Over at Comic Book Resources, there’s a good summation of JMS’ appearance on the DC Comics Panel at Wondercon this past weekend. Thanks to Ian Smith for the heads-up link!

The highlights:
* More “Lost Tales” is on the way”
* Filming on “The Changeling” is complete, film due in November 2008
* “World War Z” adaptation still going
* “Silver Surfer” movie to include more Galactus
* “Rising Stars” and “Dream Police” under consideration for production
* No more “Jeremiah”, no more “Crusade”

So much for the in-joke opening for podcast Season 3!

This post from JMS just came up on the newsgroup (in response to a post about “The Changeling”, the film he wrote for Clint Eastwood.)

From a general article on Clint Eastwood came the following:

TOUR DE FORCE
Next month, Eastwood starts filming “The Changeling” starring Angelina Jolie, about a woman whose child is kidnapped. When the child is returned, she suspects a swap has taken place.

“It’s a great tour de force for a woman … with John Malkovich and a lot of very good actors,” Eastwood said.

Here’s the other part of it.

For the last year, very much under the radar, I’ve been working with two film makers who have created some of the biggest SF movies in the last twenty years on a television project. (I can’t reveal their identities, but pick any three of their movies and you have box office of over two billion dollars.) We’ve been quietly writing and creating the first three scripts for a new SF series that would pretty much revolutionize the form, and which have gone out to the networks for auction. Offers are coming in. Whether or not the offers are enough to make the project work — it’s huge — remains to be seen. Where this goes will be determined in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

jms

I know it’s not the Lost Tales news we’ve been waiting for, but pretty intriguing, none the less. Let the commenting and speculation begin!

JMS is asking for help from all fans in a (geographic) position to do so. Without further preamble, here’s JMS:

Though in this case the historical entity being reclaimed is…well, me, basically. I’ll explain in a moment.

First, an apology and explanation for being absent for so long. The last few months have been probably the most hectic in terms of deadlines and work in the history of my career. The work has been great, but there’s just been a bucket of it and it’s all been due at once. I’ve turned in the latest draft of World War Z and it’s now going out to directors, I’m now on the third draft of the Silver Surfer movie which is also being fast-tracked, Changeling starts shooting in almost exactly two months, I’m hip deep in comics work and finishing the final touches to a TV project that we will be taking out to sell early September, and I’ve started the screenplay for They Marched Into Sunlight for Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks company. All of this, in addition to a personal tragedy - the recent loss of my father in law - has put me way behind the eight ball of late. But I’m finally digging out from under…which brings me to this note.

(more…)

If you haven’t been visiting SFF Audio, then you’ve been missing all of the latest news and reviews in SF audio, be they audio books or podcasts. It’s definitely a must-see site for me.

Jesse Willis has informed us of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s choice to not air the radio drama “The Adventures of Apocalypse Al” on Radio One.

Why would this matter to Babylon 5 and Babylon Podcast fans? Because this audio drama written by JMS, and after all that work, the CBC has decided not to air the program at all.

So SFF Audio has started a campaign to Free the Adventures of Apocalypse Al, we we all need your help, your voices add to the call to have this story released.

If you have a blog or show of your own that ever talks about JMS and B5, or “Jeremiah”, or Midnght Nation or Rising Stars, or anything he’s done, send out a notice telling them to read the post at SFF Audio and help out any way they can.

Amazon has posted an interview with JMS on its THE LOST TALES page as part of their Amazon Wire podcast. The full interview is linked just above the podcast player. (Click on ‘listen to the full interview’.)

It’s 12 minutes of teasers for “Lost Tales”, how B5 changed TV, JMS’ favorite sci-fi shows, both US and British, and much more. So, go ahead and click through to Amazon, and if you haven’t done so, pre-order the DVD while you’re there. It’s currently at #8 on the Amazon Sales Rankings and sales will determine whether Warners orders more. (I heard it from JMS himself.)

While you’re there, don’t forget the Christopher Franke Original Score CD. It will be released this coming Tuesday, 7/24/07, a week before the DVD. So you can whet your appetite with the latest tasty segments from the Tangerine Dream maestro.

Today is the Great Maker’s birthday. Respect for my elders prevents me from revealing his age (if you just have to know, you can find out here.) Why not celebrate by watching some of his work? “A Day In The Strife” is next up for Deep Geeking. Perhaps “Objects At Rest”, or the Crusade episode “The Long Road”, to catch up with Lochley and Galen. A little background for THE LOST TALES, now just two weeks away!

However you celebrate this day, I’m sure we all wish JMS good cheer, good health, and continued success in the year to come. Especially if that success includes more LOST TALES!

Our good friends over at SFFAudio.com are reporting that J. Michael Straczynski has finally begun production on a radio drama for the Canadian airwaves, “The Adventures of Apocalypse Al”.

More details can be found here.