Amph For Justice, For Peace, For the Future- We Have Come Home: Babylon 5 (The Road Home animated film)

I would have loved to have seen that episode.

 

So would I.

 

This is the best news! Sweet, I can't wait to see what he does with these pieces! I wonder if since he's he'll be writing them that the scripts might get added to the script volumes that they are doing?!?

It will be rough for all involved with these since Rick and Andreas have passed. I know that since I really enjoyed both of their characters that I will feel their absence.

 

I was celebrating when I read that on jmsnews.com.

 

I wonder if they could get Claudia Christian to be involved in these projects. I know that she's doing some sci-fi spoof show over in the UK, but I'd love to see her reprising her role as Susan Ivanova!

 

Intriguing.

 

I think the directing-thing is especially significant. Warner Bros. originally encouraged JMS to direct, of course. But now that he's moving into features to a much greater degree, he's working in a part of the industry where the director, not the producers, rules. The nearness of the passing of Rick, Andreas, and Tim may not be the only reason JMS wants to postpone a B5 feature film. Since none of them are available anyway, but since WB is suddenly interested, why not use part of the necessary downtime to establish a track record as a director of TV movies and episodes -- exactly the kind of thing that got Nimoy, Shatner, Frakes, et al. the chance to helm Trek films.

If The Changeling and the other projects go well, JMS could go to Warner Bros. in a couple of years and say, "Yes, I'm ready to do a B5 feature, but only if *I* direct," and actually have the kind of total control he's always wanted over the project.

Just thinkin' out loud, here...

 

I can really see that happening Leto.

 

Snap, snap, snap!

Got some news for you all. While I was at Dragon*Con I got to talk to Peter Jurasik for a bit and let me just say that guy is frakking awesome, he's a trip. As is Stephen Furst. Anyways, he told me that these dvds won't just contain minor characters, but also contain some of the big stars, and in the second set Londo will have an entire episode devoted to him, as will Vir. There was something else but I can't exactly recall what it was at this moment.

 

SWEET!

 

Very nice indeed.

On another note, some sadder news:

Another B5 cast member has passed away.

From JMS:

---

[color=blue][b]From: jmsatb5@aol.com
Subject: Re: In Memeory Still Bright: Johnny Sekka
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 9/24/2006 12:25:37 AM[/b]

Jan wrote:
> Found on B5TV and confirmed in Variety: Johnny Sekka, Dr. Kyle in The Gathering,
> passed away on Sept. 14 due to lung cancer. He was 72 years old.
>
> http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117950308?categoryid=25&cs=1&query=johnny+and+sekka&display=johnny+sekka
>
> To absent friends...


I'd heard word about this last weekend, from a B5 cast member to Doug
then to me, but wanted to wait for confirmation before putting it on
the net. Then, unfortunately, I got hit with the Martian Death Flu and
have been totally out of action all week...so I wasn't able to post
about this sooner.

It's a great loss, and he was a fine man. His health was always
problematic; even back during "The Gathering" there was concern about
his health and lungs. He was noticeably fragile, and would often run
out of steam in the middle of a scene, especially if there was any
action involved. This was ultimately the reason we couldn't in all
good conscience bring him back for the series, though we kept that to
ourselves in hopes that things would eventually improve and he might be
fit enough to one day return to B5 or work for other shows. But it
didn't happen, and B5 was the last thing he worked on that I know
about. Which is so unfortunate, because he was a vastly talented man
whose compassion was evident and sincere in his eyes, even when his
voice was sometimes so low that you could barely hear it on the track.

It's a genuine loss all around.

jms[hr][/blockquote][/color]

 

More new B5 series-info from Joe...and looks like he's putting that "anti-SFX" notice into the indicia again.

The wound will never, ever close...

From: jmsatb5@aol.com
Subject: Re: Further B5:TLT update from jms
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 10/14/2006 12:52:33 AM

Fast follow-up....

