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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FCWesel" data-source="post: 2068020" data-attributes="member: 5222">Saw this posted by JMS about the B5 feature film, he posted this on Feb 25th:***************************************************The rule of thumb in Hollywood is that for every thousand scripts thatget written, only a few dozen get into development, and out of those,only one will ever get made...if that.A little over a year ago, I was approached by a company that wanted tomake a Babylon 5 movie. They optioned the rights, and commissioned ascript. (It's worth mentioning that I, not WB, own the rights to a B5movie. When we were negotiating the original B5 deal -- by whose termsI will never see a dime in profit -- the one thing they did let me havewere the movie rights, figuring they'd never be worth anything in thelong run.)Anyway...on December 27th of 2003, the script for "The Memory ofShadows" was turned in, and the process began of trying to make thedeal work with all the various forces involved. It is, to say theleast, a very difficult process on any movie where the studio does notdirectly take the financial reins. In terms of B5, Warner's positionwas esssentially, "We only do big-budget movies with big names, soyou're on your own." If there were big-name movie actors in the film,they'd get behind it; without that, things become very problematic,especially as far as the financing was concerned. You much have to puttogether a consortium of international interests and business plansrivaled in complexity only by the Allied invasion of Normandy Beach.Nonetheless, every attempt was made by the people involved to get thisdeal in place. This was not being done by Doug or myself, but ratherby the company/individuals who approached us and optioned the rights.At times, it seemed we were inches away from a deal...stages werereserved at Elstree, actors were contacted, a director was in place,the script went through many revisions, a few key staff were hired,again not by me...it was really a year-long roller coaster ride.During that time, the people involved, with every good intention, triedvery hard to pull the necessary pieces together on the deal. Theoption expired in late December 2004, but I renewed it without cost, togive those involved more time to try and make things work.In the end, however, the deal could not be put together, and it did notlook as if that was going to change at any point in the foreseeablefuture. So the option has reverted, and to all intents and purposes,the project has dead ended. Nor do I think this particular incarnationwill arise again at any point in the future, though prognostication hasalways been a tricky art, especially if you have to do it without thebenefit of hindsight.This was not the first time someone's taken a run at a B5 feature film,and it will not be the last. Eventually it will happen, because suchthings are simply inevitable. If they can do a Brady Bunch movie, youcan be sure that sooner or later, somebody's going to do a B5 movie.The only thing I can say without equivocation is that when that daycomes, as the rights-holder, I will make darned sure that it's doneright, because I'd rather have no B5 movie than one that doesn't liveup to what fans and I myself would want to see.To that end...I can wait.Anyway, just thought you should know the story.jms***************************************************</blockquote>

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