Casting Rumors

[Sindatur]

According to JMS in Dreamwatch Issue 145 the effects budget is "over a million dollars...".

Wonder if that is for the first three or if they're budgeting beyond that? (Seems high for just the first three, even given "start from scratch" costs and inflation, that's more the whole budget for most of the hour-long episodes.)

Are there any other facts and figures you can give those of us without ready access to the magazine?

Thanks,

Joe

Well each disk is 90 minutes of airtime, which is a bit more than 2 hour long episodes (42 * 2)?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Well each disk is 90 minutes of airtime, which is a bit more than 2 hour long episodes (42 * 2)?

But Andrew's post indicates that just the special effects budget is over a million dollars. The entire per episode budget for most of B5's run - including FX, sets, guest stars, staff salaries, script fees and the donuts on the craft services table - was just a tick under a million dollars. The FX budget would have been a small fraction of this. So the number still seems high.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Sindatur]

Well each disk is 90 minutes of airtime, which is a bit more than 2 hour long episodes (42 * 2)?

But Andrew's post indicates that just the special effects budget is over a million dollars. The entire per episode budget for most of B5's run - including FX, sets, guest stars, staff salaries, script fees and the donuts on the craft services table - was just a tick under a million dollars. The FX budget would have been a small fraction of this. So the number still seems high.

Regards,

Joe

Ah, my bad, oops

 

[hypatia]

Well, it should be interesting to see what he comes up with. It's amazing they can begin filming it all so soon.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

Are there any other facts and figures you can give those of us without ready access to the magazine?

Not much more information was given which is why I did not type out the rest of the article labelled "Dreamwatch Exclusive".

About half the article was the reports repeating what JMS posted on r.a.s.t.b5.mod newsgroup. I suspect that part of the information is a month out of date.

Dreamwatch: How does the approved budget for B5:TLT compare to those you enjoyed on the B5 TV series?

JMS: On a minute-by-minute basis, it's quite a bit more. The total budget is classified, but for 70 or so minutes of film, on what are in some ways meant to be very personal and smaller stories, we still have over a million dollars, just in the effects budget.

{snip already typed part}

Dreamwatch: Will 30 minutes be enough to satisfy the audience's interest in those characters?

JMS: Thirty minutes is 10 minutes longer than the average new Twilight Zone episode... we could definitely tell a story in that time.

 

[GaribaldisHair]

So now I'm confused ...

JMS talks about the three episodes constituting 70 (or so) minutes of film, which would be 90 minutes of broadcast time when made up with commercials, right?

The he talks about having 30 minutes per story, and that being 10 minutes longer than New Twilight Zone episodes, which were 30 minutes including commercials right?

Am I missing something here?

 

[A_M_Swallow]

So now I'm confused ...

JMS talks about the three episodes constituting 70 (or so) minutes of film, which would be 90 minutes of broadcast time when made up with commercials, right?

In direct to DVD there are no adverts.

 

[Sindatur]

So now I'm confused ...

JMS talks about the three episodes constituting 70 (or so) minutes of film, which would be 90 minutes of broadcast time when made up with commercials, right?

In direct to DVD there are no adverts.

Correct. That's the confusion. At first alot of believed it was 30 minutes, including commercials on TV, but, JMS apparently verified it is 30 minutes, not counting commercials (IE: The three together would equal 90 minutes, and allow 30 minutes of commercials for a 2 hour TV slot).

So, if it;'s 30 minutes without commercials * 3, that's 90 mminutes. If it's 30 minutes, including commercials, that's typically 3 * 21 minutes, which is 63 minutes. 70 minutes seems like it must be a typo or a mis speak.

 

[GaribaldisHair]

So now I'm confused ...

JMS talks about the three episodes constituting 70 (or so) minutes of film, which would be 90 minutes of broadcast time when made up with commercials, right?

In direct to DVD there are no adverts.

I'm not completely stupid Andrew ... 70 minutes worth of episode would be 90 minutes of broadcast time if TLT were to be broadcast in a 90 minutes format, and we have no idea whether this is likely or not.

My point was only that:

* JMS stated that there was to be 70 minutes or so of film.
* JMS then stated that at 30 minutes, each LT would each be 10 minutes longer than an episode of The New Twilight Zone.

WIth 70 minutes of film, they will only be 30 minutes long with commercials (i.e. exactly the same as the NTZ).

I tend to go with the typo/mis-speak option.

 

[KoshFan]

Math, after all, was never JMS's strong suit.

 

[The One Who Was]

JMS gave Dreamwatch magazine an interview. It is published in Issue 145 on page 10.

This would also give us the ability to do a Sinclair or a Marcus story.

A Sinclair (and Catherine) story would be a dream come true for this fan!

Keep

 

[Ranger1]

sadly the stories i REALLY want will never come to be, Franklin when he was hitchhiking before the war, or G'kar after the war but before S1. though a marcus story would be wonderful.

 

[PillowRock]

though a marcus story would be wonderful.

Have you been getting the script books?

The appendices in the most recent one has the first half of the script (or whatever the appropriate term is) for a comic book that JMS was writing that was to be put out by DC. It seems that JMS pulled the plug halfway through because DC kept insisting on dumbing things down to children's book levels. (That's why only the first half ever got written.) It features Marcus.

 

[Ranger1]

this is the thing, i have the universe, with every ep and the films, but i haven't read the books, and i don't know about all the interviews and such, because i have so many other sci-fi shows to keep up with too, thus i don't have the script books, though am somewhat interested in getting them.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

In Babylon 5 Podcast #37 Jeffery Willerth kept making a weird noise. I suspect that this was his way of saying that not only Lyta but Kosh has also got a part in the coming B5:TLT episodes.