[karajorma]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/babylon-5-reboot-cw-1235021237/
https://gizmodo.com/babylon-5-is-getting-rebooted-with-j-michael-straczyn-1847752907

And from JMS himself - https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1442621159221043202


As I said elsewhere.

Here's the big question no one seems to be asking.

"Does he already know how it will end?"

What I'm hoping for is a completely different story as different as Battlestar Galactica was from the original but with the whole series known from beginning to end so that "The Plan" doesn't feel tacked on at the end like it did in BSG, Lost, DS9 or any of the other shows that followed B5 but didn't think ahead the way B5 did.

If the ending has already been planned, and given that this is JMS, he probably has as it was the greatest strength of B5, I'm 100% onboard.


EDIT: My only other wish - Use new character names! It gets tedious having to write "Sheridan in the Original B5" all the time!

[Colonol Dekker]

NuSher

[wesp5]

I can imagine that JMS will try to rewrite everything as if the actor and studio changes did not happen, but I still don't like it, because he has shown with Crusade, that he didn't understand that the success of B5 was not only due to his writing, but also due to the fantastic CGI ships and music. I hope he understands now otherwise the reboot will be screwed!

[Trivial Psychic]

That description sounds a bit like a cross between the "In the Beginning" crossed with the original B5 Pilot movie.

[starbug]

Whats also good, is that he has been saying on Twitter that the studio has given him the budget to do it properly as CW are B5 fanboys. I am on board with this. I just hope that they don't radically change the ship designs. The Sharlin, Omega and the G'Quan are all iconic ship designs.

[Skullar]

If this boosts B5 interest again, do we make a VR version of the game ?

[starbug]

I would say yes! Not going to say no to flying a starfury in VR

I do wonder what he would of done if he got the show runner position of Doctor who, as he really wanted that.

Would the B5 reboot still gone ahead?

[wesp5]

I do wonder what he would of done if he got the show runner position of Doctor who, as he really wanted that.

I can't imagine JMS doing Doctor Who as the latter basically has no storyline and just improvises whatever is happening...

[starbug]

New who does have series storyline arc's, biggest of them was series 5 to 7 had a overall arc through out the 3 series. Also the whole Time War story arc which ran from 2005 to 2015.  JMS posted several times on Twitter and in several interviews he really really wanted to do it and is a fan of the show. He was in talks with the BBC, If Russell declined to return JMS was in the top list.

It will be interesting to see what way this reboot will take. Will it be a re-imagining of it, or will be entirely new.  Either way i cannot wait to see the High Def ships and spacebattles. Oooh Hi def Omega, warlock and Shadows!

[EatThePath]

Personally, I am pretty neutral on the prospects, and think it'll be interesting to see what comes of it for good or ill. If it's a true reboot it can't really confusem betray or undermine the original, it simply is. But..

Whats also good, is that he has been saying on Twitter that the studio has given him the budget to do it properly as CW are B5 fanboys.

You hear that kind of thing from practically every project like this. Everyone's big fans, all the original creators are very excited, everything's great. It's high on the list of words that mean nothing even if they're meant entirely earnestly, up there with companies getting bought out and saying nothing will change.

And really, how many big fans of something have you met who would make a total mess of it if given control?

[Colonol Dekker]

I like who in a casual way.   

[wesp5]

Whats also good, is that he has been saying on Twitter that the studio has given him the budget to do it properly as CW are B5 fanboys.

You hear that kind of thing from practically every project like this. Everyone's big fans, all the original creators are very excited, everything's great.

Indeed, if Warner was such a big fan of B5, why hasn't there been a proper DVD remaster yet?

[starbug]

Whats also good, is that he has been saying on Twitter that the studio has given him the budget to do it properly as CW are B5 fanboys.

You hear that kind of thing from practically every project like this. Everyone's big fans, all the original creators are very excited, everything's great.

Indeed, if Warner was such a big fan of B5, why hasn't there been a proper DVD remaster yet?

The issue for remaster of babylon 5 is The series was shot on 35mm film in 16:9 widescreen, but was mastered on 4:3 video for home release. The plan was to create a widescreen version of the show to future-proof it for later generations, and a non-widescreen version for contemporary viewers. Unfortunately, a miscommunication and Warner Brothers' refusal to buy the effects team  $5,000 of equipment to allow for widescreen meant that the CGI and other vfx footage was only rendered and shot in 4:3 in the first place. When Warner Brothers wanted to create a widescreen version, they found that the live-action footage existed in widescreen but the CG and composites did not. Their only solution was to zoom into the effects images until it filled the widescreen image, at the expense of losing material from the top and bottom of the screen. This created various problems, most notably increased pixilation and "fuzziness" of the effects images and details being lost from the CG footage.

There were two solutions to this problem: either revert to the original 4:3 masters or re-render all of the CG and effects footage in native widescreen and HD. This latter approach would be mind-bogglingly expensive. A similar project in 2012-15 for Star Trek: The Next Generation cost well over $20 million and that was for a show where most of the effects were created in-camera, so were easier to recreate. The ST:TNG remaster project also bombed on home media release and never turned a profit. Babylon 5 had much, much more CGI and far more vfx shots than ST:TNG (even considering that TNG was 68 episodes longer than B5).

Simply the costs to do a proper remaster would be staggering, thats why there has been no remaster of Star Trek DS9, Voyager. It is actually cheaper to make a new show than to remaster the originals.

[wesp5]

It is actually cheaper to make a new show than to remaster the originals.

How should this be possible when the new show would probably have even more CGI?

[starbug]

Ok it may not be cheaper to make a new show i am just guessing that but doing a remaster of babylon 5 would be utterly, crazily expensive, the problem is you are having to recreate existing shots, matching them to the audio, as i doubt none of the audio files and scenes for the originals still exist other than in the final product.

So say recreating the space battles of Severed Dreams would take longer to make as you are trying to get the new shots to match the originals, your having to do it all from scratch, which takes longer to do and thus costs more money for the VFX team's time.

Now 20 million to do TNG, which had less CGI and VFX shots. To Redo the all the VFX and CGI, Interior CGI on greenscreen of babylon 5, bearing in mind that in TNG a lot of the space shots where model shots so on film and easier to make HD. Babylon your recreating everything for the models from scratch.  So i would expect the cost to be nearer the 30 million mark.

Would you fork out that money on a remaster project that realistically, based on star treks remasters you would not make that money back or come close. ST TNG is a very popular show and its remaster totally bombed in sales.

Also a new show may not have as much CGI, depends on the story JMS is wanting to tell.

[The E]

Also a new show may not have as much CGI, depends on the story JMS is wanting to tell.

Oh, it will have a LOT more CGI. That's basically a given these days.

[Trivial Psychic]

I hope they use that new surround screen set stuff that was used on Mandalorian for large-scale interiors like if the station has an open interior.

[Vidmaster]

Hyped.

[Trivial Psychic]

There's a bit of an update on the CW reboot... or, basically why there hasn't been any activity recently, but JMS also has announced a completely separate project, involving all of the surviving cast members.

Read here:

https://www.space.com/babylon-5-return-original-cast