[B5JMS] JMS's Spotlight at SDCC

Sun Aug 6 09:23:10 EDT 2006

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From: dachapp at worldnet.att.net
Date: 18 Jul 2006 01:31:20 -0700
Lines: 11

Happy Birthday Joe!
Looking forward to attending you panels at SDCC this week. I never miss

them.
By the way, any plans to publish your Murder She Wrote scripts in the
future? 
Take care 
Dave

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From: Matt Ion <soundy at moltenimage.com>
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2006 18:55:27 +0000 (GMT)
Lines: 23

Amy Guskin wrote:
>>>On Wed, 19 Jul 2006 15:12:46 -0400, Craig wrote
> 
> (in article <hv0tb29866vtj7js9uu669qvg0q4or582q at 4ax.com>):
> 
> 
>>On 18 Jul 2006 01:31:20 -0700, dachapp at worldnet.att.net wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Happy Birthday Joe!
>>>Looking forward to attending you panels at SDCC this week. I never miss
>>>
>>
>>Please, please please post a transcript...a summary....at least what
>>THE ANNOUNCEMENT is. Please. <<
> 
> 
> You must not hang around here much.  Of _course_ someone's going to post what 
> the announcement is, probably really soon after it's announced, even.

I'd be shocked if someone isn't sitting there with a laptop posting it 
as it happens... gotta love modern technology.

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From: Jan <janmschroeder at aol.com>
Date: 22 Jul 2006 19:39:01 -0700
Lines: 61

Hijacking this thread since the SDCC thread I started this morning isn't up yet.

Here’s the news in the order JMS gave it at the panel.  I’m posting it pretty
much simultaneously to the moderated newsgroup and to JMSNews.

--JMS sold a movie to Ron Howard.  It’s a thriller/mystery movie set in the ‘20s
in Los Angeles.  They want to get it into production as fast as possible and JMS
is flying up there on the 3rd to meet with Ron Howard and those guys to go over
the script and make sure everything is where it needs to be.  It’s going to be a
big budget film.  Ron Howard is a nice guy.  The first time JMS had a phone
conference with him about the script, JMS called him Mr. Howard and the reply
was “You hired my dad on Babylon 5, you can call me whatever you want.” 
Possibly it could be in production by the first part of next year.

--JMS was up in Toronto recently and they did a 12 episode radio drama series
for the CBC called the Adventures of Apocalypse Al.  It’s kind of a film noir
style comedy drama science fiction supernatural series a la Men In Black or 
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  It’s in little 5 minute chunks and it’s
fall-down funny.

--A pilot for Touchstone has started for a dramatic prime time network series
called Borrowed Lives.  It was actually sold last year but it was too late to go
into development but now they’re actually in the script stage.

--Rising Stars is in development with Sam Raimi’s production company for a
series.

--Midnight Nation is being bid on by two different studios for a movie.  

--He pitched Dream Police to a major studio, they want to do a motion picture
and they’re negotiating now for JMS to write it.

--And there’s something else…WB came to him as they do periodically wanting to
do something with B5.  They asked if he wanted to do a feature film but JMS
declined mainly because he can’t yet picture structuring a B5 movie “…as long as
Andreas and Rick insist on staying dead.”  Maybe in a year or two he’ll be able
to but right now he can’t do something big.  What JMS suggested was a bunch of
short films—little mini-movies, an anthology show set in the Babylon 5 universe.
They said, “Okay.”  There’s a network already interested in carrying them but
they’re also planned for direct to DVD.  This will be “Babylon 5 – The Lost
Tales’, a lot of small stories that never made it into the series that he’s
rediscovered notes for.  And JMS wants no interference, complete creative
support – in writing.  They said, “Okay.”  And JMS wants to direct them.  They
said, “Okay.”  The first will be three individual stories about three of the
main characters (to be determined).  The plan is to shoot in September,
post-production Oct.-Dec. and they’ll probably come out the second quarter of
2007.

I’ll attempt more of a transcript later on but that’s the highlights.

