Whedon: Dr. Horrible A Rush

Joss Whedon told SCI FI Wire that he created Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a loony Internet musical, in a "mad rush of joy and ridiculousness." The first of three parts debuts on the official Web site on July 15.

"Dude. Why would I do anything else?" Whedon said in an interview in Santa Monica, Calif., on July 14, part of the Television Critics' Association's summer press tour.

The quickie project was a counterweight to Whedon's other major project, the upcoming Fox TV series Dollhouse, he said.

"Dollhouse is something that has taken an enormous amount of crafting, and we're still in the process of working out what the show is while we're about to film the second episode," Whedon said.

By contrast, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog just fell out of us in a mad rush of joy and ridiculousness. And they're two completely different kinds of art that lead to the same thing, which is me having a happy. And the one helps the other. The fact that I could throw out Dr. Horrible as quickly as we did--and we did our best; I'm not saying that we tossed it off like it didn't matter: We worked our asses off--but the ability to do something that fast gives you the sort of patience to do the fine-tuning and the crafting on the other thing that you need to do."

Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) wrote the musical series during last year's writers' strike. Co-writers for the Internet feature are Whedon's brothers, Zack and Jed, and Jed's fiancee, Maurissa Tancharoen. The story centers on a low-rent supervillain (Neil Patrick Harris), the hero who keeps beating him up (Nathan Fillion) and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to (Felicia Day).

Act two goes live on July 17 and act three on July 19. All three parts will remain on the site until midnight July 20. After that, the series will be made available for paid download in some format and will ultimately end up on DVD, with extras. Whedon promised more information at Comic-Con International in San Diego in July.

Whedon was OK if the small project ends up as something bigger. "If something turns into something bigger than you intended it to, and it's not your ass, you're doing fine," he said.

Gellar: Buffy Film Wouldn't Work

Sarah Michelle Gellar, who gained fame as TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told SCI FI Wire that she doesn't think a big-screen version would work.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, from creator Joss Whedon, was itself a reboot of the flop 1992 movie of the same name that starred Kristy Swanson. "We had a lot to overcome on a TV show," Gellar said in an interview. "Everyone's like, 'Why would you do that?' So then to go back [to a movie] feels kind of hard."

Still, Gellar would not rule out returning to her most iconic role: "Never say never," she said.

"One of the reasons [the original Buffy movie] didn't really work on the big screen--and people blamed Kristy, but that's not what it was--is the story was better told over a long arc," Gellar said. "And I worry about Buffy as a 'beginning, middle and end' so quickly. ... You show me a script; you show me that it works, and you show me that [the] audience can accept that, [and] I'd probably be there. Those are what my hesitations are."

Gellar said she's still recognized internationally for the show, which aired on The WB and UPN from 1997 to 2003. "I was in Bali, and I kid you not, my cab driver called me Buffy," she said. "And, actually, I know it's on in South Africa."

Whedon Can’t Get Enough Serenity

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on November 6, 2007 Sign up now!

By Wil Moss -- Publishers Weekly, 11/6/2007 10:03:00 AM

Joss Whedon isn’t very good at good-byes. When his Buffy the Vampire screenplay was made into a movie in 1992, that would have been enough for most. But Whedon ended up bringing Buffy back in 1997 as a television show—again, most people would have been satisfied with that. But as the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comic book indicates, Whedon couldn’t let go just yet.

All that goes double for Serenity. The sci-fi western about a group of rogue space travelers started out in 2002 as a TV series called Firefly, but it was canceled after only 11 episodes. Whedon then managed the impressive task of bringing the property back to life as a feature film called Serenity.

And he’s not done with it yet. In November Dark Horse is releasing a hardcover collection of the Serenity: Those Left Behind miniseries he co-wrote in 2005, and he’s already got another miniseries in the works for early 2008. As he explains in the following interview, there’s something about Serenity that makes it harder for him to let go, harder than even Buffy—which means no riding off into the sunset for the Serenity crew anytime soon.

PW Comics Week: So Buffy has this attractive blonde female and a popular genre as a framing device. What is Serenity’s appeal?

Joss Whedon: Ultimately, anything with spaceships and a compelling cast of funny, pretty people is pretty much something a certain section of people are going to tune into. It was definitely not as pop-simple as Buffy. Buffy the Vampire Slayer tells you the joke in the title; Serenity is something you have to reach out to—which is one of the reasons why Fox killed it with an ax (or I should say [killed] Firefly). But it’s kind of actually a fairly timeworn formula in the sense of mixing genres we understand—the western in this particular case with sci-fi trappings—perhaps a little more overtly than other people have, but pretty much to the same effect. It’s “How can we tell the kind of stories we love in the genre we’re comfortable in, we’re excited by?”

PWCW: How much do you credit the success of Serenity with your fan following?

JW: I think I have to credit all of it to the fan following. Fans obviously have gone a lot further than just seeing the movie, they’ve kept it alive—they even kept it in theaters with their charity screenings; they’ve made it mean something with the charity work they’ve done; they’ve created a community. The comic book has been a big deal for Dark Horse, that’s why we’re working on another one right now, and also because we thought of another good story to tell. [The fans] had a lot to do with it getting from TV to movies—[they] can’t be overestimated in this particular instance.

PWCW: What’s it like taking something from screen to comics?

JW: It’s complicated, with Serenity particularly. It’s easy with Buffy in a way because again it’s a pop idea, it could have been a comic book before it was a movie. Serenity doesn’t really lend itself to that in the same way. You can tell fun, compelling stories about it, but you have sort of an ensemble drama that you’re making into a comic book, so you have to find stories that are gonna move in a different rhythm than Buffy stories.

