Serenity news and articles--a spoiler-free zone

[William the Bloody]

Moderator's note: I figured it'd be good to have a place for those of us trying to remain unspoiled to share articles that discuss Serenity without giving anything away. Since Vlad was already good enough to get such a thread started, it seemed like a shame not to use it.


I found this today on TV Guide Online. *sigh*

DELAYED: Universal has delayed the release of Joss Whedon's Firefly flick, Serenity, from April 22 to Sept. 30. No reason was given for the postponement. The studio has also pushed back the opening of the Sean Penn-Nicole Kidman thriller The Interpreter from Feb. 18 to April 22.


So kiddies, what's up with that? Before they were releasing it a month before Star Wars Episode III, which I thought a brilliant maneuver. That way people wouldn't be sucked in by the pretty special effects of that show and try to compare the two... but now... who knows?

A sad, sad Vlad

[Karen]

I'm so excited about this. And also about the DVD release. Fox totally screwed with the TV series and ruined it, in my opinion. The concept was really unique, but the plot is what grabbed my attention.

Who wouldn't love a man, with not much of a moral compass, trying to "do the right thing". Kind of reminds me of a certain snarky vampire in Sunnydale.

I pulled these quotes off of a Firefly site:

"When I pitched the show, I said it was about nine people living in the blackness of space and seeing nine different things. That's what I'm fascinated by, how they all react. They must make decisions that are horrific to people who aren't fighting for their lives every day. It's about a group of people who are living hand-to-mouth, and are heroes, day-to-day." - Joss Whedon

"I wanted to play with that classic notion of the frontier: not the people who made history, but the people history stepped on -- the people for whom every act is the creation of civilization. Then again, there's also gunfights and action." - Joss Whedon

"How do you create a civilization? It's a personal process. Your ethics and moral structure are going to be tested. It's about life when it's hard, about how we live when we're on the edge." - Joss Whedon

Anyway, I'm jazzed.

[Sara]

Posted by Rae:

You can find this original article on the Hollywood Reporter site: hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1969026


Sep. 04, 2003

'Firefly' lands in film afterlife

By Zorianna Kit and Chris Gardner

The short-lived TV series "Firefly" is moving to the big screen. After taking his "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" feature film and turning it into a successful TV series, Joss Whedon is about to do the reverse with another one of his creations. Whedon has teamed with Universal Pictures to turn "Firefly," a TV cult favorite, into a feature film.

In addition to having adapted it for the big screen, Whedon will also make his feature directorial debut with the project. Plans are to see "Firefly" go into production in first-quarter 2004.

Universal recently acquired the rights to "Firefly" from 20th Century Fox Television, where Whedon's Mutant Enemy Inc. production company has a television deal.

The action-adventure series was set 500 years in the future and centered on a crew aboard a spaceship. The feature version will incorporate the mythology from the show but will take on a more epic feel. Whedon hopes to enlist the entire cast to come back for the feature, depending on their previous commitments, with new characters added as well.

Whedon is producing the film through his Mutant Enemy Inc. along with studio-based producer Barry Mendell. Mendell, a former agent at UTA, used to represent Whedon. Mutant Enemy president Christopher Buchanan is executive producing. Universal production president Mary Parent is shepherding the project.

"Ever since the show went off the air, our fan base has grown even more," Buchanan said. "We've had tremendous outpouring from the U.S. and Canada as well as the U.K., which just finished a run of 'Firefly' over there. Every comic book and sci-fi convention has had a 'Firefly' presence since the show first aired."

For the series, which ran this past season, Whedon produced 15 hours of television, including a two-hour episode. Three shows never aired on Fox but will likely be featured on the series' DVD release, due out in December. Buchanan said fans created such a demand that DVD presales on Amazon.com sold out within 24 hours.

Whedon, repped by CAA, continues to be executive producer of "Angel," which he created. His feature film screenplay credits include "Titan A.E.," "Alien: Resurrection" and "Toy Story."

[Wendy]

Joss posted this on Whedonesque:


Post subject: More Fun Than Shingles

Well.

It gets better.

As thus: The movie is very nearly finished. You've seen many pretty images in the trailer. But I've still got work to do and you've still got months before you can see it.

Unless.

And, no, I'm not talking Australia (but Hi, Australia! anyway), I'm talking here in the more-or-less-United States, a one time multi-city Browncoat sneak event. Thursday, May 5th at 10:00 pm, the movie (Serenity! Pay attention! Jeez.) will be playing at exactly 10 theaters in 10 cities across the country. You (or possibly someone much like you) (or possibly a robot EXACTLY like you, but with better manners and sonic arm-lasers, sent to take your place) will be able to buy a ticket to see Serenity months in advance. Not just the bitty trailer with not enough Kaylee and Book, but the whole film, in its extremely almost completed state.

You probably have some questions. How is this possible? What cities exactly will it be in? What are these changes my body is going through? All valid. It's possible because some clown put a bunch of Universal execs in a theater full of Browncoats and dude, they came out SWEATING, they never seen energy like that. They loved it, and even though they were already wicked supportive of the movie (see: earlier posts re: we're making the movie) they simply weren't ready for you guys. When I whinged on about pushing the date and everyone here was posting about "what do we do till September", they agreed to let me sneak it out.

Maybe they thought it was a fluke. Maybe they wanna see if people really do care about the flick. Or maybe they're just treating us with respect and kindness, though that last option confuses and terrifies me as much as these changes my body is going through (I'm "perspiring" and becoming "interested in girls", which believe me is very unsettling when you're 40.) Does it matter? The plan works for me, and it can work for a select bunch of y'all. Here's what I know:

The cities to be hit are:

Seattle
Austin
Sacramento
Boston
Altanta
Chicago
San Francisco
Las Vegas
Denver
The Portland of Oregon

If you're in or near one of those, you might wanna stop by. There's supposed to be a "Can't Stop the Signal" page on this website (I don't know where it is -- hey, I remembered my damn password, doesn't that buy me any cred?) There should be more info there soon about how to get in, bringing peeps into the fold, I think there's even competetions and stuff. (All I know is I have exactly 20 Brownie points. I answered ONE triv Q and got it wrong. Forget cred. I have no cred.) Now a couple of us might just creep into one of those major metropolitan multiplexes to see if anyone does show up, so remember: swearing in Chinese ONLY.

All right. This will please the fans and satisfy the employers of Joss Whedon, so I must stop as my arm-lasers are getting tired. I politely thank you for your attention.

Should be fun.

-j.


Ticket are on sale here: Get Your Tickets Here

[Sara]

From the Boston Herald:

Starship troup-ers: `Serenity' could replace popular sci-fi franchises
By Stephanie Schorow
Saturday, May 7, 2005

When both the "Star Wars'' and "Star Trek'' universes reach their final frontiers this month, where will sci-fi addicts next get their fix of the future?

