Babylon 5 film in development?
 

This hasn't been getting much play outside of B5 fandom, but it appears that over the weekend at Comicon JMS divulged that he's working on getting a Babylon 5 feature film made. He doesn't give a lot of details, but it appears that this might be a reboot of some kind.

http://freebabylon5.com/babylon-5-movie-details/

I have to say that I'm skeptical about a reboot since Babylon 5 was a complete, five year long story, and I'm not really sure how it could be retold in a single movie or even series of films. On the other hand, it seems like every time JMS has gone back to well -- Legend of the Rangers, Lost Tales -- the results haven't been very good, and with so many members of the original cast deceased, a fresh start might be in order.

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

I remember when they were talking a Babylon 5 film in the late 90s/early 00s. I always thought it was a bad idea. B5 was beloved among its fans, but it still remained a very small, very cultish audience (albeit a devoted one).

A B5 feature would be extremely lucky to make $10 million. Total gross. Worldwide.

Besides, as you say, every return to B5 since has been... not so good. And that's putting it kindly.

I wouldn't mind a TV return to the universe, set sometime during or just after Earth devolves into a Second Dark Age several centuries after the Shadow War. Maybe something dealing with the monks/Rangers working undercover to return the planet to a spacefaring colony...

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

If nothing else, maybe, just maybe, it'll get WB to go and finally give this a proper remaster and release unfucked versions on Blu or DVD. But I doubt it. I'd settle for it showing up on Netflix streaming at this point.

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

I can't see this doing any better in theaters than Serenity did, whether its a reboot or not. Give it a big enough budget and I'll go see it just for the space battles though.

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

If they can redo Star Trek they can redo anything. Give it a Batman movie budget with a cast including Bruce Willis, Christian Bale etc. as main cast. Money in the bank.
Seeing shadow ships would be cool.

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

As long a I've wanted a B5 movie, I don't see a studio actually picking up a movie for an essentially "cult" sci-fi show from the 90's. I agree that it will most likely flop like Serenity. And as much as i would like to see B5 on Blu, I look at the quality of the DVD transfers and it would need some heavy remastering so it doesn't look like shit. I personally would like another Lost Tales with a much bigger budget.

Not withstanding doing remasters of the 35mm elements (assuming there still are any), they'd have to redo the FX from scratch based on my understanding. Don't think WB would be much in the mood for that.

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

The Lost Tales was definitely disappionting, but that was largely due to the miniscule budget that it was allowed. JMS said a decade ago that he could make a lavish B5 movie for $35 million since the cast wouldn't command millions and millions of dollars.

Adjust that for inflation and you're talking about a $50 million budget. Can B5 make $100 million worldwide? Probably not. But could they make enough from the theatrical run, DVD/Blu, and ancillary sources to break even? Maybe.

B5 was one of the all time great Science Fiction shows ever on TV. Brilliant stuff, especially the Seasons 2-4 arc. I'd love a new movie. Sadly, some of the cast is dead, and the rest are older. But there is a huge span of time in the B5 universe, so I'm willing to bet that JMS could come up with something really good.

I'll definitely go see it.

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

After almost 20 years, they would be better of just rebooting it and have old cast have cameos. Unlike other series that have remained in the public eye, Babylon 5 is a pretty dead franchise. A good portion of the potential audience wasn't even born yet when it ended. No way can they have a movie that needs audience members to be familiar with the show that old. It has to be fresh that someone who has never heard of it can go in and enjoy it and not be confused due to missing info.

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

Babylon 5 was/is/will continue to be one of my favorite TV shows of all time. They had a nice 5 year story arc, wrapped up everything nicely, it was/is a good story worth revisiting from time to time. Crusade was OK but it didn't have the magic of B5, ultimately sold it because I didn't feel it was worth the investment of time. After the completion of B5's story arc, The Lost Tales just made me sad to go back, sold it as well. Never saw Legend of the Rangers.

I think it might be interesting to revist the B5 universe, with fresh faces and a fresh story, as long as it's given a decent budget and the right effort is put into the project. I just hope it doesn't turn into another Lost Tales.

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

Comparing the Babylon 5 fanbase to the Star Trek fanbase is kind of like comparing the Batman fanbase to the Bat-Mite one.

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

^More like comparing the Batman fanbase to the Nightman one ;-)

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

Yup. Even though the series originally aired in 4:3, JMS had the directors film live action scenes so they could eventually be matted to 16:9, but he couldn't justify the costs of having the CGI rendered in anything but 4:3 SD. He hoped the series would be popular enough that the FX could later be re-rendered in 16:9 HD, but both the CG companies that worked on the series are out of business and no one knows what happened to the original FX files. The only way to upgrade the FX to HD would be to hire someone to redo every single FX shot. Paramount's probably not going to do that for DS9, so I don't see much hope for Warners doing it for B5.

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

Fanbase has nothing to do with it. Star Trek movies make money because everybody goes to them, not just fans. A B5 movie would work if it's big budget sci-fi action flick with big stars that people would flock to even though they never heard of the tv show.
I don't recall an Edge of Tomorrow tv show with a fanbase but a lot of people paid money to see it.
They can use a streamlined version of the same basic 5 year plot and make a sci-fi action blockbuster that pretends the tv show never happened.
Think: Mission: Impossible.

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

Well, if Tom Cruise or Angelina Jolie signs up for a Babylon 5 movie, you may have a point. But unless they get an A-list star, no one's going to show up. On the other hand, Star Trek can draw them in on name recognition alone.

Re: Babylon 5 film in development?
 

I said that in first post.