Being reported just about everywhere, and confirmed by JMS himself in the newsgroup: The Sci-Fi Channel is producing “Legend of the Rangers,” a 2-hour movie focusing on the Anla-Shok (Rangers to us humans), and it’s likely to be a series pilot as well. Woohoo!

The actual verbiage from JMS:

From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

Subject: from jms re: new series

Date: 20 Mar 2001 19:35:24 -0700

Well, that’s at least ONE weight off my chest….
To those who’ve heard the news already, and those just now finding out…the

SciFi Channel today announced that we have a new Babylon 5 TV movie going into

production that will also serve as a pilot for a likely new series.
The movie (and the series) is under the heading of BABYLON 5: THE LEGEND OF THE

RANGERS. The specific title for the 2-hour movie’s story is “To Live and Die

in Starlight.”
There isn’t much I can tell you about the story because we’re kinda keeping the

details under wraps as much as possible for the time being. What little I can

say….
It’s set in the B5 universe just under 3 years after the events of “Objects at

Rest.” At this point there’s one major character from the B5 universe in the

script (a fan favorite). Where B5 was a heavy drama with some adventure/action

elements, this one is a little more skewed toward adventure with underlying

drama (which is about what you’d expect from the Anla-Shok).
We’ve been sitting on this information for a while now…such that we’re

already well into pre-production. We’ll be shooting this movie around mid-May,

well in advance of any potential actor’s strike (the script is done and so far

everybody likes it a LOT).
We’ve already got designs coming in on a new ship, and a new *kind* of

ship…and we’re going to be getting more into Minbari aesthetics, technologies

and philosophy.
It’s got some great characters, and it’s a lot of fun.
I have other news to announce on other fronts…have since the end of the year,

in fact…but I’m still sitting on the details awaiting another press release

from another studio. What I *can* say is that I have a firm GO order to

executive produce a new series (nominally SF) that will go into production

after the potential SAG strike. When that’s finally over, if the strike indeed

happens, we pull the trigger and go into principal photography and it’s an

order for a full season’s worth of episodes.
I can’t give you any details right now on the subject, title, studio or

network. That will have to await the studio’s release…so don’t even ask.
As far as doing both projects at the same time is concerned…it’s actually

quite common, as testified to by folks like John Wells and Aaron Sorkin and

David Kelly and others. So there won’t be any conflict.
More later.
 jms
([email protected])

(all message content (c) 2001 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,

permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine

and don’t send me story ideas)