With Serenity and Firefly, you couldn’t do a regular monthly comic the way you can with Buffy because their life isn't [event after event] in the same way. I know that’s strange because we did do a TV show that was not monthly but weekly, but it lends itself to these stories that we tell in a few issues that we really think out beforehand.

Whereas Buffy, maybe because it was on for so many years, already has its own "Marvel universe" attached to it, with hundreds of ancillary characters and situations, so it’s easier to build that kind of story. With Serenity, you want it to feel more like a novel than a straight-up superhero comic.

PWCW: Can you tell me anything about the plot of the second miniseries?

JW: The second one basically involves the rather stunning concept of the gang trying to pull a heist that doesn’t go completely wrong. And what happens when things go right for them, how that’s not going to work at all.

PWCW: Does it have a title yet?

JW: Better Days. And that’s also a reference to the fact that it takes place before the movie and before certain people were iced.

PWCW: Are there more Serenity comics planned?

JW: Scott [Allie, Dark Horse editor] was definitely like, “Can we not wait three years in between comics next time?” I’m like, “I hear where you’re going with that.” It is definitely contingent on us having time and finding a particular story. With Buffy, I have an overarching story and I can do anything I want in that. Obviously, like I said before, Serenity doesn’t work that way, so it has to be right. It’s not simple. And the dialogue is very easy to get wrong. Luckily [co-writer Brett Matthews] worked on the show, so he really understands it, but it’s hard to make sure—you can’t take a wrong step with that or it won’t work. Hopefully, we’re not doing that with Buffy, either, but it’s a little more delicate.

The difference also with Serenity is I have more trouble letting it out of my hands. Buffy I ran as a show, and obviously Firefly had a writing staff, a great one, but, for example, with novels—they’re like, “[Let's do] Serenity novels!” The idea of somebody else writing a Serenity novel, I can’t handle. [But] there are 10 Buffy novels.

PWCW: Do you think that’s because you had more time with Buffy?

JW: I think so. If anybody wrote a Serenity novel right now, it would be the only thing apart from these comic books, which come out very rarely—that there is to say about Serenity. If something’s going to be said about Serenity, it’s going to be said by me. It’s too close to me still. It’s the child that never got to grow up and go to college.

PWCW: And to just touch briefly on your contribution to the new Dark Horse Presents on MySpace, SugarShock—how has that experience been? We don’t see a lot of short, one-off things from you.

JW: I’ve done a few. I vaguely had the concept in my head for a while, and Scott said, “Hey, we’re doing Dark Horse Presents.” I write these things like manic episodes, which is exactly how they read. That’s not to say I don’t take time honing them, but they really do sort of happen fast. I just wanted to do something that was deeply silly, kind of indie, and would just let me play. Scott found me the staggeringly best artist—Fabio [Moon] just captures exactly what I had in mind and doubles it. It’s been just fun, just straight out, nothing but fun to do SugarShock.

Staite: No Serenity 2 In Works

Jewel Staite, who played Kaylee in Joss Whedon's Serenity, told fans on her MySpace.com blog not to believe rumors of a sequel film.

"Let's address these Serenity 2 rumors before anything else," Staite wrote. "I have no idea what you people are talking about! Seems to me someone (with a name that starts with A and ends in LAN) said something in an interview that was misconstrued as the sequel being green-lit, which is not the case at the moment. I will never say it will never happen, because that's just blasphemy in my opinion, but it's not happening at the moment, ... no matter what you read on the Internet."

Staite referred to comments made by her Serenity/Firefly co-star Alan Tudyk, who played Walsh, to Moviehole.net hinting that a sequel was in the works. Tudyk's character was memorably killed off in 2005's Serenity, which was a film spinoff of the cult Fox SF series Firefly.

Staite can now be seen playing Dr. Jennifer Keller on SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate Atlantis.

Sweet!!

Ain't It Cool News reported that Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon still plans a Ripper movie, centering on Buffy's Watcher, Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), on the BBC in 2008.

Buffy comic book keeps the series going

By ETHAN SACKS
McClatchy Tribune

Those fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer who didn't know the character is still kicking pointy teeth four years after the series finale shouldn't feel bad.

Creator Joss Whedon hasn't even told Sarah Michelle Gellar or the rest of the cast about the new comic series, which picks up where Season 7 of the hit television show ended.

"I have not told them," says the 43-year-old Whedon. "I can tell you right now what everyone's reaction would be: 'My nose doesn't look like that!' "

What the actors have been missing in Dark Horse Comics' Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 is the first four issues of a planned 40-issue run. The story, drawn by artist Georges Jeanty, pits the titular heroine against an army of zombies and a military of a more traditional kind. Issue No. 5 goes on sale Aug. 1.

After a series of frustrations in Hollywood — including the cancellation of a television series, Firefly; his abrupt divorce from Warner Bros.' Wonder Woman movie, which he was slated to write and direct; and the slow development of Goners, a supernatural thriller — Whedon said he needed an escape to the four-panel world of comic books.

Whedon has been working in the medium for the past few years. Scoring a gig writing Marvel Comics' Astonishing X-Men was a particular "nerdgasm," he explains.

"It's like a weekend at a spa," says Whedon, comparing the comic-book industry to Hollywood.

"You have a creative concept, and instead of going through an endless array of suits to realize it," he says, "instead of spending millions of dollars of someone else's money to realize it — which is why the suits come along — you give it to an artist."

There are other perks.

Whedon turned Buffy's sister Dawn Summers into a 50-foot giant, which would have blown an entire season's worth of special-effects budget in real, and reel, life.

"It gives us enormous freedom, particularly because our show was never terribly expensive," said Whedon. "There was just a limit on where our imaginations could go.

"I realized that there were lots of fun things I could do," says Whedon, "and with the exhaustion of seven seasons now passed, I see there was no reason we didn't have an eighth other than the physical grind of it."