-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
‘Babylon 5’ Reboot in the Works at The CW with original series creator J. Michael Straczynski
- Thread starter Spectromixer
- Start date
- News Entertainment
Well the other thing is that JMS did Sense8 so he's also not that far removed from modern TV anyway.
Production won't be an issue, and it'll likely just be a tone thing where there's a lot more PG-13 sex and everyone is just sexier. Maybe Sheridan is shirtless every episode. lol
Production won't be an issue, and it'll likely just be a tone thing where there's a lot more PG-13 sex and everyone is just sexier. Maybe Sheridan is shirtless every episode. lol
This is fine. Better than nothing. Show was never high budget and this could very well turn out good.
…anywhere? WB makes shows for all platforms, most content creators do.
I'm not sure about this at all.
If JMS has a story that he wants to tell and it's not just about the money, the show has a reasonable budget, and it's faithful to the tone of the original, then I'm interested. If not... I don't know.
As for the budget thing: I know the original was fairly low budget for a sci-fi series, and I know not everyone will agree about this, but IMO he original CG was so unrealistic and primative (even for the time) that it had a kind of minimalist charm to it. It had a distinct style that was all its own. Cheap CG now doesn't really tend to have that; it just looks cheap.
If JMS has a story that he wants to tell and it's not just about the money, the show has a reasonable budget, and it's faithful to the tone of the original, then I'm interested. If not... I don't know.
As for the budget thing: I know the original was fairly low budget for a sci-fi series, and I know not everyone will agree about this, but IMO he original CG was so unrealistic and primative (even for the time) that it had a kind of minimalist charm to it. It had a distinct style that was all its own. Cheap CG now doesn't really tend to have that; it just looks cheap.
I mean, you've got me there. I watched the first season of Arrow, died a little inside, and haven't looked back since.
I'm sorry for the poor writers and actors who sign up for this career destroying show ..
‘Babylon 5’ Reboot in the Works at The CW
Original series creator J. Michael Straczynski will pen the script for the update.www.hollywoodreporter.com
Claudia Christian's twitter handle being "Claudia Christian Lives" is ominous as fuck.
Practically the whole original cast is dead.
Re: the topic at hand. I don't care if it's on CW, at least with the CW it might be able to run long enough to reach its natural conclusion.
Practically the whole original cast is dead.
Re: the topic at hand. I don't care if it's on CW, at least with the CW it might be able to run long enough to reach its natural conclusion.
I know the CW have an awful reputation, but it does seem every major studio is chasing a big science fiction show now. Disney has Star Wars, Paramoung has peacock, NBC has BSG and Warner seem to be positioning B5 as their sci-fi show. Hell, even less players like prime and Apple are pumping out amazing sci-fi.
Good time to be a sci-fi fan imo.
Good time to be a sci-fi fan imo.
JMS update
wow he's actually running it too. amazing.
certainly looking forward to this, seems like it will be a new take on it more or less. I wonder if he'll take another crack at Crusade's story elements since that show didn't get very far.
One thing I always wondered was what B5 could have been had they known beforehand that it would be renewed for a 5th season and not ending with the 4th which caused the 4th season to be quite packed and the 5th not being so great. Hopefully JMS can have a chance to do it right this time without the shenanigans that happened before. Being CW though... 🤷♂️ That feeling when you get news you've been waiting years, heck decades for then there's that * attached. But JMS is running it so I do have hope at least. Also can't wait to see modern versions of Starfury's! Hopefully it will do well that model companies will make kits of the new ships.
Crazy Ex Girlfriend was an incredible, bold show so I trust cw to let him do his own thing more than many.
Show had a decent budget too so really no reason to be concerned
Last edited:
OP
OP
most do but not all. Superman and Lois and Stargirl have shorter seasons.
Those are the ones that look better-budgeted, right? I know folks are talking up "Superman and Lois," at least.
something must have happened with Primetime TV or whoever the co-financier was. Maybe they got bought out or something? Were they part of the Discovery merger somehow?
I had posted a thread on Reddit a few days ago on who people thought could ever possibly measure up to Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar if a reboot/remake ever happened. A lot of people didn't seem very receptive to the idea, and the rest had a very broad range of ideas. Funny that this news pops up just days later.
Babylon 5 is my all time favorite TV show. Hell it might be my favorite piece of media.
1. More Babylon 5 from JMS is very exciting
2. I wish it were a new story and not a remake. Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas were lightning in a bottle, there's no way you're going to recapture that.
3. The CW is definitely not an ideal place for this to land.
But still, more B5 from JMS, yaay.
1. More Babylon 5 from JMS is very exciting
2. I wish it were a new story and not a remake. Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas were lightning in a bottle, there's no way you're going to recapture that.
3. The CW is definitely not an ideal place for this to land.
But still, more B5 from JMS, yaay.
it does seem to be a new story from what JMS was saying in his social media post quoted above.
PTEN was a joint venture between WB and Chris-Craft, which itself went out of business 20 years ago. B5 TV rights have always rested with WB.
As happy I am for this I find it absolutely hilarious that Marcus won't be by far the prettiest character on B5.
I pray that they choose the right actors even if most of them are chosen for being model material.
I pray that they choose the right actors even if most of them are chosen for being model material.
All this distrust of the CW. Why not see how it goes before being so judgemental? JMS said in his tweets he has wide creative latitude as the show runner and there are many at the network who are enthusiastic fans of Babylon 5 who understand the original show's unique position in television.
