Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, starring original cast members Bruce Boxleitner, Tracy Scoggins and Peter Woodward will be released on July 31, and will sell for $24.98 (approx 75 mins). The movie will be in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1), with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. It looks like just a single bonus item for the set, "Straczynski Diaries" - A first person, inside look at the creative process involved in making the Babylon 5 film.

[digriz666]

WOW!

[Battle]

Think ill wait for a box set of all the new "movies" to come out.

[Starburst]

What no HD release!



Well this is a must buy and for the idea of direct to DVD I hope it's a huge seller.

Originally Posted by Battle

Think ill wait for a box set of all the new "movies" to come out.

don't wait , with enough DVD sales we'll see more Lost Tales!

[Steve_P]

Excellent! Looking forward to adding this to my B5 collection. Any idea as to a loose plot line without dropping too many spoilers?

Thanks for the heads up!

S.

http://www.amazon.com/Babylon-5-The-...7105926&sr=1-1

$16.99


UK release date 3rd September

http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page...019&P36=5C22AN

Available for £9.99

Originally Posted by Steve_P

Excellent! Looking forward to adding this to my B5 collection. Any idea as to a loose plot line without dropping too many spoilers?

Thanks for the heads up!

S.

hope this helps

This first DVD, entitled "Voices in the Dark," covers the same 72 hour period of time as Sheridan travels on board a Presidential Cruiser en route to Babylon 5 from Minbar for a celebration marking the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Interstellar Alliance. One part of the story follows Sheridan as he picks up an unexpected visitor on the edge of Centauri space, Prince Regent Dius Vintari, and a warning about what will come afterward delivered by the techno-mage, Galen. The other part of the story is set aboard Babylon 5, as Colonel Lochley summons a priest from Earth space to deal with a problem that may have dark supernatural overtones. The two parts of the greater story intersect at certain key plot and thematic points, so that they overlap and complement each other while telling separate, but simultaneous, stories.

The first DVD is going to require nearly 200 EFX shots, taking us all over Alliance space, and Babylon 5, which is being redesigned using the latest CGI technology. The same CGI is being used to create virtual sets a la Sin City, but on an even more detailed basis, in many cases integrating them with practical sets based on the original blueprint designs for Babylon 5.

A number of behind-the-scenes pieces were shot for inclusion on the DVD, as well as a number of original short pieces that will be filmed in February which feature glimpses into the future of Babylon 5 and her characters.

We have set-up a temporary webpage of photos from the shoot from my personal collection. These images mark the very first photos to emerge from production. [http://babylon5scripts.com/TLT-JMS-photos.html]

For more information, keep an eye on www.babylon5.com as well as Babylon5scripts.com. WB will be integrating the internet as a key component for promoting B5:TLT and we are pleased to be a part of that effort.

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/118.html

new update...


http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=7217

[Steve_P]

Thanks West!

S.

[Caveman643]

I can't wait until September to get the UK version so have had to pre-order from Amazom.com.

No problem Steve.

Babylon 5 Lost Tales DVD is already No 6 in the Amazon sales charts

http://www.amazon.com/Babylon-5-The-...7105926&sr=1-1


Play.com have the UK region 2 listed for £9.99 available from 3rd September.

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by Steve_P

Excellent! Looking forward to adding this to my B5 collection. Any idea as to a loose plot line without dropping too many spoilers?

Thanks for the heads up!

S.

Without giving too much away.
I wonder as there was a biggy event to happen at the end of B5 with a container and that had somthing in it. Its been bugging me since the series ended that nothing came of it in Crusade. I hope this DVD sorts it out.

Originally Posted by Garrett

Without giving too much away.
I wonder as there was a biggy event to happen at the end of B5 with a container and that had somthing in it. Its been bugging me since the series ended that nothing came of it in Crusade. I hope this DVD sorts it out.

I thought that was supposed to be a coming-of-age present (18 or 21)? So we wouldn't see what happens there until not long before (or some time after depending on when David is born ) the events of "sleeping in light". This release "voices in the dark" is supposed to be set around the 10th anniversary of the interstellar alliance, ie 10 years before "sleeping in light".

Lost Tales Article

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_...id=3971&page=1

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by west

I thought that was supposed to be a coming-of-age present (18 or 21)? So we wouldn't see what happens there until not long before (or some time after depending on when David is born ) the events of "sleeping in light". This release "voices in the dark" is supposed to be set around the 10th anniversary of the interstellar alliance, ie 10 years before "sleeping in light".

It gauls me that the series ran for 5 years and still ended with an unresoved plot line, or should I say added one at the last moment.

