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Post by Sara on Jun 30, 2005 20:31:28 GMT -5
From themagazine.millarworld.tv:
JOSS WHEDON Posted in Interviews by Mark Peyton on the July 1st, 2005
Joss Whedon should need little introduction. Oscar winning writer (for Toy Story), creator of the fantastically successful Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spin off Angel, and now movie director with the forthcoming Serenity and then Wonder Woman. Oh and as a sideline he’s been writing Astonishing X Men for Marvel Comics with John Cassaday on art. On with the questions as Joss talks about men, women and his deep dark secret that only this interview could pull from his tortured soul.
Mark Peyton: What characters/runs shaped your perception as a comic reader?
Joss Whedon: Howard the Duck was my first grown-up. He taught me absurdism, satire and bestiality. And what other comic had ever opened with the lead character attempting suicide?
Kitty Pryde was every girl I went to school with, if they were slightly more awesome. She was one of us — a Peter Parker for my generation (hey! I’m actually younger than someone!)
Cody Starbuck taught me much of what you’re not supposed to teach kids, that they desperately need to know. Actually, this applies to much of Chaykin’s work.
M.P.: Are there any rules you won’t break in approaching characters you didn’t create?
J.W.: Every character, yours or not, new or very old, has a list of rules. You always know which ones not to break. For example, Gwen Stacy would never have sex with Norman Osborn and give birth to super-powered twins (Obviously). But the fun is always examining the rules and seeing which ones will bend, because that’s where the character’s true dimensions lie.
M.P.: What prompted you to take on writing the X Men? What did you/do you aim to achieve?
J.W.: Morrison and Quitely got me loving it, Cassaday got me wanting it, and Kitty Pryde sealed the deal. My aims are modest: to tell good X-Yarns, that are compelling and moving. Not to radically alter the X-Verse, just to poke at it for a spell. And make Kitty have sex with Norman Osborn and give birth to super-powered twins.
M.P.: As a writer how do you approach working with an artist?
J.W.: Did you just call Cassaday an artist? That’s so cute.
All being a prick aside, I just write exactly enough to make sure the effect I’m looking for will be achieved. In Johnny’s case I write less than I ever have and never see roughs, because Johnny has a wire stuck into my brain that’s attached to his pen. In 11 issues, I think I’ve asked him to change an eyebrow. Usually I’m somewhat more controlling, since I think visually when I write.
M.P.: What are your plans in terms of comic writing?
J.W.: To finish the next issue. This is actually a grander and more unrealistic plan than you think.
M.P.: Where do you see the comic industry going?
J.W.: I’m not a businessman. Everyone says the monthly comic is doomed, but they’re still here, so I write ‘em.
M.P.: When a new superhero film is announced your name is the one that the online comic community seems to regard as the right pair of hands to take on virtually any property. How does that make you feel and how does it effect choices and approaches to work you might do?
J.W.: I definitely have a ‘comic book’ sensibility. And I love superheroes. I’ll always be a fantasist. But I have yet to make a superhero film, so Wonder Woman is gonna be a mitzvah for me.
M.P.: What’s the planned approach for the Wonder Woman movie?
J.W.: Just be myself. Take equal parts James Cameron and Vincente Minelli, add 1/2 cup Miyazaki, a dash of Spielberg, two teaspoons of Frank Borzage, and stir.
M.P.: Where do you see comic book films going? Will we ever break free of the Biff Kapow of the Batman TV show?
J.W.: I think we have. Comic book films are always necessary, whatever the trend. Sometimes they’re in disguise (see my Wizard piece on Batman movies) and sometimes they’re in your face. They’re certainly better than they used to be. Even Daredevil (At last! Something controversial!). I thought a lot of Daredevil was nicely told. And David Letterman was a really good Oscar host. Seriously.
M.P.: With reaction to the test screenings so positive for Serenity what does the future hold for the series/characters?
J.W.: Serenity is a film, and I’d like to continue in that medium (God and the Box Office willing), but I like every idea that has those actors in my life.
M.P.: Any dark secrets you feel the need to tell the world about?
J.W.: I’m pregnant.
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Post by Sara on Sept 25, 2005 18:11:55 GMT -5
The King of Geek T.V. Gets a Big-Screen Comeback
By KATE AURTHUR Published: September 25, 2005
WHEN Fox canceled "Firefly" after 11 episodes in 2002, the show's creator, Joss Whedon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel"), vowed he would not rest until he continued the story. On Friday, Universal Pictures will release "Serenity," the movie version of this science fiction/western hybrid, in which a group of space smugglers stumble upon a galaxy-wide coverup. The regular cast of the television series revive their roles, led by Nathan Fillion as Capt. Mal Reynolds. Mr. Whedon spoke with Kate Aurthur about sequels, about going from television to movies, and about finding closure. Skip to next paragraph Multimedia Trailer for 'Serenity' Readers Forum: Television
Enlarge This Image George Loucas
Joss Whedon created the sci-fi world of "Firefly" first on television and now on film.
KATE AURTHUR Why didn't "Firefly" work on Fox?
JOSS WHEDON I think it was a bad match. They were twitchy about the concept. They really accepted it because they desperately wanted something. This is what I passionately wanted to do, and I had a deal with them. They definitely never wanted it. And they wouldn't show it very often, or advertise it very much.
Q. How did the "Firefly" DVD's success help this movie get made?
A. Universal was interested the moment they saw the shows themselves. And we were in predeveloping stages, didn't have a green light yet, when the DVD sales happened. Whether or not that light would ever have gone green without them is impossible to say. Certainly it gave Universal a higher measure of confidence. And it didn't hurt my feelings, either.
Q. The budget has been reported to be around $45 million, which is pretty low for a big science fiction movie.
A. Universal was interested in taking what is obviously a risk on a movie that doesn't have a simple premise or a single giant movie star. And there's a line, a ceiling to that. They're not going to spend $100 million on a movie that you really have to get people to come to.
Q. Did anyone at Universal say, "Hey, how about Harrison Ford?"
A. They understood that the package was this world, these characters, these actors and me. They absolutely knew that saying that would be saying, "That's great, but we want it to be a comedy about a guy who comes back as a dog."
Q. This sounds very collaborative.
A. I've got to tell you, I've never had an experience like this, nor did I ever expect to. Not only were they unswerving and loyal and unmeddlesome, but they taught me things about movie making that I didn't know. I learned at the feet of these people - and these are executives I'm talking about!
Q. There've been tons of advance screenings for fans who knew where to look. But isn't the challenge for "Serenity" finding people who don't know where to look?
A. The idea was always that if the fans got excited enough, made enough noise, somebody fan-adjacent would go, "What's that noise?" And somebody near him would go, "What's that noise?" It was about those people, the people who don't know where to look, but then they start to see it or hear about it.
Q. How do you make a movie for people who have never heard of "Firefly" while still appeasing the rabid fans?
A. The challenge is structural: keeping your eye on - without repeating or contradicting - what you've done, creating something that seems not only coherent, but inevitable. Not only just a way to tell the story, but the way to tell the story. That's a hard thing to do. Apart from that, it's really the same as any movie. Do we understand what's going on? That's a good one. Do we care? Do we like these people and do we get excited when they're on an adventure?
SPOILER HIDDEN Q. You kill off a few main characters in the movie. What's the thinking there?
A. It wasn't my first instinct. And then I realized, again, I'm making this movie as a singular event for people who've never seen the show, with an understanding there will never be another. Now, that doesn't mean there will never be another - that means you have to make your movie that way. Taking out some beloved characters means that everybody's life is on the table. Without that, the last half-hour is a bunch of noise to me.
Q. You're now moving on to the very high-profile "Wonder Woman" movie. Is that more pressure?
A. It's a little less frightening, because I think I know what the sales pitch is - it's Wonder Woman!
Q. You wrote - with Brett Matthews - comic books bridging the gap between the end of "Firefly" and the beginning of the movie. Is that something you do for your own pleasure, to keep the fans interested, or to clarify the story in your mind?
A. The first two you said, stoke the fans and keep myself happy, are kind of indistinguishable. Because I am - and always will be - the biggest fanboy. I write from a fanboy place: what would it be great to see this character do? So the idea of a comic book that bridges the TV show and the movie was so exciting to me. I just felt like, "Ooh, more."
Q. You announced last year that you were quitting TV. Do you still mean it?
A. I love TV. I still have tons of things I'd love to do on TV. But I've also always wanted to make movies, and they were saying, "Come on in." The intention is to go back when I feel there's a place for me.
Q. With all these sci-fi and horror shows starting this season, do you feel like you missed that boom?
A. I feel like it's a boom that I helped start, but oddly enough, not a boom I was that interested in starting. The only time I've ever heard somebody say, "This is the result of 'Buffy' " and felt actually that it was true, and was really proud of, was "Veronica Mars." Because that's what I was really interested in: the humor and the pathos and the pain, and the heightened reality of high school. And a girl who is just awesome.
Q. You were, obviously, devastated at how things with "Firefly" went down. Did making this movie help?
A. Something was created out of this, but something died, too - "Firefly" and "Serenity" are different. The cancellation of "Firefly" is not something I feel myself ever getting over, because I still have those hundred stories in my head. But I'll settle for three or four really big ones. And if I have to, I'll settle for one.
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Post by Karen on Oct 5, 2005 12:16:48 GMT -5
www.co-edmagazine.com/article.cfm?articleid=559Excerpt from the article: Even if Serenity fails to meet its modest expectations, Whedon has a full plate on his hands. Besides his ongoing work on the X-Men comic, he’s also been announced as the writer and director for Wonder Woman, opening in 2006, as well as … well, it’s a secret. And it’s about his most creative project. “Let’s just say I am working on having something to tell everyone about Buffy and those characters,” he says.And the geeks rejoiced.
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Post by Karen on Oct 12, 2005 15:47:01 GMT -5
Joss on the Browncoats Website.
Joss_Whedon Serenity Cast/Crew
Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 18
Posted: 01 Oct 2005 1:15 pm Post subject: 3.9 Reply with quote
So, it starts. We've all heard the good and bad about the B.O., but what does it all mean? 3.9, not huge on the richter scale, but it's the aftershocks that count.
