Joss Whedon

Everyone knows the writer is the most important part of any TV show, and I can make Amanda Keller say whatever I like just by typing it into my computer. I’m a Cossack. Fill the sink. But as writers go, you don’t get much more important than Joss Whedon.

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His show ’Angel’ might be in trouble right now, but I reckon there’ll be many more ideas from the creator of ’Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. Just how he knew that a hot chick in tight pants would rate like a rocket is anyone’s guess. But in recent years, a surprising number of the TV series and movies that the world has loved have come from the mind of this depressingly gifted overachiever.

Joss Whedon comes from good writing stock. His grandfather wrote ’Leave It to Beaver’ and his father wrote ’Golden Girls’.

Cheat NoteJoss wrote the movie ’Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ but says the studio ruined it.

Joss created ’Buffy’ as an alternative feminist icon. The movie stank - dodgy casting, supported by supremely wooden performances, poor direction and even worse editing. But the spin-off TV series quickly became a pop culture phenomenon.

Mondo FactoFour universities in the US offer courses on Buffy theory.

For seven seasons Joss served it up thick and fast - powerful female roles, homosexuality, and interracial relationships, all wrapped up in the fight between good and evil. When TV critics suggested that Buffy’s success lay in its snappy, pop culture scripts, Joss thumbed his nose at them by writing and directing an entire episode with no dialogue. Rather than the backlash expected, he was rewarded for his creativity with an Emmy nomination. The spin-off series ’Angel’ proved just as popular as ’Buffy’. The success of the show lies in its theme of redemption and of course, awesome vampire battles. As ever, Whedon undercuts the serious themes with his unique sense of humour. And this led to a Stephen King-like cameo by Joss. Here, he’s playing Numfar.

Cheat NoteJoss also writes music.

Joss directed and wrote a musical episode of ’Buffy’ called ’Once More, with Feeling’. It was the first time he’d written music, and it was a brave move away from the traditional episodes. But the gamble paid off. It was brilliant. This led him to work as a lyricist on Disney’s predictable ’Lion King II’.

Cheat NoteJoss wrote monumental flop ’Waterworld’, but over the years, he has also written many successful films.

Joss earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay with his sassy comedy aimed at kids and adults alike - ’Toy Story’. Showing his diversity, he then steered away from comedy and worked on the screenplays for the runaway hit ’Speed’ and Steven Spielberg’s action-packed adventure ’Twister’. He missed the mark with his formulaic fourth film in the ’Alien’ series, ’Alien: Resurrection’.

JOSS WHEDON: We really just took out the things that are too expensive to shoot, which I tend to write occasionally.

Then Joss was asked to rewrite ’X-Men’. He tore up the original script and totally rewrote it. However, only two of his lines made it into the final movie. Here’s one of them. It’s very Joss.

SCENE FROM ’X-MEN’:

WOLVERINE: Hey, hey. It’s me.

CYCLOPS: Prove it.

WOLVERINE: You’re a dick.

CYCLOPS: (Convinced) OK.

Cheat NoteJoss is making his latest TV series ’Firefly’ into a film.

Joss’s latest series, ’Firefly’, is a Western set in space. Although it was slick and up to his usual standard of quirkiness, the TV execs pulled the series after a few episodes. In a reversal of what happened with ’Buffy’, Joss now has plans to turn it into a film. It’ll be called ’Serenity’ and is due to start filming in June this year. We can’t wait.