CNN at B5

[Springer]

http://www.cafepress.com/b5books

Wow, just wow. This kind of material is like a dream come true. While it feels like the rest of the world has forgotten about the show while other older shows like Firefly or BSG or the various Star Treks keep getting new merchandise, thank goodness for B5Books who have really been coming out with some great stuff, the script books, the B5@20 book, the convention DVDs and Blu-ray, and now this.

 

[Sinclair]

That's pretty sweet. I might just have to pick it up!

 

[Raw Shark]

I might check this out. So I take it there's been no word on the further 'Crusade: What the Hell Happened?' volumes? They changed their whole site, I didn't see anything about them on there anymore. Maybe I'm the only one who bought it.

It's sad that JMS is just letting Crusade die off since he can't do it on television. It had a lot of promise.

Raw Shark

"Please! We just want closure!"
Uter's parents, The Simpsons

 

[hypatia]

The most recent B5 rumor (or not?) was that a B5 re-boot in movie form was going to be in the works sometime around this year. But I don't think more was heard, so I am pretty sure no one around here knows where that project might be.

There were a lot of mixed opinions about Crusade. I liked it, too. And with Netflix making their own series and having a lot more imagination about it than network t.v., I can see some JMS sci-fi. He does a series called "Sense8" for Netflix. I am pretty sure it got renewed for a second season, as well. :bolian:

 

[Jan]

I might check this out. So I take it there's been no word on the further 'Crusade: What the Hell Happened?' volumes? They changed their whole site, I didn't see anything about them on there anymore. Maybe I'm the only one who bought it.

It's sad that JMS is just letting Crusade die off since he can't do it on television. It had a lot of promise.

Raw Shark

"Please! We just want closure!"
Uter's parents, The Simpsons

He doesn't have any choice. There's literally nothing he can do without Warner Bros. permission (and a hefty license fee, I'm sure) with the exception of the planned B5 feature film - because those are the *only* rights that JMS controls. Not novels, not comics, not audio dramas, not short stories, not anything.

The most recent B5 rumor (or not?) was that a B5 re-boot in movie form was going to be in the works sometime around this year. But I don't think more was heard, so I am pretty sure no one around here knows where that project might be.

Last word was in an interview around last Aug/Sept where he said he planned to finish the script in 2015 and hoped to go into production this year. Hopefully we'll get an update on everything in July when he appears at San Diego Comic-Con.

There were a lot of mixed opinions about Crusade. I liked it, too. And with Netflix making their own series and having a lot more imagination about it than network t.v., I can see some JMS sci-fi. He does a series called "Sense8" for Netflix. I am pretty sure it got renewed for a second season, as well. :bolian:

Yes, it was renewed for season two and looks like it's in the process of filming all over the globe again. I'm very much looking forward to it.

JMS wrote a pilot script for a TV series based on 'Red Mars' by Kin Stanley Robinson for Spike TV and it was announced to go straigt to series and that he'd be showrunner. Yesterday it came out that he's not the showrunner and the showrunner who replaced him has now left so the project has been 'paused'.

Jan

 

[hypatia]

Thanks, Jan. I'd hoped things were quiet because it's all in pre-production. I forgot that JMS tends to work on ten billion projects at once, usually leading them all. :wtf:

 

[Jan]

It looks like Sense8 season 2 has begun filming and at least one interview has them filming in twice as many locations as season 1. Don't know how much JMS is involved with that this time. Last time, though he didn't direct, he was present for a good bit of the filming, I understand.

All he said when somebody commented on his being so quiet was that there was a lot going on so I guess we'll find out in July. Yes, I'll be there.

Jan

 

[Raw Shark]

But Jan, if Cafe Press or JMS is somehow prevented from publishing more Crusade books or anything else because they lack permission from Warners, then why not just say 'Hey folks, those Crusade books we announced we were going to publish have been put on hold indefinitely,' or canceled, or whatever. Would Warners prevent them from making such a statement? I doubt it. I'm just saying that if you announce you're going to take Vienna, and then you don't, then at least make another announcement saying you're not going to take Vienna after all. That would be polite, rather than leaving fans like us (or just me, if I'm the only one buying the books) hanging. Unless the B5 script books operation is a front for an Al Qaeda sleeper agent trap, I really don't understand the secrecy (and yes, for a while b5scripts.com had a note saying they weren't able to say anything about why things were no longer happening, I forget the wording). It shouldn't take tons of fortitude to announce that a project has been canceled, and maybe explain why.

Raw Shark

"If the purpose of the Department of Homeland Security is to defend the homeland, then what is the purpose of the Department of Defense?"

