Straczynski talks future of Babylon Five
The future of Babylon Five, according to series creator, head-writer and executive-producer J. Michael Stracysnki is a “full-featured, big-budget feature film” or nothing else.
Straczynski made the announcement on his web-site, saying that he felt direct-to-tv and DVD and lower-budgeted efforts like Legends of the Rangers and The Lost Tales were made with good intentions but ended up dilluting the overall product that is Babylon Five.
“As well intentioned as Rangers and TLT were, as enticing as it was to return to those familiar waters, in the end I think they did more to subtract from the legacy than add to it,” writes Straczynski. “I don’t regret having made them, because I needed to go through that to get to the point where I am now psychologically, but from where I sit now, I wouldn’t make them.”
In both cases, Straczysnki says that Warner Brothers (who owns the distribution rights to B5) underestimated the built-in audience for the popular sci-fi series.
“B5:TLT was commissioned at a $2 million budget to, yet one more time, “test the waters” for B5. We did what we could with that, and that was that,” he wrote. “As we did with Rangers, which also suffered from not having a lot of money because of concerns about “is there really a B5 audience?” Which is, of course, a foolish question from a studio that has never really understood what it has in B5.”
The creator went on to say that he’s given the future of his franchise a lot of thought and has come to a decision.
“B5 as a five year story stands beautifully on its own,” he said. ”If anything else is to be continued from that story, it should be something that adds to the legacy of B5, rather than subtracts from it.
“At the end of the day, for me, it’s not just a matter of getting more B5. It’s a matter of getting more *good* B5 that respects what came before it and doesn’t have to compromise visually or in terms of action. The original show deserves better than that, the surviving cast members deserve better than that, and the fans who have supported it over the years definitely deserve better than that. A lot better.”
When TLT was coming out he said that if WB was intertested and TLT does well then he has ideas for more TLT volumes. Now all of a sudden he changes his mind?
This is nothing but a slap in the face to fans. We bought the DVD, supported the franchise as best we can in the hope that we would get more content. Now he trashes the very thing we supported by saying it diluted the franchise?
Brad Bowyer,
Louisville, KY
Fine JMS … go and pout, take you ball and go home. You’ve pretty much just lost yourself a fan with an arrogant attitude like that. Why would we want to support any of your future projects? After all … you’ll just say they were crap down the road.
I don’t know, part of what I liked about B5 was that it had a beginning and an end. I kind of agree with him that if we are going to have anything added on to it, I’d rather it e a movie and not a direct to DVD treatment with a shoe string budget. The lost tales where OK, but they just didn’t have the same feeling.
I understand where Mr. Bowyer is coming from, but to me this is less a case of “taking his ball and going home” as it is JMS taking a hard, long look at the work he has done, his fans, and the future of his series and saying that he does anything else, it will be in the format that both the show, and we the fans, deserve. Before I abandon him as a fan, I’ll wait to see what happens next.
I have to say that I really don’t agree with JMS on his take of the future of B5. Everyone always wants to see big screen versions of their favorite shows. Give me one example of a big screen version that improved on the original series and I’ll give you a dozen that were much worse. Face it, it a two hour movie you’d need to reintroduce the characters and setting so new viewers aren’t lost. That takes time away from the new story…. a story that had to be wrapped up in two hours to begin with. Compare that to five seasons for the original B5 arc?
The only way that I could see the B5 universe being expanded adn improved on would be a new series that gets a decent budget.
It sounds to me like he’s willing to make more b5, but not on a shoestring budget and the only way he see to do that is a movie thats not direct to DVD.
I Still don’t see the reason for a huge following of this show.
*Runs away*
I personally am grateful for the B5 content we have received. As much as I’d love more stories in the universe, I really don’t want it ‘forced’. At least he hasn’t become JMLucas. I agree on the wait and see attitude.
*thwacks Jeremy*
“When TLT was coming out he said that if WB was intertested and TLT does well then he has ideas for more TLT volumes. Now all of a sudden he changes his mind?
This is nothing but a slap in the face to fans. We bought the DVD, supported the franchise as best we can in the hope that we would get more content. Now he trashes the very thing we supported by saying it diluted the franchise?”
No, he said very early that more TLT would be made only if WB was willing to grant a considerably higher budget. TLT v 1.0 was WB “testing the waters” once again, and he was hoping that provided B5 passes the “test” (i.e. the DVDs sell well) he would be able to make more TLT, with a reasonable budget. That didn’t happen, and now he’s unwilling to continue with minimal investment projects, because WB thinks the fans will buy them anyway.
