JMS SPEAKS 2

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: from jms re: comics stuff
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

Just a few bits of comics related business, mostly recap but all in one place for a change, so feel free to ignore if you've seen it or comics ain't your thing....

Couple of nice articles about my run on the Amazing Spider-Man in this week's Entertainment Weekly and today's USA Today for those who track such things. Turns out the issue of ASM that came out last week is number 5 on the charts.

After a longer-than-desired break, the new issue of Rising Stars (#14) comes is supposed to be out this Thursday. It's probably the best looking issue to date. You can get a preview of the pages at:
http://news.wizardworld.com/Comics/CB0416-RisStar.asp

No Honor #3 also appears this Thursday from B5 alum Avery.

Michael Zulli, well known for his work with Neil Gaiman on Sandman, has begun working on Delicate Creatures, my graphic novel which will be coming out from Image sometime this summer/fall.

The next Midnight Nation should be out in a week or two.

Finally, the revised screenplay for the Rising Stars motion picture is in, and the response is extremely encouraging...I'm beginning to think this thing may actually get made....

Pooped but pleased....

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: from jms re: comics stuff
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

Just a few bits of comics related business, mostly recap but all in one place for a change, so feel free to ignore if you've seen it or comics ain't your thing....

Couple of nice articles about my run on the Amazing Spider-Man in this week's Entertainment Weekly and today's USA Today for those who track such things. Turns out the issue of ASM that came out last week is number 5 on the charts.

After a longer-than-desired break, the new issue of Rising Stars (#14) comes is supposed to be out this Thursday. It's probably the best looking issue to date. You can get a preview of the pages at:
http://news.wizardworld.com/Comics/CB0416-RisStar.asp

No Honor #3 also appears this Thursday from B5 alum Avery.

Michael Zulli, well known for his work with Neil Gaiman on Sandman, has begun working on Delicate Creatures, my graphic novel which will be coming out from Image sometime this summer/fall.

The next Midnight Nation should be out in a week or two.

Finally, the revised screenplay for the Rising Stars motion picture is in, and the response is extremely encouraging...I'm beginning to think this thing may actually get made....

Pooped but pleased....

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: 'Babylon Squared' - Letterbox Prob...
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

Sigh...they didn't get the year 1 fixes out because they were so focused on replacing the later wide errors...will remind them to replace this.


jms

[Wizz]

<font face="verdana">

I had to edit it a little bit for content - Wizz

<font color=red>Now that you've had some time to put the battles you fought during the production behind you, how do you feel what was produced of Crusade turned out?

What was your strongest episode?

What was your weakest (ignoring War Zone)?
</font>
I still think the first five produced were our best of the ones we shot, in terms of the ones I wrote. The best scripts of mine per se would probably be the two that didn't get produced but which were made available via bookface.com, To the Ends of the Earth and End of the Line. I think they would've kicked over the table and shown where the production, and the story, was going. They're also the ones I wrote after "Apperances," which is where I decided, "F*** it, f*** TNT, f*** the notes, I'm just gonna go back to what I was doing for the first 5 and write what I want." I got pissed, and sometimes I write best when I'm angry about something.

Weakest of my scripts...probably The Long Road, which started out as a good idea, and is still about 70% a good idea, but it's over-written and it feels...I dunno... stagey, somehow.

You actually happened to hit me with this question on a reflective night, so I'm taking a bit more time than I normally would with this.

I was talking to a friend recently, and I mentioned that in looking at the Crusade episodes on SFC, something about them bothers me...not the performers, who are all great, or the direction, which was generally quite good (with some lapses), but the writing. They didn't seem to me to have the same level of energy as B5.

To which I was told, "You want to know the truth of it? I was glad when they shut down Crusade." Now, as you might expect, I was kind of taken aback by this, and asked for clarification and what this had to do with my original statement.

