B5 & Mongoose - Straczynski not pleased

[Hypersmurf]

You might create the best campaign setting in the world and pour your very heart and soul into it. However, when you sign over the rights and accept the cash, the new owner can turn your setting into Dino-Pirates of Ninja Island if they want to. It is their property now.

Dude - if the new owner had to turn your setting into Dino-Pirates of Ninja Island, it wasn't any higher than the second-best campaign setting in the world to begin with...

-Hyp.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I can see how JMS would be touchy about B5... not only is it his baby, but he's had problems in the past regarding television executives. It isn't particularly fair for him to apply that to this situation, but no one said life was fair.

Also, I hesitate to say that we've got the whole story here. To quote B5, "Understanding is a three-edged sword; your side, their side, and the truth." I'm fairly willing to believe that what's going on is somewhere closer to the middle ground. That is to say, everyone is a little touchy, some things might have been said out of anger and defensiveness. Some things have to do with pride, and some have to do with pretention, on both sides.

With regards to rights... as far as I know, there are very few shows on television right now where the writers/creators own their own properties. Unfortunately, making television is expensive, and that's why there are distributors, to fund that. In exchange, they get the right to sell rights. The contract between JMS and WB, as described by JMS, is quite generous in that he is allowed and possibly even guaranteed creative consultation.

 

[trancejeremy]

I think people are making a mountain out of a molehill. If you actually read the posts in question, he's upset with Mongoose claiming novels that were written by someone else were based on his scripts and were 100% canonical. Basically they are trying to use his name to endorse it, but he hasn't even seen it. Wouldn't anyone be annoyed if someone tried to sell something your name that you didn't have anything to do with, really? Especially as Mongoose has a history of shoddy (and sometimes offensive) material.

It has nothing to do with the RPG! It's about a set of novels Mongoose is publishing. and my reading of it is that wouldn't bother him if they hadn't dragged his name into it first.

 

[TwistedBishop]

what is wrong with JMS has he ever gotten along with anyone for longer then two years? Lets see

- Crusade - canceled due to TNT

- Jeramah - canceled due to HBO

- B5 RPG - Mongoose's fault

everyone but JMS. Boy it looks as if he is the only reasonable person in the world.

How long has he worked for marvel. Isn't it about time for Marvel to screw up and him to storm off

Straczynski has been working in TV for over 20 years. You're bringing up three problems as proof he's irrational and difficult to work with? Let's look at them a little more closely anyway.

Crusade was canceled, we learned from a TNT source, strictly as a ratings decision. The drama that happened afterwards was to facilitate that end. If you want to call him a liar for saying so, feel free, but he does have a history of being truthful with his posts, with over a decade of archived material. I think you'd find yourself in the minority with such an opinion.

Jeremiah he left because he couldn't stand MGM executives. He admitted as much.

And now we have this Mongoose situation, where it appears they have been clouding the particulars of his involvement, and perhaps even stealing from him. In his last post to Mongoose, he specificially denies them the right to his notes and unpublished scripts. He's not going to do that if they own them legally. He wouldn't be able to. Despite what your personal opinion of him may be, he's been in this business for a long time; he knows his rights.

All that said, is he difficult to work with? I'd bet he is. That's what happens when someone is uncompromising about quality work. It's also a rare thing in a town of yes-men and sycophants. If people in Hollywood stood their ground more often, we'd have better material coming from them.

 

[Staffan]

Crusade was canceled, we learned from a TNT source, strictly as a ratings decision.

How could it be canceled "strictly as a ratings decision" when it was cancelled before the first episode aired?

 

[Mytholder]

Mongoose was asked, "How much input directly are you getting from JMS?" To which they replied, "These days it's getting to be less and less." When infact it had always been zero.

Nope. Look at the Mongoose B5 RPG corebook. There's an introduction written by JMS in there. It hasn't always been zero.

 

[TwistedBishop]

TNT had been doing an examination of their ratings and discovered that those who came for Babylon 5 left immediately after it was over. They wanted viewer retention, and figured that Straczynski's shows weren't delivering it.

 

[TwistedBishop]

Nope. Look at the Mongoose B5 RPG corebook. There's an introduction written by JMS in there. It hasn't always been zero.

Yeah, that's actually the one B5 book I own. I figured from the introduction he had at least some sort of good relationship with them.

I don't know if it counts as "direct input" though. He wrote a bit about RPGs in general and his brief experience with them, and that's it.

 

[JoeGKushner]

For better or worse, Babylon 5 is JMS's baby, and if you're going to take the baby out to play play, you've got to keep the daddy happy. It might not help that the daddy is possessive and has a notorious ego, but it's just part of the deal.

Daddy shouldn't have pimped out baby then.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Your unappealing metaphor aside, I suspect that you may be overestimating how much money's involved here for JMS. Consider, for instance, that (assuming, as I am, that he's being forthright here) he's made no money off of the B5 DVDs, which have netted WB a good deal of money (see next link).

DVD residuals would have been negotiated. If he didn't negotiate a part of that, it was short-sighted on his part (Hollywood accounting shenanigans aside). He wouldn't be the only one, though, as there weren't many people in that time period that foresaw how popular TV show DVD compilations would be.

But just for the writing (IMDB credits him with being the writer for 84 episodes), that would be $500,000 to $1.1 million by current scale. He was also executive producer, which generally involves additional compensation and benefits (as opposed to just a 'producer' credit, which is "what you give your secretary instead of a raise").

He has credits going back 15 years before B5. I think by then he knew how the game was played.