A new B5 series on the horizon?

[Reverend]

According to this article on IGN, a new B5 series may indeed be on the cards. I'm assuming this is the "ask me after April" project JMS has been occasionally hinting at over the last eight or so months and even this small bit of news indicates that the project may already be in trouble...but then if it wasn't in trouble, it wouldn't be a "real" B5 series now would it?

 

[Admiral_Young]

Interesting. I'm surprised that JMS even brought it up given that he's pretty much said that he would only announce something once his name was on a contract.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Yes, thanks for the update. Personally, I'd rather see a grand space opera TV series based on someone else's fictional universe, such as David Brin's Uplift War or Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space. Judging from what we got in Crusade, LOTR, and Lost Tales, I suspect that JMS's creative well has somewhat somewhat dry -- I'm not entirely convinced by the argument that more money needed to be thrown at such projects.

 

[pimp]

OH MY GOD

 

[Jan]

To clarify somewhat: The 'ask me after April' project was to be new B5 episodes for a new distribution system. The new distribution system never happened. But JMS proposed something else and there are negotiations.

The good news about the failed project was that WB had agreed to a $2-3 million budget per episode, a full season commitment and full creative control for JMS.

So we probably shouldn't look for big news soon but there's still interest at WB and the room at Comic-Con, though somewhat smaller than usual, was filled to capacity.

Jan

 

[Phily B]

I'm a little worried, that legend of the rangers was pretty terrible. B5 was just perfect, I'd only accept the show if it took place a few years later - around the time of lost tales seems good to me?

 

[Mr Light]

I think at this point I'd rather have a reboot than post-series stories, particularly with so many of the actors dead now.

 

[Reverend]

To clarify somewhat: The 'ask me after April' project was to be new B5 episodes for a new distribution system. The new distribution system never happened. But JMS proposed something else and there are negotiations.

The good news about the failed project was that WB had agreed to a $2-3 million budget per episode, a full season commitment and full creative control for JMS.

So we probably shouldn't look for big news soon but there's still interest at WB and the room at Comic-Con, though somewhat smaller than usual, was filled to capacity.

Jan

That's about what I figured. Still, as you say the fact that they were willing to meet his terms in principle is encouraging and as I've said before, I'll always prefer a new TV project to a theatrical film. Plus of course if he didn't think there was a chance for the project to go ahead then he probably wouldn't have said anything at all.

Joe tends to be very wary of raising false hope and is usually the first one to say when and why a project it dead and done.

I think at this point I'd rather have a reboot than post-series stories, particularly with so many of the actors dead now.

I don't know, a reboot would require a complete recast and the idea of another actor (however talented) playing a new version of G'Kar really doesn't appeal to me. Besides, that story has been told already...quite sufficiently as I recall.

Regardless, a new show need not take place in the time span between 'Objects at Rest' and 'Sleeping in Light'. The B5 universe is diverse and I think JMS has stated he has a very clear idea of what takes place over the next thousand years and a more sketchy notion of what take place over the next million. So there's PLENTY of room for a new series with few if any of the original cast of characters if need be.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Judging from what we got in Crusade, LOTR, and Lost Tales, I suspect that JMS's creative well has somewhat somewhat dry -- I'm not entirely convinced by the argument that more money needed to be thrown at such projects.

Crusade certainly had potential. I agree about LOTR and Lost Tales though.

Easy solution: Recruit new writers. There's no law which says that JMS has to write almost 100% of the episodes again (except for his tendency to be a control freak).

 

[JD]

Do we know for a fact this would be TV? I've assumed for a while now if we got more B5 it would be in comic form.

 

[Jan]

Easy solution: Recruit new writers. There's no law which says that JMS has to write almost 100% of the episodes again (except for his tendency to be a control freak).

Easy solution to what? He requires creative control (and I'm fine with that) but we don't know whether JMS planned to write most of the episodes for the failed project or not. And there's no easy solution or magic formula to something actually getting to the point of filming.

Jan

 

[Warped9]

There is such a large canvas where B5 is concerned that pretty much anything could be told with new characters and a new setting.

Next to Star Trek B5 is my favourite space opera. I'd love to see it revived somehow. Crusade had a lot of potential, but it got screwed over. LOTR was crap. Even so I feel something good could still be done.

 

[Sindatur]

Which of the B5 actors might be available for this new project?

I can't imagine a new series that would use all or most of them for every episode, but, I'm sure most of those still alive would make themselves available for appearances. Michael O'Hare has something going on in his life, and Garibaldi's actor hasn't always been complimentary of new projects, but, I think anyone else would be up for appearances at least.

