Warner Home Video officially announced the start of production on the new straight to DVD Babylon 5 movie. News of the project has been floating around the internet for some time, but now some of the details are becoming a little clearer. Originally it was reported to include three new stories written by B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. In this post at jmsnews he mentions three half hour stories plus bonus material for the new DVD.

Now that production has begun, it appears that one of the three stories will be cut. Cinema Blend has a rundown of Straczynski's latest postings on the subject. Apparently the Garibaldi story was the most complicated one to make, so it has been postponed for a possible later release. I assume that depends on how well Lost Tales sells. It's also worth noting that JMS mentions Battlestar Galactica when talking about how he wants to re-imagine the look of B5 using the latest technology.

I'll be interested to see how this all turns out. Not just for the new Babylon 5 stories, but also because the idea of a straight to DVD/download series is one that has been kicked around for some time now. A successful launch for Lost Tales could be another step in that direction.