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That would be J. Michael Stracynski of Babylon 5 fame. It seems that JMS dropped quite a few nuggets of information at the recently completed San Diego Comic-Con. In short order, here are the juicy bits:
- JMS has sold a movie to Ron Howard set in 1920's LA. It's supposedly a myster/thriller (and not the Michael Jackson variety). Did you know: Ron's dad, Rance, played John Sheridan's father on B5.
- JMS did a radio drama series for the CBC called The Adventures of Apocalypse Al. Still no word on an air date.
- Sam Raimi is developing JMS' Rising Stars comic series as a TV series. Too bad the NBC look-alike series Heroes will beat them to the punch.
- Another JMS comic property, Midnight Nation, is being bid on by two movie studios. One shudders to think what Hollywood will do to the story.
- And the biggest news of all, if you haven't seen it yet: There will be more Babylon 5 stories! Maybe on network TV, but most likely to be shot straight to DVD. Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales will be a bunch of short films detailing many different stories set in the B5 universe. The first three will be about three of the main characters. Seeing as how Richard Biggs and Andreas Katsulas have passed on, the pool of characters is that much smaller. I'm there whenever these are released/aired.
That's a lot of news. I really liked Rising Stars and I wondered, given the success of comics on film recently, why it hadn't been picked up. It's not your typical superhero tale. Tim pointed out that it reminds him of George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards series and I agree with that too, along with the Heroes series.
As far as B5 is concerned, I hear that Sheridan will be one of the characters JMS will cover. I'd like to see Garibaldi and Vir as well, although Ivanova would be fun too. If they can get Claudia Christian to do it.
Comments (3)
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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday July 26, 2006 at 2:45 PM
© 2008 SF Signal
There were a couple of short stories scattered here and there that did some good backstory stuff on the characters. And, since there's no series commitment and some people have not had the breakthroughs they expected...yep, maybe we'll get some of those original actors back.
I'd like to see Vir again. Also Markus. Heck, how about more with Commander Sinclair (either as a Minbari or as himself).
Still a lot of tales to tell there.
Posted by Fred Kiesche on Wednesday July 26, 2006 at 3:10 PM at 3:10 PM
Don't forget that Tim Choate, who played Zathras, died in a motorcycle accident a few years back.
JMS wrote a great Marcus story, about him being ressurected far in the future, for Science Fiction age in 99 (IIRC).
There must be a Bester story.
Posted by Jeff on Wednesday July 26, 2006 at 11:25 PM at 11:25 PM
Science Fiction Age, that was the one I was thinking of!
Peter David did a Bester trilogy for Del Rey's line of B5 books. There was also a reprint of a book that the other line had done, plus a technomage trilogy and a couple of novelizations.
The other line of B5 books was mostly forgettable, other than two volumes.
I'm really surprised at the number of SF media products that have not been able to spawn a line of successful novelizations like Star Trek and Star Wars.
Posted by Fred Kiesche on Thursday July 27, 2006 at 10:56 AM at 10:56 AM