JMS Speaks (again)

[Wizz]

Newsgroup articles from JMS

[Wizz]

<font face="georgia"><font color="red">In case you missed notice anywhere else, this Fridays (April 19) episode of Jeremiah on Showtime starts at 10:30PM eastern, not 10:45PM.

The movie Traffic runs until 10:30 and there is no Stargate SG-1 episode.
</font>

Wow, good catch, even I had not been aware of that. Thanks muchly.


jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">Just got the new issue #18 of Rising Stars, if you open it from the back, it is a 3 page Preview of Jeremiah, but on page 1 and page 2, although the layout is different, the TEXT is the SAME! and on page 3, the interview just stops mid-sentence. someone royally screwed up on this one!! please let us know if the whole text would be available somewhere else.
</font>

You just got a printers error, all the others I have seen are correct. You can return it at your store for one without an error.

jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">However, it has been said on one of the mailing lists that certain scenes are being reshot, with less sex and and violence, to be used in syndication. Obviously, you would not be able to syndicate the show without some editing; but, if you are actively refilming scenes with tamer content, wouldnt that suggest that the a lot of what we are seeing is gratuitous?
</font>

If that is what has been said then what has been said is erroneous.

We shoot both a syndication version and a pay cable version simultaneously, there are no reshoots after the fact, though some audio dubbing does happen in post.

Every movie and TV series does this to ensure the life of the series in domestic on-air syndication. No one makes a big budget movie or series without making an alternate version available. It is just pro forma.

jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">Is there any set standard to decide what constitutes a season?
</font>
Nope.

jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">I was re-watching the pilot the other day with a couple of friends who had not seen it, and got to wondering: Are we going to see any more of Theo?
</font>
Definitely. She is in Thieves Honor, A Means to an End, and the two-part season finale Things Left Unsaid.

jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">I would have thought that Showtime would have told you, but knowing the way television works, you would probably be the last one they would tell.
</font>

They did, actually, though I still heard about it first on this group.

Just a reminder for folks jumping in on this...the ep tonight at 10:30 is one of our best, I think. Very moving.

<font color="red">Working too hard? [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

It is a lifestyle thing.

jms

([email protected])
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and do not send me story ideas)
</font>

[Jailbait]

thanks

[Wizz]

<font face="georgia"><font color="red">Any news to share on the DVDs? </font>

There's nothing that I can share at this time that would not preclude others in the food chain from doing the same on this subject.


jms

<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">On what day will you be at Comic Con this year?</font>

Dunno, nothing's been set yet.

jms

<hr width="75%">
RE: "Rising Stars" Brings Peace to the Middle East
<font color="red">
I know it has been out for quite a while, and I haven't read the comic book myself, but I just have to comment about the laughable solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict in one of the issues of "Rising Stars".

One of the heroes of this comic comes to the Middle East and makes the great desert land fertile again - thus bringing peace to the region. I love most of what JMS writes, but here he shows that he has no clue as to what's going on in this part of the world.

First of all, not all of the middle east is infertile desert. We've got a lot of green areas. We're even big exporters of fruit and vegetables - you may be familiar with Jaffa Oranges. The dispute is over land, nationalistic, and somewhat over religion. Making infertile patches of land fertile would only make the situation worse - each side would have even more reason to cling to its claims.

But hey, it's just a comic book. No harm done.
</font>
One of the heroes of this comic comes to the Middle East and makes the great desert land fertile again - thus bringing peace to the region. I love most of what JMS writes, but here he shows that he has no clue as to what's going on in this part of the world.

First off, the comic in no way indicated that this would solve the problem in its entirety, only that what happened would be a start.

Second, it wasn't just some guys coming in to make the ground fertile, it was that in a matter of a couple of hours the land was transformed as if directly by the hand of God, nobody knew it was the specials behind it, creating the impression of a newly minted miracle that favored EVERYone in the region, which would be enough to give anyone pause.

And given that this was expressed right in the book itself, quite clearly in dialogue, either you didn't read it, didn't understand it (and then go on to say that others don't have a clue) or just didn't care and just came in to poke.

Either way, what you present is a gross and inaccurate simplification of the story.

jms

<hr width="50%">

<font color="red">> And given that this was expressed right in the book itself, quite clearly in dialogue, either you didn't read it, didn't understand it (and then go on to say that others don't have a clue) or just didn't care and just came in to poke.

