JMS teases Babylon 5 feature film at Comic-Con

Alternate reality game.

I think blaming a lack of publicity is a bit of a crutch sometimes, but I admit it's hard getting a sense of movie advertising living in Los Angeles, where it is oversaturated to the extreme.

 

"Alternate Reality Game." Basically a meta-fiction PR campaing, usually targeted at the grass-roots fandom. It can be anything from the fake in-universe websites, tie-in viral videos (like this or this) and even real world scavenger hunts tied to clues and encrypted messages hidden in said media. Hell, before Portal 2 came out, Valve updated the first game to alter the ending and added hidden messages throught the game hinting at the sequel.

It's the kind of thing that's invisible to the wider audience, but if handled well can set the core audience on fire.

 

Serenity contrary to popular opinion had a huge marketing campaign, this is from the movie's Wiki article.

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Both Neroon and I saw the early cut on a preview, I caught the movie again on opening day and it far from a packed theater, in fact a couple of people walked out of the movie.

 

That was always my impression, too - though it may have been different in various regions/countries. I was sure they'd done everything right to ensure success with both existing and to attract new fans.

Jan

 

I'd rather that the money were used to render cinematic visions of a universe other than the B5 one, whose story potential is pretty much exhausted and past its sell-by date -- Bank's Culture or non-Culture, Niven's Known Space or Motie space, Hamilton's Commonwealth, Confederation, or Mandel trilogy, Baxter's XeeLee Sequence, Manifold trilogy, NASA trilogy, Long Earth series, or Destiny's Children series, Herbert's Dune saga (the father's vision only, done properly for once although the style of the Lynch film was pretty good apart from the ornis) or WorShip series -- the choices are multitudinous.

 

If Natalie Portman wanted to play Delenn in a remake, shit would get real.

 

Funny headgear and weird accent -- I think she already did that gig.

 

Nice idea, but I don't think JMS owns the movie rights to any of those...and nobody else owns the movie rights to Babylon 5....

Maybe they just didn't bother over here. The only promotion I saw (besides what was on the internet) was a TV spot that I only ever saw crop up once and as I said, nothing at the local cinema. I don't think even the nearby-ish multiplexes had it.

Not sure why it didn't do well in the states. Maybe the trailers just didn't grab the attention of the uninitiated? Did it open next to something else that blew it out of the water?

 

Yeah, JMS doesn't have the rights to those properties. Some might be cheaper to acquire than others, however, and have more commercial potential -- although sci-fi movies seemingly aren't in vogue unless they're based on well-established comics, feature angsty teenagers in derivative plots, or star Tom Cruise or Will Smith (maybe not the case any longer).

Re Serenity's box office in the US -- perhaps people disliked the apparent goofiness of a cowboys-in-space theme. I don't know how it was marketed there.

 

^^ I agree with you. I really don't think that B5 is suited to the movie market, especially in the current climate. I think something like Lost Tales is more appropriate. LT wasn't that successful, either commercially or artistically, but I think it could be (especially given growing markets like Netflix and Amazon Prime). And apparently JMS's B5 Rights do include that type of format.

 

Babylon 5: The Olympics.

No terrorists, no bomb, actually barely any script. Get a hundred actors in Alien make compete against each other in sports while camera crews follow them around and then flavoured with interesting commentary.

Oh, gods. Imagine the figure skating Narns.

 

Vorlon beach volleyball!

 

Babylon 5: To Serve Narn.

40 years ago a popular "TV Show" shown across the Centauri empire showed how to butcher and prepare Narn cattle into positively scrumptious fine dining... This is the story of the Rangers tasked with hunting down everyone involved with that programming and taking them in chains to Minbar, to face trial for crimes against decency.

 

Not that we know of. In fact, considering that direct-to-home-video (of any sort) had barely even been thought of at the time his contract was written, I'd say that there's almost no possibility that he owns anything other than what he's stated - the feature film rights. Anything else he's done, such as the short stories, he's had to get permission from WB.

Jan

 

Jinxo and the Last Crusade.

Desecrate the #### out of Indian Jones and the last Crusade, then wait for the lawsuit.

 

JMS was working on a Lensman adaptation which is still in development-hell. I'd like to see him finish that instead, although people will only associate it with things that used it for inspiration, like Green Lantern.

 

Where did you get that idea? AFAIK he's always said he was only able to retain the movie rights and nothing else. That streaming series that almost was from a few years back was commissioned under a licence granted by WB.

He can't just up and do whatever he feels like for anything that isn't a movie.

Now while I think there has been a few straight to streaming movies, they're really no different in quality and budget than straight-to-DVD/TV films. Not the kind of thing to convince investors that Studio JMS is setting out to be another 'Bad Robot' style production company.

 

He wrote it long ago, 2008-2009. It's entirely out of his hands now. The script is pretty much the first thing done. After a director comes on, rewrites usually follow. But everything JMS can do has already been done.

ETA: Just realized you might have meant that JMS should option the rights and make the Lensman movie himself. He'd have to write a whole new script unless he bought the one already written back. And right or wrong, the ones who commissioned the script in the first place seem to have decided that there's not enough name recognition in a Lensman film to warrant the money needed. JMS doesn't seem to agree with that but it's a major consideration when looking for investors that another major company (Ron Howard's companyIIRC) has passed on.

Jan

 

Actually, something like that would not be a bad idea.

Ah, I didn't realize that. They even have control over publishing. I wonder if he could challenge streaming rights in court. I know (or think I know) that some work-for-hire comic book writers have successfully challenged contracts that didn't mention undreamed-of-at-the-time situations, such as TV shows and movies.

Apparently I just made it up.

I don't know. These streaming markets are in their infancy, but they're probably the cable of the future. And pretty much whatever good stuff there is today is happening on cable.

 

I think it'd be a tough and most likely futile fight. If they own the TV broadcast rights then it's not too much of a stretch to argue that this extends to broadcasting on the net as a derivative medium.

Given that the source material is a TV show and not a comic book, I'd think the terms and definitions in the contracts would be much more specific. As in they've *only* granted him movie rights and everything thing else defaults to them in perpetuity.

I suppose the best evidence to support this is that JMS would have said so if he had the streaming rights, or at least a snowball's chance in hell of getting them. He hasn't, therefore he almost certainly can't.

Again, a movie is his only avenue to make more B5.

I don't disagree, but realistically investors don't usually like to gamble nine figures on new, unproven markets. As you say, it's still in it's infancy and it could still all come crashing down.

That aside, since it's mostly a subscription model there just isn't anywhere near the same potential audience size you'd get compared to a theatrical release and that's what really matters for such a venture to be profitable.

More to the point, a straight to stream/DVD/TV movie is not going to get WB's attention anywhere near as effectivly as a successful theatrical release.