From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
Subject: new jms tv series
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 8/26/2000 3:10:00 PM
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Message 1 in thread
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>By now I've realized that the announcement has to come from an outside source >before you can talk about it. Can you tell us when/where that'll be?
I don't know, as I said, we just closed the deal for me to come on board as executive producer/show runner this week, and the first substantial creative meetings start on Wednesday.
What I *can* say is this:
* it's in the SF genre
* it's for one of the pay cable networks (which means no censoring of language or ideas or images, which is a terrific situation for any writer, allowing you to go as far as they have on, say, The Sopranos or Oz)
* it's slated to start with a 2 hour pilot which I'll be writing and is due no later than December
* it'll probably be shot in Vancouver since there are a lot of locations in it that we can find in one place only up there
* there's a high profile director attached to the project and that involvement was one of the real inducements for me to sign on with this because I've always admired his work in TV and film
* assuming the pilot script passes muster, we'll probably begin shooting in February or March for a Fall debut. (What's nifty is that while there's a pilot required, as with ANY new series, in this case they're willing to go into production on the series based JUST on the script, we don't have to go out and shoot a full pilot first)
* on a personal level, it pays over double what I got on B5 or Crusade, which is kinda nice
* it will have an arc to it, but not as rigorous as the B5 arc
And like that.
My *guess* (and that's all it is) is that the network will release some info about this over the next couple of months, but will probably hold back anything more substantive until after the pilot is written.
Practically from the first day after Crusade went down, there have been various offers, but except for the Chris Carter deal, which went down when Harsh Realm was pulled, none of them were things I could get really excited about. This one, though, is something I think I can really sink my teeth into.
It's really been an amazing year so far... Tribulations has been the #1 read on bookface.com for three weeks running, City of Dreams is a bonafide hit on scifi.com, we closed the deal for me to write the Rising Stars movie for MGM, and now the series deal is now in place....
You just got to keep doing what you're doing, and do it to the best of your ability, and sonuvagun, somehow things work out.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com) B5 Official Fan Club at: http://www.thestation.com (all message content (c) 2000 by synthetic worlds, ltd., permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine) |
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From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
Subject: new jms tv series
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 8/27/2000 12:06:00 PM
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Message 2 in thread
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>incidentally, after looking through the long list of shows jms has done, i >find >i unknowingly have enjoyed nearly everything with his name on it(i didn't >even >know who he was until late in B5S5), so i'm fairly sur i'll enjoy the new >show >too.
I've been getting this a lot from people lately. "Oh, I just knew you from B5, I didn't know you had done (fill in the gap) until I was watching my old tapes the other day and...." Sometimes it's Murder She Wrote, but more often it's The Real Ghostbusters or Jayce or He-Man or Twilight Zone or Captain Power or, well, pick one...which invariably gets followed by, "I *grew up as a kid* watching your stuff."
At which point I want to smite them with a very large mallet. Or a very large mallard, whichever is nearer at hand.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com) B5 Official Fan Club at: http://www.thestation.com (all message content (c) 2000 by synthetic worlds, ltd., permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine) |
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From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
Subject: new jms tv series
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 8/27/2000 1:45:00 PM
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Message 3 in thread
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>And while we're on the subject of your older stuff... I just have to ask >(and from what I've heard, it wasn't a pleasant experience for those >involved)... Did you have anything to do (develop/story edit?) with >"Spiral Zone"?
I wrote the pilot, then when I saw what they were going to do with the show, I took my name off it and walked away from the show. I think I put on Fettes Grey as my pseudonym, which are the names of two grave robbers from a well known piece of fiction.
How the heck did you know about that one?
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com) B5 Official Fan Club at: http://www.thestation.com (all message content (c) 2000 by synthetic worlds, ltd., permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine) |
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From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
Subject: new jms tv series
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 8/28/2000 8:56:00 AM
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Message 4 in thread
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>For our curiosity, just how much of those shows, especially "He-Man" and >"Real Ghostbusters", did you write? The occasional script? Most of them? >Consultant?
I was story editor on both shows (also on the He-Man followup series, She-Ra). I wrote something like a dozen eps for those two shows, and around 18 for TRGBs.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com) B5 Official Fan Club at: http://www.thestation.com (all message content (c) 2000 by synthetic worlds, ltd., permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine) |
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From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
Subject: new jms tv series
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 8/28/2000 8:57:00 AM
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Message 5 in thread
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>> How the heck did you know about that one? > >Michael Reaves blabbed in an interview.
Hand me my chain saw, mother, I'm going out to catch dinner....
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com) B5 Official Fan Club at: http://www.thestation.com (all message content (c) 2000 by synthetic worlds, ltd., permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine) |
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From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
Subject: new jms tv series
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 8/30/2000 3:49:00 PM
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Message 6 in thread
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>Do you get the sense that your career is just really hitting its stride, >or has it been there for some time?
I've really no idea....
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com) B5 Official Fan Club at: http://www.thestation.com (all message content (c) 2000 by synthetic worlds, ltd., permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine) |
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