Patrick J. Buchanan

 

[Jan]

Apologies for the miscommunication, Raw Shark. What I was responding to was:

It's sad that JMS is just letting Crusade die off since he can't do it on television. It had a lot of promise.

...not anything to do with the 'Hell' books. I thought you were talking about JMS continuing the story of Crusade - which he can't. As for why the rest of the 'Hell' books never come out? I don't know. I know JMS has been busy and I know he's indicated in the past that it's hard for him to go back to that time but that's it.

Jan

 

[Springer]

I wonder if there's legal issues surrounding the rest of the Crusade books? The TNT execs are not going to come out of it smelling of roses, and maybe JMS has been advised legally not to say certain things, and JMS would then rather just not say anything rather than not be able to tell the true story?

Dunno, just a supposition.

 

[vorlonlovechild]

looking forward to hearing some news soon in regards to the 'Feature' JMS said he was writing. As far as Crusade is concerned, I will always remember watching the final episode and thinking 'F..k you TNT'. I mean I knew it had been cancelled, but it was showing massive promise by the end.

 

[Raw Shark]

I was thinking about that after my last post. I think it's more likely that JMS doesn't want to burn his bridges with TNT and maybe Warner Bros. Via his online statements since B5 began, he has been very honest about how Hollywood works, and sometimes it's not pretty. He may have a reputation by now as someone who publicizes things that the people he does business with do not want made public, they might not appreciate that. I remember very well the things he's said about why Crusade was canceled, and although I know that decision was made by TNT, I also know that without TNT we would have had no Crusade at all, or the fifth season of B5, or the B5 TV movies. It's too bad that it ended but I'm glad that it happened, that we got as much material as we did. I was really hoping to learn more about what was in store for Crusade going forward, that's my interest in those books. JMS was setting things up to go in some really interesting directions, and I hope that one day we can learn more about that.

Raw Shark

"The law is whatever I write on a piece of paper."
Saddam Hussein

 

[Triple F]

jms’s take on the events surrounding Crusade is just that, his take on events. They’re also the version of events most folks know about with nothing from the “other side”. But reading over an article that was published around the time which included something from someone at TNT, it’s not so clear cut……. After being left alone from Warner to make B5, jms turning up at a meeting and blankly refusing to accept any notes from TNT before he even saw them most likely set up an atmosphere of confrontation…. One that jms was never going to win. Certainly sounds like there was a bit of ego involved after the highs of B5.

"They went over the first five episodes and tried to give notes on those," he said. "They were on one side of the table, and I was on the other side. They went to turn the notes over and I said, 'No. No to the first, no to the second, no to them all.'

http://old.post-gazette.com/tv/19990606crusadea4.asp

Makes for an interesting read.

 

[Jan]

I'm not sure where you got the impression that JMS hadn't gotten the notes prior to the meeting? Is it the 'They went to turn the notes over'? That's just indicative that they were about to go over the notes, as in 'turn the first page over'. Even back in the dark ages of the 90s they had email and fax machines.

The "big no" meeting was specifically about a small percentage of the
scripts...and only one meeting out of many. They kept at us *constantly*

It's also of note that according to the article, they wanted to give notes on the first five episodes - ones that had already been shot. Ones that they'd already had the scripts for and seen dailies and edits on. The time for notes from a studio is, of necessity, before shooting or perhaps a few during shooting.

Indeed, all we have is one side. However, this memo seems to contradict that "air of confrontation"

http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-6148

Prior to that, though, a general thought: when the notes process began in
earnest subsequent to 105, we voiced the concern that we seemed to be getting
conflicting reactions.on the one hand we received requests for action, on the
other hand we got requests for more dialogue about what the stories mean to the
characters, scenes that allow them to express their feelings to one another.
Prior to then, with the possible exception of a few scenes in 101, we had been
primarily an action-based series.

We said at this time that we needed clarification: did TNT want more action, or
more dialogue scenes/exposition? Since then, the script notes have been
primarily oriented toward creating more dialogue scenes, more background on the
characters, their feelings toward one another and the situations they're in,
and the emotional consequences. Essentially, expository scenes of one sort or
another. We have complied with those notes as much as we possibly could.

So you can understand my concern when, having done as TNT asked, we get notes
on the cuts that essentially pillory us for having a slower pace. The pace is
in large measure the result of adding in those expository scenes. If TNT asks
for new scenes or to expand scenes in which characters talk about their
feelings, it's going to perforce slow down the action aspect.

I feel it's unfair to take us to task for doing what we were told to do.

Jan