(blocked) asks: > I think part of what I was trying to ask is, what do *you* want > about Crusade? Do you really want to continue it, or would you be > just as happy to move on? You've been answering "who are you?" > So I'll still ask, "what do you want?"
"I think part of what I was trying to ask is, what do *you* want about Crusade? Do you really want to continue it, or would you be just as happy to move on? You've actually had several months in "moving on" mode, it seems. I don't think I'm getting my questions out of sequence. You've been answering "who are you?" in this forum since before I joined. So I'll still ask, "what do you want?" In a very limited context."
You have to understand that the only thing I want, the only thing I've *ever* wanted, is to tell good stories about interesting characters. I'm fairly simple that way. I would love to continue telling stores in the B5 universe...but then, I'd love to tell stories in *other* universes. If one market stays open, I'll stay there...if it closes, I move on. It's what I've always done.
Would I like to keep doing Crusade? Sure, but not under the conditions that made these 13 eps so onerous. I have a real simple philosophy: if it ain't fun, don't do it. Because this job is too hard to do it if you're not enjoying the process.
It's all about story. Since Crusade stopped I've been offered a couple of exec producer gigs on other shows, but passed on them because they weren't really stories I either wanted to do or that I felt I could do a good job with. One gig that I *did* want I just missed out by an inch because at the last moment some big names came into the scenario and they got the gig (and they will probably do very well with it). Them's the breaks. You wait for a show to come along you would like to do, meanwhile you try to get your own show off the ground.
Which is where I am now. I'm in the final stages of negotiating a deal for one series pilot (98% mainstream 2% speculative fiction) that would be as innovative as what I did with B5...it's a story nobody's ever done before, and it's been fast-tracked. I literally thought it up two weeks ago, had one meeting about it with a major entity (known to everyone), did a rough treatment, and 3 days later they called to start negotiations on the deal. If that goes, I'll be excited, because it's something utterly on the bleeding edge not just storywise but in terms of production and EFX and it's on a huge scale.
In any event, as I said, in the end, it's simply about telling stories, in conditions that allow me to do my best work. "The exercise of vital powers along lines of excellence in a life affording them scope," to quote the Greek definition of happiness.
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