Buffy Reboot Coming; Whedon Not Happy

[Scribblesense]

I love Firefly, and respect Joss for his creativity, but he can be a whiny loser sometimes.

You thought that letter was whiny? It was way too tongue in cheek to seem whiny to me. It only reminded me that, as much as I may enjoy some of Joss's shows, movies, and web musicals, I adore his random bits of hilarious prose even more. His interview with his brother Jed about his new album is one of the funniest things ever.

Mostly it was this here that made me roll my eyes:

I can't wish people who are passionate about my little myth ill. I can, however, take this time to announce that I'm making a Batman movie. Because there's a franchise that truly needs updating. So look for The Dark Knight Rises Way Earlier Than That Other One And Also More Cheaply And In Toronto, rebooting into a theater near you.

What I interpreted here is that he automatically assumes nobody but him will ever be truly passionate about this Buffy project, that everybody involved in it is just out to make a quick buck. He mentions his work on The Avengers, and likens it to typical Hollywood moneygrubbing, but his tone implies that he is somehow exempt, that he is also truly passionate about The Avengers and therefore it isn't about the money. It isn't possible to him for someone to truly care about making a great Buffy reboot (like, say, how they made an amazing Batman reboot) because he isn't involved.

While I admit it is a total dick move to be rebooting his show while he's still active in the business, that's business. It isn't a personal slight for a studio to hand off a project to people they think are equally capable of producing a great final product as the original creator.

That was pretty much my first reaction, at least. I will admit I'm probably reading way too far into it and should probably just shut up.

I just think Whedon is kinda whiny.

[doggans]

Fair enough. I didn't get that tone at all, but I see where you're coming from.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Then he wrote Alien: Resurrection, and then went on to say (paraphrased), "Well, it's not that they took the script and changed it...what they did was make the script exactly how I wrote it, but filmed it all wrong."

So it's their fault for filming what he wrote (or what he thought he wrote since just because he thinks what he'd envisioned was on the page doesn't mean that it was)?

That rests my case about this guy.

[The Manatee]

I love Firefly, and respect Joss for his creativity, but he can be a whiny loser sometimes.

You thought that letter was whiny? It was way too tongue in cheek to seem whiny to me. It only reminded me that, as much as I may enjoy some of Joss's shows, movies, and web musicals, I adore his random bits of hilarious prose even more. His interview with his brother Jed about his new album is one of the funniest things ever.

Mostly it was this here that made me roll my eyes:

I can't wish people who are passionate about my little myth ill. I can, however, take this time to announce that I'm making a Batman movie. Because there's a franchise that truly needs updating. So look for The Dark Knight Rises Way Earlier Than That Other One And Also More Cheaply And In Toronto, rebooting into a theater near you.

What I interpreted here is that he automatically assumes nobody but him will ever be truly passionate about this Buffy project, that everybody involved in it is just out to make a quick buck. He mentions his work on The Avengers, and likens it to typical Hollywood moneygrubbing, but his tone implies that he is somehow exempt, that he is also truly passionate about The Avengers and therefore it isn't about the money. It isn't possible to him for someone to truly care about making a great Buffy reboot (like, say, how they made an amazing Batman reboot) because he isn't involved.

While I admit it is a total dick move to be rebooting his show while he's still active in the business, that's business. It isn't a personal slight for a studio to hand off a project to people they think are equally capable of producing a great final product as the original creator.

That was pretty much my first reaction, at least. I will admit I'm probably reading way too far into it and should probably just shut up.

I just think Whedon is kinda whiny.

They probably wanted him to do it but he wanted to have a continuation of the million slayers season 7 and unofficial season 8 nonsense. Some people really liked that I guess but I felt like it completely turned the show to crap.

[The Manatee]

Yes, it's intentionally silly, but I wonder about the "More Summer Glau" comment...I mean, it's not like she's ever appeared in anything Joss Whedon has made, right?   

It sounds kind of like butthurt. I made you, summer! Now you are off stealing my nerd fans! Also summer glau is great in the terminator chronicles so bashing on that is kind of dick. And it's not like terminator even at its worst is really that bad compared to some of his own stuff that's fallen apart. I'll take Terminator 4 or even 3 over alien res. or titan AE or even the final season of buffy, or the first 2-3 seasons of angel which were just terrible.

[doggans]

Also summer glau is great in the terminator chronicles so bashing on that is kind of dick.

I didn't think that was bashing Glau's performance on the show, but rather bashing the fact that the show was canceled and acknowledging that keeping her character around would make the franchise awesome. Considering Glau and Whedon are still friends and still work together on occasion, I highly doubt there was any malice in that statement.

[The Manatee]

Yes maybe you are right about summer, hard to tell when he is sarcastic and when not.

What I interpreted here is that he automatically assumes nobody but him will ever be truly passionate about this Buffy project, that everybody involved in it is just out to make a quick buck. He mentions his work on The Avengers, and likens it to typical Hollywood moneygrubbing, but his tone implies that he is somehow exempt, that he is also truly passionate about The Avengers and therefore it isn't about the money.

Well, if he doesn't make the avengers into a dr horribleesque sort of thing or make dr horrible movie the next project I'm zerg rushing the compound.

PS Who cares about the avengers? They are a knockoff group 2 steps below ghost rider, which should never have been made into a movie in a million years.

[SJP]

Now, now, let's be fair...there's nothing wrong with Ghost Rider himself.  There IS something wrong about Nicholas Cage playing Ghost Rider, on many levels than one.   

[gbeenie]

It also bears mentioning that having someone passionate about making a film doesn't mean the result is going to be good. Just look at Rob Zombie's Halloween. If anything, his zeal for the project blinded him from seeing what it was about the original that made it work.

Oh, and Ghost Rider was fine. The only thing of any consequence in the comic is the visual signature of a guy, riding a motorcycle, with a flaming skull for a head. The movie had that (and did it pretty well, I thought). Expecting any more from a Ghost Rider film is unrealistic. And, yes, I think pretty much the same thing about Transformers (the first one, anyway).

[The Manatee]

he only thing of any consequence in the comic is the visual signature of a guy, riding a motorcycle, with a flaming skull for a head. The movie had that (and did it pretty well, I thought). Expecting any more from a Ghost Rider film is unrealistic.

Well, and that's the point. There's just not much there and Avengers is a couple notches down from there in terms of coolness, iron man excluded.

[gbeenie]

I have to disagree. Although I'm not a regular reader of The Avengers (except for the Ultimates stuff), I find that superhero groups are intrinsically interesting, if for no other reason than when you put that many people with such extreme personalities together in a room, things are bound to happen (at least if the writing's any good). And Joss Whedon has shown, time and time again, that he handles group dynamics better than any other (currently working) writer I can think of in movies or TV.