tlsmith1963
Regular
Re: JMS - Reputation (relating to potential projec
OOH, colors!
Tammy
OOH, colors!
Tammy
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JMS - Reputation (relating to potential projects)
- Thread starter Recoil
- Start date
Dave Thomer
Member
Re: JMS - Reputation (relating to potential projec
I'll go one better and risk committing heresy on the board, and say that I think that Midnight Nation is the most successful, perfectly-executed thing that JMS has written for any medium, and yes I am including B5 there. MN explores a lot of the same themes as B5, but does it in a more compact, tightly focused story. B5 is obviously more ambitious and complex an undertaking, so I'm not trying to belittle it at all - even with its flaws, it's JMS's biggest accomplishment. But in terms of sheer execution, MN is fantastic.
Flounder
Regular
Re: JMS - Reputation (relating to potential projec
I was going for the full rainbow effect. Think Saruman of many colours. MN is Sarumantastic. B5 is Gandalftastic.
But you're right though. For Midnight Nation, I think black, cyan, orange and red would be the right colours to use.
<font color="black">M</font><font color="#AAFFFF">i</font><font color="black">dn</font><font color="black">i</font><font color="#550000">g</font><font color="#880000">h</font><font color="#aa0000">t </font><font color="#cc3300">N</font><font color="#aa0000">a</font><font color="#880000">t</font><font color="#550000">i</font><font color="black">on</font>
I was going for the full rainbow effect. Think Saruman of many colours. MN is Sarumantastic. B5 is Gandalftastic.
But you're right though. For Midnight Nation, I think black, cyan, orange and red would be the right colours to use.
<font color="black">M</font><font color="#AAFFFF">i</font><font color="black">dn</font><font color="black">i</font><font color="#550000">g</font><font color="#880000">h</font><font color="#aa0000">t </font><font color="#cc3300">N</font><font color="#aa0000">a</font><font color="#880000">t</font><font color="#550000">i</font><font color="black">on</font>
I share quite a bit of the sentiment of the original poster.
There are a few other projects that never made it off the ground:
1) Rising Stars the movie - The studio decided to ditch his movie script and get it rewritten from scratch. I have no idea what happened after that, other than that JMS witheld the final Rising stars comics from the publisher until they worked it out.
2) Polaris - Didn't make the final cut of SFC series/miniseries
3) Unamed project with Chris Carter/Frank Spotnitz - in his defense this was turned down by Fox due to Carters failures with "The Lone Gunman" and "Harsh Realm"
It's unfortunate that JMS feels that he shouldn't take anything less than a showrunner role. Although I'm guessing he would be willing to do so for the right people, ie Chris Carter and possibly Whedon. He's a great writer, and I personally feel that he is limiting his audience by sticking with comics. But he follows his muse and won't sacrifice his ideals when telling stories. You have to respect the man for that.
But that being said, I am realistic at this point that he continues to limit his available venues. And I pray that he will be more willing to take a lesser role in series or be willing to contribute stories to shows.
There are a few other projects that never made it off the ground:
1) Rising Stars the movie - The studio decided to ditch his movie script and get it rewritten from scratch. I have no idea what happened after that, other than that JMS witheld the final Rising stars comics from the publisher until they worked it out.
2) Polaris - Didn't make the final cut of SFC series/miniseries
3) Unamed project with Chris Carter/Frank Spotnitz - in his defense this was turned down by Fox due to Carters failures with "The Lone Gunman" and "Harsh Realm"
It's unfortunate that JMS feels that he shouldn't take anything less than a showrunner role. Although I'm guessing he would be willing to do so for the right people, ie Chris Carter and possibly Whedon. He's a great writer, and I personally feel that he is limiting his audience by sticking with comics. But he follows his muse and won't sacrifice his ideals when telling stories. You have to respect the man for that.
But that being said, I am realistic at this point that he continues to limit his available venues. And I pray that he will be more willing to take a lesser role in series or be willing to contribute stories to shows.
Jan
Regular
I suppose it's possible. JMS has said many times that the reason he moved up the ladder was to be in a position where his writing wouldn't be tampered with. Here's a good post explaining: http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-7583&query=rewrite
He has stated that if he were to be showrunning one project that he might take a secondary position on another project. I'm pretty sure that the understanding would be that rewrites and revisions of his scripts be done by him.
Jan
KoshN
Super Moderator
That's just as well, because FOX is known for mishandling, through bad, misleading or nonexistent advertising and/or truly AWFUL scheduling, almost every good show that they start, and then quickly cancelling it. The only creative types who should take good sci-fi/fantasy dramas/dramedies to FOX are masochists or those who want to make a couple of bucks and couldn't give a fig if their show goes past three episodes.
GaribaldisHair
Regular
Re: JMS - Reputation (relating to potential projec
There is also a sense in which JMS has been there and done that as far as taking lesser roles on other peoples shows is concerned ... Jake and the Fatman; Murder, She Wrote; Twilight Zone, various animated series, for example ... so why would he want to go back and do that again.
He has also been showrunner on his own creations (B5, Crusade) and other peoples (Jeremiah).
He strikes me as the kind of guy who wants to move on to something new each time he makes a change, rather than moving back to something he did before. Typical case in point, when B5 finished he made the move to writing comics, first his own fixed term creations, and now as ongoing writer for two classic, well known series.
We might prefer that he get back to showrunning the sort of shows that we want to watch, but he doesn't work that way.
And as far as his projects that didn't get off the ground are concerned, my instinct would be that he has no more of those than any other writer in LA. It's just that other writers don't tell their fans about these things.
There is also a sense in which JMS has been there and done that as far as taking lesser roles on other peoples shows is concerned ... Jake and the Fatman; Murder, She Wrote; Twilight Zone, various animated series, for example ... so why would he want to go back and do that again.
He has also been showrunner on his own creations (B5, Crusade) and other peoples (Jeremiah).
He strikes me as the kind of guy who wants to move on to something new each time he makes a change, rather than moving back to something he did before. Typical case in point, when B5 finished he made the move to writing comics, first his own fixed term creations, and now as ongoing writer for two classic, well known series.
We might prefer that he get back to showrunning the sort of shows that we want to watch, but he doesn't work that way.
And as far as his projects that didn't get off the ground are concerned, my instinct would be that he has no more of those than any other writer in LA. It's just that other writers don't tell their fans about these things.
