9:52 p.m. | Updated
If immortal bloodsuckers can come back from their apparent demises time and time again, why not the humans who are sworn to eradicate them from the planet? On Monday, Warner Brothers Pictures said it was proceeding with plans to produce a new movie based on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” with a creative team that does not include the franchise’s creator, Joss Whedon.
Mr. Whedon wrote the original screenplay for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” a 1992 comedy that starred Kristy Swanson as a California cheerleader who learns it is her destiny to combat the undead; he also was the creator and show runner of the “Buffy” television series, which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as the title character.
But his name was nowhere to be found on a news release circulated Monday, in which Warner Brothers said it had optioned the “Buffy” rights from Fran and Kaz Kuzui (who produced the original feature, which Ms. Kuzui also directed) and from Sandollar Productions (the production company of Dolly Parton). The new film, the studio said, will be produced by Atlas Entertainment and Vertigo Entertainment, and will be written by Whit Anderson.
The blogosphere did not exactly greet these plans – whose possibility was previously explored in the Hollywood trade publications last year – rapturously. But for anyone who says it’s impossible to reboot a popular character just a few years after its last incarnation, we say, look at Batman, James Bond, Battlestar Galactica or Star Trek. (Don’t look at the Punisher or the Hulk.)
Update: Then again, Mr. Whedon didn’t sound too thrilled by the news, either. In an email posted at eonline.com, he wrote: “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.”
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.
No comments:
Post a Comment