You must not have read his post, he says in the first sentence he didn't read it. You might note his country code .il is Israel, so it seems entirely appropriate that he post his conclusion contrasting the events in the Rising Stars issue and the real world. And this is valid regardless of what the comic book says in the dialogue.</font>

It cannot be a valid response if he didn't read the book. He is criticizing without knowing what he's criticizing, therefore his opinion is not valid. As Harlan said, you're not entitled to your opinion, you're entitled to your *informed* opinion. If he didn't bother to get informed, to just slag off the book without actually reading it, his opinion is not valid, I don't care what his country code is. That's not a justification for not doing your homework.

jms
<hr width="75%">

<font color="red">Is there any chance that we'll get more episodes of City of Dreams? As I recall, you wrote and submitted three scripts that haven't been produced. </font>

The sci-fi channel pulled its financing for most of its audio dramas, so that's pretty much that, though the episodes do remain at the site (and can be downloaded via audible.com).

jms

([email protected])
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

[Wizz]

<font face="georgia">
Just an FYI...my latest The Amazing Spider-Man hit comic stores today, the 8th, and the next Midnight Nation, issue 11 (one more to go) comes out next Wednesday.

jms

<font color="red">Is TC planning on doing a collected edition of MN when Issue 12 comes out? Would look great next to my copies of Rising Stars and Watchmen...</font>

Yup. It'll be out in September.

jms

<font color="red">Also Joe, will you possibly be doing any more creator-owned work, but from Marvel? </font>

Yup. My contract allows for both creator owned work as well as stuff inside the Marvel universe.

<font color="red">You mentioned in an article/interview some time ago about Joe's Comics plans for a Hard SF comic miniseries. Is that going to see the light of day, somewhere?</font>


Haven't decided yet.

jms
([email protected])
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

</font>

[Wizz]

<font face="georgia">Re: Smith to pen AMS; JMS to launch new Spidey comic

<font color="red">As you sit here for X number of hours every week, silently poring through the newsgroups, glued to the screen, pause for a moment and imagine Kurt and Priest and JMS (and your fellow posters) sitting, silently poring through the newsgroups, glued to the screen... Kind of eerie, isn't it?</font>

THE POSTS ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE! RUN! GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! NOW!!

jms
<hr width="50%">
<font color="red">Spider-Man has been on time for 40 years, and lately he hasn't been.</font>

You gonna back that up with figures? You mean in 40 years it hasn't been late ONCE? Show your work, pal. It's one thing to come on here with broad proclamations, another to put your facts where your mouth is. Or didn't you expect anybody to call you on this?

<font color="red">It has understandably upset people.</font>

Is that why the circulation has more than doubled since issue 30 and is hovering just below the 100,000 per issue figure? Is that why it's currently the #4 book and creeping up on #3 fast?

<font color="red">The only thing to do now is to start putting the book out on time or fire the tardy people. That's the only way to rebuild the good will of spider-fans.</font>

Funny...I kinda thought that telling good stories was the way to go here. Silly me.

And again, how many times does it have to be said? The glitch was a one-off that had a temporary cascade effect. I'm now 4-5 issues AHEAD of schedule on scripts. Don't take my word for it, ask John Romita, Axel Alonso, Joe Q,
anygoddamnbody at Marvel. Not that the facts seem to matter here, but just for amusement's sake....

As for the goodwill issue...and please show cause why you should be entitled to speak for "spider-fans" as a group, were you elected, did I miss another primary?... as noted above, sales have almost tripled since the change-over, so I don't think the problem is with the fan base, which is only expanding, not contracting.

It's with a handful of very loud individuals who can't Get Over It, who have never ever been late with anything in their own lives, or else how could they justify bitching about somebody else getting hammered by deadlines so heinous that he missed a couple of deaDlines for the first time in 30 years with the result that they suggest that these people (viz: me) should be fired for being "tardy."

Some people like to demand in others a degree of perfection they do not require of or manifest in themselves.

The "spider-fans" you refer to, the 90% of them who send in emails and letters and the like, are generous, kind, understanding, and want to see their character portrayed in dynamic and interesting ways, they don't sit perched on the Diamond comics shipping list like demented vultures. (I've been reading comics for something lke 35 years and I never even knew what a Diamond shipping list WAS until I started writing comics.) They have criticisms, and they find goofs on my part, and I *like* that, because I learn in the process, so I can make the next script that much better for their insight. They're good, intelligent, informed *readers*.