The reply: "You were *exhausted*. You did five years of backbreaking work, you were averaging 3-4 hours sleep a night if you were lucky, you lost your hair, your health, and a good-sized chunk of your sanity...you were *tired*. The best thing would've been if there had been a year break between B5 and Crusade, to give you a chance to catch your breath. Would it have made a difference to TNT's decision? No. They changed their mind about the show based on their new ratings surveys before you ever shot a frame of film. But you wouldn't be sensing that lack of energy in the episodes now.

"Look at the stuff now: the Rising Stars screenplay is getting fast-tracked, the studio and the network love (title deleted until press release is issued), it's some of your best work ever, and Rangers has the energy that B5 always had, that Crusade didn't. It's still better than 95% of what's out there, but it's not you writing at the top of your top form."

"So how come you didn't say this at the time?" I asked.

"Because then you couldn't have heard it, wouldn't have listened. Now you can."

Hearing something like that is very difficult, because we all like to think we're invulnerable. In retrospect, I think there's a measure of truth to it. Maybe more than a measure.

Crusade is a good show. It got beaten down after the first five, stayed kind of beaten down through network notes and my own fatigue fighting fights that I shouldn't have had to fight, then picked up with the two post-f***'em scripts because my energy was gearing up again at that decision. But overall it was a good show.

Not that it made any difference to Crusade's eventual fate; that had zero to do with the writing, acting, or directing, and everything to do with an internal corporate TNT decision about SF in general. Even written at 100% of my energy level, even if it had been a GREAT show instead of a very good show, it STILL would've met the fate it met. Of that there is no question.

It was starting to pick up speed again with those last two scripts. I think we would've eventually progressed in quality to where it needed to be.

But I had just enough energy to get it started, to write and produce it, but not enough to go through all that AND the day-to-day battles with the network.
Having gone through five years of hell on B5, I could handle any two of those three, not all three.

And I'm wondering now if, in the long run, maybe it was the best thing that could have happened. If it had not gone the way it did, I almost certainly would never have been in a position to do the things I'm doing now...a (still classified) high-profile and high-budget TV series for one network, a B5 TV movie that will almost certainly go to a series on SFC, and the Rising Stars feature film in addition to a bunch of other stuff. And it's all fresh, with energy, there's fun there, and I think Rangers will have the fun and energy and cool stuff that is emblematic of B5.

I've always tried to be very forthright in my appraisal of my own work...I know where my strengths are, but I also know where my failings are, and I think one needs to be blunt about both. So I tend to be pretty merciless when looking back at this kind of thing, but I think it's necessary.

It's weird to think that I'm actually in a *better* position now, in terms of my career and the quality of my work, with Crusade having gone the way it did, than I would be if it had continued...but there it is.

It's a funny old world, you know...?

jms</p></font>

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Crusade - how do you think you did?
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red> I take the tone of your email to imply that there is ZERO chance of Crusade ever making a come back. Is Crusades truly dead? Or is there still a glimmer of hope someplace? </font>


It doesn't have anything to do with that one way or t'other.


Jms

<hr>

Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Keyboard give-a-way
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>The World Horror Con will be held in Seattle May 25-28. Do you know if the keyboard give-a-way is still planned for that weekend? Do you plan to attend? </font>

I hope to do so, it's a function of where we are in production at that time.

jms

<hr>

Subject: Re: JMS: Anthology?
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>With the probablility of 2 new series on the horizon I got to wondering if one of them might be the anthology series that you've often said you would love to do. </font>

No...a few folks at various networks have had that conversation with me, in a general kind of "here's the problem we have with the format, how can we beat it?" kind of way, but nothing of substance.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: So, jms, does this mean that.....
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>Podkayne Fries posted a rumor on rasftv this afternoon claiming to be from
inside sources. </font>

Except, of course, there is ZERO information in the post, and 100% personal opinion. It doesn't even qualify as a rumor, it's just one guy spouting off (and some of the things said sound awfully familiar to me).

