Babylon 5 -- The Movie

Genre: Science Fiction/Drama.

Studio: Warner Bros.
Production Company: Unknown.

Project Phase: Movies Rumored.

Who's In It: Unknown. It is generally assumed the majority of the series' cast would be in a feature.
Who's Making It: Unknown, but if this goes ahead it's virtually assured the creator of the series, J. Michael Straczynski, would be involved.

Premise: Unknown. The plotline that's been heard in whispers would focus on an all-out war involving the telepaths -- but that is definitely not confirmed.

Release Date: Unknown, but it won't be out until that little-heard-of Star Wars prequel trilogy is out of the way.

Comments: Babylon 5 brings to television science fiction what E.R. and N.Y.P.D. Blue viewers expect: intelligent, thought-provoking and entertaining episodic TV. Series creator J. Michael Straczynski conceived of a TV series that had a built-in 5-year story arc. Within those five years characters would live, breathe, change and die; worlds would be destroyed; and interstellar races would argue peace and wage war. The stories would be open enough to allow for episodic format with clues for the viewer seeded throughout. When viewed as a whole, a larger tapestry would emerge, all set on-board the interstellar 'Casablanca in space' station.

The series has forever-changed the way SF TV series are now produced. Paramount's Star Trek franchise, once dominant in nearly every form of fan appreciation, has seen its marketshare erode over the course of the 90's. Roddenberry's legacy is being challenged in the form of all-new universes and icons, with the individuals of Babylon 5 leading the pack. It was also the first series to utilize the now-familiar CGI (computer graphics imagery) FX on a full-time basis.

So how can a series that's scheduled to end at the conclusion of this season spin-off into features? And what will the fans who rallied behind Straczynski's five-year arc think if the series does metamorphosize into movies? Early word from jms (the acronym Straczynski uses when speaking with his fans) is that the proposed film will not affect or influence the already-filmed end of the TV series. It's beginning to look like if a Babylon 5 movie does come to pass it will stand on its own merits.

Rumors: Unknown.

Scoop Feedback:

Week of March 1, 1998... Last week the rumors of a B5 movie just went up a notch. In various SF magazines (but particularly the UK-based DreamWatch magazine) interviews with the B5 cast members were held. The stars answered the scuttlebutt about a possible movie, and each actor said they'd be up for it. But above-all, it's important to note there was confirmation from series creator Straczynski that the possibility of a movie does indeed exist.

Contacting CA, a scooper who claims to have a family relative working in WB has mentioned talk of a B5 film making the rounds. The rumor is that the feature will be along the lines of the two-hour TV movies currently airing on TNT. A projected release date, if everything follows through after the final episode of B5 is aired, would be sometime in the year 2000. And a working title for the project may be 'Shadow of Lies'. [Sent in by the 'outlawjedi'.]

April 5, 1998... In the newest copy of the British SF magazine Dreamwatch, J. Michael Straczynski discusses the the upcoming Crusade spin-off series and briefly mentions the possibility of a B5 movie. The scooper said Straczynski told Dreamwatch that Walter Koenig (best known as Chekov of Star Trek) has been contacted about his avaliability for a feature film to be produced in the near future. Any British readers of Dreamwatch care to confirm this scoop? [Sent in by the 'Outlaw Jedi'.]

April 19, 1998... "I just came from a book signing with Walter Koenig in Dallas. There was brief mention of the movie. Straczynski supposedly pitched the idea to producers early this month (April) and it would deal heavily with the Telepath War. He didn't know how well the pitch went and has no other info other than he had a vested interest in finding out when the movie greenlights. I took it from this that Walter is definitely interested in doing the movie." [Submitted by 'djones'.]

We also received a follow-up scoop from someone else in Dallas last week. "Walter Koenig was on a local radio station here in the Dallas/Ft.Worth Metroplex on a book tour promoting his new book about his experiences with Star Trek. A caller asked him about the future of Babylon 5 and his character Bester. Koenig said that a movie was a definite possibility and Warner Brothers was the involved production company. He then said that (at this time) the plot would be about an all out telepath war and his character Bester would be a major part. For my part, since this is the last season for B5 they can't get a movie out fast enough." [Sent in by 'bgriffit'.]

