[B5JMS] update from jms

[b5jms at mail.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu]

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: 26 Aug 2006 01:42:39 -0700
Lines: 69

Boy howdy, has it been a hectic few weeks.

Okay, where to start?  The second draft of the script for Ron Howard
will be going to him next week, and sometime in September we'll learn
where this all lands in terms of production schedules.  It's looking
very good at the moment.

Hot on the heels of finishing that script, we've closed the deal for me
to write another feature for Universal, the big-budget
historical/action film alluded to earlier.  That deal is now set, and
I'll be starting the writing shortly.   So that's two firm done-deals
in feature films in the last few months, and if a recent meeting at
Paramount provides the expected results, I may have a third deal in
hand for the coming year, another big-budget film to be based on a
novel coming out in September.

I've also started in on the writing for the first B5: Lost Tales
script, and we've now spoken to several of the original cast members,
who are on board with the idea.  It's still going to be a factor of
what deals can be made and with whom, as well as story elements that
are now being worked out, but things are moving ahead.  Because some of
the crew and others we wanted won't be available until October, we've
pushed a bit, which is fine, since it gives me a bit more time to get
the script where it needs to be and start laying out my shot list as
director.

The pilot script for "Borrowed Lives" has been very well received by
Touchstone, and with a few minor notes we should be able to get this in
to the network in a few weeks.  Then we shall see what we shall see,
but it looks promising for now.

For the comics fans out there...the solicitations went out this week
for the first issue of my miniseries "Bullet Points" for Marvel.  I'm
really, really proud of this thing, and I commend it to you highly.  So
if you're interested, let your comic store know to set aside copies,
because I think it's gonna sell out fairly quickly.

I should be receiving the approval CDs containing the final versions of
"The Adventures of Apocalypse Al" this week from the CBC.  Assuming no
tweaks are needed, that should be it.  I think they're talking about
October for an airdate, but that depends on their scheduling windows.
After that, as noted previously, it goes to Sirius and a bunch of
overseas markets.

Finally, I've cleared out a window of time so I can get the next B5
script book out the door on schedule.   It's the only thing that I've
had any flexibility on in terms of deadlines, so it got pushed, but I'm
now in a position to come up for air a bit.

As you can guess, the last few weeks have been nonstop meetings and
nonstop writing.  This is the busiest I've been since years 4 and 5 of
B5.  It's been pretty breathtaking at times, a lot of deadlines that I
wasn't always sure I could make, but in the end it seems to be laying
out pretty clean.  The best part, to be honest, has been working with
Ron Howard and the Imagine folks on the script.  When I've heard people
say "Each draft got better than the one before it," I've never believed
it because my experience of studio people was that each draft generally
got stupider.  Not this time.  It really has gotten better with each
iteration, more filmic, for lack of a less moronic term.  I like
learning from people, and the learning curve here has been both steep
and deeply satisfying.

So I'm very happy.  Tired beyond description just now, but happy
nonetheless.

jms