Perhaps in the dark, gritty "'verse'' of "Serenity'' - director Joss Whedon's big-budget movie production of his failed 2002-2003 TV series "Firefly.''

That's the prediction of some of the 600 enthusiastic fans who packed a special advance screening of ``Serenity'' in Boston Thursday. The movie opens Sept. 30.

"There are a lot of closet fans out there,'' said David Adams, 41, of Seekonk. "This is very much how `Trek' fandom started in the 1970s. Sci-fi fans need a new frontier and this is it.''

Whedon, who launched such cult TV favorites as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and "Angel,'' conceived the "Firefly'' TV series as a cross between an action-packed, shoot-'em-up western and a noir space odyssey. The show focused on the disillusioned captain of the space ship Serenity (Nathan Fillion) and his crew living on the edge of the "civilized'' galaxy. Only 13 episodes were made - not all of them aired - and the show was canceled.

That might have ended the "Serenity'' saga, but for a determined fan base and a hugely popular DVD of the truncated season. DVD sales gave Whedon the clout to close a movie deal - with all the original cast members - and to carry on the adventures of Captain Mal Reynolds and crew.

When tickets for advance screenings in 10 cities went on sale in April, they sold out within hours. Fans from as far away as Ohio and California came to the Boston screening; cast members Sean Maher (the ship's doctor) and Morena Baccarin (a courtesan) also showed up to a standing ovation.

Fans were not concerned the film might fall short of expectations - "We trust Joss'' was their mantra. But, noted Waltham software engineer Jason Davis, 30, "I expect to be shocked and surprised.''

He was. Some of the movie's plot twists left fans visibly stunned and near tears. The reaction was, some admitted, testament to Whedon's compelling characters.

"Who's buying `Survivor' DVDs 20 years from now?'' asked Shelley Hachman, 37, of Billerica.

Still, most fans echoed the one-word reaction of Sonja Cohen, 27, of Boston and Kathy Todd, 27, of Norwood: "Wow.''

Said Josie Peterson, 46, who had traveled from New Jersey, "I was just blown away.'' She added, "It had the standard Joss Whedon lines we have come to know and love.''

"It really complemented what most of us love about the (TV) show,'' said Mark Behnke, 47,of Somerville. Yet "the ending caught most of us by surprise.''

The real challenge facing the movie is whether its appeal goes beyond its loyal fan base.

"It was a great stand-alone movie,'' said Debra Anderson, 39, of Fairhaven. Other fans thought moviegoers who have never seen the "Firefly'' series could follow the action, but admitted it was difficult to see the film with "fresh eyes.''

Stand-up comedian Kevin Conn, 30, of Mahway, N.J., called on Universal Studio to give the movie the kind of promotion the TV show lacked: "You have comedy, you have drama, you have action and, of course, you have science fiction. So market, market, market.''

Serenity: The Next Generation is counting on it.

[Karen]

My favorite line in this article: Action without depth yields crap, in my opinion. EETAH!

After Star Wars We Have Serenity!

By Frederick Smith
May 20, 2005

The buzz is on Star Wars, make no mistake – the latest movie is even getting good reviews. Yes, I said good reviews. I'm excited – glad to hear others write positively about the new Star Wars movie – it's as I heard on the radio, it really does cut over partisan/religious lines – nice to see that something can still remain free of politics.

In any case, this is no doubt part of the reason why the movie, “Serenity”, has an opening date in September, after the Star Wars crazyness dies down a bit. Here is the trailer.

This is the third in a series of mine about recent and current scifi. My first was about the Trek franchise, the second dealt with Farscape.

Firefly snuck up on me and hit me like a late 80's water bed mattress – after the initial sloshing stopped, I settled right in!

“What's this 'Western in space' business”, I thought? What's this clip I see where they transport cows? What's with this country theme music? While at the same time, “wow – look at that high tech city – amazing special effects for a TV show!” So, I gave it a chance.

And I was impressed, very impressed. I even like the theme music now. The mix of the old West and the future actually makes sense in that wonderful universe which Whedon (the director) painted. In his future, the world gets roughly split into two large powers, China and the rest. They duke it out, and a single government comes forth. Other planets are settled, and seem to have limited autonomy. Meanwhile, the single government goes corrupt, and reigns in the colonies – this leads to a civil war – one that the colonies loose. Some of the main characters in Firefly are ex rebel soldiers.

The colonies on the outskirts are left to wither, a bit like what the North did to the South after the civil war, while the inner colonies and Earth live the “good life”. No, Firefly isn't an attempt to retell the civil war story with a sympathetic view of the old South – not at all, as a matter of fact, the “North” in Firefly, the Alliance, is the side which allows slavery. There might be a political statement here, yes, but it's not about the American civil war.

Chinese has become the language of the common and/or down and out people, and interestingly, when the characters swear in the show, they do so in Chinese. In Farscape they get around saying the “F” word by saying “frell”, and in Battlestar Galactica, they say, “frag” - interesting the way that scifi allows realistic dialog within the confines of the FCC.

Again we have a bunch of folks thrown together on a ship, again, it might sound familiar, but it's not, not by a long shot. The drama and character depth makes Firefly a great piece of TV watching for anyone – scifi loving or not. Firefly has no aliens – this might appeal to those non-scifi types that can't get past the aliens on the Treks and Farscape. While I certainly don't mind aliens, in Firefly, we don't miss them – there is enough human-only drama to make a wonderful show.

The captain is a disgruntled commander from the lost-cause rebellion. The second in command was also his second in the war; a strong sexy woman, married to the pilot. The pilot is someone who was clearly not in the war; sort of the comic relief for the show, he wears Hawaiian shirts, spits out wise-cracks, etc. Then we have a tough-man, no morals type who works for the highest bidder, and another man that seems to be some kind of priest, yet, there is much more to his background that we never find out (he seems to have ties to the Alliance) – perhaps the movie will enlighten us *spoiler removed*

To round out the roster, we have a young naive and very cute country-girl type mechanic, and a very sexy prostitute. The prostitute holds the most respected position in this future society, and I can't escape the feeling that Whedon is trying to make a point here. She is certified in her trade, respected for her education, and has wealthy and powerful clients. The captain both respects her and remains revolted by her profession – this makes for interesting drama.

Finally, we have a brother/sister team. The brother is a well-todo doctor from a well-todo colony, with a well-todo job and status. The evil powers that be, however, were doing evil deeds to his sister, so he threw his life away and ran. The sister is a young, attractive, mentally troubled, quiet girl that's wanted and therefore hunted, and often becomes the focus of the show. *spoiler removed*

Firefly has been called “hard-scifi” - I'm not sure I would go that far, but it uses technology in a realistic way as a backdrop, not as the focus, as Trek so often did. This is, in my opinion, is where Firefly can have more widespread appeal than the Treks – similar to what Battlestar Galactica offers in that sense.

