Latest on the movie (plus more about Firefly), from an interview Joss Whedon himself:
JW: . . . That's the question we [TV producers] are constantly asking: What do they want? The thing is, they don't know what they want. There's no one with vision. There's no commitment to developing good, quality shows. Even though Fox invested millions of dollars into Firefly, they ultimately didn't believe in it. They scheduled it in the death slot [Friday] and let it die.
EW: So they invested millions in a show they didn't like just to kill it? Why would they do that?
JW: [Bewildered] Because Fox is a bad network that makes bad decisions. [. . . a Fox spolesperson said, "We wish Firefly had found an audience, and we would lke nothing better to be in business with Joss again."]*
EW: About Serenity: There were rumors you were asked to make some changes to your screenplay to accommodate Universal's vision for franchising. True?
JW: Absolute nonsense. You're seeing a lot of movies that are built to be a springboard for a franchise. Like Underworld. Well, I'm saying maybe you should take a long hard look at your f---ing movie before you worry about your franchise. Obviously, Universal does see this as a potential franchise-springboard marketing vehicle. But none of that matters unless I make a movie that not only people who love Firefly will respect, but people who never heard of it can walk in and have a wonderful time.
EW: Are you losing any cast members?
JW: Every. Single. Cast. Member. Of. The. TV. Show. Is. Back. I wouldn't have done it without everybody.
* my comment: if Fox had shown the patience of a 2-year-old, maybe it would have "found" its audience, even on Friday! Note to Fox . . . You have to wait a little longer on Fridays--you're in the damn business, you should know that, you incredible idiots! Sorry, rant over. I hope Universal makes a TON of money on a movie franchise and merchandising and leaves Fox crying in its beer!
Latest on the movie (plus more about Firefly), from an interview Joss Whedon himself:
JW: . . . That's the question we [TV producers] are constantly asking: What do they want? The thing is, they don't know what they want. There's no one with vision. There's no commitment to developing good, quality shows. Even though Fox invested millions of dollars into Firefly, they ultimately didn't believe in it. They scheduled it in the death slot [Friday] and let it die.
EW: So they invested millions in a show they didn't like just to kill it? Why would they do that?
JW: [Bewildered] Because Fox is a bad network that makes bad decisions. [. . . a Fox spolesperson said, "We wish Firefly had found an audience, and we would lke nothing better to be in business with Joss again."]*
EW: About Serenity: There were rumors you were asked to make some changes to your screenplay to accommodate Universal's vision for franchising. True?
JW: Absolute nonsense. You're seeing a lot of movies that are built to be a springboard for a franchise. Like Underworld. Well, I'm saying maybe you should take a long hard look at your f---ing movie before you worry about your franchise. Obviously, Universal does see this as a potential franchise-springboard marketing vehicle. But none of that matters unless I make a movie that not only people who love Firefly will respect, but people who never heard of it can walk in and have a wonderful time.
EW: Are you losing any cast members?
JW: Every. Single. Cast. Member. Of. The. TV. Show. Is. Back. I wouldn't have done it without everybody.
* my comment: if Fox had shown the patience of a 2-year-old, maybe it would have "found" its audience, even on Friday! Note to Fox . . . You have to wait a little longer on Fridays--you're in the damn business, you should know that, you incredible idiots! Sorry, rant over. I hope Universal makes a TON of money on a movie franchise and merchandising and leaves Fox crying in its beer!
I don't understand the whole american tv networks thing of cancelling shaows without allowing them time to grow. how can you cancel a show after 10 eps are shown. it doesn't logically make sense. Really bad sci-fi and fantasy tv decisions going on at the moment. i heard they cancelled wonderfalls. it probably will never get over here now. gutted.
That's really shocking. Something has to be done soon to stop them destroying the future of sci-fi/fantasy shows. And now with Alias going midseason. AAARRRGGHH!!!!