May 17, 1998... Very, very cool news for our B5 fans! Check it out:

"JMS gave a talk at MIT on Monday May 4th as part of a 'Media in Transition' lecture series where he talked about creating, producing and writing for Babylon 5. He showed us some of the pitch material he used for Crusade and made a couple of offhand comments about having recently pitched a Babylon feature film premise and that talks were progressing. After the talk he signed a bunch of autographs and the person ahead of me in line tried to pump him for some more information about the feature film. JMS declined to say anything more because it's at such an early stage of negotiations, but he seemed excited about what he could do with a feature film size budget."

[A great scoop sent in anonymous.]

July 26, 1998... We've got two scoops to show that cannot be confirmed at the present time. Since we don't have the luxury of using a P10 telepath to confirm every piece of email we receive you best take them with a grain of salt:

The first scooper reports that there's a speculative title for the feature film which can change at any time -- 'Babylon 5: Mind's Fire'. [Anonymous.]

The second scooper said that "someone very near to Straczynski" confirmed that the movie would focus heavily on how the Vorlon race influenced humanity. The scooper also said that there's talk of showing the Vorlon homeworld for the first time and from different aspects throughout time, beginning from sometime around 1,000,000 years in the past to the present year the show takes place (at present, 2262). ['The Inquisitor'.]

Again, bear in mind that we cannot confirm any of these reports about the B5 movie.

December 27, 1998... It could be true. Is jms and WB already working on early poster designs and sketching out the film's storyline?? According to this scooper's source, it's happening:

"I've heard from some reliable sources that the B5 movie is well underway. Meaning, a preliminary outline was submitted and approved, and JMS is writing the darn thing.

"WB is supposedly excited about it, most probably because it'll have some great special effects and explosions (movie viewers these days. yeesh). The plot is supposed to center around a group of teeps fighting the Psi Corps in a sort of 'War of the Minds' type thing.

"The big info here is the teaser posters which have been already been finished. There's either two or three.

"The first has a Psi Corps logo on it. here's where things get sketchy though. THere may be either one poster, with the logo and the mantra: 'The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father', or there may be two. Each has a Psi Corps logo (slightly different colors) and each has a part of the mantra. The first reads: 'The Corps is Mother' and the other reads 'The Corps is Father'.

"There is supposedly another one which may have Lyta with her black teep eyes. This last poster cannot be confirmed by a source. Just spec by my source at WB.

"This is some great information which really ups the ante concerning the B5 movie. Also, I'm hoping Bester will be in it." [Data crystal smuggled in by anonymous.]

December 29, 1998... Complete and utter baloney, that's what people are telling us our last scoop is. There are no conceptual posters for a Telepath War B5 movie, and we now know where the rumor originated from: a Usenet post.

Last week a fellow by the name of Scott Potter posted on the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated Usenet forum what his thoughts on what a cool Babylon 5 movie poster would look like to him:

[Thank you to these online members of the Rangers: John Hudgens, Eytan Zweig and Cronan.]

With the potential for unleashing a wave of incorrect speculation, we can only express our pleasure knowing that the B5 fan community is as connected and considerate a group as they are. Also, it helps when the creator of the property emails you...

J. Michael Straczynski emailed us today about the poster scoop rumor, and in the interest of setting the record straight on it (and the current state of a potential B5 feature), here are his exact words:

There you go. Direct from the station's docking port, so to speak. Straczynski has already commented on the visual impact The Phantom Menace and its brothers have made on plans for a B5 feature, but we've got confirmation that at least WB is interested in making a feature at some point down the road. While it may bring an end to these semi-regular updates on our B5 page for a few years, we know that it's looking better that we will return to the Babylon station again...but this time we'll be in a movie theater.

[Thanks to jms for letting us access a Babcom terminal.]



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