I think Serenity will be a big hit, and hopefully, we'll see a string of movies. Fox could have had a fortune on their hands, but they decided that their audience was stupid and killed the show; this could have been a franchise, with a large enough universe for spin-offs, etc.

The two episode pilot wasn't paced fast enough for Fox, so they showed the series out of order. Even though the ratings were good, Fox killed it before the first season finished (you can buy or rent the entire season, however – recommended to enjoy the movie more). Whatever happened to a modicum of patience? The show delivers plenty of action, make no mistake, but Whedon wanted to introduce the characters; it's they who will make or break a show, after all. Action without depth yields crap, in my opinion.

In just one season, Firefly reached the status of it's hard-to-follow and bigger competitors – there is something to behold here, folks. Firefly is damn good TV.

Next up, Battlestar Galactica, quite possibly the best scifi show currently on TV.

------------

About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys.

Email: [e-mail]

Tell a friend about this site!

www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/may/article287.html

(couple of smallish spoilers)

[Sara]

When Fox canceled 'Firefly,' it ignited an Internet fan base whose burning desire for more led to 'Serenity'
- Neva Chonin, Chronicle Critic at Large, San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, June 8, 2005


It's a foggy Thursday night in late May, and the upper lobby of San Francisco's Van Ness 1000 theater is teeming with a rowdy assortment of revolutionaries, renegades, and women in Wild West garb and Chinese pajamas squaring off against black-suited men wearing blue surgical gloves.

It could be the usual summer tourist throng, but it's not. These are fans of a long-canceled television show called "Firefly," and they've been waiting in line all afternoon to preview an unfinished cut of "Serenity," the big- screen spin-off of their lost series. After the screening sold out, some fans bought scalped tickets for more than $100 on eBay; others camped out in the lobby and hoped for a miracle.

Joey Saade, 19, was among the first to score tickets ("I kept calling the theater"), and traveled from San Jose to see the movie with his brother and three blue-gloved friends. They share the front of the line with San Leandro native Arielle Kesweder, 23, and her own "Serenity" posse. Decked out in 19th century garb as "Firefly" character Kaylee (in one of Kaylee's flouncier moments), Kesweder says she heard about the screening from an e-mail and "immediately maxed out" her credit card getting as many tickets as she could for her friends.

Some people might question these fans' devotion to a series that ran a total of 13 episodes (of which only 11 aired). Some people have never been in love. Written and directed by TV auteur Joss Whedon (creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel"), "Firefly" was a polarizing phenomenon from its first episode in 2002. Its wildly inventive premise and pithy dialogue earned it critical praise, but good reviews couldn't save it: Fox showed episodes out of sequence, frequently pre-empted the show and finally canned it mid-season.

Granted, the premise was a hard sell for commercial TV. "Firefly" is a space Western set 500 years in the future, in the aftermath of a civil war between rebels known as Independents (or Browncoats) and a tyrannical conglomerate called the Alliance. The Independents lose the war, and under Alliance control, corporations rule openly; Anglo and Asian influences merge into a eccentric polyglot culture; men in black (with blue hands) carry out sinister covert operations; and astonishingly ugly cannibals called Reavers plunder at will. On the outskirts of this universe, the crew of the Serenity (part of a class of ships called Firefly), led by a former Browncoat, survive by pulling off heists and outsmarting the authorities.

When "Firefly" was canceled, fans -- dubbed Browncoats in honor of the doomed-but-noble Independents -- campaigned to have it moved to another network. True to Browncoat tradition, they failed -- but their efforts convinced Fox to release the show as a DVD set that included three unaired episodes and behind-the-scenes extras. The DVD quickly sold more than 200,000 copies. Impressed, Universal Pictures climbed onboard, enabling Whedon to make "Serenity" (due out Sept. 30), which picks up where the series left off.

"Serenity's" existence is a testimonial to the tenacity of fans and the power of the Internet, where Browncoats have spent the past three years inspiring converts, drafting petitions and even kibitzing with the "Firefly" cast on bulletin boards. Whedon and Universal are now stoking enthusiasm with their own "Serenity" Web sites, asking Browncoat communities across the United States, Australia and Europe to spread the word as they count down to the movie's release. Whedon knows "Serenity" will have to move beyond its "Firefly" base to succeed commercially, and he's actively recruiting Browncoats as guerrilla publicists.

"It's a viral thing, encouraging them to encourage other people to see it, " he explains over the phone while stuck in a Los Angeles traffic jam, where he's en route to an editing session. " 'Serenity' doesn't have Tom Cruise or 'I can't believe I'm in the body of a third-grader' slapped over the title, or any of the other things marketing people latch onto. What it does have is our belief in the film."

With the "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" franchises finally ending, hopes are high that homeless science-fiction buffs will find their way to the "Firefly" universe -- nudged, perhaps, by some online fan-to-fan marketing. Whedon, at least, is cautiously optimistic about the future of his feisty Western in space. "The opinions of a thousand fans still won't carry the weight of a thousand execs, but I've never seen a studio operate the way Universal has in regards to my little movie. They've been enthusiastic, intelligent -- yes, I'm using the word 'intelligent' about a movie studio -- and supportive every step of the way."

Glenn Yeffeth, editor of the anthology "Finding Serenity: Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's 'Firefly' " (BenBella Books; $17.95; 240 pages), thinks 'Serenity' has a good shot at becoming a crossover hit, even sans Tom Cruise. "No question 'Firefly' was quirky, combining science fiction with a Western," he says. "But it's really about the search for meaning in a meaningless universe, and it's a notch above the very best writing of other television series out there."

San Francisco Browncoats organizer Renee Balmert, 32, is happy to fight the good fight for her show, regardless of the outcome. "You either love Whedon or you don't," she says. "His series are hard to pin down, which is why they're hard to promote. But Joss is great at gathering people around him who have the same vision. There's a wonderful rapport between him and the fans, and between fans and the actors in the show."

Whedon admits "there is a bit of a cult" around his work -- and him. "I have exactly one reaction to that: Whoo-hoo! It puts a little pressure on me, but at the same time it makes me proud and excited. Every artist wants to reach people on a primal level. Part of that is a pathetic need, or maybe a less pathetic desire, to connect and talk about the important things in our lives while entertaining the s -- out of everyone.

"Some fans are, shall I say, idiosyncratic," he adds. "But those are the people I'm writing for; those are the people I'm writing about. By and large they're extremely cheerful, amiable, witty bunch. They're passionate and sometimes unhappy. I have the utmost respect for that. I write the work like a fan. So if a fan is crying about something I wrote, there's a good chance I cried while I wrote it."

When they're not talking up the movie, the SF Browncoats will be organizing a "Firefly" raffle during the Comic-Con convention in San Diego next month, with proceeds benefiting the women's support organization Equality Now, a favorite Whedon cause. Other summer distractions will help fill time until September: More guerrilla screenings are planned, and a three-part "Firefly" comic series arrives in July.

