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Joss Whedon reacts to E! Entertainment:
This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths — just because they can’t think of an original idea of their own, like I did with my Avengers idea that I made up myself.
Obviously I have strong, mixed emotions about something like this. My first reaction upon hearing who was writing it was, “Whit Stillman AND Wes Anderson? This is gonna be the most sardonically adorable movie EVER.” Apparently I was misinformed. Then I thought, “I’ll make a mint! This is worth more than all my Toy Story residuals combined!” Apparently I am seldom informed of anything. And possibly a little slow. But seriously, are vampires even popular any more?
I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death. But, you know, AFTER. I don’t love the idea of my creation in other hands, but I’m also well aware that many more hands than mine went into making that show what it was. And there is no legal grounds for doing anything other than sighing audibly. 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.
Leave me to my pain! Sincerely, Joss Whedon.
MONDAY NOON: But where is Joss Whedon? Atlas Entertainment is announcing today it is rebooting Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with Warner Bros Pictures. Atlas’ Charles Roven and Steve Alexander will produce the feature film alongside Doug Davison and Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment Bros. Whit Anderson is writing the script after she approached Roven and others with an idea how to update Buffy. “While this is not your high school Buffy, she’ll be just as witty, tough, and sexy as we all remember her to be,” an insider says.
Warner Bros Pictures optioned the rights from creators Fran and Kaz Kuzui, and from Sandollar Productions (Sandy Gallin and Dolly Parton), for Atlas and Vertigo to produce. Buffy the Vampire Slayer first appeared as a film in 1992, subsequently becoming a cult hit and spawning the TV series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz. Whit Anderson is represented by CAA, Wirehouse Entertainment and Julian Zajfen at Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie & Stifflemen.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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It’s utter sacrilege (not to mention stupidity) to do a BUFFY project without creator Joss Whedon – who I can’t believe you neglected to even mention. Fran and Kaz Kazui didn’t create a goddamn thing, they just screwed up Whedon’s script (and haven’t produced anything since Orgazmo in 1997). This is pathetic and sad.
Buffy isn’t Buffy without Joss. End of.
Why? The series, which was brilliant for the first three seasons, is still pretty fresh in our minds. This is just dumb.
Really? We’re still doing this?
Lame. Lame. Lame. There is no Buffy without Joss Whedon. Period. Warners’ just trying to capitalize on the name and on this insipid Twilight-y vampire craze. How about you don’t hire hack writers to tarnish quality works (and the fans’ memory of the source material) and instead hire good ones to come up with something original? No? That doesn’t work you? That’s too bad…
Maybe if we get to see Buffy stake Edward, it might be worth renting the DVD….
Jossacrilege…haha I actually think this is a good move considering the movie wasn’t that great but just wish Whedon was involved somehow.
Cue the vicious fanboy anger. They’re trying to go after the Twi-tards and cash in on the TV fanbase without involving anyone who made the TV show.
Let the Whedon disciples’ hollering begin…
Wow – I’d love a reboot with Joss Whedon, otherwise…………meh.
And the Hollywood new idea drought continues…….
I have given up on Hollywood producing a new idea, that isn’t really a recycled idea from Hong Kong, England, Israel, or France. Rebooted “Buffy” meh…whatever.
Great. Just what we need, another pointless reboot. Stupid.
It’s not really Buffy if Joss Whedon is uninvolved.
Kinda like The Hobbit without Peter Jackson….
Glad they came to their senses before that level of fail. Hope they do here, too.
Because it will be in 3-D. Trust me.
This is pathetic. No, I am not a Whedon acolyte, but the man did actually create all of his TV shows.
He didn’t “reboot”, he didn’t “re-imagine”, he didn’t come up “with a spiffy new take on XYZ”.
He created. Whit Anderson should be ashamed. If she wants to write fan fiction… she should do it on the web. Or maybe, oh, I don’t know… actually create something herself?
This is fun pop culture. Fluffy & disposable. And that’s it. People getting upset about the idea of a reboot are a touch sad. It’s not as if Mr Bieber plans on rebooting the White album.
That announcement is actually due to be press released tomorrow.
