Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
MSJ. Mark Steven Johnson.
JMS. J. Michael Straczynski.
Could these nearly-palindromic writers be gearing up to collaborate on a big-screen adaptation of JMS’s limited run comic series MIDNIGHT NATION? Here’s what I found in the mailbox earlier tonight:
Hi, here's a possible scoop on Mark Steven Johnson's next project.
While checking out a Babylon 5 newsgroup, J. Michael Straczynski posted this in a message about his upcoming projects: The director of Daredevil has said he wants to make Midnight Nation his next film, so we're taking meetings over the next few weeks to see if we can make that happen.
If you're unaware of what Midnight Nation is, it's a 12 issue comic series that J. Michael Straczynski wrote. Here's a description of the series I took from a website: The main character, Police Detective David Grey, finds himself in a world of people who have slipped between the cracks. These are the ignored, forgotten, and dispossessed people that society neglects. They eventually realize that nobody can see them anymore. These forgotten people share the same world with us, but they can only interact with things that have been discarded or forgotten. David Grey's reason for being in this world is far more sinister, and a mysterious woman named Laurel guides him on a quest to reclaim his stolen soul.
Being a big fan of Straczynski's prior work, especially Babylon 5, I decided to check out Midnight Nation when it came out. The first few issues were ok, but I really enjoyed his other comic Rising Stars a lot more. However, the further I got into Midnight Nation the more interesting it got and I have to say that by the end of the series I think it's probably one of my favorite comics of all time. Though the series does have elements that are fantastic in nature, Midnight Nation is really grounded in the characters. The characters are flawed, but at the same time you really come to care for them.
I really hope this deal gets done as it would be a dream project for me.
If you need a name to use for me, you can just call me Thrawn.
Consider me late to the JMS party, but firmly onboard now. Warner Bros. sent me the first season of BABYLON 5 to review, and I was delighted by the series. In my opinion, it’s better than any modern STAR TREK series, and I’m eagerly awaiting the Season Two box set. Watching B5 led me to go pick up the trade paperback collections of RISING STARS and MIDNIGHT NATION, and I just got around to MIDNIGHT NATION when I was in Cancun last week. I was just going to read a little at night to go to sleep, but the series was so engrossing that I read it all in one three hour clip. It’s impressive, and there’s certainly a film in there. I plan to follow up with MSJ to see if this is an April Fool’s Day joke, or if there’s anything of substance here. In the meantime... if you haven’t read MIDNIGHT NATION, pick it up. It’s well worth the time and energy.
"Moriarty" out.