If "Serenity" flies at the box office, will there be more "Firefly" films, even a trilogy? "Hell, yes," says Whedon. "Hell, yes, there will be more." And if it crashes? Whedon's stoic shrug is almost audible. "I've gotten a certain amount of closure that I didn't have when the series was canceled. The movie delivers what I want to deliver the way I want to deliver it -- with action, violence, humor and fun. I'll feel we told the story we wanted to tell. "

Like "Firefly's" Independents, he will keep flying. "But in my secret, greasy heart," he confesses, "I really do want to come back to this universe. I can't help it. I'm a fan."

Meet The "Serenity" Crew: Capt. Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (a.k.a. Capt. Tightpants, played by Nathan Fillion) is a world-weary ex-Browncoat whose crew acts as his dysfunctional, post-apocalyptic family. They are: First mate and former soldier Zoe (Gina Torres) and her pilot-comic relief husband, Wash (Alan Tudyk); cheery ship's mechanic Kaylee (Jewel Staite) and hunky mercenary Jayne (Adam Baldwin); hooker-in-space Inara (Morena Baccarin) and galactic preacher Shepherd Book (Ron Glass); the distractingly handsome doctor, Simon (Sean Maher), and his troublesomely telepathic sister, River (Summer Glau).
"Firefly" And "Serenity" Online:

-- Serenitymovie.com: The official film site.

-- Cantstopthesignal.com: Whedon's site, which carries news about sneak screenings.

-- Fireflyfans.net: An online watering hole for the devoted.

-- Bigdamnboard.com: A database for all things "Firefly."

-- Whedonesque.com: The ultimate resource for all things Joss.

-- Hellmouthcentral.com: More Joss worship.

-- Forums.prospero.com/foxfirefly: The biggest and best of the Firefly bulletins boards. Series actors have been known to post here.

-- Browncoats.com is international Browncoat central. Sfbrowncoats.com is home of the San Francisco Browncoats. Their mailing list can be found at groups.yahoo.com/group/sfbrowncoats. The Silicon Gulch (San Jose) Browncoats' mailing list is at groups.yahoo.com/group/SiliconGulchBrowncoats. Sacramento Browncoats hang their hats at groups.yahoo.com/group/SacramentoBrowncoats.

E-mail Neva Chonin at [e-mail].

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original article

[Sara]

The Browncoats Rise Again
The best sci-fi TV series you've never seen has gone from cancellation to the big screen. Will a never-tried marketing strategy work for "Serenity"?
by M.E. Russell, Weekly Standard
06/24/2005 12:00:00 AM

Portland, May 26, 10:00 p.m.
"HI, MY NAME IS JOSS WHEDON. Before we begin the special screening, I have a little story I want to tell you. It's about a TV show called Firefly."

I'm sitting in a movie theater in Portland and along with 200 other fans, I'm staring at a 20-foot-tall projection of the bleary, peanut-shaped head of Joss Whedon--creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; he's snarkily introducing Serenity--the partially-completed film we're about to watch. We're paying to see this unfinished movie four months before its release date. It's the second of three rounds of sold-out sneak-preview screenings, scheduled for May 5 and 26 and June 23 in major cities.

It's an unprecedented way to market a movie. But then, Serenity itself is unusual: It's a big-screen sequel to a canceled TV show named Firefly--a space-Western that was the biggest bomb of Whedon's producing career.

"Firefly went on the air two years ago," the giant Whedon continues, "and was immediately hailed by critics as one of the most canceled shows of the year."

Everyone laughs.

"It was ignored and abandoned, and the story should end there--but it doesn't. Because the people who made the show and the people who saw the show--which is, roughly, the same number of people--fell in love with it a little bit. Too much to let it go. . . . In Hollywood, people like that are called unrealistic, quixotic, obsessive. In my world, they're called 'Browncoats.'" (Firefly fans call themselves "Browncoats," for reasons I'll explain in a minute.)

"This movie should not exist," he continues. "Failed TV shows don't get made into major motion pictures--unless the creator, the cast, and the fans believe beyond reason. . . . It is, in an unprecedented sense, your movie.

"Which means, if it sucks, it's your fault."


WHEDON IS RIGHT: Serenity really does belong to its fans, who are now willing pawns in one of the stranger movie marketing campaigns ever devised.

You can read a tidy summation of the movie's TV incarnation, Firefly, here. Think of it as Star Wars, if Han Solo were the main character, and he still shot Greedo first.

In Firefly's case, the "galaxy far, far away" is a solar system humanity is colonizing after the Earth's demise. East and West have mingled to the degree that people dress like cowboys and curse in Chinese. The Han Solo character is Capt. Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion)--a smuggler who led a group of soldiers (called "Browncoats") on the losing side of a galactic civil war. And Reynolds' Millennium Falcon is the Serenity--a cargo ship that's home to nine bickering outlaws.

Of course, this premise could be loosely applied to any number of horrible rogues-on-a-spaceship entertainments--from Space Rangers to Andromeda to Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone to the pirate-crew supporting cast of Alien Resurrection (written, incidentally, by Whedon).

What made Firefly stand out was its odd, romantic characters and gutsy, strange writing. The dialogue tended to be a bizarre puree of wisecracks, old-timey Western-paperback patois, and snatches of Chinese. The stories were mostly simple genre exercises: train heists, double-crosses, duels at dawn, running from the law. And they allowed the crew--which included a fugitive doctor (Sean Maher), his psychic sister (Summer Glau), a missionary (Ron Glass), a cute mechanic (Jewel Staite), and a courtesan (Morena Baccarin)--to bump and occasionally grind against each other in amusing ways. The chemistry was irresistible.

And so, of course, the Fox network pulled the plug in 2002 after showing 11 of the 14 filmed episodes. The network even decided, in its infinite wisdom, to air the episodes out of order, so that the final broadcast was the two-hour pilot, which was, unfortunately, the episode which spelled out Firefly's rather elaborate concept.

As an afterthought, Fox released the 14 episodes on DVD and something surprising happened: The expensive boxed set sold somewhere north of 200,000 copies. On the strength of the DVD sales, Universal green-lit a small-budget movie, to be written and directed by Whedon.


MAKE NO MISTAKE: Budgeted at a mere $40 million, Serenity will almost certainly break even once box office, home-video, and other aftermarket revenues are counted--which means Universal can afford to use the film to beta-test a new way of selling movies.

Rough-draft versions of films--with temporary music, editing and "placeholder" special effects that look like Nintendo 64 screenshots--usually have a carefully controlled release only to tightly-monitored focus-group screenings. They're never shown repeatedly to their core audiences (paying core audiences, mind you) four months in advance of their official release dates. Nor do actors and producers attend these screenings with barnstorming vigor: But in Serenity's case, all the major cast members have made surprise appearances during the screenings--signing autographs and holding lengthy Q&A sessions afterwards.