Jan
Woo-Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- 
We are the voice of the universe, the soul of creation, 
The fire that will light the way to a better future. 
We are One. 
                       IA Declaration of Principles
                        (J. Michael Straczynski)                                

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: 25 Jul 2006 23:29:50 -0700
Lines: 65

I am living in such strange times right now.  So I figured I'd share
them.

Prior to the announcement of "Changeling," my film agent tried to get
me to understand what would happen in the aftermath of that
announcement, even though he said "you really won't get it until you're
in it."

I had no idea.

See, there's a real class structure to this industry.  A list directors
only buy scripts from A list writers.  That's kind of the rule, with
very few exceptions.  I've been working in the TV business for over
twenty years, but in features I'm kind of an unknown equation.  Always
have been, mainly because I really haven't sought it out much; I figure
films are like going to Vegas, you can invest years in one shot at the
dice.  So I stick to TV.  I thus have not been in that class of A list
writer.  Nowhere near.

When Imagine and Ron Howard bought that script, the effect was
electric.  Suddenly everybody in town wanted to know who the hell was
this guy they'd never heard of who just sold a script to Howard and, in
essence, jumped the line from "who?" to A-list without much in-between.
 Twenty years in TV, now suddenly an overnight success.

Within hours of the announcement, every studio in town was calling my
agent to get a copy of the script.  As it got read, they started
calling to set up meetings.  Not us calling them.  Them calling us.

And then the offers started.  Rewrite offers.  Original film offers.
Adaptations.  I've had no less than one and in many cases two or three
studio meetings every day for the last several weeks, and my calendar
is one big mass of black type for the next four weeks.  A big-budget
feature that Sony wants me to rewrite because it has to go into
production fast, one that Universal wants developed, on and on and
on...all I have to do is say yes to whichever ones I want and they're
mine.  Everything I've ever written is suddenly being pored over and
optioned.

I have never seen anything like it.  I've read about this sort of
thing, but to experience it personally is...strange, so strange.  The
stuff I've had out there before, the novels and short stories and the
like, are all exactly what they were before this...the words didn't
change on the page, the stories didn't alter, but suddenly the
*context* in which they are being seen has changed radically.

I'm being very, very careful and very selective in what I say yes to,
because I want to make sure whatever I take on adds to rather than
subtracts from the momentum we've now achieved.

The really odd thing is that I'm not running around, jumping up and
down, celebrating or hooting or hollaring or any of that.  It's moved
me in the other direction, I've gotten really, really quiet, and
careful.  It's like all of my antennae are up.  Everybody around me is
thrilled, and can't figure out why I'm being so reserved.  I'm not
really sure myself, to be honest.  Just a strange sort of wariness,
like when I'd move to a new neighborhood as a kid and I'd go quiet
while I sussed out the area.

Odd.  Nothing bad, it's all to the good, lord knows.  Just odd.  Very
odd.

jms

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From: "Opie301" <gtopie301 at hotmail.com>
Date: 26 Jul 2006 13:45:00 -0700
Lines: 72

A good man once said...
"All life can be broken down into moments of transition and moments of
revelation.  This [has] the feeling of both."

Congratulations to you, Joe.

