Imagine Entertainment. So it isn't a matter of Imagine having bought the film rights to a book, which would let them assign the script-writing chores to anyone they liked, and change whatever they wanted in it. Selling the film rights to a novel is not that big a deal and would not have been some kind of career-making event for JMS. Studios have been known to buy the rights to novels they never intend to produce simply in order to keep them out of the hands of other studios, or to spare themselves the prospect of a lawsuit if a book is published that is similar to a project they already have in development. (It is often cheaper to buy the book rights to a book from an author who isn't famous than to fight that lawsuit later, even if the studio were to win.) But buying a finished original screenplay means they actually want to make the film JMS has written.
So the deal is done and has been since the day the contracts were signed. That doesn't mean the film will absolutely get made - all sorts of things can delay a project or even scuttle it entirely - but it does clearly mean the Imagine intends to make the film. Because, as JMS has already pointed out, if they weren't certain they wanted to make the film Imagine could have just optioned the script instead of buying it outright. An optoin places a "hold" on a property for a set period of time for a relatively nominal fee. That gives the prospective producer time to raise money, get a cast and director interested, etc. without committing a huge amount of cash. Once everything is ready the producer than buys the film outright and goes into pre-production - or drops the project and the rights revert to the writer, who keeps the option money. Some writers in Hollywood have earned a comfortable, if not spectacular, living without ever having a movie made from a script or even selling a script or an outline. They just keep selling the options on the same handful of scripts, books or TV properties. John Cleese made a small fortune over the years optioning Fawlty Towers to various American stuidos and TV networks, none of whom got past the pilot stage. They found the series just didn't translate to an American setting or work without Cleese himself, so they gave up. All excpet the last studio who actually got a series on the air and proved that the concept didn't work in an American setting and without Cleese himself. I think it lasted about six weeks.
To quote JMS:
You also don't get a page one story in Variety if your publicity flacks aren't pretty sure they're pushing a project that is going to get made and have convinced the Variety editors likewise.
Anyway, The Changling does not exist in any form where you or I can read it, and won't until JMS eventually gets around to collecting all his feature film scripts into a volume from Cafe Press.
Regards,
Joe
darth_librarian
Regular
It must be that new series with 'Duck Dodgers'
Could have sworn he mentioned it in one of his updated posts, something along the lines of "warners propose a B5 project every now and then, somtimes its animated..."
Sadly my ninja search skills have failed me.
Pobman
Regular
It must be that new series with 'Duck Dodgers'
Could have sworn he mentioned it in one of his updated posts, something along the lines of "warners propose a B5 project every now and then, somtimes its animated..."
Sadly my ninja search skills have failed me.
Luckily my ninja search skills are at their maximum
http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17249&query=animation
(you have to scroll down for the following:
darth_librarian
Regular
Saved by my Ninja brother!!!!
I think its a little corny myself as a a concept, but animated Trek had a kind of charm, and I love the Star Wars Clone Wars series...
I think its a little corny myself as a a concept, but animated Trek had a kind of charm, and I love the Star Wars Clone Wars series...
AnlaShokGrey
Regular
Fawlty Towers (was Re: Big news from JMS...)
Wasn't it JoBeth Williams and John Laroquette? I think it got pulled in even less than six weeks. It was awful. One of the biggest problems was that in the American version, the Fawlty character didn't truly hate his wife. That gutted one of the funniest premises of the original series, IMHO.
Amy
Wasn't it JoBeth Williams and John Laroquette? I think it got pulled in even less than six weeks. It was awful. One of the biggest problems was that in the American version, the Fawlty character didn't truly hate his wife. That gutted one of the funniest premises of the original series, IMHO.
Amy
hypatia
Regular
Re: Fawlty Towers (was Re: Big news from JMS...)
So many hilarious British series don't "translate" to American versions well.
I still recall hearing on the radio the commercials for the American version of "Coupling".
*Shudders and breaks out in hives*
Coupling is the funniest series I've ever seen. I wonder if the American version lasted past its pilot.
So many hilarious British series don't "translate" to American versions well.
I still recall hearing on the radio the commercials for the American version of "Coupling".
*Shudders and breaks out in hives*
Coupling is the funniest series I've ever seen. I wonder if the American version lasted past its pilot.