At the May 26 showing in Portland, some significant studio brass were on hand. Universal Pictures marketing bigwig Julie Brantley and Serenity executive producer Chris Buchanan introduced the film and watched it from café chairs on the side of the auditorium. (Buchanan is so courtly towards the show's base that he still posts at the old Propsero Firefly Forum under the name "AffableChap".)

Buchanan explains the altruistic fan-screening strategy: After the film's release date was pushed from April to September--officially to make room for The Interpreter--Whedon asked Universal to set up screenings to reward Firefly fans. "We wanted to reach out to you guys, because you're why we're here," Buchanan says.

But it's altruism with side benefits. The screenings preempt the sort of negative buzz that can erupt in the wake of a scheduling change, since multiple showings of a work-in-progress prove that Whedon isn't hiding Serenity because of quality issues. And then there's word of mouth. As Buchanan says at one point, "Who's gonna tell their friends [about Serenity] more than the Browncoats?" After the screening, one fan asks Buchanan point-blank if he's worried about the previews cannibalizing an audience that now might not turn up in September. His answer is telling:

"We know you guys are gonna go September 30 to see the finished movie," he replies. "[Tonight's preview] was on 20 screens with--what, 250, 300 people per theater? So you're talking about maybe 5,000 people. But on an opening weekend of a movie, you're talking about 3,000 screens. We're not worried."

And even if the producers are worried, it's a calculated gamble. The June 23 wave of previews has been expanded to 35 cities--including a couple in Canada--but the movie has still only been seen by a small percentage of hard-core fans. So the screenings create the illusion of scarcity and keep the fan message boards alive by relieving pre-release suspense in little kettle-steam puffs. It creates all-new sub-hierarchies of fans with "I saw it before you did" bragging rights. It inspires free advertising in the form of entertainment-press stories (including, well, this one) about the "Browncoat phenomenon." And, best of all for Team Whedon, revenue from these screenings will very likely be applied to Serenity's opening-weekend gross.

The marketing plan rises to evil-genius levels when you realize all the ways the move from April to September pried open six months' worth of free-publicity for the entire Firefly/Serenity franchise. Since the fan screenings began, Firefly DVD sales have shot up the genre charts at Barnes & Noble and Amazon. In July, a Dark Horse Serenity comic book, written by Whedon, will hit shelves, and the Sci-Fi Channel will soon start broadcasting the 14 Firefly episodes--all of them, in order.

None of which cost Universal a dime.

There could be another hidden benefit of the September release: By the fall, some key competitors will be lying in their cinematic tombs. As Ain'tItCoolNews.com put it recently, "Most of the major geek franchises are rolling flaming across their finish lines. Star Trek just lolled off the air. Star Wars is migrating to TV. The Wachowskis reduced the Matrix audience to--what?--the Venn-diagram intersection of philosophy undergrads, S&M aficionados, wuxia geeks, and wankers in denial? And the rights to The Hobbit are currently being pried apart by the jackals of finance."

"As Joss has always said, it's about world domination," Buchanan laughs. "You gotta pick your shot. We're like: 'Lucas? Done.'"

NONE OF WHICH MATTERS to the Browncoats who started standing in line 5:00 p.m. for the 10:00 p.m. screening. Publisher's Weekly dubbed this sort of gathering a "Nerd Prom," but the Serenity queue feels more like a Nerd High-School Reunion. The overwhelming suggestion is that this is where "Star Wars" fans go when they grow up. It's an older crowd, courtly and even genteel, many of them killing time in line with their PDAs. They make and sell their own bootleg merchandise with Universal's tacit, look-the-other-way approval. They use words like "menfolk."

So pleasant are the Browncoats that at the screening Sarah McKinlay--a woman wearing a floor-length dress and a vest inscribed with quotes from various Whedon shows--gives handwritten thank-you cards to the studio publicist and theater personnel. Handwritten thank-you cards. The studio flack, acclimated to the more, shall we say, adolescent behavior of other sci-fi fans, looked as though he might cry.

I later learn that Rick Bilyeu--a local courier and quite possibly the biggest Firefly fan in the whole wide world--stopped by the theater earlier in his white delivery van, which is plastered with two magnetic Serenity signs. (I made Rick, age 51, the star of a comic I drew for the Oregonian about the May 5 screening.)

Rick skipped the May 26 screening, telling me he wanted to "give another Browncoat a chance." Instead, he dropped by to show off his memorabilia collection, which includes a chunk of the Firefly set, a replica of Malcolm Reynolds' pistol, and a Firefly press kit re-assembled through multiple auctions.

Another member of the Serenity audience is Ted Hurliman, who works for the Northwest Film Center, which puts on the Portland International Film Festival. "I think there's something significantly wrong with Star Wars--not with the story, but with what it's done to the pop culture at large," Hurliman says. "Everyone I talk to who's loved [Revenge of the Sith] has said, 'Sure, the acting is bad. Sure, the whole Darth Vader screaming "NOOO!" was bad. But there were three good things.' So basically now, to make a good movie, you can have bad acting, you can have terrible sets--as long as you get one or two good things in there."

"Then I went, 'Wait. There's this new thing that's about to happen,'" he says. "I mean, Firefly didn't even have aliens. It had people making a living."

As Hurliman is talking, a fellow in an awkwardly made knit cap--a nod to a tuke worn by Jayne, one of the Firefly characters--takes the stage. He starts leading the auditorium in a halting sing-along of a folk ditty heard an episode of the show:

He robbed from the rich and he gave to the poor!
Stood up to the Man and he gave him what for!
Our love for him now ain't hard to explain!
The Hero of Canton--the man they call Jayne!
Hurliman smiles as more and more fans join in on the song, mumbling like parishioners who can't find their hymnal page. As I wander around the auditorium, Browncoats--some of them suspecting I'm a studio flunky--walk up and offer me messages to pass along to Hollywood executives:

"All of us here are delighted that Universal had the wherewithal to move forward with this project."

"We're gonna take [Firefly] from the very bottom all the way to the very top."

"Fox made the most monumental mistake in its history by not taking advantage of this franchise."

That last one is debatable. Fox still controls Firefly's TV-broadcast rights--for which the Sci-Fi Channel just paid $450,000--and an enormous chunk of Serenity's success rests on Universal moving as many Fox DVDs as it can between now and September 30.

You see, even if Serenity bombs, Fox will have reaped some very tidy aftermarket revenue for a show they aired only 11 times. Without even lifting a finger.

SPOILERS PUT IN WHITE TEXT--HIGHLIGHT AREA IF YOU REALLY, REALLY WISH TO READ
SO HOW'S THE MOVIE? Well, despite a title that makes it sound like a Buddhist art film (and a logo that looks like a sign for a boutique candle store), Serenity is a harrowing, slightly dented Firefly series finale.

