Babylon 5 TV Movies |
TNT, Warners and Netter Digital recently signed a deal, confirming production of "Crusade", the follow-on series, and two further TV movies "The River of Souls" and "A Call to Arms". Further details can be found in the official announcement.
The showing of the new TV movie "In the Beginning" on TNT went well. According to JMS, the audience was triple the usual figures for the previous PTEN distribution, and the numbers built every quarter of an hour, indicating that more people were starting in half-way through than were leaving. TNT are said to be "dancing in the aisles". The re-editted pilot which followed directly after ItB also did extremely well. There's more in this press release from TNT.
The first of the new TV movies, "In the Beginning", may well air in the Autumn in the UK, if a recent article on C4 teletext (p 117) is to be believed..
Two TV movies have been made for the TNT network, which has bought the rights to rerun B5 & has co-funded season 5. The movie titles are "Babylon 5: In the Beginning" and "Thirdspace". The two were filmed in reverse order because new non-B5 sets were required for the prequel movie.
The original Pilot movie ("The Gathering") has been extensively re-editted and re-scored for showing on TNT between "In the Beginning" and the first season episodes.
The following information was released in the "Official Babylon 5 Online Newsletter":
"'The Great Maker,' J. Michael Straczynski, entertained a packed house at Loscon with the help of fellow producers John Copeland and George Johnsen. Harlan Ellison also added to the witty bunch and answered questions. "Among the items revealed at the con was a detailed explanation of the beginning of the first of the two TV Movies for TNT when the series is over. Slated to begin filming in June, the first of the TV movies centers on the Battle of the Line. The story is told by Londo and begins with an aging Londo sitting on his throne, waiting for Delenn and Sheridan to be brought before him (War Without End.) While he is waiting, two kids come running through the throne room (JMS assured everyone they would be killed eventually) and ask Londo to tell them a story, or more specifically, a true story. Londo then begins telling the story of the Babylon Project from the beginning at the Battle of the Line. "Since Londo is serving as the narrator for this story, a prequel so to speak, it leads right into TNT's rebroadcast of the B5 pilot, also featuring Londo as the narrator. TNT is planning to air in sequence the first TV movie, the pilot, all the seasons of B5, and then the final TV movie. JMS was hush-hush about the second TV movie."
And another bulletin from JMS:
'Q: We've heard that you have more funding for the TV movies. Does it make
a difference?
A: Actually, we don't really have that much more money. Each episode
costs a tick under $1 million; for purposes of discussion, let's round
that up to 1. So you're now talking 2 million for 2 hours. Now you've
got another million to spend. *But* ALL the prices go up by union
scale and whatever else can be negotiated. Actors fees go up,
writers fees go up, directors fees go up, crew fees go up...so at the
end of the day, you find you have a *little* more to spend, but not
really that much.
As for how everyone's handling it...really no different than the
series. Actors learn their lines, directors do their shots, the
atmosphere on set really isn't much different. The only substantive
difference is that, because we know we won't be airing these until
January and March/April, at soonest, we have more time in post and can
therefore do more EFX.
George calculated that there are as many EFX in "Thirdspace" as in
the entire first season of B5.'
The movies were confirmed in a press release from Neter Digital.
The Lurker's Guide already has information pages for the movies and the spin-off series, "The Babylon Project: Crusade".
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