Yup, there are plans for a Babylon 5 movie.
There have been rumblings about Babylon 5 coming back to life for a while now, and creator J. Michael Straczynski has heard the call — and he’s already working on a script.
TVWise is reporting that Straczynski is actively writing a script, with hopes to wrap a final draft by the end of 2015 and ramp up production in 2016. The project is reportedly a reboot of the Babylon 5 concept, and not a continuation of the original series, which ran from 1994 to 1998.
The report notes that Straczynski hopes to reuse some of the original cast members, such as Bruce Boxleitner and Mira Furlan.
Marcus, of course, was my favorite Babylon 5 character. Well, after G’Kar/Londo, of course. And Ivanova. And Garibaldi. And Vir. Ah, Vir:
Vir better be in this show somewhere.
Via
That sci-fi series you loved that ended too soon is getting a movie in 2016! Shiny! http://t.co/UuJyTbCA7h
— Brian Faughnan (@BrianFaughnan) August 8, 2014
Nice try trolling there, Brian.
“I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be much worse if life *were* fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?’ So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.”
Great series whose story arc was compressed and then re-expanded by network uncertainties.
I loved the show, but because of syndication, the channel would stick it wherever and our family kept missing episodes.
I’m not sure how viable a relaunch would be cause some of the major cast members are deceased now.
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My question is whether or not this is just a remake, like what they did with Battlestar Galactica (quite frankly I really didn’t like the remake), or what they’re doing really.
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According to the series end Babylon 5 was destroyed because it had become a navigational hazard. They could in theory tell the tale of Babylon 4, but the guy that played Jeffrey Sinclair is dead.
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I’m really not sure what to make of this news really.
It’s true that they demolished the station in the last episode, but that ep was set 15 years after all the others.
Sleeping In Light is still the most poignant final episode to any TV show that I actively watched. It’s too bad the sequel series didn’t really go anywhere.
JMS has said this would be a remake. Preferably with some of the former cast in ‘elder statesmen’ roles, but with a new primary cast.
And the BSG remake didn’t have the primary creator and storywriter of the series overseeing it. I think that makes a BSG comparison apples to oranges. B5 is JMS’ baby and crowning achievement. If anyone would know how to translate it from small to big screen, it would be him.
Before they even loaded, I knew exactly which two clips those were going to be. They definitely qualify as Crowning Moments of Awesome for both Vir and JMS.
(Many more such here.)
I’m still leery, as this has been heard before. Also, if WB doesn’t want to do this, who will? JMS has said he doesn’t want to crowdfund. The dough will have to come from somewhere. Still, it’s my favorite sci-fi, and as long as JMS writes it, I’m game to see where it goes.
I hope Warner will give JMS the rights, if not give the go ahead. JMS does have his studio that could bring it to fruition.
Well JMS has always had feature film rights. The question has always been how will he find the financing to bring it to the screen, given WB’s tepid enthusiasm.
Studio JMS. He launched it 2 years ago. It’s his safe haven for his creativity. He is doing writing, comics and film production. He can bankroll it through that. Not sure of the current backers or amounts, but I think he can make it happen.
Yeah, I know about the studio. And that’s what’s convincing him he can.
Faith Manages. 😛
Would love to re-watch the series, but Netflix never gives me the DVDs and its not on streaming.
I’ve seen it on Amazon Prime.
I’m apparently among the minority who regard JMS as one of the most dubious and overrated “talents” in the annals of human history, and “Babylon 5” as an illustration of how badly sci-fi geeks are afflicted with a kind of battered wife syndrome: your show can be a trope-ridden clusterfark with cardboard-cutout characters, wooden acting, and a story arc so predictable that you can skip a season and not miss anything, yet as long as it doesn’t completely insult viewers’ intelligence they’ll hold it up as some sort of Holy Grail.
Humbug.