ATTN JMS: About Jeremiah
Pål Are Nordal
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Of all things... An obscure French comic book. Why?
Did you have any knowledge of it before being approached about the project?
Have you had any contact with the creator?
Since the comic was written in the late 70s/ealy 80s, will you be
updating the setting with the current tech and trends? Having things
like the net and cell phones ready to be rediscovered makes for a bit of
a different "post-apocalyptic" society then one could have imagined 20
years ago.
--
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Pål Are Nordal
a_b...@bigfoot.com
Jms at B5
a lot of what was in the book was fresh at the time, but we've had any number
of other post-apocalyptic stories in TV and film (A Boy and his Dog, Damnation
Alley, Logan's Run, the various Mad Max movies) along the way, and there has to
be a totally fresh approach, something to bring the thing into the 21st
century. They gave me complete free rein in doing so...and that's the answer
to the "why" in your question.
jms
(jms...@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)
Patrick MARCEL
> Of all things... An obscure French comic book. Why?
Well, your mileage may vary but: it's a pretty famous series in France
and Belgium, and Herman is one of the great comics artists in Europe. I
understand he's practically unknown in the States (though some of the
early Jeremiah's were translated in the States IIRC), but that doesn't
make the series "obscure".
I'm not sure I see the need to make it into a series, though. As I
mentioned earlier, it was basically just a way for Herman to do a
reasonably original (at the time) take on the Western, but the fun of
the books was more in the *telling* of the stories than in the stories
themselves or the setting.
Patrick
--
"...and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are..."
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Steve Fenwick
lean the tone of the show--"Mad Max" or "On The Beach"? Or
will you find the sixth way out?
Steve
In article <20001004232011...@ng-bj1.aol.com>,
--
Steve Fenwick ab...@w0x0f.com
Pål Are Nordal
>
> Well, your mileage may vary but: it's a pretty famous series in France
> and Belgium, and Herman is one of the great comics artists in Europe. I
> understand he's practically unknown in the States (though some of the
> early Jeremiah's were translated in the States IIRC), but that doesn't
> make the series "obscure".
Well, I was thinking more from a Hollywood/american audience
perspective. There, it might just as well have been developed from scratch.
florinaldo
that your comment was another example of US insularity or at least US
culture having so colonized the global imagination that nothing that does
not come from it, obscure or well-known, can be deemed worthy material. A
writer of some talent can do wonderful things with any premise as rich as
the Jeremiah series, no matter what its country of origins: a world where a
plague has decimated the population across every age group (there are adult
characters, often very old, contrary to what another poster believed) and
where the protagonists meet pockets of survival which have often developed
quite peculiar subcultures, is quite JMS-worthy.
I said "reader ro a long time" because after about 15 episodes, I found the
stories becoming formulaic and repetitive, more western than SF also,
although Hermann's storytelling qualitites were still quite in evidence, if
being treated in a growingly laid-back fashion.
--
Florinaldo
> De : Pål Are Nordal <a_b...@bigfoot.com>
> Société : Evil Socialists Inc.
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> Groupes : rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
> Date : 5 Oct 2000 10:00:51 -0700
> Objet : Re: ATTN JMS: About Jeremiah
Pål Are Nordal
>
> Can you give any more hints as to which way you're likely to
> lean the tone of the show--"Mad Max" or "On The Beach"? Or
> will you find the sixth way out?
It will obviously feature a society unlike anything we've seen before,
based on the one thing the current young 'uns value that will still
function without maintenance from the grown-ups.
Pokemon.
Pål Are Nordal
>
> The book has been in print about 20 years and is in desperate need of updating;
Since, as I understand it, only the first few of the 21 issue run has
been translated to English, how much material do you have to work from?
> They gave me complete free rein in doing so...and that's the answer
> to the "why" in your question.
I was thinking more of how the whole thing got started at all... Pet
project of Dante's?
And how did you become involved? Did someone request you specifically,
or did your name just float to the top of the available showrunners?
--
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Pål Are Nordal
a_b...@bigfoot.com
(Who just might be in possession of over half the issues within a few days...)
PPascal
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Pål Are Nordal wrote:
>
> Well, I was thinking more from a Hollywood/american audience
> perspective. There, it might just as well have been developed from scratch.
Well: 3 words: Men in Black > how an "obscure" comic from Malibu Ent. became
a totally lucrative franchise for the Hollywood World...
Or how Hollywood has so well lost any imagination that they have to borrow all
their concepts from other mediums!
There is no day I see a contemporary Hollywood film without thinking about Bob
Altman's "The Player" ;-)
This said, I agree with Patrick: they could as well have imaginated a new
concept. Moreover, as far as I can recall, Jeremiah was not so politically
correct as a TV series should be, so...
Pierre
PPascal
Pål Are Nordal wrote:
concept. Moreover, as far as I can recall, Jeremiah was not as politically
Pål Are Nordal
>
> My first reaction, as a reader for a long time of the Jeremiah series, was
> that your comment was another example of US insularity or at least US
> culture having so colonized the global imagination that nothing that does
> not come from it, obscure or well-known, can be deemed worthy material.