I talked to the Uni execs and they were very cool. This is less than projected, but they understand (as I've been saying since before I made the thing) that this is about slow growth. Word of mouth. We got some crazy sweet reviews, but more importantly, people are having fun.
I saw it with some family last night: the crowd was not big at all, but they really enjoyed themselves and that's what matters. Remember what I said about holding? That's how it's done.
(Oh, and people like you all, dragging your friends and seeing it multiple times -- don't think I've forgotten your crazy love.)
Normal drop-off for a film is 40% in the second weekend. I really think we can beat that. There's nothing normal about this one, guys, which is why Uni gets such props for taking it on and hanging with it. Remember, "Rome" wasn't filmed in a day. (I'm not sure if that means anything, but it giggles me.) We'll see if we can push Saturday a little harder, maybe even muster up a little Sunday brawn. Then let people get to school, the office, let them talk about it.
We've got a long way to go, and it would have been very relaxing to have smashed through to destined success on opening night. But we're not a bunch known for relaxing. You guys have been in the fight for so long, I expect you know that resting everything on opening night is exactly the paradigm this movie is trying to unravel.
Remember, we're still too pretty to die, although I am jowly enough to be mortally wounded. Thanks, my peeps, for always remembering the first rule of flying. I'll check in soon. -j.
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Post by Karen on Oct 14, 2005 14:57:44 GMT -5
Joss_Whedon Serenity Cast/Crew
Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 19
Posted: 14 Oct 2005 10:18 am Post subject: Joss made a post from typings! Reply with quote Hello, young lovers, wherever you are. This is Joss, coming to you live via technology. I thought it would be fair to give you all my little State of the Onion before I descend into the depths of the Warren to pound away at my keyboard, munch lettuce and ignore that annoying nerd Fiver who keeps saying something bad is coming, like he can tell or whatever. I'm excited to beat this Wonder Woman script into shape (and munch lettuce). Mostly, to be honest, I'm excited to (deliberately split infinitive) not be a Professional Serenity Barker. I love you guys, I loves me some Serenity cast, but I am yammered out. By Spain it just got surreal (I think Nathan and Summer will back me on that one). Selling is not my strong suit. Actually, my strong suit is Kevlar, but it bunches in all the wrong places.
So I have read much over the past weeks: we have Won! Lost! Triumphed! Failed! and have, of course, agreed with every single thing I read (one of the exhausting things about having no personality). But in the dark blue of early morning I do have some perspective, and it runs thus:
I'm very content. I think the movie is really good. That was hard to a)do and b) realize. The response has been terrific, the majority of the reviews extremely positive: people GOT IT. What's more, an impressive number of people saw this movie who never would have, and even more still will. This is not spin: I know we didn't do the expected numbers our first weekend, we didn't have an unprecedentedly small drop-off the second (which was my personal fantasy.) I've been to some dark places, just like you guys. But the movie has legs, and people who loved it LOVED it crazy, the way love is supposed to be. Europe has been a nice boost (and a lung-splitting shout out to my UK and Aussie UIPeeps -- they're dears, and efficient as hell). We'll keep soldiering on, until we can't crawl and we find DVD to carry us. I see us kind of like the Shawshank Redemption without all the Oscar nominations (unless Best Feet becomes a catagory). People who were befuddled by the title or lack of premise hook will finally pick it up, and keep picking it up... They may miss out on the big-screen exitement, but they'll see our little tale and take it to their hearts. Takes a while. Just like the show.
I've seen a couple of posts with Browncoats beating themselves up about not having done enough. I never want to hear that again. You guys have gone above and beyond above and beyond. The people who are above and beyond are looking at you guys and going "Man, don't they ever quit?" Your efforts, and your investment (emotional as well as tickety) have done an enormous amount for this film and my battered heart. No more self-flagellation, unless it's the healthy, what-every-young-person-needs-to-learn-about-their-body kind.
And what about Da Fyoocha? (And why did I need Arnold to say that?) I have no idea. It could be that this tale is told. Or it could be that down the line, dollars accumulate and some exec says, "let's spin that wheel again." Or who knows. I'm not resting my hopes on it, but it's not a concept I'll ever close the book on. In case the 30,000 reporters I told didn't get this message out, I love this crew like Nick loves Nora, like Hellboy loves Pancakes, like Bridgitte loves Bernie (and if you're old enough to get that reference, my condolences.)
Thank you all. I'll be in touch again, but I have an Amazon to rassle. Remember that this is not over; every dollar (or Euro) counts, every new convert is a friend for life. But don't fret too much on what's to come. Enjoy the remarkable things we've accomplished. You're Big Damn Fans. Have some lettuce.
All love, Joss.
Last edited by Joss_Whedon on 14 Oct 2005 9:54 am, edited 3 times in total
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Post by Haidi on Nov 4, 2005 13:50:03 GMT -5
;D
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Post by Queen E on Nov 4, 2005 16:41:55 GMT -5
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Post by Wendy on Nov 4, 2005 22:53:09 GMT -5
Joss Whedon's letter to Angel fans
Dear Angel Fan...
"..and she'll have a love interest, a mysterious stranger named Angel who turns out to be a vampire! But a vampire with a soul, cursed to walk the night in eternal remorse for his evil deeds.."
No wait. That's way too cheesy. Nobody will ever buy that.
Such were my thoughts as I developed the TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I knew Angel wouldn't (forgive the pun) fly. I was frantic. And then something wonderful happened.
I totally didn't come up with anything better.
So this guy was born, and not only did people buy him, they loved him. I loved him, at least 76% platonically. I loved him enough to create, with my partner in crime David Greenwalt, his own show. "Angel". And then it got weird. Well, weirder.
The thing is, "Buffy" was a simple premise that developed into a complex show. "Angel" was not a simple premise, not for guys like Dave and me. We couldn't just have noble, handsome, dark hero rush in and save various days. We tried. That ain't life. We found that "Angel" needed to be a show about our darkest journeys, not unlike Buffy except that Buffy had a grounding; she had a destiny, an arc, a posse. We knew where she had to go. We had NO IDEA where Angel had to go. And so he went everywhere: up down, good, bad, left, farther left... off the edge of the world and home for supper and the thing is, it ended up being as much or more about our lives than Buffy was. We weren't 'chosen' (not for sports, anyway). We had no destiny. We lived on the edge of chaos, personally, narratively... even as Angel surrounded himself with more and more of a family (and we found more and more wonderful actors for David Boreanaz to play against), that central core of warmth and safety that Buffy enjoyed was missing. The result is before you in toto: The long, strange trip that is five years in the life a vampire. Not long enough, I would argue, but plenty with the strange. For your listy goodness, a few of the moments herein that made my life worth living:
* --Angel locking a roomful of lawyers in with two peckish vampire gals. * --Buffy swearing never to forget her time with Angel, right before she does. * --Faith in the rain, begging Angel to kill her. * --Princess Cordelia. * --Darla's horrified accusation, "While Spike - SPIKE - was out killing a Slayer, you were busy saving Missonaries!... From me." (True emotional Vampire logic, courtesy of Tim Minear.) * --Lilah dressing up Fred to seduce Wesley. (Gentlemen, start you therapists!) * --Any and all karaoke. * --Fred and Wesley, deeply drunk. * --Gunn in the White Room, meeting his match. * --The biggest, bloodiest and most personal Spike/Angel fight we've ever shot. * --The silliest, most pointless Spike/Angel argument we've ever shot. * --Dude, puppets!
With no star to guide us, we sailed into waters filled with dragons and mermaids and a few really impressive icebergs. We made some of our most compelling television, reinventing season by season, show by show, moment to moment. This is our odd little odyssey, and no, we never did reach the shores of safety, but that's sort of the point. We don't go through the Hell of existence - the pain, the drama, the meaninglessness and confusion because it's safe, or simple, or will end happily now or ever after. We do it because nobody ever come up with anything better.
So enjoy it. I did.
*Signed* Joss Whedon
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Post by Karen on Dec 21, 2005 1:01:42 GMT -5
Moviefone: Serenity Movie Q&A with Joss"Serenity - Wow!" by Tom DiChiara In 2002 a critically praised but sorely underwatched sci-fi TV series called 'Firefly,' about a rabble crew of one-liner spewing space rogues, met an early demise. Only 11 of the show's 14 produced season-one episodes ever made it to the air, breaking writer and creator Joss Whedon's heart. Then a funny thing happened: In a coup that would have made Napoleon Bonaparte proud, Whedon (who is also the creator of the wildly successful 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' series) convinced Universal to bring back the entire original 'Firefly' cast and finance a feature-length film. The result is 'Serenity,' a cross between a futuristic morality tale and a Western set in outer space. Chock-full of humor, originality and action, the movie opened at No. 2 at the box office and won raves from critics and audiences alike. On the eve of the DVD's release, we talked with writer-director Whedon about the agony and the ecstasy of getting the film made, why the future won't be so different from the past, and whether Wonder Woman could kick River Tam and Buffy's ass in a fight. Moviefone: How would you describe this movie to someone who hasn't seen the 'Firefly' TV series and is coming to these characters for the first time in 'Serenity'?Joss Whedon: The deal with Universal was: Make a science-fiction action film that has some humor and has some heart, some meaning, and will deliver some action for a price. The trade-off is you don't have to use anybody but the actors you want to use, so it won't be a big star vehicle. There won't be all the money in the world; there won't be all the pressure in the world. Just go make a good movie. And I basically made the thing for people who haven't seen the show. That was my number one priority. If you only make the movie for people who have seen the show, first of all that's not very good business. And second of all that's not very good art. If the thing can't stand on its own, it shouldn't be given legs at all. MF: You kind of made history by getting 'Serenity' greenlit. I mean, it's not too often -- or ever-- that a series that doesn't make it a full season gets the big-screen treatment. Why were you so passionate about making this film?