Also heard a rumour that Joss Whedon had asked David Boreanaz to be in the Firefly film. I really hope that this is not true cos he won't fit in and will ruin the atmosphere with his Huge Oversized ego
Here's a couple of articles on the Serenity movie from Sci Fi Wire:
Serenity Jumps From TV
Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed the upcoming SF movie Serenity, told SCI FI Wire that it's been a challenge adapting his low-rated Fox TV series Firefly for the big screen. "It's incredibly hard, you know, building a story that doesn't repeat or contradict what we've already done, that satisfies the fans, and yet is really made for people who have never seen the show," Whedon said in an interview on the film's set at Universal Studios in Los Angeles last August. "[It's] incredibly tricky. There's pitfalls everywhere."
Serenity, set 500 years in the future, picks up the story of the intrepid crew of the Firefly-class transport ship Serenity. Fox canceled Firefly in the middle of its first season, but fan enthusiasm for the show and its subsequent DVD release persuaded Universal Pictures to green-light a movie adaptation. "It's the hardest story I've ever had to structure," Whedon said. But, he added, "once I get writing these people, it's the easiest thing in the world, because I know them so well. The other thing is, a TV show is built around slow development of character. A movie ... is built around momentum. They're very different things. So ... you have to let some things drop, and you have to speed some things up, and you have to sort of know which ones are which."
Serenity also marks longtime TV veteran Whedon's feature-film directorial debut. Whedon has been critical in the past about how his movie scripts for such films as Alien: Resurrection and the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie have been realized. "After Alien: Resurrection I said the next person who ruins one of my scripts is going to be me," he said, with tongue in cheek. "And I think I'm doing a fine job. Actually, I think that the director on occasion could use a little more imagination and the writer could have shut up occasionally. We fight, but we're still getting along better than I usually do."
Seriously, Whedon said, "It's been great. ... Unlike TV, I have the time to really explore what it is I'm doing and to go back and reassess every day. But the piece is so fluid, because it's a domino effect. Every time you shoot a scene, it affects 50 other scenes. It's not like you have eight days and you know exactly what you need, and you're out and you go on to the next one. It's constantly shifting. Hopefully not so much that it doesn't know where it's going." Serenity, which is in post-production, opens April 22, 2005. Universal Pictures is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Joss Whedon, writer and director of the upcoming SF movie Serenity, told SCI FI Wire that shooting the feature-film version of his Fox TV series Firefly is every bit as stressful as churning out an hour of TV drama every week. "It's been as stressful, and I thought it'd be less stressful," Whedon said in an interview during a break in filming last summer at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. "I thought I'd be, you know, golfing in between takes and writing sonnets."
Whedon makes his feature-film directorial debut with Serenity after having created and run TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly, many of whose episodes he both wrote and directed. With Serenity, he said, "two things have not worked in my favor. One is, although I don't have three shows to run—and believe me, nothing will ever be as hard as that was—the movie takes up your attention in the way that three shows do. All of the creative energy that you're usually pouring into telling 20 to 40 stories a year, you're pouring into one, and you find you need it. You find you wake up in the middle of the night and go, 'His pants are too baggy.' And it's important. You have to watch everything so carefully, because every mistake that you make is going to be 40 feet high. Whenever you think, 'Well, maybe that's good enough,' I just say to myself: 'Cineramadome.'"
Still, Whedon said, he's finding the filmmaking process surprising, even after having produced 13 hours of Firefly. "You really are surprised by what you do in a way that you're not so much with TV," he said. "Because, even though I know these guys—even though [we're] on Serenity, which are known quantities to me—I'm still surprised, more than I ever have been in TV. I'll do, you know, 10 takes and watch [them] and go, 'Boy, this first one was better than the one with all my notes in it. Remind myself not to tell him that.' ... [The movie] talks back to you, and it does it while you're still making it. In TV, it doesn't do that 'til you're done, which is what's different about it." Serenity, starring Nathan Fillion, is in post-production with an eye to an April 22, 2005, release. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Nathan Fillion—who stars in the upcoming SF movie Serenity, based on Fox's canceled series Firefly—told SCI FI Wire that his character, Capt. Mal Reynolds, will be a little darker than he was allowed to be in the TV show. "I think he's still on that same vein," Fillion said in an interview during a break in filming at Universal Studios in Los Angeles last August. "I think if anything, I think he's a little darker than he was before. I think he's a little more empty than he was before. He, too, has had the rug pulled out from under him a couple of times since we've known him in the series. And I also think that, because we're in a film, another difference versus television is we can be allowed to be darker. ... We don't have a ... TV producer saying, 'Make him more likable and funny.'"