You speak for them about as accurately as you speak for the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi.

As for the rest, as noted, I'm currently 4-5 scripts ahead. In another couple of weeks I'll be 5-6 scripts ahead.

But you'll always be a dunderhead.

I can live with that deal.

jms
<hr width="50%">
<font color="red">However, it should be pointed out that JMS has maintained a monthly schedule more often than not with his work on Amazing Spider-Man. Issues 30-34 came out on a monthly basis. Issue 35 was late, and issue 36 came out the next month. Issue 37 was late, but issues 38 and 39 were released in the following two months. Issue 40 was late. I count 3 late issues, and 8 issues maintaining a monthly schedule. I think this is an important distinction to make.</font>

One other thing, only because I keep forgetting to mention it...the publishing schedule was also kicked slantwise by a) September 11, and b) the desire to drop in the script for issue 36 as a memorial to same. We kinda dropped everything to make that work, and that also slowed things down on the production side.

jms
<hr width="50%">
<font color="red">As you well should know, the problem with putting things out on an erratic schedule is that you face the possibility that the fans will EVENTUALLY lose interest. Out of sight, out of mind. I would imagine that you wouldn't have been happy if the stations that were airing B5 were changing the broadcast time from week to week and not even showing it at all on three randomly chosen weeks out of every nine.</font>

Actually, the schedules *did* change on the stations on a regular basis, especially in places like Boston, and we just rolled with it...and episodes were held back and aired in only groups of 3 or 4 for ratings purposes every year...so there goes that analogy, which was totally not in the same situation to begin with. You're comparing apples and oranges. But for now I'll let you call oranges apples just to deal with this.

<font color="red">What would you have done if one of the scriptwriters for B5 gave you a similar sob story? Would you have held off on filming an episode until he could finish the script? Would you have told your distributor, "Harlan was really busy this week working on that V.I.P. script for Columbia, so we don't have a B5 episode completed for broadcast. Call us back in couple weeks when his schedule may have cleared up" ? If the distributor and TV stations complained, would you have pointed at the show's good ratings and told them to shut up? What would allowing something like that happen do to your professional reputation in the television industry, even if it happened only once?</font>

Unfortunately, once again the fact that you don't know what you're talking about is blatantly obvious. In a TV series you have a variety of writers doing a variety of scripts...and I've had EXACTLY that sitaution come up again and again on various series. If writer A has a real and serious problem and can't deliver, you drop in a script by writer B in its place. Hell, we did that on Jeremiah this year, when a freelance script came in late and we had to bump up another to fill its position.

Once again, apples and oranges. The comic book industry doesn't work that way. You can't compare the two.

<font color="red">Well good. I guess Spider-Man is no longer at the bottom of your list of priorities, at least for the moment.</font>

And THAT'S the line where you reveal yourself as a dickhead.

Spider-Man was *never* at the bottom of my list of priorities.

You, however, are.

jms
<hr width="50%">
<font color="red">The difference, it seems, between you and I is that while I, too, would wish the books weren't late, I evidently don't consider it as important as you do (this is just my guess based on your posting history recently and not meant as an insult) and don't turn any displeasure I have with the books being late into a personal attack, which is how you are coming across. </font>

Just as an additional FYI...ASM 41 is coming out next week (the 30th), which is about 3 weeks after 40. So we're now coming out early to catch up. 42 will also come out quickly, art schedule allowing. Not that this will make much difference to the usual suspects....

jms
<hr width="50%">
<font color="red">Hey, at WonderCon, JRJR said he has never met or spoken to you, outside of scripts, one angry email. That seems really odd. I don't know if you use a full script or a plot, but do you find it easier or harder to get your stories across like that? </font>

Actually, I can't recall an angry email, so he may have been joking there...as for the rest, we haven't met only because we just haven't been in the same space at the same time, I'd love to meet him at some point (and I imagine I will at SDCC if he's there).

As to the scripts, I write full, detailed scripts, it's just what I do...just as an example, from issue 42....

PAGE ELEVEN

Six equal sized panels, each a page in width.

PANEL ONE

Spidey's POV to the city in BG as he heads toward --

PANEL TWO

-- Jenny who is being drawn into the vortex. We may want to blur her and/or
the rest of this panel, to indicate motion blur, that this is all happening in
the same split-second --

JENNY
Let --

PANEL THREE

Same as panel one but closer to the target.