Originally Posted by Garrett

It gauls me that the series ran for 5 years and still ended with an unresoved plot line, or should I say added one at the last moment.

To be fair Babylon 5 tied up just about every story thread it had running through it and you would be hard pressed to find a show, a sci-fi show that ties up as many loose ends as B5. I wouldn't be surprised if JMS resolves that plot line in a future movie or series. I doubt he would introduce it without a plan to use it down line.

What future stories does everyone hope to see in future Lost Tales episodes?

As well as character stories for Delenn, Londo, Garibaldi (which should be in the next DVD if sales of the first one are high enough), Vir , Lennier and Susan Ivanova...

I'm also hoping for continuation of Crusade, a mini-series of Sinclair/Valen helping defeat the shadows a 1000 years ago, the Telepath war and the Drakh war.

I just found this article and thought I would post it.

‘Babylon’ is back

The latest Babylon 5 adventure, Babylon 5: The Lost Tales — Voices in the Dark, won’t air on TV — at least not right away — but will instead by released as a direct-to-DVD movie in late July, timed to coincide, promotionally, with the annual Comic-Con in San Diego.

Bruce Boxleitner returns as Interstellar Alliance President John Sheridan, who returns to Babylon 5 for the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Alliance. The only other returning series regulars in this first of the proposed series of Lost Tales DVD movies are Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins), now a Colonel and still commanding Babylon 5, and Galen (Peter Woodward). A third story featuring Michael Garibaldi (Mike Doyle) was dropped due to time constraints on the production but may be used in a future installment. J. Michael Straczynski, the series creator, returned to write and direct this production, which was filmed on virtual sets in Vancouver.

“We had two old pieces,” Boxleitner said after a panel for an upcoming Hallmark Channel film he stars in. “Two Star Furies they found somewhere on a back lot and dusted them off.

“In one way it was a great reunion, and in one way, it felt like we had never shut down production. It’s a great script. Joe is one of the finest television writers I’ve ever worked with and he gave me material I haven’t seen the likes of since the show, really juicy stuff to delve into — aspects of Sheridan we had not played before.”

Sheridan will be more of an elder statesmen, Boxleitner said. “He’s a man who’s more likely to weigh things instead of being so action-oriented. We used to joke he was John ‘Nuke Em’ Sheridan. He’s much wiser now and more seasoned.”

Some things stayed the same, much to Boxleitner’s delight: “They found the original wardrobe and I proudly say I still fit.”

Boxleitner said the company that produces visual effects for Sci Fi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica will do the FX for this new Babylon 5 production.

“The ships, the station, they’ll all be recognizable but new. There are some additions and some of the original ships will have things added to them just like we do nowadays, new weaponry, things like that,” Boxleitner said.

The film will also include mentions of the whereabouts of characters that will never be seen again because the actors who played them have died: Richard Biggs (he played Dr. Franklin) and Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar).

“The way Joe handled the loss of those [actors] who are no longer with us, how he did it, I thank him so much,” Boxleitner said. “Their characters’ futures are revealed and I get to do it in a very loving way. They’re still around. It’s a way to give a nod to Andreas and Richard, an homage to them.”

An old but interesting update

Update from JMS:

Date: 10/26/2006 1:01:01 AM

Well, tomorrow I head back to LA for meetings on other projects for two days, then it's back to Vancouver again on Sunday to continue prep. So far everything's laying out very cleanly. We have an EFX house on board now, which was the last big step to be undertaken. It wasn't until the last day or so that we could really get into the CGI issues, which are huge on these stories.

And in regard to that...the initial goal was to try and do three big stories in one DVD. So I wrote three scripts, featuring Sheridan, Lochley, Galen and Garibaldi. (I wanted to focus on the human characters initially so we'd have more time for prosthetics R&D for the next one.) The stories, as noted previously, were huge...all over the map, from Minbar, to Earth, Mars, the future, the distant past, as well as B5 itself obviously. We're also going to be trying some new production technologies, again trying to stay ahead of the tech curve, the way B5 has always stayed ahead on these things.

And over the last few days, as we began to bring on crew and lay out the production, looking at just how complicated these mini-movies were going to be, the idea of making three of these monsters began to become a bit much for us to pull off on out first time out the gate, especially since I'm still kind of new as a director. So we decided to postpone one of the three to the next DVD, and lengthen the other two to make up the difference. GIven that the Garibaldi story was the most complicated visually and technically, also the most difficult from a CGi perspective, that's the one that got pushed until, potentially, next time.