JW: I really believed in this world and these characters and the actors. The ensemble were as talented and as full of life and great to work with as anybody I've ever worked with, and I just could not accept that we all had come together and had gotten so close to telling this story and then been denied. I couldn't take that. I felt like I not only desperately wanted to work with these people again and continue telling the story. I also felt an obligation because I had promised them that we would do this. When we were canceled, I felt that I had broken that promise. That just didn't sit well with me. Joss Whedon MF: Do you feel like this movie was the last chapter for the crew of Serenity, or do you envision a sequel or something else to continue their story?JW: Well, I can envision anything I want, but somebody has to pay for it. The movie was designed to do what I always try to do: to give everybody closure, so should it be the last chapter everyone will have a sense of the story having been told. But then, there's always an opening. It's not like I've never thought about what could happen in further incarnations. I'll wait to see if that's possible. I'm not going to fight to make a sequel the way I fought to make 'Serenity.' I don't have that kind of fight in me again right now. That was incredibly grueling. It took a lot out of me. When I say "a lot out of me," I mean like organs. MF: You came up with the idea for the 'Firefly' TV series after reading the Civil War novel 'The Killer Angels.' What was it about the book that inspired you?JW: It was the minutiae. It was the idea of the way these people lived -- how different it is than the way we're living now AND how similar. Ultimately, the idea was about that very tough kind of very immediate, very physical life that America is losing as our lives become interjected on the internet, on TV, and everything can be delivered to your door, from a pizza to a bride. That tough immediacy of life is something that I miss. I really just wanted to see the frontier again, but I wanted to see it as it could be. I wanted to see it as science fiction because that's where I like to live. And just the idea that in the future we may know more, we won't have more, we'll just have the same problems in different guise. That's what got me. MF: At the heart of the movie is the moral, ideological and physical conflict between Mal (Nathan Fillion) and the Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) that transcends both of them. What do these two guys represent?JW: To me Mal represents the human factor. The Operative represents the concept of ideals that forget the human factor, that leaves out the idea of people being flawed and that may be the greatest thing about them. Our flaws are what make us ourselves, what make us fascinating. The ways we don't live up to the ideals we might have are really our defining characteristics. Any dogma or even law that doesn't take into account the human factor to some extent is going to become basically troublesome and possibly annihilating. It's a humanist statement. Mal represents the right to be wrong, the right to dissent. He's not necessarily somebody that I like, and that's I figured the most powerful way I could make that statement. It's not that he's AWESOME and the Operative is a complete dick. The Operative is much smarter and politer, and you'd probably have a much better time with the Operative if he wasn't busy killing you. But that's kind of the point. The Operative represents the best of intentions with the worst of results. And Mal represents a schmuck. He's every schmuck. Summer Glau MF: There were some pretty ass-kicking fight scenes in the film, especially the ones with Summer Glau. How much of the fighting did she actually do?JW: She did about 95 percent of it. There were maybe two or three wire gags that she didn't do, but all of the hand-to-hand stuff is her. She got this because she's a dancer. The first time I ever hired her was as a dancer, so I knew she had the stamina and the flexibility to do some sweet fighting. MF: If River Tam, Buffy and Wonder Woman were in a fight, which would be the last one standing?JW: Wonder Woman. She's practically as strong as the Hulk. Plus, she's got a few years on the girls. River's got the psychic thing, but she doesn't have superpowers. Buffy does. But Wonder Woman is stronger than Buffy -- and she's got props. She's got a lasso. So believe me, it would be an awesome fight, but ultimately Wonder Gal would triumph. MF: What kind of story are you looking to tell with the new 'Wonder Woman' flick?JW: She's a fascinating creature because she's the opposite of Mal. She's all ideal -- and very confused about why the rest of us aren't the same way. She's incredibly strong, but she's completely at the mercy of the world. She so doesn't understand it. Right now, that's a feeling I think a lot of people can share. MF: Any actresses you've got your eye on to play Wonder Woman?JW: I do not. She exists only on the page and -- let's face it -- not even enough on that. Yes, I'm behind. MF: What's your favorite movie of all time?JW: Despite subsequent events, probably 'The Matrix.' 'Bad and the Beautiful' and 'Once Upon a Time in the West' were duking it out for a while and there's a lot of close c ontenders, but ultimately 'The Matrix' is the one.
MF: And how do you feel about the sequels?JW: Those were the subsequent events to which I referred.
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Post by Karen on Dec 30, 2005 20:38:02 GMT -5
homepage.mac.com/merussell/iblog/B835531044/C1592678312/E20050916182427/ The CulturePulp Q&A: Joss Whedon As promised to readers of the Sunday, Sept. 25 Oregonian: Here's the nearly complete, 9,500-word transcript of my 67-minute interview with "Buffy," "Angel," "Firefly" and "Serenity" creator Joss Whedon. WARNING: If you want to go into "Serenity" totally spoiler-free, you may want to hold off on reading this until after you've seen the film. We refer (directly and indirectly) to specific scenes and events in the movie -- though nothing major is spoiled outright. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon always wanted to write and direct feature films -- but even he admits that "Serenity" was a strange choice for his big-screen debut. "A lot of people told me that -- repeatedly," he says, "because ['Serenity''s] a story and not a premise movie -- like 'Oh! He sees dead people!' or 'He's old and he looks like Tom Hanks now!'" It's true: "Serenity," which opens Friday, Sept. 30, is hard to sum up in pithy sentences. But let's give it a shot: In broad strokes, the film tells the story of space pirate Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) -- a cynical, Han Solo-style mercenary whose thieving days are interrupted when the government sends an assassin (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to kill the psychic on his crew (Summer Glau) after she mentally eavesdrops on some alarming state secrets. There are chases. There is banter. Things explode. But try to describe "Serenity" in greater detail, and things get complicated in a hurry. For starters, the movie's actually a sequel to a cancelled TV show called "Firefly" -- which Fox unceremoniously dumped in 2002, after airing 11 of 14 produced episodes out of order. Whedon -- in a move that hasn't been seen since the Zuckers turned TV's "Police Squad!" into the "Naked Gun" franchise -- refused to take that cancellation lying down. "I loved the characters," he says. "I loved the people who played them. And I just thought, 'Their story's not told yet.'" So he convinced Universal to take a risk on a relatively low-budget ($40 million) film after a small but rabid group of fans calling themselves "Browncoats" snapped up somewhere north of 200,000 copies of a DVD set collecting the series. It's easy to see why "Firefly" became a cult fixation: Its universe is richly textured in a way you don't see much in mainstream sci-fi. Set 500 years hence -- in a new solar system mankind is colonizing, frontier-style -- the film juggles a large, diverse crew that includes Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin and Ron Glass. And it mixes culture and language in some unexpected ways: Our heroes bicker in Old West cowboy-speak and curse in Chinese, and every set-piece and costume-scrap is a crazy mash-up of East/West motifs. Whedon helps sell all this by shooting "Serenity" in a naturalistic, handheld style, with the considerable help of Clint Eastwood cinematographer Jack Green. (In the book "Serenity: The Official Visual Companion," Whedon describes the look of one fight scene as "Robert Altman's 'The Matrix'"; this is, incredibly, a fairly accurate assessment.) We talked with Whedon for over an hour about "Serenity," "Firefly," rabid fans, the personal politics of his solar system, the "Serenity" mix tape, bizarro marketing strategies, the joys of studio non-interference and quality bootlegging, the dangers of becoming a cult icon, why touring a spaceship in a single take is a really good idea, and much, much, much more. A slightly edited transcript follows the jump. I. AN EXPLANATION FOR THE NEWBIES M.E. RUSSELL: So if you were going to pitch "Firefly"'s basic premise in terms that a novice would understand, how would you put it? The popular take seems to be that it's Han Solo's story -- if Greedo still shot first. JOSS WHEDON: Which I believe I, myself, said. Q. Well, there you go. A. Or if Han had come into the bar five minutes later and never met that old man. But you asked how I would pitch "Firefly," which is different from "Serenity." So which one am I pitching? Q. I'm sorry -- "Serenity" is the one we'd want to talk about. A. I mean, of course, some people are thinking of both…. But if I was going to pitch "Serenity," I'd say it's a space adventure that involves the lowliest of people in the most mundane of circumstances getting caught up in something giant and epic -- without lasers, aliens, or force-fields to protect them. Q. It strikes me that any one "Firefly" character, taken alone, would be a premise character. But you have nine of them interacting. A. Well, that's kind of the point. And that's part of what makes it difficult to sell and balance -- and what makes it worth doing. What I started out with was these characters, because I had done the show "Firefly," and I loved these guys -- I loved the characters, I loved the people who played them, I loved the way they played them. And I just thought, "These people, their story's not told yet. They're ready for it to be told on a much grander scale than perhaps anybody had anticipated." And that is a strange way to come at trying to build a film. It's not the way I usually do it. Usually it is about a premise, and I build a character from that. But I knew this universe was exciting and fresh and textured and very real to me, and I had these people -- and I knew that they were in a world of trouble, in terms of where I was going with the series. I did know that I had something that was worthy of a movie. An easily told movie? Not necessarily. But a movie that would have more than just a premise. It would really get into their lives and tell the big, epic story -- with the big chases and the big trouble and the fights and all the glory that we go to the movies for. But at the same time, it would be about the people in it -- as opposed to the things you can accomplish with CGI. Q. Speaking of which, I saw the film last night [Sept. 1] in a screening that wasn't an all-Browncoat screening. And it played very well. Which, as a big fan of the "Firefly" TV series, I was a bit concerned about. And I have to salute the climactic space battle in its final form: A lot of newbies -- people who'd never seen the show -- were saying that it was thrilling in a way that certain "Star Wars" dogfights haven't been in a long time. A. That's very impressive, considering how beautifully done those dogfights are. So much money! The money! All that money! I think our dogfight works because you get a sense of their situation, which is: They're really little and they have no guns! Q. Well the way it's storyboarded and assembled to have a documentary feel is also fascinating -- there's a "shaky-cam" look to the effects that "Firefly" sort of pioneered. A. Well, it looked like that for a reason. "Buffy" was made because there was a character I wanted to see that I wasn't seeing. And "Firefly" was made because I was missing something in televised science fiction, and also in the movies: a gritty realism that wasn't an "Alien" ripoff. The template I was working from was "NYPD Blue" -- it was "you are there." It was, "We just happened to have a camera, and then this happened." Obviously, these were larger-than-life stories, and obviously [in "Serenity"] there was some arch and manipulative camera work, because much the way Mal realizes he's a hero, the movie realizes, "I'm a movie!" But we always tried to keep that presence: We're there, the cameraman might fall over, everyone might die, and none of us is safe.
