JMS posted this link to B5 usenet newsgroup - http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/?column=13
I'll copy-paste the JMS vs. TC part here, if moderators think its maybe unfair or illegal or whatever they can edit it to shorter.
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"Rising Stars" is late. The superhero series by "Babylon 5" writer J Michael Straczynski has not seen an issue released for months. Many presumed lateness on behalf of the writer or artist, but it goes a lot deeper.
For the last few weeks, Lying In The Gutters has been hearing references to issues between J. Michael Straczynski and Top Cow, and that as a result, JMS has held back the scripts to the last three issues of the "Rising Stars" series. Online, all JMS has said publicly is that there were some "issues" that were being worked on.
Here's what's been uncovered.
In 2002, JMS was writing the screenplay for the "Rising Stars" motion picture for MGM and Atlas Entertainment. As usual, the project went through multiple drafts, notes being given and incorporated, until a draft was reached that MGM liked enough to send the producers out to look for directors. JMS declined his oft-taken producer status due to his commitments on the TV series "Jeremiah."
However, again not unusually in the world of film, as JMS continued to deliver scripts for the comic, he heard nothing back from MGM. However, rather than the project simply going dead, I understand he was totally shut out of the process.
According to one comment he made online, JMS only learned about the Russo Brothers (hot newcomers and proteges of Steve Soderbergh) signing on directors and to do a "light rewrite" of the screenplay the same way everybody else did; he read it on comics2film.com.
Apparently it's Writers Guild policy for a new writer on an original project to be brought on to meet with the original writer. Guess what didn't happen.
Now, the Russos were supposed to be doing a very simple polish on the script. But instead they decided to do their own version of the movie, and totally threw out JMS's script.
Again this is not uncommon. What is unexpected is that JMS was never even informed about this. He was still waiting for an expected polish of his script to come in.
Since this was all going through Top Cow's much-trumpeted media exploitation interests, JMS contacted Top Cow many times over the following months to check on the status of the "polish," but was told each time, from the offices of Spike Seldon and Chris Carlyle, that no script had come in yet.
Sources close to JMS suggest that even though he was still delivering comic scripts, he may have started to slow down on delivery a bit, because he was getting a bad feeling about the situation.
He was right, and the whole situation came to a head because of a chance meeting.
According to an email sent from JMS to Top Cow, JMS was returning from Vancouver when he ran into Chuck Roven at the Vancouver Airport. Roven is head of Atlas Entertainment, producers of "Twelve Monkeys" and "Three Kings" and "City of Angels," and the company that will be producing the "Rising Stars" movie. According to the email, JMS asked Roven how the script was coming. Roven told him that the Russo Brothers were working on their third draft, that the first two drafts had been very good, and they were doing a lot of work on the third draft.
So two drafts of the movie, based on JMS's series, had come in, and all the while he was being told by Top Cow that no drafts had ever come in.
The email sent after this, to Top Cow, demanded copies of the scripts at once, but received what JMS believed were delaying tactics. Finally JMS emailed back to say that if he didn't have the scripts in hand within 48 hours, he was going to sever all relationships with Top Cow.
Within 24 hours, the scripts that had supposedly never been there, were couriered to JMS's home.
The new drafts, according to our sources, has nothing to do with JMS's original screenplay. I'm told "the comic was about taking the clichés of comics and turning them upside-down. The new screenplay puts them all right-side up again. The whole thing has just been dumbed down"
The big finale involves the main characters constantly beating each other up with trees. Okay, sounds good, we all like a bit of tree-on-tree action, but not quite in keeping with the tone of the book
So at this point, it looks as if JMS is holding back the last three issues of "Rising Stars" until this situation can be resolved. According to a source close to Jim McLauchlin's office, JMS has asked to meet the Russos (which again was something that was supposed to happen anyway) and to give notes on the screenplay and to be involved creatively in the process.
So far, he believes Top Cow have done none of these things.