I’ve worked on many a project in my chosen field on a shoestring budget for pretty much the same reason JMS cites (only replace “audience” with “market”). And lemme tell ya, it’s no fun to be so hamstrung. WB has never given B5 more than half-assed support, so I can fully understand JMS’s decision.
[…] To DVD Babylon 5 Slice of Sci-Fi are reporting that J Michael Straczynski is saying he has no interest in doing more Babylon 5 projects unless its a full scale feature film. In short that means don’t expect to see any more projects […]
I think a fair deal of this will depend on the new X-Files movie. While certainly not a direct comparison and, admittedly, X-Files was a more “successful” TV show than B5, it’s a case of a genre franchise that’s been out of action for several years making a run at the big screen.
A successful run of the new movie could give JMS some evidence for the stuido.
What would enhance the fan base would be to see the original series in wide syndication again. Alas, WB seem to be holding tight, for whatever reason, the distribution. The last time I seen the show in syndication was several years ago.
JMS has been a pioneer in so many ways: full story arcs, challenging plots, respect for his audience, active in forums; many of us got to ‘know’ JMS on the online - long before that was the ‘thing’ to do.
I would not be surprised if he read these here.
So to disagree with some of the above - one thing is for sure - J. Michael Straczynski is brilliant. If he says this - I trust him - he’s right.
JMS has every right to hold out for more money and should thats not the issue the issue is his two year old all or nothing mind set. By taking this stance he has left WB with no room to compromise and I don’t know that Babylon 5 has really ever had the sale to justify a movie does does it the sales that WB can afford to put more in it heck yes but does it have the sales to justify the large investment that a movie would I think based on comments that JMS himself has said I would bet not. JMS came off as self center whiny and out off touch with fans and reality he may get his movie doubt it but the odds of me going to see it at this point do to his action are even slimmer.
What some people posting here don’t seem to understand is that JMS isn’t negotiating any longer. He hasn’t “drawn a line in the sand,” he’s buried Babylon 5 under the sand. His “my way or the highway” announcement effectively forecloses future negotiations with Warner Brothers. One of the things that annoys me about his announcement is JMS hasn’t had the guts to tell the fans this fact.
I think I can understand JMS’s frustration that a future Lost Tales DVD wouldn’t get the filming and promotional support that the Stargate direct to DVD’s are receiving. However, we purchased The Lost Tales DVD with the understanding that JMS had more B5 stories he wanted to tell in that format.
If JMS had announced there was an impasse in negotiations and he wasn’t sure Warner Brothers would ever come up with a necessary budget for another Lost Tales then the ball would in their court. Mr. Starczynshi’s announcement makes it clear he has bigger fish to fry now. He doesn’t need Warner Brother or apparently the Babylon 5 fans any longer.
I’m not going to go out of my way to boycott his future projects, that would be silly. I’m also not going to go out of my way to support anything he does in the future. IMO, Joseph Michael Stracynski is an enormous talent who forgot who he really works for.
I think I understand just fine. I think it’s pretty clear from the post, at least for those who’ve followed the whole discussion for the last two years, that this is precisely what happened: WB isn’t prepared to grant TLT a reasonable budget. I got it, and it looks like the vast majority of the fans got it, too. He doesn’t need to type it in 20 point boldface for me.
“Mr. Starczynshi’s announcement makes it clear he has bigger fish to fry now. He doesn’t need Warner Brother or apparently the Babylon 5 fans any longer. […] IMO, Joseph Michael Stracynski is an enormous talent who forgot who he really works for.”
He’s working for the fans, and he won’t submit any more minimal budget productions to them. As for having “bigger fish to fry” and not needing the fans any longer, so that would be the reason why he continues to write Comic books for what is pockets money compared to what he earns in feature films, and why he’s running around conventions giving fans writing lessons for free?
I have viewed many, many sci-fi shows from start to finish from Star Trek (all episodes, and off-shoots etc.) to Farscape and Stargate SG1 & Atlantis, and many, many others.
My favorite: Babylon 5
I have never seen a more complete storyline for ANY Sci-fi show from any field.
The outer-space Sci-fi’s are comming rather slim now. (The ending of Stargate SG:1 and Battlestar Galatica.
If anything, I would like to see Crusade take off again.