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Post by Karen on Dec 30, 2005 20:40:54 GMT -5
Continued from previous post.
II. BUILDING THE 'VERSE (and TALKING LIKE A MAN NAMED MARION)
Q. "Firefly" and "Serenity"'s political and cultural underpinnings are unusually well thought-out. You've obviously developed a whole system of planets, a Sino-American political system, a mix of languages. How long did the concept fester in your head before you started writing?
A. It festered for a while. It was probably two or three years after I came up with the idea that I made the TV show, a year-and-a-half doing that, and then a couple of years to write the movie. So it's had time to bake. And people are always like, "They're fighting an evil empire!" And I'm like, "Well, it's not really an evil empire." The trick was always to create something that was complex enough that you could bring some debate to it -- that it wasn't black-and-white. It wasn't, "If we hit this porthole in the Death Star, everything will be fine!" It was messier than that, and the messiest thing is that the government is basically benign. It's the most advanced culturally….
Q. And [the government-sponsored assassin] The Operative has an honorable point of view -- in his way.
A. Oh, he totally does. Mal is somebody that I knew, as I created him, I would not get along with. I don't think we have the same politics. But that's sort of the point. I mean, if the movie's about anything, it's about the right to be wrong. It's about the messiness of people. And if you try to eradicate that, you eradicate them.
Q. And on a sheer love-of-language level, it's about the clash of dialects. Several of the characters speak in an old-timey-Western-paperback patois. Why did you choose to make the connections between the Old West and the future so overt?
A. Because that's where it came from. It came from my love of frontier stories -- in the movies and in actual, historical frontier stories. And also because if you are Han Solo -- if you are living hand-to-mouth -- you're dealing with a very classic frontier paradigm, which is that life is really hard out here. The law is, at best, obtuse and often useless -- and occasionally dangerous. And the lack of law is troublesome, too. And you learn to make your own, and work on your own terms, in order to survive. Right now, we live in an age of extraordinary convenience -- where you can have an entire group of friends and social gatherings and all your food and all your movies without ever leaving the house. And so I'm more and more fascinated by the physical -- by people who "make their own fun," as it were. As David Mamet so perfectly put it, "Everybody makes their own fun. If you don't make it yourself, it ain't fun -- it's entertainment."
Q. Thank you. I still think "State and Main" is one of Mamet's best movies.
A. I really do…. I mean, you can look at the people in "Serenity" as people who are living in a Third-World country -- because other people with the best of intentions are trying to, uh, "help" them, but they’re kind of out of reach, or nobody knows how the system works well enough to do any good. The frontier, to me, was fascinating because it is so extreme. And at some point, almost everyone is confronted with that kind of extremity. And it's extraordinary how it changes us. It's what makes disaster movies fascinating to me -- because they take people like us and say, "Whoa! Well! Who comes up to the mark? How do you change? Who's in charge? How does the system -- how does, you know, society -- dissolve when the walls are not existentially but literally broken down?" And obviously, you don't want a disaster to happen to anybody. But this movie is about people … who are used to a certain level of peril and extremity in their lives that most people in this country aren't. Or weren't.
Q. Getting back to the question of language: I was wondering how the hell you found actors who make all that old-timey dialogue seem effortless. Because that's a hell of a coup.
A. It is. And with Nathan, he got so completely comfortable with it that we actually had to have him talk slower, because he could rattle it off so fast, people couldn't understand a word he was saying.
Q. And when he posts to the message boards on the fan-sites, he kind of writes that way, too.
A. He gets a little Mal on…. The dialogue is built out of a number of things: my own desire to make up silly slang, because I love the liquidness of language…. It's largely Western. It's also Elizabethan. There's some Indian stuff. There's some turn-of-the-century Pennsylvania Dutch. Irish…. There's absolutely anything that fits. But I think [the cast] will all band together and kill me because of the Chinese. And there's some John Wayne -- which is different than just "Western." Nobody talked like John Wayne; John had his own thing that was so lyrical. The way he talked and the way he moved were both way too graceful for a man who was supposed to be that tough.
Q. [laughs] I know.
A. Then again, his name was Marion.
Q. Hey, John Ford cast him in a movie where he went to Ireland.
A. Yeah. He had an extraordinary individualism. And that's in there, too. See, with Nathan, I just got incredibly lucky, and for everyone else, it just works in different ways. When you start to work with actors, you start to write to their different strengths -- you start to know what's going to trip them up and what's going to play to their different strengths. III. THE GENIUS OF JAYNE, and the DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POLITICS AND PARTISANSHIP
Q. I'd like to go out of my way to praise Adam Baldwin's work in the film. I really expect him to get some more work out of this; he knocked every single line out of the park.
A. Adam is quite large to be a secret weapon. [laughs] He really is. It's great fun to take someone like Summer, who's never done a film -- except for a small bit -- and really get to show her to people. It's just as much fun with a guy who's been working for 20 years. Because he's so funny, and so vital. His love of that role, and what he brings to it…. Yeah, he does. He knocks every single line straight out of the park. Adam really is bigger than life.
Q. Now, I know his political views may not be your own. And one of the things that strikes me about the show is that, in terms of both gender and personal politics, "Firefly" and "Serenity" have one of the more diverse fan bases I've ever seen. The show's been written up in progressive and conservative journals….
A. Yeah. I would say about the movie that it is very political, but it's not partisan. And I think the curse, right now, of the politics of our nation is that a line has been drawn down the middle of our country -- and that's not actually how the human mind works.
Q. Well, the problems are hugely complicated infrastructural problems, and we're trying to solve them with bloodsport. David Foster Wallace said that.
A. Yeah. It's not useful. The political statement that "Serenity" makes is very blatant -- but it can be embraced by someone who's extremely conservative or someone who's extremely liberal. That's not the point. The point is: It's a personal statement. What "Serenity" and "Firefly" were both about is how politics affect people personally. And the personal politics are the only politics that really interest me. I'm not going to make this big, didactic polemic -- I'm just going to say, "When there are shifts in a planet, those tiny little guys are the ones who are affected. So let's hang out with them -- not the Federation heads or the Jedi Council."
Q. [laughs] Right.
A. And with the show, the idea was to have as many points of view as possible. The reason I made the Alliance a generally benign, enlightened society was so that I could engage these people in a debate about it. Now, in the film, obviously, there's more chasing and guns than debating --
Q. Plus explosions --
A. You know, people don't love a great debate flick.
Q. And when people try and make them, and critics praise them as great "message movies," no one goes to see them.
A. Yeah. Including myself. But if you let the points of view exist, then it does the work for you. In the show, that was always the idea: Nine different people see the same thing and have nine different reactions to it, based on who they are and where they've been. And that's what made for the drama. And, uh, most of the comedy.
Q. I'm a vague acquaintance of your colleague Brian Michael Bendis, who lives here in town -- and one thing that strikes me about his work and yours is that you're guys who aren't ashamed about coding up all your messages in a genre structure.
A. Well, I have always been a fan of his. I love genre. I love fantasy. I love science fiction. I love horror. I love musicals. I love finding a different way to express what I want to say. And I think, ultimately, it works best for me -- because otherwise, it would be boring and didactic and I wouldn't know what the hell I was doing. Genre helps me with structure, and structure helps me get through the day.
IV. THE PROBLEM WITH NICELY CARPETED SPACESHIPS and the MAD SKILLZ OF JACK GREEN
Q. The show and film are also fascinating in that they have no aliens, or dorks in jumpsuits with prosthetics on their nose-ridges. Nor does the spaceship in any way resemble a flying Sheraton Hotel.
A. [laughs] The thing I love about science fiction -- future stuff, particularly -- is the sense of being there. It's very important. And I'd seen a lot of shows with ships where they all tend to look like that --
Q. Nicely carpeted spaceships.
A. Exactly. That's why there's a toilet [on Serenity]. That's why there are ladders. That’s why I'm obsessed with vertical space. I'm obsessed with the messiness of it. As much as "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" are old, weird uncles of this movie -- and one of them may be the father, but we haven't gotten back the DNA test yet -- "Alien," particularly the first one, also has significance. Because it gave a real sense of, "We live here. And this is where we eat, and this is where we sleep, and we climb up from here to here, and the vents run here." And that sense of the physical is another reason why I was doing the camerawork the way I did it -- so you were not in that remove of, "AND NOW WE WILL ENACT THE DRAMA THAT EXISTS IN MY BIG JAR OF DRA-MA." It was, you know, "Everything here is beat-up and real and crappy, and you go up and you go down." Apart from the artificial gravity that one must inevitably have -- because one doesn't want to make a floaty movie -- the textured reality is there. I want to be on that ship, and I never felt like I was on those other ships. They were big, giant Sheratons.
Q. And you don't see a lot of science-fiction films lit by Clint Eastwood's cinematographer.
A. You know, how cool is Jack Green?
Q. How did you explain this to him?
A. I didn't really have to. He read the script; he got it; we talked; he got it. He knew there was a Western thing going on, but he also knew I wasn't looking to ape the Western -- I was just looking for something that felt real and cobbled together with a lot of different palates. And the thing about Jack is: He can actually do any damned thing. You ask Jack for a certain thing, and he's got it in his repertoire. His druthers is to stay out of the way.
Q. He's probably the secret weapon that allows Eastwood to deliver all his movies on-time and under-budget.
A. Certainly. He's the reason we got to make a movie that looks -- I think -- a good deal more expensive than it was. He moves so fast, and he makes frames that I think are just as gorgeous as anything. But he doesn't announce, "JACK GREEN IN THE HOUSE!" -- either on set or on film. He stays out of the way, and then he gives you stuff like that Shepherd Book/Mal scene -- which, with three lights, is one of the prettiest things I've ever seen. He's not afraid of blacks, and neither am I, and that's a really important thing to me. He's not afraid of losing things, of keeping it a little sloppy. At the same time, he's very precise. And he moves faster than a lot of guys who are in TV. I can't say enough about Jack. And he's perfect for this because he's got a Western background, but he's done everything -- and he's not turning this into a big-hat pastiche. Because when you say "space Western," a lot of people are gonna go, "RUN!!! JUST RUNNN!!!" To me, it is that to an extent, but it's more just a space adventure. I remember my father being very angry when people said that "Star Wars" was a Western. He'd say, "It's not a Western! It's a WWII flying-ace movie!"
