By MARX PYLE Dec-11-2007 J. Michael Straczynski is probably best known as the creator of "Babylon 5," but he has been busy over the years writing various TV shows, movies and comic books.
Currently the writer’s strike has caused chaos in the TV and film industry and during the last writer’s strike back in 1988, Straczynski dreamed up "Babylon 5." So, what is Straczynski dreaming up this time? Straczynski has been busy on an ultra-secret TV project he co-wrote and plans to produce with what he calls "two mega-filmmakers" who "have created some of the biggest SF movies in the last 20 years." After some ups and downs, things were looking good. That is until the writer’s strike. "The up-side of the project was that everyone agreed that they had never seen anything like it before. The down-side was that they had never seen anything like it before," Straczynski posted online. "This is a business where people are comfortable with what they've seen. Some found it too controversial/weird. Some wanted it and made offers, but only on the condition that we tone it down a bit and make it more conventional. At the 11th hour, one that had passed turned around to say yes ... but by then it was too late and everyone stopped buying things with the strike about to happen." Don’t worry, though, the project isn’t dead yet. Straczynski and his secretive partners are now planning to finance the project themselves, possibly as a 10-hour miniseries, then hopefully more episodes from there. Straczynski is confident that their plan will work. "There's no question, given the names involved, that we can turn around and get financing from a studio and/or DVD distributor and from worldwide television pre-sales," Straczynski said. "So when the strike is over, we'll pick up that thread again, write the next 7 episodes, shoot the thing, then sell it to whichever network wants it the most." Straczynski has a number of film projects in development. He turned in the "Silver Surfer" and "They Marched into Sunlight" scripts before the strike, so their production shouldn’t be slowed down (at least not by the strike). Straczynski’s adaptation of the novel "World War Z" is also a go as soon as a director is found. Since the writer’s strike doesn’t affect comic book writers, who have no such union, Straczynski will be working away on "Thor" and the upcoming miniseries "The Twelve." Despite the complications made by the writer’s strike, Straczynski fully supports the writer’s guild and really had little doubt that the strike would eventually happen. "I've known without question for over a year that we'd go on strike, and that the strike had the potential to last at least six months … this was inevitable," he said. Many B5 fans out there are probably wondering if there will be more "Babylon 5: The Lost Tales" DVDs. Straczynski gave an interesting story about the future of the DVDs and how the strike has affected it. "After the sales on B5: TLT came in, way exceeding [Warner Bros.'] projections, they initiated talks about what to do next, including commissioning more DVDs," he said. "Looking at the calendar, I suggested that they might want to hurry the bureaucratic process because we were going to be in a strike situation soon, so if they wanted to move, they'd better commission a script fast. "And they said in response, and I quote verbatim, 'We don't want to be pressured in the process because we know there's not going to be a strike this year, we can handle the Guild.'" http://www.syfyportal.com/news424530.html
