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!! Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
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...
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Or just name drop him and leave him out of the 'story'.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
Didn't realize Richard Biggs died. I saw him a special feature on Dawn of the Dead DVD.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
*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.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
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.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
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.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
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.
Mark
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
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.)))
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
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.
Leave B5 alone, I say. It was great. Move on!
Mark
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
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.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
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).
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
If they are going to destroy Shadow tech - then they would have to destroy Vorlon tech too, no?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
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.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Yeah, who'd ever name their kid something as insane as "Diane Baker"?
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
So it looks like this is really a "Crusade +" movie. Pity they just didn't flat out make it a Crusade movie with the other GOOD characters... Dureena Nafeel, Max Eilerson and Captain Gideon - actually perhaps for the exception of the Doctor on Crusade - that was a pretty good group of characters!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Just poor dialogue and a real lack of any urgency at all made the show (often) suck pretty hard.
It would have been far better if the crew was always stressed about someting...like mabye the countdown to everyone on Earth dying if they dont find a cure!
That might stress me out a tad, but not the crew of the Excalibur: plenty of chuckles in almost every episode.
Better than Legend Of the Rangers though (I refuse to use LOTR to describe such crap-ola).
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Agree with you on both points there Jason - the 'feel' of the show was too, laid back - as if they KNEW that they had at least 5 years to deal with the threat. Each episode should have been a nerve-wracking search for the truth/cure. Sorta like an "outbreak" situation perhaps? Yes, too many chuckles and side-stories. The series was directionless. I mean we had episodes at strip clubs, dealing with Scully and Mulder aliens, uniform design etc. etc.
And yes I shudder when I see the B5:LOTR acronym.
Legend of the Rangers or nothing thanks.
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
You're supposed to be nerds here! How about just the First One who looks like a flying radio mast? That's the most rare one.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow is not looking good, either.
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
If you're gonna be a 'tease about it I hope you can back it up.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
It was almost as if I went to Google and typed in "babylon five first ones ships" and this appeared.
One cool ship, an antenna and two fiery potatoes.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
"I hope you can back it up."
You question me, turnip slayer? I can back up anything. Oh yes, I can.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Is that a Tyrannosaurus Skull? Is that trying to say that that Predator is millions of years old - or it got it off another planet that also evolved dinosaurs?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Those first ones really bugged me. First, in the episode dilogue, they mentioned having five, yet we only see those four guys (HA! Take THAT, Mr. JM "I can explain everything in my own story" S!). Secondly, on at least one of those ships we were led to believe that is actually WAS a ship, milions of years old, with a single crew that was tooling around the galaxy with no real mission.
I dunno, sounded a lot like hunting for Pokemon, really...
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Wasn't there a First Ones ship that was a Big Giant Head?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
The BGH materalized onboard Team White Star's ship and grumbled at them. But it was being projected from the ship that was nearby, rather than flying around in space on its own, as I recall.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Zog.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Zog? What, Zog yes or Zog no?
The BGH was from the huge one that sorta looked like the big jellyfish from "Encounter at Farpoint", except dark and sparkly. And it was more like a mask over a bright light or something. Anyone have a screener of that?
Mark
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
It's in the link I provided. (bottom left corner).
The BGH looked like some hawaiian scooby-doo monster. All the episode needed was for the Ranger to yell "Zoinks!".
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
The BGH is the same as the foot-ship?
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
The BGH is on the "Close Encounters"-like ship with the pink and other coloured lights.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Straczynski's right: it's not his fault that no one is excited to do a B5 movie....it needs "big name stars" (as opposed to a great script).
It was also not his fault that Legend of The Rangers was not a huge success: according to him, it's the very best of B5. Must be the fans. Or the studio. Someone.
That really sums it all up.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: It was also not his fault that Legend of The Rangers was not a huge success: according to him, it's the very best of B5. Must be the fans. Or the studio. Someone.
That really sums it all up.
Hmm, he thinks that? Must be suffering from the same affliction as Rick Berman re: Nemesis.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
No, that's just what Jason would like us all to think about JMS ever since he suffered that emotional trauma from watching Legends.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Yes indeed.
JMS does not blame the fans but every time someone points out a flaw in his productions, he does try to lay the blame elsewhere. Usually "studio execs".
..and he really does still say that his LOTR was great.
Sounds a LOT like Berman about Nemesis now atht I think of it.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Well, I can't say I'm surprised, and I can't say I'm very disappointed. Though I would've loved to see more B5 (especially after JMS has been talking up the movie like it was a done deal for the last year or so), I feel that a feature film would not be the ideal venue for any continuation of the B5 saga. JMS' biggest strengths lie in the long-running story arcs and the subtle plotting, not the quick-and-dirty, one-shot features.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
I agree. And really, what else is there to tell in this story? The events between the end of the series and "Sleeping in Light" have been covered in the novels if you're interested enough to read them (so far, I haven't been). We don't know what JMS had planned for the Crusade overall arc, but what we do know or can infer suggests it was really more of the same - Shadow tech, dodgy Earth governance, etc. If he wants to sustain interest he needs to get that stuff out there in one form or another, not keep it secret forever while blaming TNT and everyone else. And as for Legends of the Rangers: To Live and Die in Starlight (to give it its whole, awful title) the whole thing was a mess. And all I was thinking while watching it was "Oh, God, another mysterious race threatening the galaxy, this time called The Hand. How daft is that?"
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
Their defeat shall come at the hands of corned beef sandwich. It's the same method "Tom" Cruise used in that movie a while back, War of the Worlds I think.
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