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Babylon 5 officially being rebooted


The Dragon Demands
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I'd say HBO is the next best bet, with them removing underperforming content they own off their streaming platform, it's not clear at all what they're adding.

They've more than doubled the budget for producing more content, $2.5 billion to $5.3billion.  DCU shows could take up 10% of that at worst.

Edited by SpaceChampion
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I'd say HBO fucking around with its content and selling stuff off, that would be far too unstable an environment to put B5 in. Maybe if actual HBO really went all-in on it, maybe.

I'm back to thinking Netflix or Amazon buying the rights from WB might be the most likely outcome (and that not being very likely at all).

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Babylon 5 Update: 2/7/23

There’s been a lot of talk and chatter about how the Babylon 5 reimagining must be dead because there’s been no new news in a while, taking silence as “it’s dead” and repeating that information online to anyone within range.

The only problem with that, is that it ain’t so. Not in any sense that matters.

Here’s the heart-meat core of it.

Every year, networks and streamers develop tons of pilot scripts, and a smaller parcel of produced pilots, only a small fraction of which cross the finish line into being ordered as series. For those that don’t get ordered, this is what happens:

The network or streamer calls the writer/producer, or that person’s agent, and tells them. I’ve gotten that call plenty of times over the years.

That call has not come.

Networks and streamers don’t just make a decision not to pick something up, and then not tell anyone. I’ve been in the television business for longer than there have been clouds, and I’ve never seen that happen. I’ve never even heard of it happening. If they pick up the project, they call; if they don’t pick up the project, they call. Again, they’re not shy about making that call: it gets done every day, every week, every month, every year.

It’s real simple: “Joe, listen, we loved the script but we couldn’t make the deal/money/schedule work, so we’re going to have to pass, but please be sure to bring us something else next development cycle.” Click, disconnect, move on. Easy-peasy, no harm, no foul, nature of the biz.

And my very next act, within the minute, would be to post the information to everyone reading this, because that’s also a part of the process.

But again: that call has not come. Not to me, my agent, or my attorney. Not to nobody.

Does this mean B5 is going to happen? No.

Does this mean it’s not going to happen? No.

ALL it means is that there are still discussions going on far above my pay grade, and that there’s an agenda or a purpose that I’m not privy to.

Could that no-go call come tomorrow? Sure, and that would be ridiculously sad.

Could the pickup call come tomorrow? Sure, and that would be ridiculously great.

But until then, Babylon 5 is Schrodinger’s TV show, neither alive nor dead, until somebody, somewhere, opens the box, looks inside to tell the tale, and calls me or my agent to say what they saw.

Silence out here means there’s conversation happening in there, and for my money, that’s a good thing.

Meanwhile: we wait.

More as I know it.

You have my word.

JMS

from https://www.patreon.com/posts/78392748

Edited by SpaceChampion
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20 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

He's being disingenuous (not, it has to be said, for the first time). Possibly because of NDAs and contractual obligations not to say yay or nay about anything before the official line comes out, so fair enough. 

If The CW is not commissioning any drama pilots for 2023/24, if it's only planning to renew 3 of its existing dramas, if it has gutted the entire drama commissioning department including firing the two people in charge and hiring replacements specifically to work on reality shows instead as part of a company-wide pivot to cheaper programming, it's pretty incredible to believe that they will also just commission this pretty expensive, massive new drama project for the sheer hell of it.

The B5 reboot may well happen, and I'll be surprised if we go another 20 years without it happening, somewhere, with or without JMS in charge, but it's almost certainly not happening at the CW this year. If they thread the needle and it gets picked up, it'd be a far more unlikely event than the OG show getting picked up in the first place.

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I think everything he says is factually true. CW has not told him anything about the reboot, and presumably when they do he'll follow through and tell people as soon as possible. IF they had told him it was dead, but contracts and NDAs required him to hold off saying anything... well, why would he post what he posted if in a week or a month they'll reveal it was killed by the time he posted?

It's absolutely true that he's ignoring the fact that there is "news" in terms of moves CW is making that must have an impact on the reboot, but at the same time if they are basically freezing their development slate, that still means that the B5 reboot is in the mix even if it won't be until 2024 at the earliest that they make an official decision. And sure, it seems very likely it won't go anywhere, but as you say, an unlikely event is not an impossible one. Stranger things have happened.

(To be honest, the bad news part of it is that their sitting on it for another year both diminishes the odds they'll pick it up... and kills any momentum JMS tried to get by managing to get B5 trending on Twitter and so on, so diminishing its odds when shopping it elsewhere.)

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hmmm....   Last week:

Today:   JMS having business meetings...

So an near as I can figure, on March 3rd or 4th JMS mentioned on his Patreon page that he had a call with WB who said they're going ahead with the new B5, though CW had officially passed on the opportunity.

https://twitter.com/Grey17Podcast/status/1632006666479648771?s=20

The six weeks quote indicates May 1st as a possible pre-production start date, if whatever he's talking about is a tv series.

And this guys says the rumours are for Apple+:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTgOGzx9Wvc

 

 

Edited by SpaceChampion
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3 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

Hmmm....   Last week:

Today:   JMS having business meetings...

So an near as I can figure, on March 3rd or 4th JMS mentioned on his Patreon page that he had a call with WB who said they're going ahead with the new B5, though CW had officially passed on the opportunity.

https://twitter.com/Grey17Podcast/status/1632006666479648771?s=20

The six weeks quote indicates May 1st as a possible pre-production start date, if whatever he's talking about is a tv series.

And this guys says the rumours are for Apple+:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTgOGzx9Wvc

 

 

I have to say… I’ve enjoyed a fair bit of what I’ve watched on Apple+, Severance, Ted Lasso, The Essex Serpent, Shrinking, and The Reluctant Traveler so… if a B5 ReBoot ends up there… cool.

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Not sure I buy that Apple+ angle. Apple+ has already invested in big SF dramas, even if it didn't quite work out so far. I hear For All Mankind is decent, but definitely not a huge show. Wouldn't HBO Max or whatever the service becomes also be in need of a big SF show? House of the Dragon services the fantasy need, and is in direct competition with Rings of Power and others like them. Unless James Gunn's DCU is going to be good enough for that part.

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15 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

Not sure I buy that Apple+ angle. Apple+ has already invested in big SF dramas, even if it didn't quite work out so far. I hear For All Mankind is decent, but definitely not a huge show. Wouldn't HBO Max or whatever the service becomes also be in need of a big SF show? House of the Dragon services the fantasy need, and is in direct competition with Rings of Power and others like them. Unless James Gunn's DCU is going to be good enough for that part.

HBO Max's environment is far too volatile at the moment. Core HBO would be better, but they're not interested.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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