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Remake of Babylon 5

Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 11 months ago to Culture
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I have several times mentioned that Jupiter Ascending (a good film in its own right) had the additional advantage of showing what a remake of B5 could be like. On other threads I am promoting the concept that Art Leads and that we need heroes to take us forward philosophically. In the meantime, Agialoro has stated that there are 'more movies' in the works.

Put these thoughts together. Use Straczynski's existing scripts (save a bundle on writing) with a few of the bad ones omitted and modern CGI to redo the effects. Hire a cast (that includes Patricia Tallman - Wyatt's secretary and secret telepath - and Kristoffer Polaha) to recreate the roles. Work in some of the elements that were left out due to studio writhings - such as the technowizards in the final battles and maybe the parasites in Exogenesis to remember the Shadows and their weaknesses.

The story is one of the need for freedom over every other aspect of life: attachment to Earth, conquest and enslavement, cosmic powers...nothing is more important than freedom and self-determination.

Like all remakes, it will have a ready following - and it knows where it is going. It can could be produced as a mini-series quite effectively.

Jan

All Comments

  • Posted by $ nickursis 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I wish the studios would wake up to that. Sci Fi is a relly good market, I think Guardians of the Galaxy proved that, when it is well done. Paramount/CBS has jerked around ST so much and allowed the brand to disintegrate. The only good thing is that they allow you to use it for not for profit shows, so there is a plethora of them on YT and the Axanar project will be theater quality for less than 1 million, they used Kickstarter for the funds and got close to 700K. All that offsets their ineptitude to keep people interested in it and not just shy away.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    One of the things that the superhero movies have done is establish that you can make a lot of money on SF (and heroic, optimistic SF at that).

    Perhaps we will circle back around to Heinlein someday.

    I am looking forward to seeing The Martian this November. The story was akin to the old SF by Clark and was totally engrossing.

    Jan
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yes, I noticed that. But the central story as far as _I_ am concerned are the 3 plot arcs of Freedom. I am not going to dispute that there could be a lot of spin-offs...including the adventures of an Explorer class ship...exploring strange new planets...

    Jan
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  • Posted by $ nickursis 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    There was a push to get TMIAHM made, it bubbled around and I think they sold the movie rights a couple times. The abortion they made out of Starship Troopers put a stake in the heart of Heinlein films, although Puppet Masters made a sort of credible attempt until the end.
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  • Posted by $ nickursis 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The reboot of Star Trek is a prime example of what happens when you take an established story filled univers and find it is too hard to work in the story. Go look at Axanar and you will see just how easy it can be done, you just have to know the whole outline of the canon and work within. They are taking a very small bit (Garth if Isnar from the episode with the loony bin) and making a whole story from it. And it will be awesome...
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  • Posted by $ nickursis 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I don't know, but Peter is still around I think, he was on a Con panel not too long ago, there is a few recordings on YouTube of them. Andre will be hard to replace because he was GKar, he made the character according to what I heard on the panels, and that becomes almost impossible to reproduce.
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  • Posted by $ nickursis 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    And you are quite correct that the Shadow War and Liberation of Earth could be the central story. Did you note that in the last episode Lando gave them the vase with the keeper in it for the child? That just went by and left you hanging when they ended.
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  • Posted by $ nickursis 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    OK, concur. I just found each episode added something. I do agree some were somewhat obscure and boring, but I felt I had to grind thru them. I do agree season 5 seemed like a "we have to make this last" type thing, I never felt that he dealt with the whole Telepath issue completely. I did like Walter Koenig as Bester, I thought he did a very credible job.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Wow. It does sound like an Avengers takeoff: Mrs Peel, "talented amateur" and quasi-widow. I will remember to take a peek at it.

    Jan
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    We will disagree on this then, nickursis. While I agree with you on much of what you say (groundbreaking; Lando; Lando and bugs) there are some episodes that I skip when re-watching the series. When Star Trek tried to be 'topical', it generally succeeded; when B5 tried to be 'topical'...well, those are the episodes I skip. The two that come to mind are the "AIDs" episode and the "Christian Science" episode. Mind you, I agree with JMS's message in those episodes, I just find them blatant and uninteresting. I have watched the 5th season once, and while there were some excellent scenes therein I found the plot arc so weak I did not want to watch it again. One of the things that I feel could be 'fixed' in a remake would be to give the Shadow War and the Liberation of Earth the amount of time and attention that JMS had intended (and make use of some of the plot threads he included and did not take up in the shortened time allotted).

    Jan
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  • Posted by $ blarman 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Lol. Scarecrow was his codename. I really liked the series (shows how dated I am) as it paired a CIA operative (Boxleitner) with a single housewife (Jackson) who stumbled into something and saved the day. She had the perfect background as a real person to provide cover so they team up. I don't remember how her husband died, but I think that had something to do with her ties. It was an 80's film - pretty popular along with MacGuyver during the Cold War times.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    They have several companion movies - especially focusing on Centauri Prime. The one I saw was of Londo explaining to his grandchildren (I think) about an illicit arms deal that nearly scuppered the Shadow War. I think there are several others as well (one about the Rangers), but it's been a LONG time since I've seen them.
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  • Posted by $ nickursis 9 years, 11 months ago
    Jan, if you like ST ships, check out Trekyards on Youtube, they do a differnet ship each week. I have donated them a new Intel Haswell chip and Motherboard to build a new PC that will signifigantly improve their rendering ability. They even go into a whole slew of the "offshoot ships".
    Also go check out "Prelude to Axanar" on YouTube, and look at what semi-pros can do with good actors, you will recognize the Klingon warlord by name (Richard Hatch from BattlestarGalactica (original)) but all the rest have done characters on ST in various flavors. The Starfleet admiral was the Klingon general with one eye on DS9.The full movie (currently in the works) is being done done in California, you may want to look into them, they accept help from any source and you could actually meet some of them.
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  • Posted by $ nickursis 9 years, 11 months ago
    B5 was groundbreaking in many respects, it actually established Lightwave as a major 3D tool and enabled a lot of advances that later movies built on. I absolutely agree that B5 was a great story, I tell people who have never seen it to watch it from begging to end in sequence, with a couple of the movies placed to give context, such as In the Beginning and The Gathering. Jan, I must respectfully disagree that there were any bad ones. I thought every one built something into the story. JMS built a 5 years story that others tried to follow (Such as Enterprise) with the "Arc" idea, but I think he was a master to bring it off. I still occasionally watch the episode that Lando goes after the bugs in his room with the sword, Peter was absolutely hilarious as Lando. I try to scour the "con" panels on Youtube, The Rangers movie also opened a lot of doors that could be followed, and I even thought Crusade could have gone on as well. But you are absolutely right about the story being of hope and freedom and that good would triumph over evil.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Moon is a Harsh Mistress could certainly be a fine movie...though one would have to wonder if publicizing the idea that if we settle the moon the settlers will revolt against Earth control would be a good idea at this time.

    Jan
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