The film more or less wraps up the TV show's story arc about the psychic sister, River Tam--a crazy girl rescued by her brother Simon from a lab where government spooks poked needles in her brain. The crew is pursued by an eerily calm, sword-carrying assassin (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Vast conspiracies are uncovered. Captain Reynolds takes a number of Harrison Ford-style beatings. There's a joke about "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Adam Baldwin turns in a hilarious, star-making performance as Jayne, a man so tough and stupid he cracks wise with a spear through his leg. The story is grim and quippy and should make sense, more or less, to non-fans.

But if the preview-screening audiences are any indication, anyone who has seen Firefly or cares about its characters will be knocked on his or her fanny by the final third, during which Whedon basically directs the movie like it's his last--heaping world-changing, Kobayashi Maru levels of abuse on his characters. It's a nervy, almost sadistic way to reward the long-suffering Browncoats--who were literally gasping and crying during the screening--but it also immediately removes the sense of fluffy-pillow safety that episodic television provides.

This strong cup of coffee is mitigated by the fact that, on a structural level, Serenity is also a self-referential valentine to its fans. By film's end, Reynolds and his crew are circumventing vast bureaucracies to broadcast a long-lost message, aided by a dork named "Mr. Universe" who basically surfs the Web from his own hidden planet. The metaphor for Firefly's own struggle--and its possible salvation, thanks to fans surfing the Web from their basements and office cubicles--is too blatant to be accidental. (The film's current tag line is the equally unsubtle "You Can't Stop the Signal.")

This love-letter quality--combined with the laughs, scares, and human moments missing from another notable science-fiction franchise--is probably enough to paper over the film's problems, some of which may be addressed in the editing room over the next few months anyway. A few characters get short shrift. Mr. Universe is deeply silly. A couple of post-traumatic emotional beats could be handled better. And our heroes fight cannibals driven mad at the edge of space who seem just a little too crazy to aim straight, much less pilot spaceships.

At any rate, it's a pretty bold, take-no-prisoners story to be throwing in front of your fans four months early. Whedon's got brass. As he says toward the end of his opening message: "If this movie matters to you, let somebody know. Let everybody know. Make yourselves heard.

"If you don't like the movie, this is a time for quiet, silent contemplation."

[Onjel]

yorick said:

The Browncoats Rise Again
The best sci-fi TV series you've never seen has gone from cancellation to the big screen. Will a never-tried marketing strategy work for "Serenity"?
by M.E. Russell, Weekly Standard
06/24/2005 12:00:00 AM

<snipped for space>

"If you don't like the movie, this is a time for quiet, silent contemplation."

Thank you for posting this Sara! ;D Now I want to see it even more, as if that's possible.

All in all, I see this as a great review and a great slam against Fox. He's right, turns out they were not so dumb after all and I hate the thought of them reaping any $$ from this through any post-cancellation sales, but that's the real world, I guess.

[Sara]

From drewprops.com:

June 24, 2005

This week I attended a special screening of the film 'Serenity', the third such pre-release audience test screening to visit Atlanta in the last eight weeks. Based on the failed FOX network series 'Firefly', this movie represents a Very Big Thing to the world of science fiction fandom; one of the very few times that a cancelled television show is moved up to the silver screen with creator, cast and crew intact (think: Star Trek). Before the movie began there was a brief, pre-recorded introduction by the show's creator/director, Joss Whedon (aka Joyce Wilber, aka Jox Wheaty, aka Jake Wheelbarrow and any other other intentional mispronunciation I could think of to elicit wails of frustration from the man's fans).

In his introduction Jazz Wheedle artfully describes how utterly unlikely it was that this film could have ever gotten made. It is obvious that he loves his creation and that he is moved by the groundswell of fans who have supported a show that was dead before it even had a chance to live. Likening the show's fanbase to the brown coat wearing revolutionaries of the 'Firefly' universe, he issues a call-to-arms for all his faithful to help get the word out to the rest of the world, to the people who know nothing of the show. It's a modern sci-fi version of Jesus' "Great Commission" (Mark 16:15-16: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel unto every person. He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned."). It's a great introduction to the film and a direct tribute to the fans.

And damned I'd be by those fans if I dared give this film a bad review. Fortunately (for me), I can't give this film ANY review because it's technically not yet finished. What I can do is to tell you that this movie has more heart than the last three Star Wars movies lashed together and dipped in hearty sauce.

The film, like the series, is based on the adventures of the crew of the small starship 'Serenity'. Captained by a veteran of a galactic civil war, the ship and its crew flit around the edges of the galaxy taking on petty jobs to survive - driven to this state by an all-powerful galactic government. Couched more in the style of 'Wagon Train' than Star Trek ever was, Whedon and his art department do a fine job of painting the outskirts of the galaxy like Indian Territory circa 1850 without dropping into lazy stereotypes or directly applied metaphors from the American West.

The speech patterns of the captain and some of his crew does smack of something akin to Amish-lite: the kind of way you speak when you're being proper, good and true. Contrasted against the citified lingo of the film's government officials it is endearing without being cloying or sounding like Yoda-speak. I did, however, at some point expect to see someone to pull out a banjo and sing a song about Tom Sawyer and the Exposition of 1880. I suspect the Jeb Weevil went aboard The Great American Freedom Train and exited the 1970's with that strange bicentennial fervor injected into the water system at the time.

I was very impressed with the look of the film, from cinematography to production design. The first five (probably more) minutes of the movie is one continuous steadicam move designed to simultaneously cover exposition and to provide us some geography and sense of scale for the size of the ship 'Serenity'. I've worked days where we set up for long steadicam shots and they're incredibly adventurous endeavors for every department, from the steadicam operator and his guardian grip to the boom operator sneaking along trying to keep the mouse out of shot. Fortunately this was shot on stage, so I expect that the electricians had more control on their pre-rig.

If Jars Whizzle shot this scene once he shot it twenty times.

As with Star Trek, the 'Firefly' universe is of course best appreciated by fans of the television series but not being one of those fans I am happy to say that the movie is emminently accessible by non-fans. The witty dialogue, the unexpected, non-formulaic actions by the characters and the pre-existing relationships by all involved work together to create something that the trainwreck called 'Andromeda' never accomplished, regardless of its (questionable) lineage from Gene Roddenberry's hand.

Will you leave this movie on September 30th (the release date) as a fan of 'Firefly'? You just might.

You'll certainly leave it with respect for Jaxx Windham's love for his baby and for his fans.

You might even leave it as a Brown Coat.

[Sara]

Whedon flock ready for 'Firefly' resurrection
By Anne Thompson Fri Jul 22, 9:29 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Now that "Star Wars," "Star Trek" and "The Matrix" are fading into the sunset, what will take their place in the hearts of sci-fi fantasy fans?

TV auteur Joss Whedon and Universal Pictures are hoping that it's "Serenity," his movie version of 2002's aborted Fox space Western TV series "Firefly," which opens Sept. 30.