Basically: he's just one more loudmouth spouting off to try and ruin the party.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: B5 LotR - "To Live and Die in Starlight" Logos
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>Thinking ahead to this Fall, is there any "Babylon 5 - The Legend of the Rangers - To Live and Die in Starlight" logo that we fans could access, to help publicize the show? </font>

I'll give it some thought.

jms

<hr>

Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Workload?
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>Besides JMS once said that he would wrote only 50 (or less) % of Crusade
episodes while he wrote something around 80% of B5. I suppose what he was going to do with Crusade he will do with the "Rangers". </font>

Yeah...I have no desire to write every ep of a series again, ever. That was the real killer of the thing, on top of the rest.

jms

<hr>

Subject: Re: JSM: G'Kar?
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>Hey Joe. Can you confirm this: </font>

Yup. It's true.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: B5 Bootleg Ethics...
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>Unlike all of the aforementioned examples, I cannot go out and purchase the bloopers at Borders, Amazon, or thestation.com. I am left to no other option but to obtain and cherish the copy of the bootleg bloopers tape. I'm hopeful that they will be included on the DVDs, but if they're not, why is it wrong to want a copy for a personal collection? </font>

Okay, so lets say I want your car, but you don't want to sell it to me. By the logic above, it's okay for me to steal it, as long as I'm not making any money out of it and it's for my own personal collection of cars.

These tapes were made for the cast and crew in-house as a special gift to them. A way to have fun at the wrap parties. In that respect they are very personal to all of us involved. To have people making copies and selling them illegally is just to tarnish that aspect.

And you say you want a copy..but the means of GETTING that copy 90% of the time means somebody selling somebody else a copy, at 20-35 bucks a pop. This goes into the hands of a crook. There is no other word for it. A person who takes what is not there, duplicates it illegally, and pockets all the money, none of which goes to the creative people and actors who made them.

<font color=red>The law does not regard unauthorized copying as theft. It is in many cases illegal, but that doesn't make it theft. There are lots of illegal actions that are not theft. Thus, the law does not suffer from this particular flaw. </font>

I'd like to know where you found this, because as I read copyright law, this is also covered by the term "theft of intellectual property."

And I'd love to see you make the argument to a cop, "Well, no, what I was doing wasn't THEFT, it was just ILLEGAL, so that's okay." Any judge in any court in the country would laugh you out of the box.

<font color=red> Among these, the people who created the US constitution. Copyright law in the US exists to promote the progress of arts and science, not to protect the rights of the artists. </font>

Not true. Writers and artists have fought for ages to maintain and enhance copyright laws for their protection. One of the foremost figures was Mark Twain, who was in a constant battle to ensure that the copyright laws were adhered to and expanded to protect his works. (Among his best quotes, "Any time a copyright law is to be made or revised, the idiots assemble.")

The sole means by which a writer can make money from his work is by protecting the use thereof. This is part of the big battle on the net...creative works are not "data" to be freely transmitted, they are the property of the person who created it.

You are not entitled to copy it for sale or distribution to others. Period.

<font color=red>If they will never be sold legally then no profit has been lost by anyone. If they are shown to the public then they are not for close friends only. Put both together and nobody has been harmed in any way by their sale. </font>

You're still not getting it.

You pay $30 bucks for a copy of the bloopers. To whom does that go? Does it go to the actors, whose images you are looking at, who worked day and night to create both the drama and the errors? No, it goes to a pirate.

Profit IS being made. And that profit by all rights belongs to the people who worked hard to make it, not to the vultures out there who prey on both the shows and the fans alike.

These people profit off something they never made, that they have no legal right to, that they illegally obtained. That you do not have a problem with that is profoundly astounding and disturbing.


jms

[Wizz]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lyta Alexander:
Subject: Re: So, jms, does this mean that.....
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>Podkayne Fries posted a rumor on rasftv this afternoon claiming to be from
inside sources. </font>

Except, of course, there is ZERO information in the post, and 100% personal opinion. It doesn't even qualify as a rumor, it's just one guy spouting off (and some of the things said sound awfully familiar to me).