Regarding LotR quality, we have to consider that The Gathering wasn't exactly stellar or indicative of what Babylon 5 would become, had it never made it to Series. The Gathering is much better when viewed after full knowledge of what's to come. By itself, as an introduction, it wouldn't hook many.

 

[Klaus]

This kinda scares me, I don't want to get my hopes up for nothing...

 

[shivkala]

Michael O'Hare has something going on in his life, and Garibaldi's actor hasn't always been complimentary of new projects, but, I think anyone else would be up for appearances at least.

Curious, I Googled what was going on with Michael O'Hare and wow...

[quote="Fans of J. Michael Straczynski Facebook page from July 12, 2011]Michael's situation has been determined, and he's still among the living, which is the good news, but the things that concerned me enough to begin the search have been borne out. I realize that that's a "what the hell?" kind of statement, but that's all I can say about it for the time being. That said, everyone can stand down now that we've reached this point. My thanks to everyone who helped with this process.[/quote]

I thought you meant a new TV series or something.

 

[Sindatur]

Michael O'Hare has something going on in his life, and Garibaldi's actor hasn't always been complimentary of new projects, but, I think anyone else would be up for appearances at least.

Curious, I Googled what was going on with Michael O'Hare and wow...

[quote="Fans of J. Michael Straczynski Facebook page from July 12, 2011]Michael's situation has been determined, and he's still among the living, which is the good news, but the things that concerned me enough to begin the search have been borne out. I realize that that's a "what the hell?" kind of statement, but that's all I can say about it for the time being. That said, everyone can stand down now that we've reached this point. My thanks to everyone who helped with this process.

I thought you meant a new TV series or something.[/QUOTE]
Sorry about that. Yea, that's what I was referring to. A couple scenarios could be assumed, but, not really enough there to assume anything conclusive aside from a new Babylon 5 Series/Project wouldn't be uppermost in his priority list

 

[RandyS]

Next to Star Trek B5 is my favorite space opera. I'd love to see it revived somehow.

Same here, but considering the quality of all the revivals after the four movies, I'd just as soon leave well enough alone.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Once again I think some of you are overreacting to nothing. All we know is that something could be in the works and JMS is negotiating as Jan stated. We have absolutely no details including plot or what format this series could take so there really isn't any need to worry in my opinion or be concerned because there isn't anything to worry about yet. Until we get some details we should all relax. I understand aside from "Babylon 5" it's self JMS has pretty much struck out but that is no reason to jump over this until we have more information.

 

[Reverend]

Next to Star Trek B5 is my favorite space opera. I'd love to see it revived somehow.

Same here, but considering the quality of all the revivals after the four movies, I'd just as soon leave well enough alone.

I think it's safe to assume that's exactly why JMS has laid down the terms that he has. *IF* it's going to be done, it'll be done right, or not at all.

To address an earlier comment; I don't see an increased budget as "throwing money at the problem" so much as making sure WB is willing to commit to a serious investment. The other two shows went the way the did essentially for finanical reasons. In the case of Crusade it was because TNT not attracting the extra viewer to their other programming that they were hoping for and so decided to smother the project before they lost any more money on it and LotR was from what little I've read had money troubles from day one and in the end, Sci-Fi just didn't want to invest in it. I'm not sure if scheduling the pilot to air opposite a certain popular US sporting event was premeditated or not, but it pretty much guaranteed abysmal ratings.

Once again I think some of you are overreacting to nothing. All we know is that something could be in the works and JMS is negotiating as Jan stated. We have absolutely no details including plot or what format this series could take so there really isn't any need to worry in my opinion or be concerned because there isn't anything to worry about yet. Until we get some details we should all relax. I understand aside from "Babylon 5" it's self JMS has pretty much struck out but that is no reason to jump over this until we have more information.

Absolutely. At this point it's all talk.

Though I'm sure JMS has at least a notion of the kinds of stories he wants to tell, he probably won't be spending a lot of time thinking about it in detail until there's ink on paper. Indeed, part of it would be down to WB to agree to what kind of show they want to commission. Even with full creative control they're not about to write a blank cheque for sixty or seventy million dollars so he can go off and make a musical adaptation of the Silmarillion, reimagined as an alternate history depression era fable. They'll have some say in the basic premise at least and that'll happen during whatever early negotiations they have.

So until and unless JMS says it's a "go", everything is very much up in the air.

 

[Sindatur]

If I recall, the Superbowl got bounced to a later week, due to 9/11 Terror stuff delaying the Regular season a couple of weeks and then worries about Security so extra time was taken to prepare for it, and that new date for the Superbowl just happened to be the same night as B5 LotR. I don't think they deliberately scheduled it against the Superbowl, they just weren't able to change the night it was scheduled to air, I believe