posted
OK There has always been talk of a Babylon 5 motion picture - at least after the final Star Wars movie was out. Now I've heard rumours that they are going to RECAST the entire cast. I mean ...the fuck! That is the most absurd thing I've ever heard.
I mean who would they have? Alec Baldwin as Sheridan? Audrie Tatou as Delenn? Michael Chicklis as Garibaldi? Kate Winslett as Ivonova? Jamie Foxx as Dr. Franklin? Christopher Walken as G'Kar? Dustin Hoffman as Londo? Chris O'Donnell as Lennier? Britney Spears as Kosh!!
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
It strikes me as being a bit pointless. Who would they be aiming for? The hardcore fans aren't going to like it any more than Star Trek fans would. But are there enough B5 fans to warrent catering to them? And if they aren't, why are they making it B5 at all? I doubt the name has enough (or any) recognition amounst the general populace for it to be worth it.
Of course, they'll have to recast Franklin in any event...
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Didn't realize Richard Biggs died. I saw him a special feature on Dawn of the Dead DVD.
-------------------- I'm slightly annoyed at Hobbes' rather rude decision to be much more attractive than me though. That's just rude. - PsyLiam, Oct 27, 2005.
Registered: May 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
*steps on soapbox*
Yes, there are enough B5 fans, goddammit. It's the fans who watched the show in great enough numbers to keep it on the air for 5 years. It's the fans who made the reruns and B5 S5 such a success on TNT that they spent millions of dollars on two extra TV movies and a half season of Crusade before they pulled the plug on that show for reasons of network politics as much as anything else. It's the fans who lobbied and wheedled and threatened until a very skeptical WB finally released the series, the movies and ultimately Crusade on DVD. And it's the fans who then bought those DVDs in such numbers that the studio decided to shoot this feature film in the first place.
*steps off soapbox*
Incidentally, there's a lot of dust being thrown up over these rumours at JMSnews and FirstOnes, but so far, The Great Maker himself has failed to descend from his Heavenly Throne and confirm or deny them, which suggests that he's legally bound to keep his mouth shut about whatever the hell IS going on (since JMS has always managed to leak cryptic info concerning the status of B5 and TMoS out to the public in the past), and does lend an uncomfortable amount of credence to what's circulating through the grapevine now.
And Franklin isn't going to be recast, ever.
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
I specifically recall JMS himself stating that Franklin would absolutely not be recast. And from what I've read of and from the Great Maker, I would be flabbergasted if he consented to any recasting at all, regardless of the availability of any of the actors.
And yes, there have got to be enough B5 fans to warrant a feature film. There are enough Firefly fans out there for a movie, for goodness' sake! (And remember that I love Firefly, too...)
Personally, after the immense disappointment that was Legend of the Rangers, I'm not sure if we want to have another continuation of the B5 saga. On one hand, I'd always love to learn more about the various plot threads that were hinted at in the final year of B5 and the few episodes of Crusade (like the Telepath War, dammit!), but just making a sequel for the sake of making another story is treading awfully close to the realm of turning B5 into a franchise, which is something that I would genuinely hate to see happen.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Cartman: It's the fans who made the reruns and B5 S5 such a success on TNT that they spent millions of dollars on two extra TV movies and a half season of Crusade before they pulled the plug...
I hate those fans.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
In this past year, I've watched a few of jms' works, and I've come to learn that they're all along a very common theme - a bunch of heroes tool along on some specific mission or goal, then run into something even BIGGER they have to deal with, in a set pattern. Babylon 5, Crusade, Legend of the Rangers, Jeremiah, and now the B5 movie all seem to run along this same idea... And none save the first lasted too long.
I loved B5, but having watched elements of his other works in recent times, makes me think that jms isn't capable of much beyond this formula. And like Trek, you get used to it. Hell, for me een B5 has very limited rewatch value, and I've never bought the DVDs. Frankly, I'm not really enthused about this movie or anything jms makes anymore.
posted
The casting sheet for the film, which was up somewhere or other, and which may not be real, but let's say it is for fun, had only one character from any previous B5 production. That is to say, the movie is being "recast" only in the sense that it is about an entirely different set of people.
As I recall, the one returning character was that Galen guy from Crusade.
I think the formula Mark outlines is way too general to be something you can "get tired of," though, at least in that sense. JMS has tons of more specific flaws. (Bam!)
But I kid.
(Some of Firefly's movieness is surely due to Whedon's track record as a script doctor and screenwriter in his own right. So the question "how have his previous films done?" returns a not entirely negative answer, whereas I do not believe JMS has written a produced film script. ((Though of course he may have written any number of purchased yet unproduced ones.)))
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:I think the formula Mark outlines is way too general to be something you can "get tired of," though, at least in that sense. JMS has tons of more specific flaws. (Bam!)
What, so we WON'T be complaining about jms' crappy pacing, awkward dialogue, and his tendency - ooh, this one REALLY gets me - to have a character stop in the middle of a point, and launch off on to some long and boring story about how something completely unrelated to the situation happened to them or someone they knew? Drove me NUTS, that.
Like I said - I loved Babylon 5, the first time through. Tried re-starting again last year, and I didn't make it beyond the second season. Finished off Crusade though, barely, and Jeremiah just can't keep me interested. Only re-watched Legend of the Rangers once, and barely made it past the aforementioned different strokes, and the otherwise-cute Myriam Sirois hanging in a dopey VR chamber.
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Might as well sneak this in - does anyone have good pics of the First Ones' ships? I think there are five or six different designs, but I only have the old-ass 500x350 images.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
The movie is tenativly called "Memory of The Shadows" and is supposedly about Galen being entrusted to destroy all the tech the Shadows left behind.
A bit late, I think.
Mabye it will center on galen (thus eliminating the need for every viewer to have sat through Crusade).
Sadly, JMS still says that Legend Of the rangers is "some of B5's best". He really needs a wake up call (far more than Lucas).
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Looks like JMS's ability to make up implausable names for his characters is alive and well.
Mabye it's his comic book background or mabye he's just a big Blade Runner fan.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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