Q. Mm-hm. It's "The Dambusters."
A. And of course it’s a hundred different things -- as is anything that feels new. But to me, it's perfectly logical, because you're out there in what is termed "the final frontier," and you're in the same situation that people were in when the final frontier was California: "We've got exactly this much cured meat, we've got exactly this many bullets, and we have no idea where we're heading." So it's not so much a question of genre, it's a question of the reality of the thing -- and the fact that the Western was always an immigrant story, and you get to mish-mash all those cultures together. That's how we made this country, and that's how we're going to make every country from now on. So Jack is perfect for all of that, because he understands it all -- he makes it all real. You still get your sci-fi jollies, but none of it feels like, you know, like there's a Theremin playing. V. BETA-TESTING A MARKETING PLAN (and STICKING A PEN IN YOUR NECK)
Q. Now, Marc Schmuger and his Universal marketing team have really been using your film to beta-test a new way of marketing movies. Obviously, they can afford to do these sorts of experiments on your film. I'd love to hear your take on the specifics of that.
A. To me, the whole thing is fairly impressive. On the one hand, it's really nice, because I realized that they were saying, "The best thing we have to advertise your film is your film." And I thought, "Well, that's better than, 'We have to hide it until it opens and then run like bunnies.'" But at the beginning, when they first talked about showing it to the fans in a number of preview screenings that was, you know, pretty big --
Q. I think it was 65, wasn't it?
A. And that's not including the festivals. I think it'll end up having been shown about 75 times before it opens. I and a lot of people were a little scared: "What if we ring the dinner bell and the fans are all full?"
Q. Well, that and the movie heaps these Kobayashi Maru levels of abuse on the characters. I mean, fans are gonna go binary on that.
A. Some people might go, "Hey! Wait a minute! He took the sky! Where's my sky?" But, at the end of the day, what they [Universal] were trying to do…. They felt the fans -- based on their experience of seeing them see the movie -- weren't going to go, "Yawn! Well, we got our jollies and we're going to move on." They wanted to build the momentum with the idea that, "Oh, this is really something. And the noise that you guys are making could be heard elsewhere." And that was the thing. The fan base has been very loyal -- and, I think, unprecedentedly involved. But it was really about the people who have no idea what "Serenity" is -- or who could give a rat's ass -- hearing these waves in the distance sort of heading towards them and going, "What is that?" And that was thinking two steps ahead of where I was thinking. And it seems to have worked. We've gotten some coverage in a lot of places that would not have given us the time of day. But it's still hard. I mean, the job that they were given -- to sell a movie with a title that sounds vaguely Buddhist; that doesn't have an easily sellable premise; that doesn’t have a single bankable star, unless you're a huge Alan Tudyk or Adam Baldwin fan like I am [laughs] -- it was a hell of a thing for them to take on. And so they just said, "Well, we love it. They love it. Let's work with 'love.'"
Q. [laughs] What a novel idea for a marketing department.
A. Oh, yeah. I tell you, I've been pretty impressed. And they were always looking for things to do that were different. You know, the little Internet River bits.
Q. Yes! How did you enjoy gurgling with a pen in your neck?
A. You know? Uh, good times. And I'll be able to explain it all more when it's done. But that came not from Universal saying, "We have a marketing idea"; that came from Universal going, "What's weird? What’s fresh? What's fun?" And me going, "I have a silly notion…." It was a chance to say, "We're gonna throw everything up there. We're just gonna keep coming at people from different angles." Because that's kind of what the movie does, and that's kind of what makes it interesting. So we're just gonna keep spreading out the mythos that this thing is built upon, so that even if somebody has no idea who anybody is, they know there's some body there -- not something they missed, hopefully, but something that they can rely on -- something that's been thought out, something with some weight. Continued on next post>>>>>
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Post by Karen on Dec 30, 2005 20:44:52 GMT -5
Continued from previous post....
VI. FLASHBACKS and 'ONE-ERS'
A. You said you've seen it with --
Q. I've seen it with the fans and the non-fans now.
A. You know, we spent a long time with this movie, in editing, getting it to a place where non-fans would be able to enjoy it. It was the hardest thing about it.
Q. I actually wanted to ask you about that. In the first 10 minutes of "Serenity," you manage to explain the entire premise of the show in three folding flashbacks and a long, single take that takes us on a tour of the entire ship and introduces all the characters. I just want to say: That must have been murderously hard to write.
A. Actually, not the hardest part. It was hard to structure. I sat down and said, "Now: I have to tell a story that I haven't told before, and explain it to people and not contradict stuff." Yeah, the task that I put before myself is one I hope never to put before myself again. [laughs] But once I figured out what I wanted to do, it made such incredibly perfect logical sense to do a narration that turns out to be a lecture that turns out to be a dream that turns out to be a holographic flashback, you know?
Q. Possibly the first time we've seen that many things fold into themselves in a movie in a while.
A. It was a lot. But it was twofold: It was a way to include a great deal of exposition without becoming the most boring film ever. My other idea was to have Anthony Hopkins talk for 25 minutes at the beginning…. But Oliver Stone stole it from me. But the other thing is, it worked because what I'm basically doing is a story about Mal as told by River. So where we start is in River's mind -- and River's mind is completely fractured. So to tell something that is constantly re-adjusting -- that is constantly pulling the rug out from under you -- is to basically experience the world the way she's experiencing it. When we go to Serenity, it's very deliberate that it's an endlessly long take. For one thing, you get to see all the characters, the whole ship and the way they interact -- and to do it in a one-er feels very fluid. But it's also to stop that disassociative River mind, and to put you in Mal's and Serenity's space -- which is, no matter how much you protest about being a villain, a completely safe and understandable space. So it was a deliberate contrast to what had come before, to do that long take. And it made perfect sense to me, because I already knew what that ship looked like and where everybody in the ship would be and how they worked and how they'd interact. It actually came very quickly.
Q. Well, and there's that wonderful handoff moment where Mal says, "Do you know your part in this?" and River replies, "Do you?"
A. You know, that was the only re-shoot we did. There is that bunch of crates in the back of the cargo bay -- and I remembered that bunch of crates in the back of the cargo bay when I said, "I need half a day; I know what's missing from the movie. Um, besides excitement and coherence." And it's the handoff. I was like, "I thought the one-er would be the handoff, but it's not." I thought people would know to identify with Mal -- but there are so many people and so much going on, that nobody understands. This is something we were getting showing it to audiences who hadn't seen ["Firefly"]: Nobody understands that this is the guy they're supposed to watch, and by the time they figure it out, we're too far into the movie. So I said, "Give me those crates." And they literally piled them -- Jack Green was shooting "40-Year-Old Virgin," so this is basically Jack's year --
Q. Yeah, no kidding.
A. -- so we basically brought the crates onto the set of "40-Year-Old Virgin" on a Sunday, piled them all up, and we shot that and a couple of little inserts and things. And "Do you know your purpose?" "Do you?" was basically my way of telling the audience, "River is watching this guy -- so you should, too." And it completely changed the way people felt about everything that went after: They had their eye on Mal. And it made things flow a lot better.
Q. There are other little handoffs like that in the movie that I think only fans of the TV show might get. One of the ones I've seen discussed online, which I love, is the handoff of the Blue Sun liquor bottle from Jayne to Simon.
A. Mm-hm.
Q. Given their relationship, it's a big moment.
A. That was a scene where, you know, Mal gives his St. Crispian's Day speech, God bless 'im -- and I originally wrote a scene where everyone chimes in and says, "I'm in." And I just thought, "If Jayne says he's in, there's no way nobody else isn't in."
Q. Right. If he's in, everybody is.
A. But then, when I was shooting it, I was like, "Because he and Simon…" And that's more in the series than it is in the film that the two of them combat, but they're still total opposites: Simon is the total idealist and Jayne is the total pragmatist and completely selfish. If there were an angel and a devil sitting on Mal's shoulders, that's what they'd look like. It's maybe the hoariest thing in the movie, but by God, it says what needs to be said: You pass the bottle to Simon, and they're a team.
Q. It's no hoarier than having Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson singin' a song together in "Rio Bravo" --
A. -- with Walter Brennan --
Q. With Walter Brennan. You know, and that worked.
A. Some dulcet pipes in that number.
VII. DEADHEADS and BROWNCOATS
Q. You've also done an absolutely smashing job of ignoring the massive amounts of bootleg "Firefly" fan merchandise. I'm thinking specifically of BlueSunShirts.com….
A. I'm a Deadhead, and where I come from, bootlegging's a good thing.
Q. If the movie's a hit, and more official merchandise starts coming out, do you think there's going to be a crackdown?
A. I have no idea. I never have a piece of merchandising; I haven't reached a place in the Hollywood DNA chain where I can actually ask for that. So it's not like I'm losing money. But even if I was? You know, I'm doin' fine. I have a job. I'm doing just fine. And the fact that people are making this stuff? You can call it "bootlegging" or you can call it "free advertising."
Q. Let's hope they keep calling it the latter.
A. You can also call it "the fact that people are taking it to their hearts." It's no different than fan fiction or any of these online communities. It's important to them and they wear it -- and that makes me proud. And I don't give a good goddamn who's makin' money off it.
Q. Now, do you have a favorite piece of fan -- I'm sorry, "free advertising"?
A. [laughs] A favorite…. You know, I have to admit, when I first saw the Blue Sun t-shirts, I thought they were pretty cool -- because it didn't announce itself, and I think it had a really good logo. And I hope if I ever get to make another one of these, I get to pay off some Blue Sun action, because that was one of the things in the movie that I was sad to drop. But a favorite? Um … hard to say. The best thing I've ever seen a little off that beaten track was at a Browncoat booth -- it was their raffle-drawing postcard for Equality Now. And it had a big picture of River -- it was beautifully done -- and it had pictures of Buffy and Zoe and Kitty Pryde, and even Wonder Woman and Fray, and all of these heroines I'd created. And I looked at it, and I swear to God, I got all misty: I was like, "Oh my God! It's almost like my work means something!" And seeing that, and knowing that these people were raising money for Equality Now, which is really important to me, was gi-normous. I had the biggest rush imaginable when I saw that. And I picked up, like, 40 of those postcards.
