So here’s my idea: when you have a passionate, built-in audience for a specialized show, like Firefly, or Babylon 5, (or some non-Sci-Fi show, even,) instead of trying to make a big and expensive theatrical feature that just won’t cross over into the mainstream audience, and give the studio an excuse to kill the entire show, why not take the money you’d spend on one big movie, and use it to produce a full season that would be released on first-run DVD, in stores or on the intertubes?
Via Whedonesque. In the comments at Wheaton’s blog, someone goes on to note that J. Michael Straczynski is already doing something like this, with Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, an anthology of short B5 episodes to be released on DVD. (This isn’t just a pipe dream; sets are apparently built and shooting starts soon.)
It’s a nice idea. As much as I liked Serenity — and have grown to like it more on subsequent viewings on DVD — I very much would have preferred for the series to continue. If it was a choice between Serenity and Firefly, then, for me, Firefly wins every time.
That said, I don’t think there’s any chance whatsoever of this idea ever working. Serenity was greenlit, at least in part, because Universal thought a movie could draw in a new audience. This audience might be convinced to go see the new science-fiction film playing at their local multiplex, but they probably wouldn’t seek out a direct-to-DVD release of a television show they’d never heard of. So, even if the thing got made, it’s unlikely that any studio would shell out much in the way of promotion. (And, as I think we unfortunately saw with Serenity, even promotion from the studio isn’t a guarantee of financial success.)
I doubt Straczynski’s new Babylon 5 movie is getting the same budget that a feature-film version would get — or even the same budget that a studio would give to a new television series — and I doubt it will find much audience beyond pre-existing B5 fans. (That’s none too shabby, in itself, as DVD sales have shown, but it’s still low enough to give a studio pause before they bankroll any more.) In most cases, I don’t think a pre-existing audience for a television is going to be enough for a studio to shell out much at all, and these DVD releases run the risk of being viewed as little more than shoddy, quick cash-ins, shadows of the original series they’re trying to continue or re-develop.
It’s a nice idea, but I just don’t think the money would be there for it. That might change some day — and efforts like the new B5 movie might help change it — but I don’t think we’re there just yet.