[B5JMS] JMS: A Thank You.. and a brief question

[b5jms at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: michedlp at hotmail.com (Michedlp)
Date: 6 May 2003 12:59:09 -0700
Lines: 45

Hi JMS, 
This is my first post to these boards, and once i heard this is where
you 'hang out', i figured i should drop a hello!
First of all.. i'm a big fan on B5 and it's world. I admit i was a
sceptic to begin with.. i was never much into SciFi.. and only really
go into it at University. When i did get into it.. i was enjoying
Voyager and DS9. Then, as i started to have more time on my hands.. i
watched more Trek.. growing to dislike Voyager and like DS9 more. I
never got into B5 as i found it confusing.. everytime i turned it on,
something was different.. which really turned me off the series, and a
friend of mine did me no help in being very vague as to why(he'd seen
most of the series to that point.. which was mid 4th season i
believe). Then i moved onto other series.. Space: Above and Beyond and
the like.
Curiosity got the better of me and i've watched it start to finish
twice. Now that i've finnally seen all of B5, the Movies and what
there is of Crusade.. all i can say is WOW(and a few tears after
SiL!)! I have never seen such a show that has engaged me so much, and
i thank you for fighting to bring this gem to fruition! I will be
buying all the season's on DVD, and Crusade if that comes out(here's
hoping a Sci-fi channel that actually shows sci-fi will pick it up!)

Anyways.. enough ranting and onto my question!
You managed to get Martin Sheen for the River of Souls telemovie. I'm
wondering how this came about.. Did you send Sheen a script on the
off-chance that he'd sign on? or did he come to you? How much did he
know of what he was getting into? I'm quite curious about this.. and
i've searched jmsnews.com and not found much on the subject. I very
much respect what Martin Sheen has accomplished in his career, and i'm
wondering how he came to show up on B5.
I'm amazed that he'd even do Sci-Fi(not because it's B5.. but TV
Sci-Fi has seemed to be the rabid dog that no high-priced
actor(actress) really want's to be associated with) although he has
never been one to follow the rank-and-file(like his protests against
that war)
I'd like to hear your views on the above and how he interacted with
the cast & crew(was anyone star-struck!)

Anyhoo... thanks again for a great show.. and i look forward to more
sometime in the future!

Cheers
Miche



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 08 May 2003 05:45:27 GMT
Lines: 24

>You managed to get Martin Sheen for the River of Souls telemovie. I'm
>wondering how this came about.. Did you send Sheen a script on the
>off-chance that he'd sign on? or did he come to you? How much did he
>know of what he was getting into?

We heard he was available, and was a nominal fan of SF, and sent him the
script.  He enjoyed the script, particularly liking what it said about the soul
(he's a strong and vocal catholic), and I think he saw in it something he
wanted to be associated with.

We'd initially approached him about playing the scientist, but when he got the
script he much preferred the soul hunter material, and went for that, even
though it would mean considerable prosthetics work.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
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