Universal launched its grass-roots awareness campaign for Whedon's directing debut in April, recruiting Whedon's loyal fans to help sell "Serenity," which features the original "Firefly" cast. The studio previewed the rough cut nationwide in markets where "Firefly" performed best, culminating last weekend with a rousing screening at the Comic-Con International confab in San Diego, where Whedon and his cast conducted a panel for fans.

Back in 2001, when Whedon sat down to write his follow-up to the two hit Fox series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," he wanted to try his hand at a space Western.

"I thought, 'Wagon Train' in space," he said on the phone from Cape Cod, where he is conceiving his upcoming "Wonder Woman" script.

He didn't know that Gene Roddenberry had set out to do the same thing back in the 1960s, when he created "Star Trek," a smart TV show that was saved by its fans.

History is repeating itself.

Starting Friday night at 7, the Sci Fi Channel is showing all 13 episodes of "Firefly" -- in the correct order.

"Fox never got the show," Whedon said. "It was a bad match." After premiering the series late after a
World Series game and running 11 episodes out of order, Fox dropped it.

"I told the cast the day the show was canceled that I would not rest until I found another home," Whedon said. "I felt like I had let them down."

Not wanting to admit failure was part of it, too, Whedon admits. "I didn't want people thinking that the show didn't work. Nothing I've ever done has ever emerged so instantly. Even the pilot was the way it should be. There was never an awkward growing phase. It felt right. Every actor felt so right, they worked so well together. I couldn't bear to let the universe go, or let the actors out of my sight."

When overseas markets demanded a DVD release, Fox Home Entertainment complied. The "Firefly" DVD sold more than 200,000 copies.

Whedon felt vindicated. Having soldiered in the feature screenwriting realm on "Toy Story," "Titan A.E." and an unproduced "X-Men" script, Whedon told Universal executive Mary Parent that he wanted to make his directing debut on the movie version of "Firefly." She checked out the DVDs.

"Write it," she told him.

Renamed "Serenity," after the Firefly-class ship that scours outer space, the $40 million alien-free movie will register with "Firefly" fans without confusing people, Whedon says. And the movie retains the show's homemade feel. "It's like the ship Serenity herself," he said. "Crappy but scrappy."

"Serenity" reunites the original TV cast of nine shipmates in a dysfunctional family. That was the deal. There was never a question of upgrading the cast, though Universal did consider hiring a name villain -- and then dropped it. Added to the youthful ensemble headed by Canadian actor Nathan Fillion, who plays a jocular Kirk-like captain on the mercenary freighter, are archvillain Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Dirty Pretty Things") and David Krumholtz ("Numbers") as a hacker hermit. At Comic-Con, dancer-actress Summer Glau's martial arts scene drew thunderous applause and an Ain't It Cool News rave.

What generates this powerful response? "What captivates the fans is an entire world they can go to," Whedon said, "that feels complete, thought-out, genuine, that they can live in for a long time. From the first show, we made sure every character had their own patch of ground. Conflicts become the story. Everybody plays off everybody."

Said Anna Kaufman, arts editor of the Daily Californian in Berkeley, Calif.: "You feel for the family of nine characters and their well-being. They all have interesting dynamics, pasts and secrets. They're thrumming with life." Kaufman checks the many Web sites devoted to Whedon, "Firefly" and "Serenity" (including for updates on the movie. "I'm greedy. I want more," she adds.

In October, when Universal's co-president of marketing, Eddie Egan, booked a routine rough-cut preview in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, he was amazed by the explosive response from the research-screening recruits who were clearly rabid "Firefly" fans. He wanted to know just how they had learned about the screening.

It turned out that one fan had identified the movie and tipped off her entire "Firefly" community (known as "browncoats") with one Internet post. Some of them had driven from Arizona and Seattle, Egan says. Universal, deciding that it had something bigger than it thought, pushed the action adventure off of its spring lineup and into the fall.

The studio staged three waves of word-of-mouth sneak preview screenings (which do not advertise the name of the film) in 35 cities where "Firefly" had earned the best ratings, including Toronto and San Francisco. Each time, Whedon posted fan screenings on his blog: once, with a link to a Fandango site where they could order tickets. Each time, all the tickets were sold within five minutes. Fans return for repeat viewings, Egan says, bringing new people with them.

"As the industry struggles to redefine the paradigm of the movie business," Egan said, "and what makes people go to movies or avoid them, a piece of text on a Web page sold out theaters."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

[Karen]

Wasn't quite sure where to post this link.

I #heart# NF.

www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39243.

From: The official Serenity message board (you have to register to see the message board) comes a message from Nathan Fillion who plays Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly and Serenity about comic book stores:

It is times like these that I feel like Malcolm Reynolds. This is something that would surely get you kicked into an engine. I just went to a comic store to purchase the Serenity comic for my mom. The sweetheart that she is, gave her issues (with her favorite character on the front) to relatives who were having trouble tracking one down.

Please bear in mind that Canada is a wondrous place where the service industry is polite and helpful, and that this experience is not the norm. The store I chose, which shall remain nameless (Warp 1 Comics), at an undisclosed location (just off Whyte Ave), has the singlemost sanctimonious, condescending, dishonest a$$hole I've had the misfortune of meeting. My brother and I called ahead to find out they had one issue left, but upon arriving, found out they are gouging people $20 bucks for the damned thing! "That's what they're worth." he sneered at me. I asked him to show me a listing of some sort to back it up. "Well, I just know what I paid Dark Horse for it."

He wouldn't show me that, either. I am aware that Dark Horse wasn't expecting these books to sell as well as they are, and that they are going into a second printing, but I just picked up three of them two days ago at cover price at another store. My brother piped up with a, "What an interesting attitude you have." Let me tell you folks, this fella had an attitude, and a smirk that you wanted to knock off his face with a baseball bat dipped in dog poop. Of course, my brother couldn't help letting this guy know who he was trying to hose by holding the issue next to my face. "This guy look familliar? This isn't some JoJo off the street! He knows what he's talking about!" Check this out- the reply of this crap-catcher, who shall remain nameless (Darryl) was, (and imagine a dullards voice- how we make people we don't like sound in a story) "Well, then you can call Joss Whedon and ask him."

I had to tell this purplebelly that I was being sacastic when I thanked him for his excellent service, and I don't think he knew what sanctimonious meant!
Wouldn't a smart business man ask me to sign an issue and sell me one at a fair price? Wouldn't that fetch a prettier penny than ripping me off for one issue? Congratulations, dude! You are now on the Browncoat $hitlist.

Never have I tried to wield power in this way, but if being Malcolm Reynolds has taught me anything, it's to follow my over-developed sense of vengeance. BOYCOTT WARP ONE COMICS! If you are in the neighborhood, drop by to tell "the Buttress" that Browncoats don't take $hit from anyone. Tell your friends not to shop there, and lock 'em in the airlock if they do.

Copy this post and e-mail it to fellow Edmontonians. Bump it to keep it alive.
Thank you. Thank you for letting me rant. If you feel I'm overboard, please feel free to, as Joss would say, contemplate silently.

