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Babylon 5 Theatrical Movie Falls Through
duck2ducks writes "According to a post from JMS, the Babylon 5 feature film has been cancelled. This is sad news indeed for all fans of one of the best sci-fi stories ever produced." From Straczynski's post: "In the end, however, the deal could be put together, and it did not
look as if that was going to change at any point in the foreseeable
future. So the option has reverted, and to all intents and purposes,
the project has dead ended."
The rule of thumb in Hollywood is that for every thousand scripts that get written, only a few dozen get into development, and out of those, only one will ever get made...if that.
A little over a year ago, I was approached by a company that wanted to make a Babylon 5 movie. They optioned the rights, and commissioned a script. (It's worth mentioning that I, not WB, own the rights to a B5 movie. When we were negotiating the original B5 deal -- by whose terms I will never see a dime in profit -- the one thing they did let me have were the movie rights, figuring they'd never be worth anything in the long run.)
Anyway...on December 27th of 2003, the script for "The Memory of Shadows" was turned in, and the process began of trying to make the deal work with all the various forces involved. It is, to say the least, a very difficult process on any movie where the studio does not directly take the financial reins. In terms of B5, Warner's position was esssentially, "We only do big-budget movies with big names, so you're on your own." If there were big-name movie actors in the film, they'd get behind it; without that, things become very problematic, especially as far as the financing was concerned. You much have to put together a consortium of international interests and business plans rivaled in complexity only by the Allied invasion of Normandy Beach.
Nonetheless, every attempt was made by the people involved to get this deal in place. This was not being done by Doug or myself, but rather by the company/individuals who approached us and optioned the rights. At times, it seemed we were inches away from a deal...stages were reserved at Elstree, actors were contacted, a director was in place, the script went through many revisions, a few key staff were hired, again not by me...it was really a year-long roller coaster ride. During that time, the people involved, with every good intention, tried very hard to pull the necessary pieces together on the deal. The option expired in late December 2004, but I renewed it without cost, to give those involved more time to try and make things work.
In the end, however, the deal could not be put together, and it did not look as if that was going to change at any point in the foreseeable future. So the option has reverted, and to all intents and purposes, the project has dead ended. Nor do I think this particular incarnation will arise again at any point in the future, though prognostication has always been a tricky art, especially if you have to do it without the benefit of hindsight.
This was not the first time someone's taken a run at a B5 feature film, and it will not be the last. Eventually it will happen, because such things are simply inevitable. If they can do a Brady Bunch movie, you can be sure that sooner or later, somebody's going to do a B5 movie. The only thing I can say without equivocation is that when that day comes, as the rights-holder, I will make darned sure that it's done right, because I'd rather have no B5 movie than one that doesn't live up to what fans and I myself would want to see.
To that end...I can wait.
Anyway, just thought you should know the story.
jms
What's a sci-fi movie geek to do??
We have a splendid year of sci-fi movies ahead of us! A star wars movie that MIGHT include the death of Jar Jar (hey, I can dream!), A Scanner Darkly, Serenity, 2 (count 'em, TWO!) War of the Worlds adaptations, and this decade is the one that finally features the big screen adaptation of the Hitch Hiker's Guide. Not to mention the superhero revival is still going strong, Brian Singer is busy pissing off Fox by making a Superman movie, we have a great looking Batman origin flick coming out this summer.
And the future holds even more wonders, a Logan's Run remake... THAT movie deserves a remake, the story is great, the flick was AWEFULL, though highly quotable ("Run! Runner!", "Fish, plankton, seagreens! And proteins from the sea!").
As a sci-fi cinema geek, I'm thrilled!
You can't take the sky from me...
Too bad the new B5 movie got cancelled. Well, at least we got the theatrical version of Firefly and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to look forward to.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Read here.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I loved the B5 series and miss it. But given the [poor] quality of the B5 telemovie (Legend of the Rangers), is this really so bad?
Actually, Legend of the Rangers did decently ratings wise on SciFi, in markets where it did not air alongside the final NFL playoff game before the Super Bowl. Basicially, some crazy people flew some planes into buildings around september 2001, and thus the NFL season was delayed a bit. Normally the movie would have aired on an otherwise uneventful weekend, but none of the execs at SciFi moved it off the date after the attacks.
The ratings were good enough that JMS would have been given a green light for the series.
Of course, with SciFi crapping all over Farscape, the series would have probably been canned when it got out of the season one rut major story arc series have.
And while the character Delenn was originally supposed to be a man, this would not have lasted. [SPOILER WARNING] When Delenn undergoes her transformation at the end of season one, the process was originally supposed to be not just from Minbari to a Minbari/human hybrid ... but also from male to female. JMS's detailed comments on such can be found here.
The problem with season five was that JMS rushed to finish as much of story as possible in season four because they were essentially cancelled. I believe that B5 was only narrowly picked up for the fifth season.
That's why the makeup was different in "The Gathering", in fact: they were specifically trying to give Mira Furlan an androgynous look since even then they were still trying to make Delenn male. In the end, however, it was scrapped because the idea was more ambitious than the technology they had on hand. (Specifically, they couldn't tweak the voice to a more male timber without it sounding unbearably "off".)
"Nothing's the same anymore."
For those of you who can go to Hollywood: There's a show benefit for Richard Biggs' kids on the 19th of March.
Some of Rick's colleagues from Days of Our Lives, Babylon 5, and General Hospital will be there.
http://www.richardbiggs.com/
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
(Related from memory. I did not experience this first-hand.)
SFX took their B5 news from some less than professional convention organizers. Which meant that they had quite a few errors because of it.
Then, JMS made some hand-gesture to a fan, and SFX made a big issue out it, (mis-interpreted it?) and made it their cause to insult JMS in their magazine.
Copyright laws being what they are, SFX is of couse entitled to quote parts of his posts if they want to. But the disclaimer is a threat to sue them over it anyway.
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
Here's a rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated thread from 1999 going into the details. JMS is posting as well. I suppose you might be especially interested in the 8th post down, by Paul Harper.