J. Michael Straczynski

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
J. Michael Straczynski, 2008

Joseph Michael Straczynski (born July 17, 1954 ; in the media, especially on Usenet , often just called JMS after his initials ) is an American author and producer of television series , best known as the inventor, executive producer and chief author for Science -Fiction TV series Babylon 5 and Crusade , as well as screenwriting the Netflix series Sense8 .

Straczynski was married to Kathryn M. Drennan , who also works as a writer. He lives near Los Angeles .

The early years

Straczynski is from Paterson , New Jersey . He is a graduate of San Diego State University with degrees in psychology and sociology . During his time at university, he wrote numerous articles for the student newspaper, which was therefore sometimes jokingly called "Daily Joe" ("Daily Joe"). According to the blurb of the first edition of his book on screenwriting, Straczynski produced a play at 17, a sitcom at 21, and sold his first screenplay when he was 24.

By the age of 29 he wrote film and television scripts, radio scripts for Alien Worlds and the Mutual Broadcasting System , a dozen plays and more than 150 newspaper and magazine articles . He has also taught his craft for several years at various lectures and seminars in California and elsewhere.

movie theater

Straczynski wrote the screenplay for The Stranger Son (2008) with Angelina Jolie in the lead role. Directed by Clint Eastwood and produced by Ron Howard . In 2009 he was involved in the script for the martial arts film Ninja Assassin .

He was involved in the story development of the 2011 comic book adaptation Thor . In 2011 he was involved in the script for Underworld: Awakening , followed by World War Z in 2013 .

watch TV

Straczynski's television work began in 1983. He was involved in various cartoon series and quickly worked his way up from employed screenwriter to executive producer . The peak of his television career was the science fiction television series Babylon 5 , for which he received the Hugo Award in 1996 and 1997 and the SFWA Award in 1999. He wrote 92 of the series' 110 episodes (an exceptionally high proportion), as well as the pilot and five television films. The series, which focused on the characters, attracted attention in particular with its five-year story arc, and it was the first series in which CGI was used on a large scale for special effects . Straczynski was also the inventor, executive producer and writer (10 episodes) of Crusade , the follow-up to Babylon 5 , which was canceled after only 13 episodes .

Straczynski also created Jeremiah , a series loosely based on a French post apocalyptic comic, and wrote 19 of the 39 episodes. In August 2015, the first season of the Netflix series Sense8 , which he developed together with the Wachowski siblings, premiered.

An incomplete list of other television works by Straczynski:

In addition to the five Babylon 5 films, he wrote, among other things, an award-winning adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and murder is their hobby - a story to die for , a film on the series Murder is their hobby , which he also produced.

comics

In addition to the Midnight Nation mentioned below , J. Michael Straczynski is responsible for the comic series Rising Stars . He also wrote the series Amazing Spider-Man for Marvel Comics from 2001 to 2007 , whose fans received his stories in a highly differentiated manner, among other things because he caused some major upheavals in the life of the main character. Incidentally, after his departure, these were reversed almost without exception. In Supreme Power , which was released under Marvel's MAX label, which includes adult comics, and its follow-up series Squadron Supreme , Straczynski described a more realistic human reaction to the emergence of superheroes and heavily involved American politics. Other highlights from his time at Marvel were the series Thor , Die Fantastischen Vier and Dr. Strange . He now works for DC Comics , where he writes the adventures of Superman and Wonder Woman .

Novels

Straczynski is the author of three horror novels - Othersyde , Night of the Demons, and Tribulations - and nearly 20 short stories, many of which are in the anthologies Tales from the New Twilight Zone and Straczynski Unplugged . He wrote the rough plot for nine of the Babylon 5 canon books and four Babylon 5 short stories that were published in magazines and not reprinted (until 2005). Straczynski also wrote the plot for the hardboiled comic series Midnight Nation , the graphic implementation of which was carried out by a smaller team and which - like the television series Jeremiah - contains strong science-fiction elements.

He was friends with science fiction writer Harlan Ellison and has worked with him in particular on the television series Babylon 5 . He is also a student and friend of Norman Corwin and an avowed admirer of Rod Serling's work .

Cameos

Straczynski has a short guest appearance in the last episode of the TV series Babylon 5 , "The Path into Light". He plays the technician who turns off the lights on the station before it is blown up.

He made another cameo in the movie Thor as the pickup driver who finds the crater that Thor's hammer Mjolnir fell into and tries unsuccessfully to lift it.

Appreciation

An asteroid discovered in 1992 at the Kitt Peak National Observatory was named (8379) Straczynski .

Web links

Commons : J. Michael Straczynski  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 8379 Straczynski (1992 SW10). In: JPL Small-Body Database Browser. Archived from the original on September 28, 2014 ; accessed on July 17, 2019 .

This text is based on a partial translation of the article J. Michael Straczynski from the English Wikipedia , version dated May 16, 2005.

personal data
SURNAME Straczynski, J. Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Straczynski, Joseph Michael (full name); JMS
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH 17th July 1954