NEW Babylon 5 Mini Movies !

[[MM]]

This just in from ISN !

 

JMS Speaks

BABYLON: THE LOST TALES UPDATE

Update from JMS:

Date: 10/26/2006 1:01:01 AM

 

Well, tomorrow I head back to LA for meetings on other projects for two days, then it's back to Vancouver again on Sunday to continue prep. So far everything's laying out very cleanly. We have an EFX house on board now, which was the last big step to be undertaken. It wasn't until the last day or so that we could really get into the CGI issues, which are huge on these stories.

 

And in regard to that...the initial goal was to try and do three big stories in one DVD. So I wrote three scripts, featuring Sheridan, Lochley, Galen and Garibaldi. (I wanted to focus on the human characters initially so we'd have more time for prosthetics R&D for the next one.) The stories, as noted previously, were huge...all over the map, from Minbar, to Earth, Mars, the future, the distant past, as well as B5 itself obviously. We're also going to be trying some new production technologies, again trying to stay ahead of the tech curve, the way B5 has always stayed ahead on these things.

 

And over the last few days, as we began to bring on crew and lay out the production, looking at just how complicated these mini-movies were going to be, the idea of making three of these monsters began to become a bit much for us to pull off on out first time out the gate, especially since I'm still kind of new as a director. So we decided to postpone one of the three to the next DVD, and lengthen the other two to make up the difference. GIven that the Garibaldi story was the most complicated visually and technically, also the most difficult from a CGi perspective, that's the one that got pushed until, potentially, next time.

 

And if the sales are anywhere near what WB expects, and I think they will be, there's no question that there will be more of these down the road. So we're gong to focus in on those two stories and knock them out of the park. Same length, same running time, and now even bigger than at first anticipated since the budget on number three will now be applied to the other two.

 

Part of what we're doing is to re-think the look of B5 to some degree. The show was created using 1993 technology, video toasters and amigas, and was to some extent limited by the paradigms and production methods we used in that. But it's now 13 years later, and while I will keep the feel of the show the same, and the silhouettes and designs, there's no reason to limit the look of the feel to what we could do six years ago (from when we stopped). So we're going to invest a lot of time, effort and money into really re-imagining some of the visuals at the present level -- looking at shows like Battlestar and the like -- and bringing those tools into B5 while still maintaining the feel of the show.

 

I also managed to work in a nice nod to Andreas and Richard in the two mini-movies.

 

So with that...the team is now in place, the last personnel have been hired, and as soon as I get back to Vancouver, I get to take off the producer's hat and put on the director's hat.

 

So that's the scoop - the show is due to hopefully air sometime in 2007 !

[[MM]]

As a follow up :

 

In a related story :

 

Teryl Rothery cast in new Babylon 5

 

Sunday - November 26, 2006 | by Darren Sumner

 

 

Actress Teryl Rothery has been cast in Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, a new direct-to-DVD movie now in production in Vancouver, British Columbia. The film (actually a collection of two one-hour stories) will be released in 2007, picking up some time after the events of the hit 1990s sci-fi television show.

 

Rothery co-starred for seven years on Stargate SG-1 as the beloved Dr. Janet Fraiser. She will play an ISN news reporter in The Lost Tales, according to writer, director, and executive producer J. Michael Straczynski.

 

The Lost Tales is intended to be a multiple-DVD series, with this first 2-hour installment subtitled "Voices In the Dark." It stars B5 alums Bruce Boxleitner ("John Sheridan"), Tracy Scoggins ("Elizabeth Lochley"), and Peter Woodward ("Galen").

 

"What I can say about the [planned stories] is that we go to Mars, Minbar and of course B5," Straczynski wrote to fans online. "We introduce a new kind of Minbari cruiser, and there's a rather startling sequence on Earth. I've decided to shoot each segment a little differently from each other, so they each have their own visual style that complements that particular story."

 

The DVD is expected to be released this spring, at least in North America.

[Guest Mrthumps]

Sweet...the Sci-fi world could use some new B5 as a change of pace.

[slug]

This is great news. Its good to see that this is a not an overly ambitious project that will fail to gain widespread following, like Crusade and Rangers, hammer another nail into what I thought was a long sealed coffin.

 

THe problem is that B5 standalone projects often reek of cheese and come off as hammy and badly put together. I hope that won't be the case here.

 

The Rangers pilot was just utterly dreadful, and it was sad to see it replace Crucade, which was a much better conceived project with a decent leading man in Gary Cole. I thought that had some potential to be honest, I can understand that it may have seemed dreadful, I did think that Cole was good enough in the part to make it worth watching, despite a rather embarrasing start, something along the lines of:

 

"I'll bend the rules, I'll piss off a lot of people on the way, but I'll get the job done."