It’s fun pop culture to you, but you have to realize that some of us don’t really give a crap about the White album. Just because it isn’t a major aspect of your cultural identity, doesn’t mean it isn’t for some of us. Joss Whedon created it from scratch when the idea of vampires and slayers were just a random passed-by concept. And it became a cult-type series to it’s followers.
The Beatles were only “fun pop culture” too, so yes, it actually is as if Mr. Bieber was rebooting the White album.
I love movies as much as the next person, but this is a waste of energy for all involved. Use the money to fight cancer or something.
Spiderman
Superman
Star Trek
Buffy
We are perilously close to Hollywood rebooting shows that are still on the air or in the multiplex.
It’s not really fair to compare Buffy to Superman, Star Trek and Spider-Man. (FYI: It’s spelled Spider-Man, not Spiderman!)
Joss Whedon has been involved with Buffy from the get go. Heck, he is still actively involved with the character by writing comic books that he still considers cannon. Superman and Spider-Man are comic book characters whose stories spanned 50 odd years under the care of several different writers. Same goes for Star Trek, the only difference is that Star Trek is a TV show whose mythology has been constantly grown over time.
As a devout fan of Buffy, all I can say is that this is going to be a disaster, and I’m going to enjoy watching it burn. Any individual with the arrogance to try to take up the Buffy mantle without Joss’s consent deserves to have their career go down in flames.
Some blame must go to Sarah Michelle Gellar. She decided she was too good for Buffy and wanted “serious” roles. Her career went down the sewer, and Buffy was no more. If she had remained, there could have been a series of movies with Whedon at the helm.
Dang, she gave you seven years. Maybe things didn’t pan out as she hoped, but I certainly don’t blame her for wanting to move on, particularly considering the pile of dreck Buffy became in the last two seasons. Season seven in particular killed my desire to even watch reruns of the show, because it wasn’t the same knowing what it would eventually descend into.
Very bad idea. Very bad. Horrible. Nobody will go to see it, I hope they know this.
I suspect that this will be another “Never say never again”. People who have little idea about how to tell the Buffy story trying to leverage their ownership of IP into a wad of cash off of the back of someone else’s work. It’s a shame but I suspect it’ll fall flat all by itself.
I might give it a little chance if it wasn’t such a blatant attempt to cash in on the vampire craze that is the complete antithesis to what Buffy was all about in the first place.
I have a mixed opinion about this. What made the “Buffy” TV series so great was the creative and other staff on that show. To move on from that group and to reboot it with a newbie writer (according to IMDb, the writer’s only credits are as an actress in small roles) seems like a recipe for failure. At the same time, Charles Roven produced the Batman movie series reboot, which was pretty awesome. But reboots only seem like a good idea when the previous incarnation was faulty, which the “Buffy” TV series was not…
Was Roven really a producer?…Or a “producer”? I always have gotten the impression that Nolan pretty much runs things on that series right now, since he serves as a producer and his wife happens to be the main producer for all his films. Creatively I’m not sure Roven has had much input with the series, someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Fran & Kaz Kuzui “created” Buffy the Vampire Slayer? FUCK THEM. The haven’t created SHIT. Warners of all studios should know better than to align with those bozos instead of Whedon. Rebooting Buffy is as insane as it is insulting to the fans, who are now in revolt. Roven and Robinov need to regroup asap, pay Joss whatever it takes to lock him in post-AVENGERS, and give him the keys to a big-screen grown-up BUFFY epic adventure reuniting the original cast. That would make kazillions of dollars. This, on the other had, will die a painful, expensive, embarrassing death. WAKE THE FUCK UP ROVEN & ROBINOV.
However…. Mr. Whedon, as I recall, did not have the commercial rights. Fran and Kuzui do. That’s why they had their names on the series, even though they weren’t really involved (as I understand it).
I can’t imagine Buffy without Joss Whedon. Why would they try and do this without him?
I can’t say I’m excited to see it, in fact I can say I won’t see it if Joss is not part of it.
I say, this is as if they tried to re-launch Star Trek w/out Gene Rodenberry’s blessing. And I don’t even like Buffy.