Fillion plays the captain of a small transport ship 500 years in the future, leading a ragtag crew of survivors from a galactic civil war. The film will feature
the series' creepy cannibalistic renegades, the Reavers, and also give Reynolds a love interest, Fillion said.
[general content spoilers] As for making the film, he added, "It's a little different. We had eight days to put on a one-hour show. Now we've got the better part of three months to put out a two-hour show. So the timing is a little different. But certainly I can tell that the quality is also extremely different."
As for his acting style, Fillion said, "I haven't made any drastic changes or anything. I have noticed that my nose is a lot bigger on screen. It's like, there are times when if you could put your arms up, that's about how wide my nostrils are. I've always known I have big nostrils, but now I could park a Buick in them." Serenity is slated for an April 2005 release. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
I just got these off of Netflix since I had some friends who swore it was a great show. I really like it and am bummed that when I get my next disk, it will be the last one. Unfortunately, I don't hold out high hopes for a decent movie. I will probably drag significant other off to watch it with me...I got to crummy movies with him :lol:
Note that the movie premiere has been moved out to fall. Latest from Sci Fi Wire:
Minear: Serenity Will Surprise
Tim Minear, executive producer of the short-lived Fox SF television series Firefly, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming feature-film version of the show, Serenity, will have treats for the devoted fans. "If you loved Firefly, then you will love this movie," Minear said in an interview while promoting his upcoming CBS series, The Inside. "Fans are certainly not going to sit there and be bored while they learn about these people. They won't."
Minear said that he is particularly impressed by the new developments in the character of River, played by Summer Glau, who is revealed to be extraordinarily skilled at martial arts. "She's amazing," he said. "And the way Joss shot it, you can tell it's her—long, continuous takes, the camera moving around a certain fight. And it's Summer. It's her."
Other characters will take some surprising turns as well, Minear promised. "Oh, yeah," he said. "Oh. Yeah. It's pretty shocking." Serenity opens in theaters Sept. 30.
If you want to get ready for Serenity by watching the old Firefly series, but don't have the DVDs, tune into Sci Fi this summer (zap2it):
'Firefly' Relights on Sci Fi
(Tuesday, June 14 01:28 PM)
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Just in time to stir up some advance hype for the movie based on it, the cult series "Firefly" is returning to television.
The Sci Fi Channel has picked up the rights to Joss Whedon's "space Western" -- including three episodes never aired on TV -- and will begin airing it Friday, July 22. It will air at 7 p.m. ET, leading into the cable network's lineup of original series -- the two "Stargate" shows and "Battlestar Galactica," which open their new seasons the previous week.
"Firefly's" Sci Fi debut will come about two months before the scheduled release of Universal Pictures' "Serenity," a feature film based on the series written and directed by Whedon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"). Universal and the Sci Fi Channel are both part of the NBC Universal media conglomerate. Sci Fi picked up the show from Twentieth Television, a News Corp. sibling of the FOX network, where "Firefly" first aired, and 20th Century Fox TV, which produced the series.
Set 500 years from now, "Firefly" follows the crew of a small, vagabond transport ship called the Serenity. Captained by Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), Serenity and its crew are perpetually on the run from the totalitarian Alliance, and Mal often resort to taking extralegal jobs to keep the ship flying.
The show also stars Gina Torres ("Alias," "Angel"), Adam Baldwin ("The Inside"), Morena Baccarin, Alan Tudyk ("Into the West"), Sean Maher ("The $treet"), Summer Glau ("The 4400"), Jewel Staite ("Wonderfalls") and Ron Glass ("Barney Miller"). All of them are reprising their roles in "Serenity."
OMFG best. show. ever. The characters are so amazingly rich and interesting and the relationships are just alskdjre and OMG HOW COULD THEY CANCEL IT =(((((
I have to admit I was hooked on Firefly myself, great show, I own all the episodes now and Serenity, surprisingly good movie adaptation, I got into the show late...just over this Xmas, but better late than never!
Also I just realised this morning that Jayne (Adam Baldwin) was also Knowle Rohrer in the last few seasons of the X-Files!
