Joss Whedon

If I were fellow blogger Keith, I would be writing this article from a totally different angle. I would probably be doing cartwheels at the thought of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, written and directed by Joss Whedon. Alas, I missed the boat when it came to Buffy, so today’s news breaks my heart. An article in the latest Entertainment Weekly with Joss Whedon says he has come to terms with the fact that there won’t be any more Firefly movies. Serenity only made $25 million in the United States and it’s not yet clear how well the DVD will do (it went on sale this week). But, that amount of money isn’t enough for Universal to launch a franchise of films. Sigh.

This a little hard to swallow, because, what happens to everyone, especially River? I think Joss Whedon suspected this going into the flick, which is why he killed off two major characters, and why he did try to wrap it up all nice and tidy at the end just in case we don’t see the crew of the Firefly again. It’s sad, really, that movie companies won’t give franchises like this a greenlight. There is a hardcore fan base (Hello, my name is Anna) that already exists. Why not make a movie for the fans? Why does it have to be a huge success? Movie companies continue to make pieces of crap that do worse than Firefly (i.e. Into the Blue) and get terrible reviews. Ah well, if Joss has let go, so shall I. And, I can always hold out hope that Whedon will decide to make movies direct-to-DVD.

By the way, the prospect of another Buffy movie is still just a prospect. In the article, he says he’s turning his attention from Firefly to Buffy. However, right now, Whedon is writing the script for a new Wonder Woman movie and he’s signed on for a thriller called Goners, but it’s not clear whether he’s writing or directing or both.