PANEL FOUR

On Jenny, still being pulled in, blurred --

JENNY
-- me --

PANEL FIVE

Same POV shot but he's now closer to the neighborhood --

PANEL SIX

On Jenny being pulled in, blurred --

JENNY
-- GO!


jms
<hr width="75%">
Re: ASM Question for JMS

<font color="red">Just wondering exactly how much creative control over ASM do u have? It just seemed the "Shade" was a forced super-villian. (How many drug dealers have supervillians?)</font>

Of course you're assuming he actually works for them instead of it being some other kind of arrangement, which will be explicated more in a bit....

As for the larger question...my deal with Marvel is basically I write what I want, they don't change it. They've been terrific in honoring that understanding, so basically the book is whatever I want to make of it.

I put the Shade into that issue as a way of talking about the tendency of society to not give a crap about homeless kids and runaways on the street, that someone can be preying on them and nothing can be done.

So he wasn't forced at all, just the way I felt best got me into the story.

The vilains I've introduced so far were not really meant by me to become part of the overall Spidey pantheon, which is why I got them off the board fairly quickly. They were there to let me explore certain parts of Peter without overwhelming him. I wanted to clear the air, give him something to work with but that wouldn't get in the way of focusing on who he is...rather than, say, villains who have a huge backstory that would lumber up the books at a time when I was trying to clear away the underbrush.

Having done that, I'm now looking to bring in both some more interesting new villains and some of the classic ones; just turned in a script today with Doc Ock in fact (putting me now at about 4-5 issues ahead of schedule).

Having grounded Peter's character, I'm now looking forward to expanding some of the rogue's gallery of characters, finding corners of their personality thus far unexplored. But I couldn't in good conscience do that until I'd refined and brought Peter's/Spidey's character into the foreground.

Because at the end of the day, the book's called The Amazing Spider-Man, not The Infamous Doc Ock.

jms

([email protected])
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)
</font>

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: from jms: b5 quote book needs you

It had to happen sooner or later...with so many message boards and posts asking "What's your favorite B5 quote?" a book of Babylon 5 quotes was inevitable.

So "But In Purple I'm Stunning: Quotations from Babylon 5" is coming out from an independent publisher later this year. The book will also contain sections dedicated to fan choices for best/favorite quote. Fans of Babylon 5 are
invited to send in their favorite quote, and why it's a favorite. The best of these emails will be culled for the book, and along the way this will determine the #1 favorite quote.

In particular, the book will be looking for anecdotes/stories from fans about what a given quote, or what the show, meant to them in particular. There are a lot of people who have found comfort or meaning in the show, or found it helped them get through some of life's problems. (An example I sometimes cite at conventions was the young man dying of aids who asked his sister to put all of G'Kar's speeches about hope and never giving up on tape so he could listen to them at his bedside.)

It needn't be a heavy story, just one that has meaning for the person involved, can be a funny story, whatever. Basically the goal is to find the intersection where the show and its message and its words touched people.

All contributions will be considered free to use by virtue of being submitted for this project.

So if you have such an anecdote/story/message about a favorite quote or the show in general, send it to the following address (rather than replying to
this, since I'll just have to forward it on in any event):

[email protected]

Thanks.

jms

([email protected])
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd., permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine and don't send me story ideas)

<hr>
Subject: Re: JMS: If it were up to you...

<font color=red>In an ideal 'JMS sets the standards' world, what do you think would be the
optimum length for a television episode? What about the number of episodes to constitute a season? </font>

You have to understand that I'm a Russian, and we're not known for telling short stories. So for me an episode would be perfect at 60 minutes, no
commercials, and a season would have 52 episodes per year.

What can I say, I yammer....

<font color=red>Any chance of you giving us a 'State of the Straczynski-verse' note on what's
new, what's pending, what you can't talk about, how you're healing (fast and well, I hope) and all the other questions we keep asking?</font>

Jeremiah: finishing post production on our last batch of episodes, including the two-part finale "Things Left Unsaid," which Mike Vejar directed and it's just *killer*. Of all the things I've ever done, and I'm including B5 in this, on an invidual basis this may be the best thing I've ever done, certainly the most ambitious. It's just frikkin' HUGE, the performances are great, the story moves ahead by leaps and bounds, I'm just *real* happy with it.

(Another crucial arc story, "Tripwire," airs next Friday. This is one to definitely see if you're thinking of following the show.)