jmsatb5 at aol.com wrote:
> I am living in such strange times right now.  So I figured I'd share
> them.
>
> Prior to the announcement of "Changeling," my film agent tried to get
> me to understand what would happen in the aftermath of that
> announcement, even though he said "you really won't get it until you're
> in it."
>
> I had no idea.
>
> See, there's a real class structure to this industry.  A list directors
> only buy scripts from A list writers.  That's kind of the rule, with
> very few exceptions.  I've been working in the TV business for over
> twenty years, but in features I'm kind of an unknown equation.  Always
> have been, mainly because I really haven't sought it out much; I figure
> films are like going to Vegas, you can invest years in one shot at the
> dice.  So I stick to TV.  I thus have not been in that class of A list
> writer.  Nowhere near.
>
> When Imagine and Ron Howard bought that script, the effect was
> electric.  Suddenly everybody in town wanted to know who the hell was
> this guy they'd never heard of who just sold a script to Howard and, in
> essence, jumped the line from "who?" to A-list without much in-between.
>  Twenty years in TV, now suddenly an overnight success.
>
> Within hours of the announcement, every studio in town was calling my
> agent to get a copy of the script.  As it got read, they started
> calling to set up meetings.  Not us calling them.  Them calling us.
>
> And then the offers started.  Rewrite offers.  Original film offers.
> Adaptations.  I've had no less than one and in many cases two or three
> studio meetings every day for the last several weeks, and my calendar
> is one big mass of black type for the next four weeks.  A big-budget
> feature that Sony wants me to rewrite because it has to go into
> production fast, one that Universal wants developed, on and on and
> on...all I have to do is say yes to whichever ones I want and they're
> mine.  Everything I've ever written is suddenly being pored over and
> optioned.
>
> I have never seen anything like it.  I've read about this sort of
> thing, but to experience it personally is...strange, so strange.  The
> stuff I've had out there before, the novels and short stories and the
> like, are all exactly what they were before this...the words didn't
> change on the page, the stories didn't alter, but suddenly the
> *context* in which they are being seen has changed radically.
>
> I'm being very, very careful and very selective in what I say yes to,
> because I want to make sure whatever I take on adds to rather than
> subtracts from the momentum we've now achieved.
>
> The really odd thing is that I'm not running around, jumping up and
> down, celebrating or hooting or hollaring or any of that.  It's moved
> me in the other direction, I've gotten really, really quiet, and
> careful.  It's like all of my antennae are up.  Everybody around me is
> thrilled, and can't figure out why I'm being so reserved.  I'm not
> really sure myself, to be honest.  Just a strange sort of wariness,
> like when I'd move to a new neighborhood as a kid and I'd go quiet
> while I sussed out the area.
>
> Odd.  Nothing bad, it's all to the good, lord knows.  Just odd.  Very
> odd.
> 
> jms

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From: kruegerb76 at hotmail.com
Date: 26 Jul 2006 13:54:35 -0700
Lines: 17

Opie301 wrote:
> A good man once said...
> "All life can be broken down into moments of transition and moments of
> revelation.  This [has] the feeling of both."
>
> Congratulations to you, Joe.

Yes, Ron Howard is one director who might be trusted with your work.
:)

So all those years of saying "no" to the big-wigs and it finally paid
off.  You got what you wanted, on your own terms.

Just don't make yourself ill working too hard.

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: 5 Aug 2006 20:19:56 -0700
Lines: 45

kruegerb76 at hotmail.com wrote:
> Opie301 wrote:
> > A good man once said...
> > "All life can be broken down into moments of transition and moments of
> > revelation.  This [has] the feeling of both."
> >
> > Congratulations to you, Joe.
>
> Yes, Ron Howard is one director who might be trusted with your work.
> :)
>

I just got back today from two days spent at Ron's farm up in
Connecticut going through the script and doing what's necessary to get
this thing up and on the rails with him and several of the brass from
Imagine, and boy, I gotta tell you, it was maybe one of the best
creative experiences I've had in a long time.  To work with guys who
really know story, who when they discuss the script it's all about what
makes sense rather than giving notes out of agendas or egos...it's like
a breath of fresh air, and nice people on top of that.

It's all very exciting, they're already budgeting and doing schedules,
talking to actors, and talking about the film as a prestige project.
This was my first meeting with Ron, and it confirmed everything that
I'd heard: level-headed, incredibly smart and creative, grounded,
friendly, it's all about what makes the best story, the best scene, the
best shot.

As if this were all not enough, late Friday, after a number of
conversations with a major studio about another project -- a big-budget
historical action piece, think something along the lines of Braveheart
or Gladiator -- they called to offer me the gig.  I accepted, and we're
off to the races.  My first priority of course is to Changeling, but
once that's up and moving ahead, I go right to this and B5:TLT.

The script for Borrowed Lives will be going in this week to Touchstone,
and we'll see what follows thereafter.  But I'm very happy with the
script at this point.

Amazing times....

jms