If JMS thought the CW would interfere with casting and other ways of making it not the best show it can be, he wouldn't be on board with it. And yet all these knee-jerk reactions about how CW is a terrible place for this reboot. I for one have faith in this show and am not a doubter.
If JMS thought the CW would interfere with casting and other ways of making it not the best show it can be, he wouldn't be on board with it. And yet all these knee-jerk reactions about how CW is a terrible place for this reboot. I for one have faith in this show and am not a doubter.
This makes me feel very, very good about this. It's not often that the original creator gets a chance to outright reboot their own work, and the results might be very interesting. Just as he undoubtedly has come up with new stories to tell in that universe, he's probably has a list of different angles, things he wished he'd done differently then, and would do differently now.
JMS' approach in creating the original was almost legendarily thorough, with an expansive story bible and notes, "off-ramps" for main characters if they decided to leave the show and so on. If he's taking that same approach here, and there's no reason to think that he won't, I'm confident that the results will at least be interesting. This could be airing on Cartoon Network for all I care…what I care about is the fact that the original creator is involved and he has a new story to tell, reboot or not.
I'm not too familiar with CW, but even the meh B5 movies that seemed fairly low budget did much better in CG than that old stuff just on the basis of resolution alone. Lost Tales had a few shots of the station that were pretty nice to look at.
I don't know if not trusting the CW can be considered a "knee-jerk" reaction when statistically, historically, whatever way you want to measure their results over the years, they have been total shit and laser focused on one demographic.
I have no faith in this and I also don't have JMS on a pedestal. I want to believe but the man just may need to eat, I don't expect such noble artistic loyalty from people even if it'd be nice.
Regardless, I'll watch it.
I have no faith in this and I also don't have JMS on a pedestal. I want to believe but the man just may need to eat, I don't expect such noble artistic loyalty from people even if it'd be nice.
Regardless, I'll watch it.
JMS was always saying the issue with Babylon 5 TV rights were because they were mired in legal issues with PTEN, which is why remasters werent possible etc. But then the remasters showed up earlier this year.
You know, it occurs to me that while "Confessions and lamentations" is if anything MORE relevant now than when it aired, and you could essentially do a shot for shot remake and it would hold up fine, I really hope they make it part of a seasonal arc.
Have markab dying over the course of the season but nobody explaining why. Then a few eps later the cat comes out of the bag and we spend a few eps with B5 quarantined and the true nature of the plague revealed. Then of course we do the medical race against time to do the vaccine, and in a subversion of the original episode, Franklin actually makes it in time to save the population on B5. He then tries to transmit the information to the markab homeworld, who refuse it because they are trying alternative medecine. So its an even biger gut punch because he does everything right, does it on time, and they are still killed off because some of them were being stubborn.
Have markab dying over the course of the season but nobody explaining why. Then a few eps later the cat comes out of the bag and we spend a few eps with B5 quarantined and the true nature of the plague revealed. Then of course we do the medical race against time to do the vaccine, and in a subversion of the original episode, Franklin actually makes it in time to save the population on B5. He then tries to transmit the information to the markab homeworld, who refuse it because they are trying alternative medecine. So its an even biger gut punch because he does everything right, does it on time, and they are still killed off because some of them were being stubborn.
It was easier for folks (including myself) who dislike "CWisms" in television shows to express concern prior to JMS coming out and writing those tweets. He didn't jot them down until the cat was out of the bag for several hours.
And for those who are going to argue that "CWisms" don't exist, cool! I wish I tried watching the same stuff y'all did!
That was one of the big selling points for Lost Tales for me. Seeing the station rendered on something other than a 1993 Amiga was glorious (even if the stories were a bit boring).
What's funny is that JMS was displeased with the low-budget aspects of Lost Tales, which is a big part of the reason more weren't made. Yeah, the hallways on the station were oddly vacant most of the time. But other than that, I thought they looked good by 2007 DTV standards!
I'd love to see Thirdspace be an arc in one of the seasons. I loved that movie, but felt a little rushed in some ways.
I think that the stage play style of the stories helped with that. I'm sure that JMS wasn't pleased with the extreme budget limitations that were in place with Lost Tales, at all, but you're right that they made it look as good as they could with those limits in place!
Yeah! Exactly. I would have been happy to grab another two or three more installments. It could have been the start of something really cool.
Instead, it's the end of the original B5 universe -- barring any surprise twists with the new show. Ah well. It was still a fun little ride.
Im a huge B5 fan, but a reboot of the original and not a new story is very disappointing. Far more than the network involved. The original is one of the best tales ever told and outside of the first season holds up pretty well in the remaster… and we're just going to tell it again with different actors?
Hopefully it brings new fans into the world.
Hopefully it brings new fans into the world.
JMS is 67
i don't know much about CW being good or bad or whatever the deal is, but it's hard to imagine there being a wealth of options for another babylon project
a reboot with new stories definitely needs JMS more than it needs any particular network
if they were doing a remake and sticking to the original script/plot, maybe the budget becomes the most important thing and his involvement isn't essential. but it's not a remake
i don't know much about CW being good or bad or whatever the deal is, but it's hard to imagine there being a wealth of options for another babylon project
a reboot with new stories definitely needs JMS more than it needs any particular network
if they were doing a remake and sticking to the original script/plot, maybe the budget becomes the most important thing and his involvement isn't essential. but it's not a remake