The return of B5

[LordArt]

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=23963

>The thrust of the news is this: straight-to-video BABYLON 5
>adventures...involving B5 characters in an anthology format...should
>arrive late next year. Written and directed by JMS.

[LordArt]

As a further update:



http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30689


> Well, tomorrow I head back to LA for meetings on other projects for two
> days, then it's back to Vancouver again on Sunday to continue prep. So
> far everything's laying out very cleanly. We have an EFX house on board
> now, which was the last big step to be undertaken. It wasn't until the
> last day or so that we could really get into the CGI issues, which are
> huge on these stories.
>
> And in regard to that...the initial goal was to try and do three big
> stories in one DVD. So I wrote three scripts, featuring Sheridan,
> Lochley, Galen and Garibaldi. (I wanted to focus on the human characters
> initially so we'd have more time for prosthetics R&D for the next one.)
> The stories, as noted previously, were huge...all over the map, from
> Minbar, to Earth, Mars, the future, the distant past, as well as B5
> itself obviously. We're also going to be trying some new production
> technologies, again trying to stay ahead of the tech curve, the way B5
> has always stayed ahead on these things.
>
> And over the last few days, as we began to bring on crew and lay out the
> production, looking at just how complicated these mini-movies were going
> to be, the idea of making three of these monsters began to become a bit
> much for us to pull off on out first time out the gate, especially since
> I'm still kind of new as a director. So we decided to postpone one of
> the three to the next DVD, and lengthen the other two to make up the
> difference. GIven that the Garibaldi story was the most complicated
> visually and technically, also the most difficult from a CGi
> perspective, that's the one that got pushed until, potentially, next time.
>
> And if the sales are anywhere near what WB expects, and I think they
> will be, there's no question that there will be more of these down the
> road. So we're gong to focus in on those two stories and knock them out
> of the park. Same length, same running time, and now even bigger than at
> first anticipated since the budget on number three will now be applied
> to the other two.
>
> Part of what we're doing is to re-think the look of B5 to some degree.
> The show was created using 1993 technology, video toasters and amigas,
> and was to some extent limited by the paradigms and production methods
> we used in that. But it's now 13 years later, and while I will keep the
> feel of the show the same, and the silhouettes and designs, there's no
> reason to limit the look of the feel to what we could do six years ago
> (from when we stopped). So we're going to invest a lot of time, effort
> and money into really re-imagining some of the visuals at the present
> level -- looking at shows like Battlestar and the like -- and bringing
> those tools into B5 while still maintaining the feel of the show.
>
> I also managed to work in a nice nod to Andreas and Richard in the two
> mini-movies.
>
> So with that...the team is now in place, the last personnel have been
> hired, and as soon as I get back to Vancouver, I get to take off the
> producer's hat and put on the director's hat.
>
> jms