What's pending...I'm about 4-5 issues ahead on Spider-Man now, with another issue coming out next Wednesday...I've turned in the next draft on "Polaris" to the SciFi Channel, and that seems to be moving ahead nicely....

And there's another TV project that's been in the works for a while now that's also getting a bit toasty at the moment, but I can't say anything about it yet, not until the ink dries.

As for the healing...not great. The finger didn't heal right after the dislocation, and it looks like the emergency room doctor who put it on (who
said she hadn't done this sort of thing before) kinda put it on sideways...so it locks and hurts and when I went for a follow-up in LA, the doctor took one look at the thing and said, "Surgery." Looks like a combination of a ruptured tendon and some bone bits that got into the joint and have been sawing back and forth all this time.

So now I've got to go in and have the damned thing operated on, and there's a better than even chance that because of the surgery I may lose some function in the finger.

Sucks.

jms

([email protected])
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd., permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine and don't send me story ideas)

[Wizz]

<font face="georgia"><font color="red">Is this a cliff hanging S1 [Jeremiah]finale? Is there (do you want there to be) a S2 planned?
</font>

Yeah, it's our s1 finale, as for a second season, that's in the hands of the TV gods.

<font color="red">I'd guess typing is really tough. Have you tried any of the voice recognition stuff out there? It's said to be getting pretty good, and with all your academic / scientific contacts, who knows, you might even get stuff earlier than the market</font>

Problem is, I think through my fingers, I can't dictate for squat.

jms

([email protected])
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

[Wizz]

<font face="georgia">Re: from jms: b5 quote book needs you


<font color="red">Didn't know just how fine a split was being put on submissions. It'd be nice to be able to use quotes from Babylon 5, Crusade and Rangers.
</font>

They're all equally valid for the book.

jms

([email protected])
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

[Wizz]

<font face="georgia">Spike Seldin, president of production for Top Cow comics, told the Comics2Film Web site that sibling screenwriters Anthony and Joe Russo have signed on to adapt J. Michael Straczynski's Rising Stars comic series for the screen. Babylon 5 creator Straczynski wrote a draft of the script, the site reported.

<font color="red">Was it your decision? Any Comments? Etc?</font>

No, this is pretty much par for the course for features, which is why I don't generally work there. Unless you're a writer/director, every script for every movie these days goes through diverse hands...writer a does the first draft, they give it to writer b for additional material, it goes to writers c and d for touch-ups, the director comes on, he has writer e do a few more tweaks...it happens to all movie screenplays these days, even to William Goldman. I did mine, now it's in the hopper. In features you have to learn to walk away from it after you turn in your draft.

jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">In the recently aired Jeremiah episode "Tripwire", I noticed that there were two writing credits (please forgive me if they aren't exact; I'm posting from memory) :

Excerpts by J. Michael Straczynski
Written by J. Michael Straczynski

I suspect that the "excepts" credit was for the flashbacks from earlier episodes, but I'm a bit confused as to why they're credited separately, since they were all written by you.</font>

It's apparently a rule under the Writers Guild of Canada, where we shoot the series, to ensure that all prior work is properly credited, whoever the author might or might not be.


jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">I was wondering if there was something edited out that would have shown us more about the Damien character. By the time we saw him onscreen, he was already making Lee Chen nervous.</font>

No, that's all there was. The nervousness was supposed to be more Lee's unease because of the way Lee's eyes looked, but the director shot the whole thing with his shades on, so you kinda lost that effect.

<font color="red">Also, was that his glasses broken on the desk behind Samuel when he was turning Markus and the TM crew away? </font>

Yes. The director basically shot it from as far away as possible without leaving the building, so it was hard to tell. We blew up the shot and repositioned it as best we can, but it was still kinda vague.

<font color="red">BTW, did you write the episodes after Ring of Truth? I don't see any info on them yet.</font>

My next ones will also be the last ones for this season, Things Left Unsaid 1 and 2. Between then and now it's Sam Egan and one more from Samm Barnes.

jms
<hr width = "75%">
<font color="red">I went to Showtime's web site and found they have the schedule up for July. The very sad and disappointing thing that I noticed is that Jeremiah (and Odyssey 5 for that matter) are not on it. *sobs sadly*</font>

I think the site may just be in error, because the airdate schedule we have shows us going through July, with our last ep airing somewhere around July 19th.

jms

([email protected])
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)</font>