 

If project is an attempt to provide an interesting compliment to the B5 story, it may be excellent. and the idea of the distant past is good as well. I think possibly the best episode of B5 was actually what ended up as the finale to season 4, where it darted across a timeline of several thousand years, it had an academically credible attitude to historical perspective.

 

 

 

[[MM]]

More up to date Info :

 

BABYLON 5: THE LOST TALES - UPDATE FROM JMS

For those of you not on the Babylon 5 Script Team mailing list, I did not want you to miss the latest from JMS – and the Babylon 5: LOST TALES

 

December 1, 2006

 

As I write this, we have finished principal photography on "Babylon 5: The Lost Tales," coming in under budget and finishing a full day ahead of schedule.

 

This first DVD, entitled "Voices in the Dark," covers the same 72 hour period of time as Sheridan travels on board a Presidential Cruiser en route to Babylon 5 from Minbar for a celebration marking the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Interstellar Alliance. One part of the story follows Sheridan as he picks up an unexpected visitor on the edge of Centauri space, Prince Regent Dius Vintari, and a warning about what will come afterward delivered by the techno- mage, Galen. The other part of the story is set aboard Babylon 5, as Colonel Lochley summons a priest from Earth space to deal with a problem that may have dark supernatural overtones. The two parts of the greater story intersect at certain key plot and thematic points, so that they overlap and complement each other while telling separate, but simultaneous, stories.

 

The first DVD is going to require nearly 200 EFX shots, taking us all over Alliance space, and Babylon 5, which is being redesigned using the latest CGI technology. The same CGI is being used to create virtual sets a la Sin City, but on an even more detailed basis, in many cases integrating them with practical sets based on the original blueprint designs for Babylon 5.

 

A number of behind-the-scenes pieces were shot for inclusion on the DVD, as well as a number of original short pieces that will be filmed in February which feature glimpses into the future of Babylon 5 and her characters.

 

We have set-up a temporary webpage of photos from the shoot from my personal collection. These images mark the very first photos to emerge from production.

 

http://babylon5scripts.com/TLT-JMS-photos.html

 

For more information, keep an eye on www.babylon5.com as well as Babylon5scripts.com. WB will be integrating the internet as a key component for promoting B5:TLT and we are pleased to be a part of that effort.

 

JMS

[Megalith]

oh cool i loved B5 would be good to see more of that universe

[TetsuoShima]

Oooh, sounds good!! If it can live up to the reputation of the original B5, then it will be great. I am curious in what timeperiod the stories are meant to play, since if it's after the war, then all the main crew wil be seperated and if it's before, then they're gonna have to come up with a nice idea about something in between that seems credible. :)

[slug]

Remember that there can be no Andreas Katsulas or Richard Biggs in the upcoming project.

 

Which is a shame.

[Guest Keyser Soze]

Wow. This is a great thing to read. There's so much left in the Babylon 5 universe(and I'm talking pre-alliance too) that's still to be told that it seems to be a no-brainer to me.

 

Like that guest user said, we could definitely use some B5 style Sci-fi right now. While I enjoy the Stargates and Dr.who, B5 was always a personal fav of mine.

[Guest c4evap]

Great news!

 

...but the phrase "direct to DVD" always worries me...  :o

 

B)

[Tenebrae]

To be honest, direct-to-dvd is really the only way these things are going to get made. As a commercial venture it's infinitely more forgiving than a TV series. Naturally, inferior products do tend to be of the direct-to-dvd ilk but there you go.

[VonHelton]

More B5 is exactly what we need!!

 

;D

 

 

 

[bones2097]

whoa !!!!!!

 

 

old thread but the latest is that it'll be out july~27 this year :)

[Guest c4evap]

Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy

 

Can't wait!

 

;D

[kyran]

Remember that there can be no Andreas Katsulas or Richard Biggs in the upcoming project.

 

Which is a shame.

Why not?

 

Didn't watch b5 :(

 

[Amnot Borg]

Remember that there can be no Andreas Katsulas or Richard Biggs in the upcoming project.

 

Which is a shame.

Why not?

 

Didn't watch b5 :(

 

 

Doesn't matter. IN real life, they DIED! No more B5 for them.

[bones2097]

whoa i didn't know that... what a shame :(

 

Andreas Katsulas played the best character....

[Amnot Borg]

whoa i didn't know that... what a shame :(

 

Andreas Katsulas played the best character....

 

There's a thread here somewhere about his death. We mourned.