Basically: he's just one more loudmouth spouting off to try and ruin the party.

jms<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

<font face ="Verdana"><hr>Here's the "post" that set things off...
<font color="blue">Note that this is a rumor, passed on to me by an insider. Don't shoot the messenger because I'm just posting gossip ...
A little background first:
As I'm sure you've all figured out by now, SciFi wants to own *everything* marginally skiffy. This explains why they've bought crap like FIRST WAVE and BLACK SCORPION. Whether or not the acquisition is any good is irrelevant; the idea here is to become the only TV station where a sci-fi fan can find sci-fi programming. They're a niche market and their goal is to corner the market. AMC, for example, has the rights to run the old Godzilla movies and a lot of 50s horror/sci-fi.
SciFi is counting the days until the contracts expire so that they can buy the rights to run all the classic stuff we've grown to love.
Despite his reputation, SciFi wanted JMS to write something for them so that they could monopolize most of his time. Yes, he usually has several projects going at once, but a weekly series will take most of his attention. Upper-level SciFi PHBs have purchased case lots of Chapstick in JMS-Ass Flavor because a happy JMS won't wander off and start a series somewhere else.
Although JMS doesn't see CRUSADE AND RANGERS as a fiscal repacking of BABYLON 5, SciFi does. They see this as a Good Thing because it means that B5 3.0 has a built-in audience before it even starts production. They also realize that True Believers will do a lot of the marketing and promotion for them, thereby saving SciFi some much-needed cash. SciFi has some ambitious plans, and anything they save means more money for another project. You don't think Dennis Hopper's services come cheaply, do you?
CRUSADE, in its previous incarnation, is not coming back. RANGERS might well cover some of CRUSADE's subject matter, but you really don't think that Skiffy can afford to produce two versions of B5, do you? If the CRUSADE reruns continue to pull in decent numbers for a stripped show, *and* if RANGERS does fairly well, there should be one, maybe two CRUSADE movies. These movies will tie in with the RANGERS TV show, which has better than even odds of starting Real Soon Now.
Think about this for a minute: would it be fiscally sound to have three programs on your network that are basically the same thing? (Yes, I know what you're thinking: think like a Suit for a minute.) It would be too much of a good thing. Why dilute your overall numbers with three versions of Babylon5 when you can pull in greater numbers with a single series?
Expect to see a lot more merchandising. SciFi realize that Truly Devoted Fans will pony up their lunch money for any little gimcrack featuring their idols. (Look at some of the crap in their store.)
Don't think for a moment that SciFi isn't keenly aware of the bottom line. Everything sound swell right now, but if JMS doesn't produce the numbers they want, they'll toss him out like yesterday's newspaper. He can't afford to pitch fits as he's done in the past if he wants to continue to produce stories in the B5 universe. Skiffy wnats to be the Ultimate Master of the Skiffy Universe, and they'd sell their mothers into white slavery to achieve their goals.
I haven't heard anything about the main cast members, but it sounds as if most of them will be relative unknowns.
--
Regards, Podkayne Fries
</font></font>

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: from jms re: comics stuff
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

Just a few bits of comics related business, mostly recap but all in one place for a change, so feel free to ignore if you've seen it or comics ain't your thing....

Couple of nice articles about my run on the Amazing Spider-Man in this week's Entertainment Weekly and today's USA Today for those who track such things. Turns out the issue of ASM that came out last week is number 5 on the charts.

After a longer-than-desired break, the new issue of Rising Stars (#14) comes is supposed to be out this Thursday. It's probably the best looking issue to date. You can get a preview of the pages at:
http://news.wizardworld.com/Comics/CB0416-RisStar.asp

No Honor #3 also appears this Thursday from B5 alum Avery.

Michael Zulli, well known for his work with Neil Gaiman on Sandman, has begun working on Delicate Creatures, my graphic novel which will be coming out from Image sometime this summer/fall.

The next Midnight Nation should be out in a week or two.

Finally, the revised screenplay for the Rising Stars motion picture is in, and the response is extremely encouraging...I'm beginning to think this thing may actually get made....

Pooped but pleased....

jms