JMS has not yet been invited into the process, indeed he believes he has been specifically been cut out by Top Cow management. Many editors there reportedly knew nothing of what was going on until matters came to a head. Rumours are that Top Cow insiders are furious that JMS wants to be involved, and feel they can wait him out.
I also hear that JMS is yet to receive any of the money from any of the merchandising from "Rising Stars," or the novelizations of either "Midnight Nation" or "Rising Stars" and that Top Cow accountants have been asked to look into this.
When contacted for comment on this, JMS replied, "I can't argue with the events as you've described them. That's what happened. Suffice to say that it was a shock and disappointment to find that Top Cow would so deliberately and deceptively cut me out of the process. I mean, it's one thing to lie so blatantly, but another to tell a stupid lie that can be so easily punctured. As for the screenplay, to be fair to the Russos, it's actually closer to the original books in a few places than my draft was, but the rest is a complete disaster, and if it were to go forward as is, I would really have no choice but to totally disassociate myself with the project."
Matt Hawkins of Top Cow replied to the allegations saying, "I wish we had the kind of power in the Hollywood process as stated, but unfortunately we do not. The writing decisions for the 'Rising Stars' movies were ultimately made by the studio. If the 'Rising Stars' comic scripts are being held up specifically because of this, we've only been notified of such recently and only through reading the posts on the Internet. The assertion that we've done nothing to try to remedy this is untrue as we have been talking with the studio and powers that be about how best to fix this and have been trying for months to have a sit down with Joe to discuss the entire situation.
"We've always felt Joe was a spectacular writer and both myself and Jim McLauchlin have been trying very hard to work this out as we would like Joe to create and write new projects for Top Cow. That may seem unlikely at this point, but we continue to hold out hope. We continue to work with Fiona Avery, who was brought to us by Joe, on several projects including a brand new one launching this October called 'Cursed.' We have also done two recent spin-offs on 'Rising Stars' written by Fiona ('Bright' and 'Laurel Darkhaven').
"The idea that 'Top Cow' insiders are furious is insane, there is a great deal of concern over this and we're doing what we can to try and fix the situation."
I'll copy-paste the JMS vs. TC part here, if moderators think its maybe unfair or illegal or whatever they can edit it to shorter.
----
"Rising Stars" is late. The superhero series by "Babylon 5" writer J Michael Straczynski has not seen an issue released for months. Many presumed lateness on behalf of the writer or artist, but it goes a lot deeper.
For the last few weeks, Lying In The Gutters has been hearing references to issues between J. Michael Straczynski and Top Cow, and that as a result, JMS has held back the scripts to the last three issues of the "Rising Stars" series. Online, all JMS has said publicly is that there were some "issues" that were being worked on.
Here's what's been uncovered.
In 2002, JMS was writing the screenplay for the "Rising Stars" motion picture for MGM and Atlas Entertainment. As usual, the project went through multiple drafts, notes being given and incorporated, until a draft was reached that MGM liked enough to send the producers out to look for directors. JMS declined his oft-taken producer status due to his commitments on the TV series "Jeremiah."
However, again not unusually in the world of film, as JMS continued to deliver scripts for the comic, he heard nothing back from MGM. However, rather than the project simply going dead, I understand he was totally shut out of the process.
According to one comment he made online, JMS only learned about the Russo Brothers (hot newcomers and proteges of Steve Soderbergh) signing on directors and to do a "light rewrite" of the screenplay the same way everybody else did; he read it on comics2film.com.
Apparently it's Writers Guild policy for a new writer on an original project to be brought on to meet with the original writer. Guess what didn't happen.
Now, the Russos were supposed to be doing a very simple polish on the script. But instead they decided to do their own version of the movie, and totally threw out JMS's script.
Again this is not uncommon. What is unexpected is that JMS was never even informed about this. He was still waiting for an expected polish of his script to come in.
Since this was all going through Top Cow's much-trumpeted media exploitation interests, JMS contacted Top Cow many times over the following months to check on the status of the "polish," but was told each time, from the offices of Spike Seldon and Chris Carlyle, that no script had come in yet.