VIII. JOSS's 'SERENITY' MIX TAPE (Part 1)
Q. I have a friend who's a big film-score geek, and I told him I was interviewing you. He told me you wax philosophic and rhapsodic about the score to this film for like three pages in the new companion book that just came out --
A. It's actually five pages.
Q. Oh. Sorry.
A. No, I mean it was five pages when I typed it. That was written before we'd hired a composer. All those memos [in "Serenity: The Official Visual Companion"] were [written] before we made the movie; they were pre-production memos. I gave David Newman that memo; I also gave him a mix tape with everything on my iPod that might be useful.
Q. And this is actually what my score-geek friend wanted to know: What were those songs?
A. There were a couple of songs from Nickel Creek, whom I adore -- I love them with a fiery vengeance. There was some movie stuff: "Angela's Ashes," Elmer Bernstein's theme from "Far from Heaven" -- not because they were necessarily the right idiom, but because the themes were so incredibly indelible within the first 20 seconds, which is about as much time as I usually gave David. [laughs] They had to become indelible before there was too much going on for anybody to hear anything. I'm gonna forget a bunch of stuff. Definitely important was "For the Turnstiles" by Neil Young, off "Decade" -- because it has this very sort of dampened banjo in it. And I played this for him particularly when we were going over it, just to say, "Look at how he's taking all the reverb off of this, and making just as sort of personal as possible." And I referred to this -- in a phrase that sort of came back to me over and over again in my discussions of scores -- as follows: What Neil Young was saying in that song was, "Fuck all y'all -- I'm on my back porch." You know, in the '70s, when a lot of stuff was getting really symphonic … he was going, "Fuck all y'all -- I'm on my back porch."
Q. That actually sums up the sensibilities of a few "Firefly" characters.
A. Yeah. It really does. And that was definitely the big one. I'm actually looking for the CD itself…. I might have it in one sec…. I'll see if I happen on it or if it's too late…. [rummaging noises] Okay … last chance … everybody in the pool.… Bupkis. Oh, well. No joy.
Q. That's okay. I think the fan base is going to have a lot to chew on just from what you told me.
A. Well, there was a lot of different stuff. I think there was the third movement of the Mendelssohn concerto that Sarah Chang played? It was either Mendelssohn or Sibelius -- I'm don't know which one I used. Because, you know, I love me some violins. Although, at the end of the day, it all became about cellos. The whole movie is CelloFest 2005. Be there! If I remember another, I'll shout it out.
Q. Yeah, just shout it out randomly, while we're talking about other stuff.
A. It happens every now and then. My brain works that way. I stop thinking about something and I remember.
Q. Musical Tourette's. It will be good. Now, the plot --
A. Oh. I know one. It was "Poems" from "Pacific Overtures" by Stephen Sondheim.
Q. Oh, Sondheim. Of course.
A. Just because of the Asian thing and the simplicity of this entire song written in haiku.
Q. Mm-hm. Yeah, I'm a Sondheim fan myself.
A. Yeah. He's my guy.
Q. I'm still dying to see someone make the great film of "Sweeney Todd" that needs to be made.
A. You know, they're talking about it. But I don't get to make it, so….
IX. MR. UNIVERSE, THE 'ANGEL' TV MOVIE, and JOSS's 'SERENITY' MIX TAPE (Part 2)
Q. Now, I've written about this elsewhere, and I wanted to ask you about it: The film's plot feels more than a little like an overt metaphor for the story of the "Firefly" series itself: The crew has to get a message out, and they need the help of a guy -- Mr. Universe, whom I'd argue is a stand in for the fans -- who lives alone with his bank of computers. Was that in any way a conscious decision?
A. It absolutely was not.
Q. Really.
A. But I read it, and I think I read it in your article -- and I was like, "God damn! You're right!"
Q. And that was a totally unconscious thing.
A. It was totally unconscious. I created Mr. Universe because I needed a place for the final battle -- and getting the message out was a way to have a final victory that wasn't, you know, "Hey, we blew up the bad guys! Yub-yub!"
Q. "Yub-yub!" [cackles]
A. Oh, believe me -- we spoke much of "the Yub" in editing. But no -- I wasn't thinking of that at all. It's funny, because recently I was talking about the last season of "Angel," and the non-cliffhanger that people gave me so much flak for. And I'd always said, "The whole point of the thing was that the fight wasn't over yet." And then it occurred to me that you could do the same thing there [with "Angel"] and say, "Well, the circumstance of the thing was also a way of saying, 'The show isn't over yet, fucker!'" But I never thought of that at the time. But it really lays itself out that way -- as to say, "We're not finished. We've got a lot to say. So we're not going to finish saying it."
Q. Well, now, Tim Minear's doing a Spike TV-movie, right?
A. That's the hope. I haven't put anything together yet; I'm just trying to line people up.
Q. I think Buffyverse fans are waiting with baited breath to find out exactly how that battle in "Angel"'s finale went. Will the TV movie tell us?
A. Uh, if there's -- I believe yes. You will finally find out what happened -- who lived, who died, who lost one arm or two legs, who was supposed to be the Chosen One but went over to the Dark Side. All that stuff.
Q. Fantastic.
A. And I actually did find the CD. So let's see what else is on here's that’s of interest: Jill Sobule, some Hans Zimmer, Ian Ritchie, Tracy Chapman, some Indigo Girls -- oh, and "God's Song" by Randy Newman. And then it ends with "Black Peter" by the Grateful Dead. And so you're thinking, "Hm, that's some '70s vibe there."
Q. [laughs] There is a strong '70s vibe.
A. The early '70s, too. And a lot of earthy girl-rock, because I'm me. But it is a very kind of homey and huge '70s-Western influence. And to take a few really dense orchestral pieces and take something sort of down-homey -- "I'm on my back porch!" -- and put the two of them together was really sort of the mission statement for David. Which I think he accomplished in kind of an amazing way.
Q. Yeah, Newman pulled it off really well.
A. He really did. He can make with the pretty and with the eerie -- and he can be as specific as the old school. I mean, so many of the new school [produce] that sort of Zimmer "wall of sound" -- which is great for writing, because you just put it on and you emote for the entire track; it's not a specific emotion, it's just all very portentous. And David can write stuff that is as specific to the moment as the stuff that John Williams does, or some of the old-school composers -- but without calling attention to himself.
Q. And he rolled in a lot of Eastern flavors without it sounding like yet another "Fifth Element" pastiche.
A. Exactly. And it’s tough. You've got to do the East without the tourist's bazaar we've all visited.
Q. Right. Without the Putumayo vibe.
A. And you've got to do the West without sounding like "Sons of the Pioneers" or some dreadful pastiche. And there's not a lot of precedent for mixing the two that fluidly -- like, without just announcing it. The closest we came when looking for temp scores? "Shanghai Noon." And that was making a point of "This is the West! This is the East! This is the West! This is the East!" -- where we were trying to say, "This is all just happening." But, because I'm obsessed with the frontier thing, all the instruments being the ones they can carry. That's why I want to keep the mandolins and the guitar and the cello and the more sort of spare, old-fashioned instruments without falling into goofy-hood.
X. 'SERENITY''s FUTURE and JOSS's COMMANDMENTS
Q. Now, let's suppose that "Serenity" finds its audience and there's a chance to make another film or, God forbid, return to television. Would it be a prequel, as I heard Chris Buchanan hint at one of the fan screenings, or would it continue the story from where we left off?
A. I would tend to continue from where I left off. That doesn't mean…. I think what Chris Buchanan was probably saying was that, you know, we would get everybody -- and I obviously don't want to get all spoiler-y --
Q. Right. I know.
A. But things that seemed irrevocable, uh, well, are -- but the movie itself already has a bit of a flashback structure, and the show had it, as well. And I think there's ways to weave in important character pieces without ruining the momentum of a sequel that would, in fact, pick up from where this left off. I'm not a prequel buff. I don't want to see "Mal and Zoe: The Early Years" with William Katt and Tom Berenger. I mean, I do. But I'm more interested in the consequences of what has come. Because the audience has experienced it. And for me, the audience experience is the other experience -- if the people in the movie aren't going through what the audience is going through, then I'm doing something wrong. And the audience -- assuming you have a sequel -- has seen the first one. So they've lived through it. And if the characters haven't, there's a disassociation that I don't think you can ever buy back.
Q. Absolutely. Now, I'm sure you've seen that shirt that says "Joss Whedon Is My Master Now" in a Star Wars font. So let's say you are their master. What are your marching orders?
A. I'm thinking that I'd like them to sit … and possibly roll over. This shirt's just hilarious. My marching orders do not exist. If I start pretending that I am in charge of anybody, then madness will surely follow -- or, perhaps I should say, make itself more visible. I would love to say, "Everybody run and tell everybody about the movie!" -- but I think they get that I want them to do that. That's already done. And I don't want to say it ad nauseam, because I don't think I am actually anybody's "master." I am the fan that gets to have the most fun. I get to walk the set every day. I totally get to be there when the story's broken. I get to do all of the fun bits. Every day is fan day for me. That's who I am. I'm the fan that got the closest. And I don't think about a master relationship.
Q. Well, and the danger with genre creators, particularly because they tend to develop very rabid fans, is that you get so into managing your fiefdom -- and I'm certainly not talking about John Byrne at all -- that you lose touch with whatever made what you were working on special to begin with.