It has nothing to do with the material being be worthy... I was just
considering the way Hollywood works. There ain't no suit that would
suddenly wake up one day and decide it would be a good idea to make a
series based on a 20 year old European comic book.
When they commission a project based on an outside property, it's
because they see it as having some extra value over a project that's
been developed from scratch - a significant guaranteed audience or
something that will attract attention from the media.
"Jeremiah" itself has neither, though I would think Joe Dante scores
enough on the latter for them to consider the project.
Robert Spelman
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I don't believe that his comment was saying the material was not worthy.
Perhaps something was lost in the translation on your end? He was simply
pointing out the fact that the vast majority of people in the US would
not have heard of the comic, and might assume it was created from
scratch by JMS.
Realistically, can you accuse Americans of being insular because we
don't keep abreast of 20-year-old French comic books? Here's a test -
name ANY modern Russian-language novel without cheating. Can you do it?
M.O.
florinaldo wrote:
>
> My first reaction, as a reader for a long time of the Jeremiah series, was
> that your comment was another example of US insularity or at least US
> culture having so colonized the global imagination that nothing that does
> > Well, I was thinking more from a Hollywood/american audience
> > perspective. There, it might just as well have been developed from scratch.
> >
Reid Morris
"Grey 17 Is Missing"
Reidm
Pål Are Nordal <a_b...@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:39DB5F80...@bigfoot.com...
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> sssnip...
Pål Are Nordal
>
> This said, I agree with Patrick: they could as well have imaginated a new
> correct as a TV series should be, so...
BWAHAHAHHAHAHA... You are aware that jms doesn't _do_ political
correctness? And chances are that he'll be bringing in Larry DiTillio,
who's... well... even worse...
florinaldo
rather in lacking open-mindedness to anything that is not already part of
the US culture and/or is not already known by the audience; it seems that a
pre-existing familiarity with the material is a prerequisite for receptivity
in the US, and which explains why so much of TV, books, music and movies we
get seem so much cast from the same mold .
Ignorance is not necessarily a sin. I am sure for example that there are
hundreds of obscure stories by little-known (for us Westerners) authors from
Egypt or Syria that could be adapted to film or TV, by JMS or others. But
even though I would not be familiiar with those works, I would not (I hope)
react with the equivalent of "Of all things... An obscure French comic book.
Why?" which was the original comment from the first poster. In my
interpretation, not translation, this can be linked to a lack of openness to
things not-American that can be detected in most of American mass culture.
As for your test, I suppose you got me there since outside of novels by
Solzhenitsyn, Bulghakov (don't miss the delicious "Heart of a Dog"),
Pasternak, Valentin Rasputin, Brodsky, Gorki and a few others, I haven't
extensively explored that section of modern literature.
--
Florinaldo
> De : Robert Spelman <mad...@my-deja.com>
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> Date : 8 Oct 2000 09:54:28 -0700
> Objet : Re: ATTN JMS: About Jeremiah
>
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Pål Are Nordal
>
> But
> even though I would not be familiiar with those works, I would not (I hope)
> react with the equivalent of "Of all things... An obscure French comic book.
> Why?" which was the original comment from the first poster.
But you misunderstood my reaction.
> In my
> interpretation, not translation, this can be linked to a lack of openness to
> things not-American that can be detected in most of American mass culture.
Exactly. Which is why I was so surprised that project of that kind has
gotten so far. Also, if you'd been paying attention to the other
threads, you'd have noted that I'm not American.
florinaldo
misunderstood each other.
Let us not forget however that with the omnipresence of US culture in many
parts of the world, the insularity we find characteristic of the US can
contaminate other nations. To paraphrase (and poorly translate) an old
saying from the times of French monarchy, many people in Europe and
elsewhere might adopt as an unofficial motto"Out of the US culture, you'll
find no salvation".
--
Florinaldo
> De : Pål Are Nordal <a_b...@bigfoot.com>
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> Date : 10 Oct 2000 09:04:17 -0700
> Objet : Re: ATTN JMS: About Jeremiah
>
J. Potts
> In my
> interpretation, not translation, this can be linked to a lack of openness to
> things not-American that can be detected in most of American mass culture.
In article <39E31F44...@bigfoot.com>,
=?iso-8859-1?Q?P=E5l?= Are Nordal <a_b...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>Exactly. Which is why I was so surprised that project of that kind has
>gotten so far. Also, if you'd been paying attention to the other
>threads, you'd have noted that I'm not American.
However, it's amazing how many of our popular movies/TV shows are remakes
of foreign works. Many things that Americans think of as original (and
good) were done in the UK, France, etc. Perhaps it's a case of ignorance
is bliss. As long as Americans don't *know* the concept originated in
another country they're perfectly willing to give it a try.
--
JRP
"How many slime-trailing, sleepless, slimy, slobbering things do you know
that will *run and hide* from your Eveready?"
--Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson
Michael Atreides
> > interpretation, not translation, this can be linked to a lack of
openness to
> > things not-American that can be detected in most of American mass
culture.
It's interesting, I think, that if an American espouses this kind of
ignorance and dislike of, say, French film, he's considered by many
Europeans to be a provincial twit. And yet, I've met many Europeans who
proudly proclaim their dislike of all American TV and Movies. Aren't both
wrong?