Sources close to JMS suggest that even though he was still delivering comic scripts, he may have started to slow down on delivery a bit, because he was getting a bad feeling about the situation.
He was right, and the whole situation came to a head because of a chance meeting.
According to an email sent from JMS to Top Cow, JMS was returning from Vancouver when he ran into Chuck Roven at the Vancouver Airport. Roven is head of Atlas Entertainment, producers of "Twelve Monkeys" and "Three Kings" and "City of Angels," and the company that will be producing the "Rising Stars" movie. According to the email, JMS asked Roven how the script was coming. Roven told him that the Russo Brothers were working on their third draft, that the first two drafts had been very good, and they were doing a lot of work on the third draft.
So two drafts of the movie, based on JMS's series, had come in, and all the while he was being told by Top Cow that no drafts had ever come in.
The email sent after this, to Top Cow, demanded copies of the scripts at once, but received what JMS believed were delaying tactics. Finally JMS emailed back to say that if he didn't have the scripts in hand within 48 hours, he was going to sever all relationships with Top Cow.
Within 24 hours, the scripts that had supposedly never been there, were couriered to JMS's home.
The new drafts, according to our sources, has nothing to do with JMS's original screenplay. I'm told "the comic was about taking the clichés of comics and turning them upside-down. The new screenplay puts them all right-side up again. The whole thing has just been dumbed down"
The big finale involves the main characters constantly beating each other up with trees. Okay, sounds good, we all like a bit of tree-on-tree action, but not quite in keeping with the tone of the book
So at this point, it looks as if JMS is holding back the last three issues of "Rising Stars" until this situation can be resolved. According to a source close to Jim McLauchlin's office, JMS has asked to meet the Russos (which again was something that was supposed to happen anyway) and to give notes on the screenplay and to be involved creatively in the process.
So far, he believes Top Cow have done none of these things.
JMS has not yet been invited into the process, indeed he believes he has been specifically been cut out by Top Cow management. Many editors there reportedly knew nothing of what was going on until matters came to a head. Rumours are that Top Cow insiders are furious that JMS wants to be involved, and feel they can wait him out.
I also hear that JMS is yet to receive any of the money from any of the merchandising from "Rising Stars," or the novelizations of either "Midnight Nation" or "Rising Stars" and that Top Cow accountants have been asked to look into this.
When contacted for comment on this, JMS replied, "I can't argue with the events as you've described them. That's what happened. Suffice to say that it was a shock and disappointment to find that Top Cow would so deliberately and deceptively cut me out of the process. I mean, it's one thing to lie so blatantly, but another to tell a stupid lie that can be so easily punctured. As for the screenplay, to be fair to the Russos, it's actually closer to the original books in a few places than my draft was, but the rest is a complete disaster, and if it were to go forward as is, I would really have no choice but to totally disassociate myself with the project."
Matt Hawkins of Top Cow replied to the allegations saying, "I wish we had the kind of power in the Hollywood process as stated, but unfortunately we do not. The writing decisions for the 'Rising Stars' movies were ultimately made by the studio. If the 'Rising Stars' comic scripts are being held up specifically because of this, we've only been notified of such recently and only through reading the posts on the Internet. The assertion that we've done nothing to try to remedy this is untrue as we have been talking with the studio and powers that be about how best to fix this and have been trying for months to have a sit down with Joe to discuss the entire situation.
"We've always felt Joe was a spectacular writer and both myself and Jim McLauchlin have been trying very hard to work this out as we would like Joe to create and write new projects for Top Cow. That may seem unlikely at this point, but we continue to hold out hope. We continue to work with Fiona Avery, who was brought to us by Joe, on several projects including a brand new one launching this October called 'Cursed.' We have also done two recent spin-offs on 'Rising Stars' written by Fiona ('Bright' and 'Laurel Darkhaven').
"The idea that 'Top Cow' insiders are furious is insane, there is a great deal of concern over this and we're doing what we can to try and fix the situation."