And if the sales are anywhere near what WB expects, and I think they will be, there's no question that there will be more of these down the road. So we're gong to focus in on those two stories and knock them out of the park. Same length, same running time, and now even bigger than at first anticipated since the budget on number three will now be applied to the other two.

Part of what we're doing is to re-think the look of B5 to some degree. The show was created using 1993 technology, video toasters and amigas, and was to some extent limited by the paradigms and production methods we used in that. But it's now 13 years later, and while I will keep the feel of the show the same, and the silhouettes and designs, there's no reason to limit the look of the feel to what we could do six years ago (from when we stopped). So we're going to invest a lot of time, effort and money into really re-imagining some of the visuals at the present level -- looking at shows like Battlestar and the like -- and bringing those tools into B5 while still maintaining the feel of the show.

I also managed to work in a nice nod to Andreas and Richard in the two mini-movies.

So with that...the team is now in place, the last personnel have been hired, and as soon as I get back to Vancouver, I get to take off the producer's hat and put on the director's hat.

Originally Posted by Garrett

It gauls me that the series ran for 5 years and still ended with an unresoved plot line, or should I say added one at the last moment.

I found this post on the internet that I thought you might be interested in. Also to correct my previous post David will be 16 when he it is supposed to open it.

You may not know, but in 2000 a novel, part 3 in a trilogy series called
Legions of fire was published written by Peter David, based on a outline by JMS, the book entitled Out of the Darkness centred on the conclusion of many plot points began in B5 the TV series but never completed. These include, What happens to Londo Vir and G'Kar on Centauri Prime, The entire Drakh war and what happened on Centauri prime from the time the drakh went there after the shadow war up to the dream sequence in war without end when londo dies being choked by G'kar but most importantly it reveals a lot about David Sheridan and what happens when he gets taken over by the keeper and this is the revealation referred to in the Deconstruction of falling stars and confirmed by Jms in the commentary on the dvd. a lot is dramatiesd about this event and is worth a read if your intrigued by this plor development.

JMS said he hoped to include this story in a future series on one the S5 commentaries, he also said it had something to do with Sheridan oweing Londo a favour for saving Delenn.

Garrett I just found this at Wikipedia...

Straczynski has stated that predicated on the success of Voices in the Dark a second installment could be released as soon as early 2008. Peter Jurasik has stated that he was contacted by Straczynski to reprise his role as Londo Mollari for a set of alien centric stories after the initial batch centered around humans. He has stated that he said yes to him, "if you [Straczynski] wrote it, I'd do it". The second installment is also set to include a story centered around the character Michael Garibaldi, initially planned for the first installment.

In response to a question about Harlan Ellison writing for the Lost Tales, who acted as conceptual consultant and writer for the original series, Straczynski has stated that he is "sure that down the road I can get Harlan to do something for us". However, for now the studio is pushing for just himself to work on the Lost Tales according to Straczynski, stating they "want this to be you [Straczynski]" because the studio already knows him and likes him.

One of the big events in the Babylon 5 universe that the Lost Tales is set to explore eventually is the Telepath War. Straczynski reportedly stated at the New York Comic-Con in February 2007 that he already has a concept for a possible direct-to-dvd Telepath War story in mind.

Straczynski has stated that David Sheridan (John Sheridan and Delenn's son) will both be mentioned in Voices in the Dark, and that he will be seen somewhere else, "in the next DVD".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APTPy3MLmNI

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...22babylon+5%22

http://www.vmix.com/view.php?id=2422707&type=video

another production diary....

Bruce boxleitner

http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol...eitner_300.asx

Joes 1st day

http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol...st_day_300.asx

Here are a few more Lost Tales production diaries for those really eager for more Babylon 5!


Small brown cat

http://www.vmix.com/view.php?id=2445542&type=video

writer/director JMS on his role in Babylon 5

http://www.vmix.com/view.php?id=2445528&type=video

set construction

http://www.vmix.com/view.php?id=2445541&type=video

[Timh]

Wow! Looks great.

Is there a release date yet?

Sorry.. ignore, just seen the date on first post.

Lost Tales CGI article part 2 (Part 1 on the first page of this thread)

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_...?story_id=4102

More production diaries

Minbari Coffee Break:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHLGQ7F2Ki0

Video Village:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...74920837&hl=en

Another production diary

Studio "J"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4pvCUJSR1UI

check this teaser out...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-kWFY0DPcE&

[janmars]

Originally Posted by west

check this teaser out...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-kWFY0DPcE&

Any ideas how many of these movies there is likely to be?