A. Yeah. I mean, it's the finest line you ever have to walk -- because you spend your entire artistic life trying to get to a place where you have absolute control over your work and can say exactly what you're trying to say the way you want to say it. And in order to do that, you have to get through so much oppression and nonsense and pain. But once you do it, you're instantly in danger of becoming hermetically sealed and cut off from anyone around you. And so you have to walk this incredibly fine line where you get as much control as you possibly can and then always know that while you have it, you have to be in the world, listening to the people around you and learning from the experiences you're having -- and not just sort of swimming around in your power. And it's hard. I mean, you see a lot of great artists who finally realize their dream and…. You know, I think it's no coincidence that very often, when a person makes their most personal film -- you know, the one they got in movies to make -- it's their worst. It's like you have to serve a master of your own -- and that's the audience. And the way I work is through connection with the audience. The way I work is through the audience going, "That's me! I'm doing that! I feel that!" And so if I lose that, then I'm useless. And I think at some point I may become useless, anyway: The things I have to say will no longer be things that people need to hear -- either because I've accomplished what I set out to accomplish and created a new genre paradigm with characters -- where people go, "Okay -- now we accept the strong women, and the morals click, and you're just sort of doing this over and over again." I might become the old guy. But I hope that if I do, I become the old guy who … realizes it. [laughs]
Q. Well, you have a couple of different media you can retreat into if that happens. I mean, you may be the first director to have the latest issue of his comic book come out the same week as his feature-film debut.
A. It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I ain't lyin'.
XI. 'EXCLUSION BOTHERS ME'
Q. You did something very gutsy with "Serenity" -- you actually tried to make, without apology, a movie that will satisfy fans and newbies. Most filmmakers in your situation will either dilute their film shamelessly or proudly (and sort of suicidally) declare that they don't care about pleasing anyone but their core audience.
A. Well, if I didn't care about pleasing anyone but their core audience…. First of all, Universal would have run like bunnies. [laughs] And wisely. I mean, the trick, the difficulty of the thing, was pleasing and honoring the fans. That was very important to me. But at the end of the day, if I'm not making a movie for everybody, then I don't get it. I don't like clubs with exclusive rooms, okay? They bother me. Exclusion bothers me on a very, very primal level. And if I'm making a movie that deliberately isn't talking to anybody who walks into it, then "I've lost the mission, bro," as we used to say. So inevitably, what I'm trying to do is please and excite and delight people, and possibly make them think -- but not so much that their heads hurt. I slip in something that makes them go, "Because I understand this experience, and I enjoyed it, and I identified with it, here are the things I'm trying to say or I'm interested in. Something more than a ride happened here. I felt like I went through something." That's really important. But it's gotta be for everybody, or it really just…. It's like jazz. Jazz is really fun when it's live. But I will never listen to jazz on my iPod or anything. Because jazz is really for musicians. I'm enough of a wannabe that I can go to a jazz club and listen to it and have a great time -- but it's music about music. It was the thing that I hated about the '80s -- when everything became movies about movies. In the '70s and '80s, movies were using, as their point of reference, movies. It's one of the reasons that I was so in love with Peter Weir back in the day, because his movies evoked something very natural -- they could evoke just this overwhelming sense of being lost inside of nature and water and wheat and whatever that he seemed to have a command of that nobody else had. And he was using film to do it. And everybody else -- even Scorsese, whom I worship -- seemed to be using film to talk about film. And that led to things like "New York, New York," which is one of my favorite movies -- but it also led to a lot of self-referential bullshit, and a lot of loss of reality and humanity. Even "Star Wars" -- the other day, I was talking about this -- really was the first movie that I can think of where it was based entirely on existing movie structures. It was one step removed. It was a story about stories. And obviously, they all are, to an extent. But I feel like, to me, that's kind of distancing; that's not what I want to be doing. What I want to be doing is just using the medium to communicate.
Q. Well, you see that happening all the time in writing now. Tom Wolfe has gone off on the fact that he thinks people should leave their Graduate Writing Programs and do some reporting when they write their novels.
A. That makes sense. It's tough. And it's tough for me, too, because I'm known as Mr. Pop Culture Reference; at the same time, that's the last person I want to be. It's one reason that I created "Firefly" -- so I no longer would be able to make any.
Q. [laughs] Right. You have to invent Fruity Oaty Bars.
A. Exactly. Which is probably the closest thing I have to a contemporary concept in the movie. And everybody does it. Shakespeare did it; there's plenty of references we're not getting. But the other stuff seems to outweigh that in his work, I've noticed. [laughs]
Continued on next post>>>>>>>>>
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Post by Karen on Dec 30, 2005 20:45:24 GMT -5
...Continued from previous post....
XII. THE COMIC BOOK and the RELAXED STUDIO
Q. Now, you've said you had at least 100 stories to tell with these characters. And I know you've said the film compressed two or three years of a "Firefly" story arc. But what are a couple of the cool side stories we never got to see?
A. I'm not gonna tell you! Because God willin' and the creek don't rise, I might get a chance to tell some of them…. I have plenty of ideas as to which ones they might be. Some of them will never be told, because it's too painful that I could never tell them, because they really belonged to the series. Some of them may find themselves being told in a sequel. So mum's the word from me. You'll have to take my word for it.
Q. Well, the "Serenity" comic resurrected what I presume was an idea for the TV series -- where you brought back Agent Dobson from the pilot episode, and he's got one eye and he's psychotic.
A. Yeah. I would have done that on the series. I love Carlos [Jacott, who played Dobson in the TV episode].
Q. He's always got this great look of wounded dignity to him.
A. He's one of the guys I can always count on -- and just about the funniest man on the planet.
Q. Now, that comic has been a surprise blockbuster.
A. It's done well.
Q. I know it's on its third order at my local comic-book shop.
A. I felt like it was kind of an event, and I worked really hard on the story, we got really good people working on it, and we got all the best artists in the business to do all these covers. I wanted it to be more than a comic -- I wanted it to be a collector's item. But then people were really happy about the story and the contents as well. Dark Horse told me they underestimated the first printing -- but now, here we are with a third? That's pretty sweet. If you think of the number of fans of the DVD, comic-book numbers are smaller. They work on a different scale. So I don't think it's totally shocking that we managed to make a splash -- it's very gratifying -- but at the end of the day, comic books are a smaller pond. So we have become, if not a whale, then a shark.
Q. When Chris Buchanan was here for a "Serenity" preview screening, he seemed pretty gee-whiz about the whole production experience. In fact, he told a story about your stage being right next to the executive offices, and executives just walking by and saying, "Hey! Let us know if you need anything!"
A. Yeah.
Q. Did you ever feel like you were getting away with murder?
A. No. It felt like we were getting away with a movie -- which, in this town…. You know, I've murdered lots of people, and really? Nobody cares. But trying to actually make a movie? People really get upset, and they want to get involved, and they want to mess it up. And not only did [Universal] not mess it up, but they were incredibly helpful. Like, when we were in the testing process, they had level heads, they had good ideas, they understood where the audience was not getting what we needed. And yes -- when we were shooting, they were like, "We love your dailies. You’re making your days." They literally came by and said, "We're just resting on our way to another movie." And I think they stopped by twice. As a youth, what I wanted to do with my life was make summer movies for a studio. In this case, I'm near my goal -- I'm making early-fall movies for a studio. I want to make movies that please people, that are exciting, that are meaningful and visceral, and that studios can be proud of. I didn't want to make highbrow think pieces. So all I've ever asked is that [the studios] let me do for them what I wanted -- what I think will be best for them. So many times, I've run up against people who are like, "Well, we've got another agenda." And I'm like, "My agenda will make you richer! I want to reach more people with this thing that will be better!" And I don't mean to sound like I'm all that, but I've dealt with some pretty amazingly stupid situations. And so for a studio to just go, "Yeah, we believe in your story, and you're doing it for the budget; godspeed!" -- shouldn't be an amazing experience. But it sure was.
