Re: various from jms - Monday, June 14, 2004 8:26
First of all, allow me to address and respond on a couple of little things
(The RPG is loaded and ready, Joe.
)
Several people disagreed with my comments about the FX house. Why do you assume my reply was directed only to you?
Because, our sparing is absolute
wild and spectacular entertainment for these folks! We can't let our audience down, Joe....come on.
(A comment not directed at CE, who has been fairly level-headed about this sort of thing and has himself swung Occam's razor when the speculative underbrush has gotten a bit thick.)
OMG!
A compliment.....<
THUD! > *sound of CE hitting the floor as he faints*
What? AGAIN? Do you have any idea what bullets cost nowadays? Even spread across the membership of two bulletin boards that's too muich. Forget it. We'll just call the NBS.
Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! WHAM!
Once again..can no one recognize tongue-in-cheek?
You know, Joe, that's why I brought the RPG.
And don't make me invert a tachyon on you.
And yes, I am sometimes a bit provoked by some of the more over-the-top speculation and the tendency of people to not carefully read posts or keep track of a conversation so that they're still guessing titles long after the title has been revealed or asking if it will be a mini-series two months after it became clear it will be a film. (Particularly when these things are discussed further up in the same thread, and aren't buried in some obscure old post somewhere.)
Wait a minute...we're supposed to
read what other people are saying?
Geesh...that's too much
work .
And I still think a mini-series is at the least a possibility for this what this new "adjunct project" could be.
Now what it might be about? That's a tooootally different story.
Also assuming that all of JMS's posts are connected and that none of them simply "expire" when overtaken by events. His little joke about Harry and Jack and the wrong side of the river is no doubt long since moot. I don't think his latest comments about Australia and England have the faintest connection to them - and I don't think most of you would either if some of you weren't so close to the problem that fumes from your monitors are reducing the blood-flow to your brains.
Hunh? ......Wha?.....Do you smell something? Why...I'm feeeeelllliiingggg aaa littttllleee liiigght heeeaaadeeed.
JMS's reference to a "network series" in the context of his message means - believe me - an American broadcast network. And may even specifically mean ABC, NBC, CBS or Fox since the "netlets" UPN and The WB are treated as cable channels for purposes on union contracts. So all guesses involving the BBC and first run cable are almost certainly wide of the mark.
Ok, on with the fun....enough playing for one moment.
Joe, even cable networks are still "networks." I'm not saying it isn't one of the broadcast nets...(please, god not FOX, we all know how they "support" shows...especially SF
)...but it could be one of the cable nets as well. I do agree with you that it's very likely not a BBC series or anything like that, though.
As for the novels...yes, it would be fab if at least one series of novels dealt with the last Shadow War and Valen, but whoever said the future of B5 is where the films and series lay...is right.
As for where the film will shoot...it will most likely shoot in Canada or Australia, simply because they will want to keep the cost down as much as possible on production in order to have more money for the FX. This is a common and understandable practice. Which is why Hollywood is not so happy these days with loosing so many productions...it's just getting so expensive to shoot there. Every production will go where it's cheaper or where the script requires (in cases of location shooting). With so many features that need larger sets and more room shooting in Australia now (because the largest sound stage in the world is there), I really wouldn't be surprised if that's where they'll shoot the bulk of TMoS (consider that Matrix and parts of LOTR and SW and Moulin Rouge were all shot there).
My other guess is that they will probably approach WETA Digital for the main FX, which will (as Joe suggested is easier and can work out well, but is not required) put the FX house closer to the production. My guess is WETA because JMS has become impressed with them, and WB has now used them for two of their major trilogies, LOTR and MATRIX. WB seems to have a nice relationship with WETA these days, so they could decide to use them again.
As for JMS going to London...it clearly isn't something he's talking about happening in the very near future. Since he said he wanted to put his play on in LA (a time consuming thing), then do some tweeking (more time), then put it on in London. Read into this that at the soonest, he's expecting to spend this time in London at least a year or two from now. I would suspect more like 2 years given all that's on his plate at the moment. This would be around the time they would be scoring TMoS, which is what made me think that Franke's score and the orchestra they would most likely use could be why JMS would need to be in London. I agree with Joe, that from the way JMS said it...he's not expecting to spend a very long amount of time there.
Now, just to suppose that the DVDs aren't what JMS meant by the "look to the horizon" comment for the UK and Australia (though I still think this is at least a part of what he meant), then one can conclude that between shooting in Australia and scoring in London, that JMS meant that he was in fact going to be in each of those countries...so "look to the horizon."
As to where they are now in production...they will have a plan already as to where they will shoot, who is scoring, who is cast, who is DP, etc. The next stage is finilizing production designs and so forth and set construction.
My estimate for when they will begin principle photography would be late this year/beginning of 2005 -- if JMS gets the rewrites finished and things get back on schedule.
Release will be in 2006, whether summer or Christmas I couldn't say. I would predict a summer release though. This means they have two years to finish this film....a very reasonable time frame.
Anyway...one last thing...please don't think that Joe and I are fighting like we did when I first come on board here. Though we sometimes disagree still, Joe and I have made our peace, and I don't think either of us want our disagreements to polarize the groups or cause contention as they did a few months ago.
So if you see us sparing...please realize it's friendly jabs and jovial disagreement...not flaming and attack.
Peace,
CE
