Boy, has this been a week....

As most folks know by now, the news about Marvel entrusting me with their
flagship title The Amazing Spiderman broke on the nets Monday/Tuesday. As a
longtime Spidey fan, this is something I'm looking forward to enormously. You
can expect to see the first jms-written issue of TMS probably around March or
April of next year.

On Wednesday Rising Stars 10 came out (and Midnight Nation 2 is due out in 2
weeks).

Also this week...after writing my first pass on the outline for the Rising
Stars feature film (tentatively entitled "Born in Fire"), MGM read the outline,
loved it, had a couple of very smart suggestions...and as of Wednesday, I've
been put to script.

On Thursday, some friendly folks at Warner Bros. asked if they could take up
the banner of my project The World On Fire (formally with Chris Carter) and
take it out in the Spring to sell it as a series.

I also turned in the outline for the pilot TV movie this week, and today,
Friday, was put to script on THAT project as well. With that hurdle passed, I
can now talk a little about it. The network is indeed Showtime, as some have
speculated, with Paramount Television the studio attached, and it's for an
hour-series (debuting with a two-hour pilot movie) slated for their Sci-Fi
Fridays slot. The project is based on an outside source, though I can't yet
comment on that. I'm on as executive producer/show runner. In addition,
feature film director Joe Dante is aboard also as executive producer, and he
will be invaluable in setting the visual and directorial tone of the series.
It's been an absolute pleasure working with Joe, and if we get past the next
few hurdles -- every series has to go through the stages of pilot outline,
pilot script, decision to produce the script and then the go-order on a series,
same as with B5 and every other program -- I'm *really* looking forward to
working with him on the series.

The Rising Stars movie screenplay will probably be turned in sometime middle or
late November; the Showtime TV movie screenplay will probably be turned in
around November 1 for production reasons.

It has been just an *astonishing* week....

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)

>You've mentioned a project with him before, but gave the indication that
>you'd passed on it... Something make you change your mind?

Yeah, three words: Total Creative Freedom.



jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)

>Do you know how this series will make it to Australian screens? Will it
>also be a Cable release? Or is that so far in the future that it's not even
>a dot yet?

Those decisions are all way down the road; first gotta get the pilot written.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)

>Another thing... No creative notes. No limits on what you're allowed to
>show. And (presumably) a lot more money to play around with than the
>last time.

Yeah, the projected per-episode budget is quite a bit higher than on Crusade or
B5, and the salary is just a bit over double. I'd been in syndie/basic cable
so long -- ever since Murder, She Wrote -- that I'd kinda forgotten what *real*
networks pay.

It's also going to be nice, in the pilot, to really take things to the wall in
terms of content, something I could never do in syndie or basic cable.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)

>This wouldn't be the series mentioned by SciFi Weekly site - Starship
>Regulars (that starts in June 2001) - would it? :)

No.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)