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Post by Sara on Mar 3, 2006 9:30:54 GMT -5
From Empire online: As Serenity hits DVD shelves across the land, we caught up with the mighty Joss Whedon for a little chat about the continuing adventures of our favourite Firefly-class vessel, his future plans, and his love of a certain Abba anthem. But beware, ahead be BIG spoilers suitable only for those who have already seen Serenity. If you haven't scroll slowly and stop right after the words "a great boon". You have been warned! Last time we saw you was at the Serenity premiere party, cutting some rug to Dancing Queen.It gets me on the floor every time! So you were obviously pretty pleased with the film at that point – looking back, are you happy with how it’s gone?Oh, I feel exactly the same way about the film as I did then, which is that I loathe every shot, I made 4 billion mistakes – and I quite like it. Was it a big difference between TV and film? Did it feel different going in to work every day?It didn’t feel different but it was different. But because I had such continuity with the cast, because I had Jack Green who, apart from acting like you’ve known him your whole life, lights faster than most TV DPs [Director of Photography]; because I had Rich Sickler, my Assistant Director from Angel; and because I knew what I wanted so much, there was a huge amount of continuity. And every now and again somebody’d be like, “Oh, that’s so TV” and I’d be like, “What…when I cut to the two-shot?” People just, because you worked in TV, have to hold it against you. I suppose if I’d come from music video they’d have said, “That’s so music video!” What, the cut to the two-shot? You sort of can’t win. But the differences were there, in the size of the thing and the fluidity. Not the size of the screen, although we did have one shot that nobody saw in dailies on in the AVID (editing process) and it wasn’t until a preview screening that someone noticed that the camera pulled back to reveal a grip sitting in the corner. An entire man was in the frame. OK, so that’s the sort of thing we can’t get away with. But when I talk about the size of the thing, it’s the giant amorphous beast that is the story and how every little scene that you shoot in one day affects the other 60 days of shooting, and trying to keep hold of that and understand how much momentum you need and how high you need to be and where the energy is and what you’re leading to. That’s different. You don’t have as much leeway, especially in an action movie, for the bizarre meandering that I am perhaps known for. Given that this was the arc that was meant to end the series when it was so cruelly cut short, did you have to kill lots of your babies to get it down to two hours?Oh God! You cannot imagine how many things I had to lose – and if I made five sequels I’d still not get all the stuff that I had in there. It’s different, it’s completely different. But it’s the devil’s bargain, and it’s a hell of a bargain. You get to make a big movie, and you get to watch your beloved friends and heroes up on the screen – but at the same time you can’t delve into the nuance of every character’s internal life because there just isn’t time. The fact is that Kaylee and Inara are best friends – but they do not speak to each other for the entire film. It was just one of those things that fell by the wayside because it had to get shorter and shorter. I had them close together, I’d have them touch – do whatever I could to indicate that they were close, but they literally don’t speak to each other. So you have to trust the alchemy between the characters to somehow convey that?Well, luckily they’re so dialled in that they can feel it. They brought so much of that, so much of themselves to it. I said to Jewel once, “Take that piece of metal and toss it out,” when Adam was tossing metal into the airlock. She picked it up and she’s like, “This? This is useful! This is gorgeous! We’ll need this!” It was pure Kaylee. I was like, “Yeah, OK” so in the scene you can see her pick it up and start playing with it. I love that. She’s not a Method person who has to be in character, she’s Jewel until the cameras roll – but this time, she looked genuinely shocked – “How can you say that? Why would you throw this away?” At the risk of sounding very fangirlish for a moment, I thought the flashback scene at the beginning of the film was a brilliant piece of writing – you managed to give the non-fans some history, give something new to those who had seen the series, and bring us up to date. Thank you very much. You know, it’s the hardest thing in the world to make this movie about nine people who have all already met. So I developed the idea of, “Oh, wait a minute – I should show River and Simon breaking out.” Then I was like, “But it has to be a year later” and then everything fell into place and I realised I could do something that would not only introduce everything but reflect her state of mind. I had a great feeling when I got that; it felt like the right way to tell the story, even though traditionally, like in Stagecoach, you’d meet all these people as they met each other. Because I wasn’t doing that, to have that prologue was a great boon. So was it one of those, "Nailed that - now get me a drink" moments?Yes. There was a drink involved. Have you any apologies to the fans for killing Wash in such a spectacular fashion?Not at all. I never apologise. The fact of the matter is that it was necessary to do so for many reasons – the most important being that if somebody doesn’t die at the very beginning of that final battle you spend the whole battle going, “This is cool. Look! They’re shooting.” True – after that we thought you might kill everyone.Exactly. After that, I could do a Wild Bunch on your asses. And that’s what I needed people to feel. And then, I could cheat insanely. “Oh, looks like Mal’s dead! Looks like Simon’s dead! Looks like River’s dead! – Oh, they’re all OK!” The stakes were raised, so it had to be done. So I make no apologies for it, even though I’ve had some genuinely frightening angry fans. Really?Oh, I’ve had a couple. They weren’t even large – it was just the intensity in their eyes, I was backing away. It was a test screening so the executives were all there and I was hiding behind them. But it was the right thing to do and everybody knew it. The only person who wasn’t bothered at all by it was Alan, who was hilarious. He kept saying, “Um, my script ends at page 105. Everybody else’s seems longer.” “No, that’s the end – you land the ship, the credits roll.” “Oh, OK. It just seems like everyone else has more pages.” “No! It’s an optical illusion.” “Oh, OK. And every time I go in the cockpit I get this funny feeling in my chest. It itches, I don’t know why…” So is there any hope for a Serenity sequel, or another series?You know, we didn’t exactly set the box office aflame. The DVD is doing quite well. Nobody’s said anything. I don’t rule it out, I’d love to do it, but I’m focusing on whatever’s next, as are my actors. If anybody ever calls for us to come back together, that would be a great joy, but the fact that we got to make this film is, in itself, a bit of a miracle, so you don’t ask for another one for a while. How about Goners and Wonder Woman? Can you tell us more about those?Not a whole lot. I am still writing Wonder Woman. It is very awesome but incredibly unfinished, but I should be finishing that in a little while and then I’ll have a better idea of which film is actually going into production. But I can tell you that the film will be about introducing you to Wonder Woman. She'll be wearing the outfit and there will be the bracelets, the golden lasso and Greek gods. She comes from a civilisation where she's rather perfect, so she's the opposite to Buffy in many ways, but she's going through an adolescent rite of passage because she's new to the world. But how about the Buffyverse? You mentioned in the webchat you guys did with us when the film came out that you were hoping to return to that soon.We are trying to put together a Spike movie – I don’t know if it’s financially feasible. That’s what I’ve been working towards for the past several months, and I should know fairly soon whether or not something’s going to happen with that.
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Post by Karen on Jun 13, 2006 9:19:15 GMT -5
From tv.com....
"Born Joseph Hill Whedon, Joss spent his childhood in Manhattan before attending an all-boys high school in England. Upon graduation he returned to the United States and attended Connecticut’s Wesleyan University where he received a degree in Film Studies. He then moved to Los Angeles, and after a year of being unable to find work in the industry he landed a job as a writer and story editor for the television show Rosanne. He had been seeking a career in movies, but this job was familiar to him because his father and grandfather had both written for the medium, making Joss arguably the world’s first third generation television writer. It was during this time that he met Kai Cole, the woman who he later married.
After a year working on Rosanne, and writing and co-producing a number of episodes of Parenthood, Joss sold his first movie script for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Despite negative reviews and modest box office, the film went on to become a cult hit and Joss found himself much in demand as a writer and “script doctor” in Hollywood. Often uncredited, Joss wrote or worked on drafts of screenplays for such films as Speed, X-Men, and Alien: Resurrection. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Toy Story.
In 1997, Joss was approached by the brand new Warner Brothers Network (The WB) who requested that he submit some ideas for new programs. He had always been disappointed by the way his first film script was handled, so he suggested a TV version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer under the condition that he be allowed total creative control. The network agreed, and soon Buffy was being widely praised as one of the best shows on television. In 1999, Whedon launched the first spin-off of Buffy called Angel. It, too, was praised by fans and critics and quickly developed its own devoted following. Buffy the Vampire Slayer ran for seven seasons before the cast and creators decided to end the series. Angel however, was cancelled after five seasons, prompting one of the largest fan reactions in television history. Despite the massive efforts, however, the show did not return.
In 2002, Joss moved to the larger networks with a new series called Firefly on Fox. The series was a futuristic science fiction with a western flair and was instantly hailed by critics and fans alike as one of the most original shows in years. Despite the positive reviews, however, Firefly never found an audience and was cancelled after only eleven episodes. Many blamed the network who gave the series an historically poor timeslot, did very little advertising, and aired the episodes out of order with the pilot as the last episode ever aired. Shortly after the series’ cancellation was announced, Joss and Kai had a son, Arden, on December 18, 2002.
Due to incredible sales of the Firefly DVD set and Joss’ dogged persistence, Universal Pictures eventually offered him the chance to try his series on the big screen. Joss was given free rein to write and direct the silver screen adaptation of Firefly called Serenity which opened on September 30, 2005. During this time he was also tapped to write and direct a feature film version of Wonder Woman, to be released in 2006.
Joss has also expanded into the realm of one of his early inspirations, comic books. He has written a twelve-issue run of the new series Astonishing X-Men which was an instant critical and sales hit. Over the years he has also contributed to a number of other comic book projects involving his characters Buffy and Angel, including a mini-series called Fray about a Slayer in the future of the Buffy world.
Miscellaneous Trivia added by the fans.
Joss: As far as I am concerned, the first episode of Buffy was the beginning of my career. It was the first time I told a story from start to finish the way I wanted.
Joss: I don't want the giant ego. I don't want to become Kevin Costner, singing on the soundtrack to The Postman.
Joss: Buffy loves Angel. He loves her. And I love Ho Hos.
Joss tries to form relationships with his cast as he believes that then it is easier for everyone.
Joss Whedon is scheduled to do a Spike TV movie in the future.
Joss has said that the idea for Buffy came from all the horror movies he had seen featuring a helpless young blonde who would almost always be the first to die. He felt she needed a better image.
After he was disappointed with the movie version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss's wife Kai Cole suggested he wait a while and maybe one day he would get to make a TV show. He dismissed this as "naive"!
Joss Whedon: It's embarrassing to say that one watches one's own work, but on occasion, I have, and I thought, 'Yeah, this is a thing.'
Joss Whedon: I hate it when people talk about Buffy as being campy... I hate camp, I don't enjoy dumb TV. I believe Aaron Spelling has single-handedly lowered SAT scores.
Joss Whedon: Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck.
Joss is the son of Tom Whedon, who wrote for such shows as Captain Kangaroo, The Electric Company, The Dick Cavett Show, Alice, and Benson. His grandfather, John Whedon, also wrote for television including Leave it to Beaver, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Joss Whedon may be the world's first third generation television writer.
Joss has been selected to write and direct a big budget film adaptation of Wonder Woman to be released in 2007.
Universal Pictures has greenlighted a spec script by Joss for a horror movie called Goners. Joss will write and direct, and the film is planned for release in 2006.
Joss' television show Firefly was cancelled in 2002 after only eleven episodes had aired. However, at the wrap party he vowed to find another home for the show. Two years later he received an offer from Universal Pictures to let him write and direct a big screen adaptation of the show to be called Serenity. This is a mirror image of his experience with Buffy the Vampire Slayer which started as a fairly unsuccessful movie and then became a hit television series.
In 2000, Joss wrote and directed the season 6 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer entitled, "Once More With Feeling." This was a musical episode in which a demon appeared in town and made all the characters burst into song. Along with writing the script, Joss also wrote all the songs in the episode. The music from this episode was later released as a CD soundtrack.
Awards and nominations:
1996: Nominated for Oscar and Saturn awards, and won an Annie award for Best Writing for the movie Toy Story.
1999: Nominated for an Annie for "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production" for the song "My Lullaby" from the movie Lion King II: Simba's Pride.
2000: Nominated for an Emmy and a Bram Stoker Award for writing for the episode "Hush" of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
2002: Nominated for a Nebula Award for "Best Script" for the episode "The Body" of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
2003: Nominated for a Nebula Award for "Best Script" for the episode "Once More With Feeling" of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (edit) Joss has moved into the realm of comic books as well as TV and film. He is currently writing the new, critically acclaimed, comic book series "Astonishing X-Men" but will take a hiatus for several months while he works on scripting and filming a big screen version of Wonder Woman.
He's a fan of the Harry Potter books and his favorite character is Hermione.
Joss did some voice work for the video game "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds." In the game you can unlock him as a playable character for the two-player games. The game also includes video clips of interviews with Joss and much of the rest of the cast as well as clips from their voice recording sessions.
Joss' Favorite episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is Innocence.
Joss wrote the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Hush" which was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2000 for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series. "Hush" featured 28 minutes without dialogue, as a group of fairy-tale demons called the Gentlemen arrived in Sunnydale to steal voices, and then hearts (literally). "Hush" was also nominated for the coveted Bram Stoker Award the same year.
Creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly."
From tv.com.
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