Just got back tonight from Vancouver, and we've now nailed down/hired
nearly all of our key department heads and the Director of Photography
who I'll be working with closely during production. We spent today in
the first informal production meeting going over how we're going to
shoot this, reviewing the storyboards, determining what's going to be
green screen and what's going to be practical set...this should be a
pretty cool looking project, with some sights we haven't really seen
before as well as some more familiar sights.

What I can say about the three episodes is that we go to Mars, Minbar
and of course B5, 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. On
Monday the B5 team up north will be checking out the stages, and about
a week or so from now the actual B5 offices will open up and folks will
start moving in.

It's starting to feel a lot like fun.

We'll also be working with WB to put together a special reel from the
shoot that we can bring to debut at San Diego Comic Con next year.

Meanwhile, not only has the Universal feature deal noted in another
thread been finalized, so I'm writing that now, but the Paramount
feature deal has *also* been closed, so now there are two big-budget
feature screenplay assignments that I have to write, the first due by
late November/early December, the second one sometime to be delivered
shortly after the first of the year. A third assignment is kind of
nibbling around the edges which could be very cool, even though I
couldn't start writing it until I finish the other two, which means
it'd have to be spring 2007 to turn in the script if the assignment
comes in.

Finally, now that Ron has said it's okay to bring in other directors on
Changeling, there's been a small flood of a-list directors coming
around to try and pick up the assignment. Part of the attraction is
not just the script, but the acting talent involved...as noted in the
LA Times piece, Reece Witherspoon (and two other oscar-winning leading
female actors) are extremely interested in the lead role. I imagine
we'll start having meetings in the next few weeks to narrow down the
list of directors.

It's crazy-busy, but good.

jms

message content (c) 2006
synthetic worlds, ltd.
permission to reprint
specifically denied to
SFX Magazine

 

I finished B5 back in June and forgot to check back into this thread.

Can't say anything that hasn't been already. Awesome show. Wish it had run a sixth season and we'd gotten to see the Telepath War and the war with the Drakh.

M. Scott

 

Haven't seen this one soaked up yet by JMSNews, and there seems to have been a "hiccup" in the system over there, but here's a message from Joe that should've shown up, but didn't:

From: jmsatb5@aol.com
Date: Thurs, Nov 16 2006 3:07 am

This will be brief, because it's late and I have an early call tomorrow -- a longer update will be coming soon via the B5scripts.com mailing list and elsewhere soon -- but I just wanted to let folks know that filming is going very well. We're three days in, and so far we're ahead of schedule, usually about an hour or two. We actually moved a couple of shots up from tomorrow's call sheet to today. It's just going really well.

The B5 we see here is similar to but somewhat more sophisticated or rethought in places. For instance, in B5 halls we used to have wooden strips painted green or blue or red to signal various sectors. Here we ran these really lovely light panels that can change colors and at the same time add a light source and warm up the halls. We also went back to the original B5 blueprints and found some elements that we wanted to do in the show but couldn't, and we've incorporated them into the new sets. We're also re-engineering the look of B5, the starfuries, various alien ships and the like.

Tonight there was a dinner with Doug, me, Tracy and Bruce, with Peter Woodward scheduled to fly in tomorrow so everybody's here for a couple of pivotal scenes that will cross the two segments. (One aside...Bruce was openly lamenting the small sub-section of british fans -- most of whom we all agreed couldn't be niftier -- who are determined to try and drive a wedge between him and me and the rest of the crew. No sooner was his involvement announced than this same "bunch of whackos" started the same rumors again, including the one where he supposedly burned his crew jacket after the end of B5. Determined to put that to rest, he pulled out all crew coats we made up for him that were personalized by the wardrobe department and -- minus the one that was auctioned for charity at a well publicized convention -- brought them ALL up here to dispel that myth once and for all. So tomorrow we're going to get a picture of him and me, with either all the coats, or at minimum the one the nutcases keep saying he burned, just to put THAT baldfaced lie to bed. The photo will be posted on the nets somewhere soon.)

Otherwise, all is good, and the scenes are cutting together well. Three days down, seven to go.

jms