Damn you JMS!

[Jan]

The one thing I argued with people is that he and Delenn were gonna hook up, which JMS denied but I don't believe him.

He did admit that there might have been an attraction there in one of his commentaries and that that aspect moved over to Sheridan. It was in his 'Severed Dreams' commentary I think.

Jan

 

[vacantlook]

...who the hell replaces THE major hero character? Ok, surprises is one thing, but not the #1 dude, no way.

Which is why in the original plan the #2 character (Takashima) would have eventually been replaced (of course she ended up having to be replaced earlier than expected). We would've gotten that surprise but kept the #1 character too.

 

[Sigma]

15th volume is
Must have.

But $420 for the thing (14+1) is too much for me, even spread for 7 months (2 script books per month). And you must add another 200-300$ for S&H. It's simply too much. I think i might only buy book or two (when they will reach S4).

 

[Ninja_Squirrel]

I just went to www.b5scripts.com. There's not much of a site there, but there is a link where you can enter your e-mail to be notified as soon as the website is complete in October. Unfortunately, there's also an alert saying that the maximum number of entries has been reached. So, I guess it didn't store my e-mail when I entered it.

Over at www.jmsnews.com, there's a new entry where JMS says that in the first 30 *seconds* of the webmaster *testing* the site, they already had 5 people sign up. I think at this point it's been up for a couple days, so it's no wonder that it's reached a maximum.

If any of you are on the notification list, can you also post here to alert everyone else when the site is complete? Thanks.

 

[Jan]

Ninja, I posted a message about the error notification on the Moderated Newsgroup. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon.

Jan

 

[Jan]

JMS posted this about the error message (which is gone now):

Title: Re: an update from jms
Author: jmsatb5@aol.com
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 23:33:38 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <1126913462.187716.238350@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>
>
> >It would be great if all the folks seeing this could pass along the
> >word to the various other websites and newsgroups where Our People are
> >still hanging out, to get the word out...though the funny thing is that
> >when the sign-up page went up for 30 seconds just for a test, 5 people
> >signed in within 30 seconds....
> >
> >jms
>
> Your people are coming...
>

And then some...the number of folks imputting their email addresses to
be notified when the site goes on line blew out the system. I received
a number of emails from folks who got error messages because the
database was full, so if anyone else has gotten that message, they'll
be fixing the system this evening so it can handle a bigger load.

Forty-eight hours in, and we blew out the system...amazing....

jms

 

[Elenopa]

Hmmmm.

Has WB been informed about this interest? Might help persuade them to fund that little movie we want.

 

[Jan]

I would imagine that they'd only be interested in how many of the notifications turn into solid orders but it's certainly a bit of data that might weigh in our favor if an independent project like this, 'advertised' essentially by word of mouth does well.

Jan

 

[B5_Obsessed]

I was always under the impression that most people rightly believed that Sinclair was always the primary intended character (This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations, under it's final comander....) and doubted JMS's contention that he was considering bringing in a "proto-Sheridan" character just as O'Hare and WB were mutually agreeing the part ways.

 

[babylonfan]

This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations, under it's final comander

Actually, B5 was a dream come true under it's final commander. It was quiet, peacefull, clean(ish). Only disadvantage really was that there was noone but the clean-up/demolition crew!

 

[Recoil]

I'm all over this.

 

[ARK1701]

How DARE he release pretty cool things that I'd so want but don't really have the money for?

That's never stopped me before!

But I guess that's why I'm $7k in the hole! :

 

[tygirwulf]

I'm all over this, too. I always felt that Sinclair was supposed to have been in the series all along, too. I would even have preferred it that way, I like Michael O'Hare as an actor much more than Bruce Boxleitner. But still, doesn't make the first 14 volumes a waste of money! When has this ever been done for any other TV series?

 

[Jan]

I think a good many of the Star Trek episodes were published but I don't think I've ever heard of this many being published by one writer *and* with additional material and commentary.

Jan

 

[hypatia]

Didn't JMS pretty much get the short end of the stick, financially, when it came to B5? But one of the rights he has is to sell the scripts?

I hope he makes a mint.

 

[Jan]

My understanding is that, as it was his first show as EP, the contract was such that he'll only get a cut of profits *if* they end up with a 'net' profit. Meanwhile, years after the show's out of production, the studio can and does keep charging expenses against it so there's no hope at all that there'll ever *be* a net profit on paper. One one right that he was allowed to keep were the movie rights, as we learned after TMoS ded-ended.

The scripts and his right to sell them are separate from any rights he sold to WB, though. Per the Writer's Guild of America, the writer can sell his own script AS a script. He cannot, however turn it into a short story or epic poem or any other form.

And I hope he makes a bundle, too.

Jan

 

[hypatia]

How can they be charging expenses to a show that has not been filmed or produced for years?

I knew about the motion picture rights, I recall that being discussed turing the whole TMOS thing.

But how could you legally justify charging expenses to a show that is no longer in production? That makes no sense at all.

 

[Jan]

I think sense and Hollywood bookkeeping don't dine at the same table. JMS said back in February:

The show, all in, cost about $110 million to make. Each year of its
original run, we know it showed a profit because they TOLD us so. And
in one case, they actually showed us the figures. It's now been on the
air worldwide for ten years. There's been merchandise, syndication,
cable, books, you name it. The DVDs grossed roughly half a BILLION
dollars (and that was just after they put out S5, without all of the S5
sales in).

So what does my last profit statement say? We're $80 million in the
red.

Basically, by the terms of my contract, if a set on a WB movie burns
down in Botswana, they can charge it against B5's profits.

.

Sigh...

Jan

 

[hypatia]

If he's funding all of WB's movies and shows at least we should be getting better stuff out of them.

 

[PillowRock]

But how could you legally justify charging expenses to a show that is no longer in production? That makes no sense at all.

There are some expenses that I can see legitimately charging to a show after the fact.

For example, the cost of producing any promotional materials that they use to sell the show's re-runs in syndication.

Of course, I would expect thos costs to be a fraction of what was made on the resulting syndication sales. The studio would also expect that, otherwise they wouldn't spend the money.


Another issue from an accounting POV is that most of the aftermarket revenue almost certainly doesn't go into the show's books in the production division of WB. For example, JMS mentioned a half billion dollars in DVD sales. However, those gross revenues are what Warner Home Video took in for it, *not* what WB Productions (or whatever that division is actually named on the org chart, hereinafter referred to as WBP) took in on their books. WBP would have just sold the rights to distribute DVD's to WHV. It is only those rights fees that will go toward the show's profit statement. If WHV was an outside company, then WBP would negotiate a deal that brought them the most money that they could get. However, since WHV is under the umbrella of the same parent company, it is in the interest of the parent company for WBP to sell those rights for a song. That puts up a fire wall between the money realized on the DVD's and any indivdual who had profit participation in the show.

You can argue all day that this is not fair, or even remotely ethical. However, it is exceedingly difficult to prove any malice so that there is any legal recourse.