Interviews: Ask J. Michael Straczynski What You Will 215
He has written for many different comic book titles including Superman and The Amazing Spider-Man, and wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award-nominated movie Changeling, but J. Michael Straczynski (jms) is probably best known as being the creator, writer, and producer of Babylon 5. Recently, jms has teamed up with the Wachowskis and Netflix to create a new original sci-fi series, Sense8, coming out in late 2014. Straczynski has agreed to take a few minutes from writing sci-fi epics in order to answer any questions you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.
Reading/Writing Regimen? (Score:4, Interesting)
Academic Chops? (Score:5, Interesting)
Time Travel in Sci-Fi? (Score:5, Interesting)
Getting more sci-fi on TV (Score:5, Interesting)
In your opinion is there anything we as viewers can do to get more quality sci-fi on TV and keep it there without being cancelled? It's always too expensive, takes a long time to gain a strong following and syndication, and then gets pushed out in favour of wrestling or some paranormal nonsense. We don't even have a proper sci-fi channel any more, despite there being literally hundreds of channels available.
I'd love to contribute to the funding of, say, more episodes of Stargate Universe, but at $2m/episode I just can't see how crowd funding would work.
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.
What's It Like Being Funded By Netflix? (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Online presence: positive or negative? (Score:5, Interesting)
You were one of the first Hollywood writers with an online presence, hanging out in newsgroups during production of Babylon 5. My memories of that were tidbits and insights from you, along with frequent "no story submissions" reminders and threats of your departure if the story ideas didn't stop. How do you remember that experience? Was it worth the hassle? And do you view the seeming explosion of writers, directors, producers and actors on social media as a positive or negative for the industry overall?
Changes in SciFi since the 90s (Score:5, Interesting)
I may have one that nobody thought to ask. (Score:2, Interesting)
When you visited Andreas Katsulas before he went beyond the veil; you mentioned in an interview that you told him stories of B5 that never got to be told.
Would you consider telling us here, in a post somewhere, or even a compendium; those stories? I'd love to enrich the B5 Universe.
B5 learning experience? (Score:4, Interesting)
What would you say are the most valuable things you took away from your experience as creator/head writer of "Babylon 5"? In particular, the effort to create a single, long-running storyline over five seasons? Do you think you could have done things differently to avoid the issues with actors leaving mid-show and the network threatening to cancel the final season?
tell us about the new netflix series (Score:4, Interesting)
Is it going to have a long story ark over several seasons with a definite beginning, middle and end like B5 did?
Nerd Stunt Casting (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:BBT (Score:5, Interesting)
If asked, would you guest star on Big Bang Theory?
So what happened with World War Z? (Score:5, Interesting)
Honestly, I think Sheldon (Score:4, Interesting)
I think Sheldon's hate of Babylon 5 is a way for the writer's to pimp a show that wasn't as mainstream recongized. And give it some recognition.
Adaptations of science fiction stories (Score:4, Interesting)
And related to that: Assuming no constraints regarding rights, what classic (or not so classic) science fiction stories would you like to adapt as movies or TV series?
Re:Time Travel in Sci-Fi? (Score:4, Interesting)
And also Zathras: [imdb.com]
Babylon 5: "War Without End: Part One"
"Babylon 5: "Babylon Squared"
Babylon 5: "Conflicts of Interest"
I have come to the conclusion that Zathras clearly works in frontline IT support. I can recognize a kindred soul when I see one.