Firefly

Joss Whedon, writer and director of the upcoming SF film Serenity, told SCI FI Wire that he had to leave out some things in translating his failed Fox TV show Firefly to the big screen. "Absolutely," he said in an interview. "I mean, in a series you have an indefinite amount of time to explore everything, and in a movie you have momentum to serve that does not allow you to [do that]."

Serenity picks up the story of the crew of a transport ship 500 years in the future. In a spoiler for the movie, Whedon offers an example: He wasn’t able to delve as deeply into the past of Shepherd Book, played by Ron Glass. "With Book, it was almost a gag when [Capt. Mal Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion,] says, ’You gotta tell me about that sometime.’ ... That was everybody’s moment of, ’OK, [now we’ll get the story].’ And then [Book] said, ’No, I don’t.’ It’s a joke, but it’s a joke very much based in character. Book is somebody who ... sets his rules, and he’s very firm about them, and one [rule] is that ’[the past is] something I’ve left behind that clearly is unpleasant and clearly has given me insider knowledge of the workings of a corrupt government, and that’s really all you need to know.’"

There’s a hint that perhaps Book may have been an Operative for the Alliance, much like Chiwetel Ejiofor’s character, but that is not pursued. "Exactly," Whedon said. "And that’s exactly how I wanted to leave it. However, when people ask, ’Have you had ideas about the sequel?’ Don’t think that’s not part of it. But for the purposes of the [first] movie, it wasn’t necessary. ... Because what was necessary was: ’Here’s somebody Mal looks up to and will actually listen to.’ That was what we needed to know about Book."

In another spoiler for the movie, Whedon admitted that he didn’t pursue the relationship between Fillion’s Reynolds and Morena Baccarin’s courtesan character, Inara. "In terms of Mal and Inara, I think there was much more resolved than we would have had for a very long time in any way in the show, which is very simply that they do actually admit that they like each other," Whedon said. "Which for them is a huge step. Doesn’t mean that they still won’t have the same problems they had before they admitted it. In fact, they might have a few more. It might be problems that involve smooching, and that’s what the audience needs."

Serenity is being released by Universal Pictures on Sept. 30. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.