The Captain

Edited to be less cruel, and to mention how wonderfully my dear mom was treated at HAPPY HARBOR. Thank you, staff and owners at Happy Harbor. You made my mom's day. Turns out, Warp One tried to hose her, too, by telling her that the Jayne covered issue was a rarity. Love you, Adam B. You ARE a rarity. Nothin' agin you. But will these butt-tards stoop so low as to steal from a woman? For shame, Warp One, for shame.

[Onjel]

Very cool thing to read! NF is one hot honorable guy! ;D

[Karen]

The Sunday Times - Culture

August 14, 2005

Film: Hang on in there
Serenity may be based on a cancelled TV show, but it’s autumn’s most anticipated film, says John Harlow
Can Joss Whedon save the Hollywood action flick? Right now, as he hobbles about with a damaged knee, it may seem a bit of a tall order, even for the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But, if not Whedon, then who? The old masters of noise and spectacle are in trouble. A billion dollars’ worth of digitally enhanced action films — from Ridley Scott’s crusaders to Michael Bay’s clones — have landed in America with a bored splat. Only releases that have surprised, from the retooled Batman to a documentary about penguins, have made any kind of lasting impact. So here we are, at the end of blockbuster season, and box- office hopes are resting on a low-budget sci-fi tale, based on a little-seen television series made by a man whose track record in big-screenery is, in his own words, an “abysmal failure”. And it is being premiered, not in LA or Cannes, but next week in Edinburgh. Is Hollywood insane? Usually, but maybe not this time. For, in the two years since Buffy ended, followed last year by its sterner spin-off, Angel, Whe- don’s fans have only grown more devoted, especially in the UK. The proof is in the crush: more than 40,000 of them crashed the website when sales opened for two Edinburgh film festival screenings of his directing debut, Serenity. The organisers arranged two more: the first of them sold out in 60 seconds. Tickets for a public interview with the amiable auteur are selling on eBay for hundreds of pounds. And this for a mere writer.

Back at home in west Los Angeles, the 41-year-old is struggling with more mundane problems. Universal, the studio that bankrolled the film, has sent somebody to get back the Apple computer they loaned him for scoring Serenity. Whedon is having trouble unplugging it. His second child, eight-month-old Squire (sister to Arden), is bellowing in the background. This afternoon, he is preparing for an operation on a knee ligament. He tore it while running — an entirely predictable result of a new midlife health regime. “But I shall be ready for Scotland. What’s this about deep-fried Mars bars?” And what is this about Serenity? After Angel was prematurely killed, Whedon started with a space-opera, set 500 years in the future, where everyone speaks a mixture of Wild West American and Chinese. They dress and shoot like cowboys. Breaking Star Trek directive number one, there are no aliens, just a dysfunctional group of nine irritable strangers on board a rattling Firefly-class cargo ship called Serenity.

Fans are still outraged that episodes of Firefly, as it was then known, were shown out of order, postponed due to sports events and then cancelled after a handful of episodes. Others were amazed the series went out at all. Firefly was not cheap to make, its wit slyer and darker than Buffy’s or Angel’s, its concerns more humane. Friday-night Americans prefer their genres unblended: none of this pummelling one moment, punning the next. Nobody but Whedon would have got the series made in the first place.

But DVDs have changed the economics of television. Networks can make more money selling unbroadcast programmes than by airing them. As with the cancelled cartoon series Family Guy and Buffy-influenced “quirky girl” nonhits such as Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me, the Firefly box set, complete with unseen episodes, sold by the truckload. The legend lived. And so Universal put up the money for the film version, Serenity, which starts six months after the conclusion of Firefly, with its ill-assorted ragamuffins being chased around the galaxy by cannibals and a big, bad corporation called Blue Sun that wants its genetically engineered “empath” back. Making Serenity cost a measly £25m, almost a third of Bay’s budget for The Island, but, judging by the rough-cuts, it looks like a hundred-million bucks on screen. That is the first lesson for Hollywood: get back to value.

Whedon says he insisted on regrouping the original cast, including Nathan Fillion (the mad priest Caleb from Buffy), Gina Torres (mad goddess Jasmine from Angel) and the ravishing Brazilian Monrena Baccarin as the nomadic courtesan Inara. “We had 18 months to workshop all this, so when we started shooting, it was like a release. I have never worked on something that was so much fun,” he says.

Critics writing in the book of essays Finding Serenity (yes, it is that kind of fandom) fear Whedon has gone backwards: Buffy liberated young women, but Serenity puts the cowboys back in charge. Whedon disagrees: “I looked into the history of whores and realised it was only recently the pimps took over. Inara is a powerful women, a geisha, and Zoë (a soldier, played by Torres) is a step forward of Buffy. They are sexually active, but neither weak nor ashamed of it, like the men.”

And why Chinese-speaking cowboys? “I loved westerns as a kid, films such as Stagecoach, but I wanted to show a galaxy created by the descendants of today’s superpowers, America and China, and how they might work together on the next frontier.” The Winchester-educated Whedon also uses Mandarin as he did the British slang in Buffy — as a sly way around the US censors. His western-speak is more laconic John Wayne than scatological Deadwood, but about half the Chinese phrases are rude. A family friendly example? Watch out for a line that sounds like “da-shian bao-jah-shar duh la-doo-tse” — used to compare somebody to “the explosive diarrhoea of a once- constipated elephant”.

Serenity’s release was postponed until the autumn to avoid the summer crush. In retrospect, Whedon is relieved. “There have been some disasters out there this year,” he says. “But there is still some room for more intelligent entertainment. Batman and Spider-Man have proved that. Something not driven by shock-and-awe marketing, opening and closing in a weekend, but spreading because people actually like it.” Cheap and popular — now that is radical.

Whedon hopes Serenity makes money so he can do a trilogy, even see it return to TV. Meanwhile, he is talking to James Marsters about a Spike movie and even a Buffy stage musical “if I can find the time”. And then there is the big screen. Whedon co-wrote the original Toy Story, but his work on Waterworld, Speed and the first X-Men movie was less successful. His next script is Wonder Woman. He wants to make the star-spangled heroine live again. After the bad breath of Daredevil, The Punisher and Hulk, this could a revolution. But it is what Whedon fans have come to expect.

Serenity opens on October 7; tickets for the last Edinburgh film festival screening on August 28 go on sale on August 22


www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2774-1729034,00.html

[Karen]

Firefly - "Serenity" Movie - Movies You Should See Podcast Review
From Feedburner.com - By Webmaster - 2005-10-29

Movies You Should See - Ever been wondering what movie to watch tonight. Join Rich, Craig, Tristan and Mike as each week they recommend a film you should see. This week is our first "on release" movie, the Joss Whedon film - Serenity. Enjoy.

Click on the link :


www.whedon.info/article.php3?id_article=12183