New interview with Joss on SuicideGirls.com

POSTED BY: onetransmission
UPDATED: Tuesday, November 1, 2005 15:51
VIEWED: 6570
PAGE 1 of 1

ONETRANSMISSION

Monday, October 31, 2005 2:38 PM

well, at least i think it's a new interview...

http://suicidegirls.com/words/Joss+Whedon/

Genre fans, rejoice! Joss Whedon has finally directed for the big screen and he’s bringing some of his TV pals along with him. His television series Firefly was cancelled before it’s time by the FOX network and now the company that’s owns NBC, Universal Studios, is continuing the adventures of Captain Mal Reynolds and his band of outlaws in the movie, Serenity.

Whedon has all the elements that made his television works great, such as hot asskicking females, humor with a sly wink and well thought out scripts but now it’s backed by a $40 million budget.

Check out the official site for Serenity

Daniel Robert Epstein: Before this all got started, someone at Universal sat down and figured out that if Serenity makes this certain amount of money and they sell this many DVDs according to how the Firefly DVDs sold they should give you a certain budget. Are you privy to that kind of information?

Joss Whedon: I’m privy to the essentials. Ultimately how good the DVDs sold certainly helped. But nobody ever said to me “Ok we need a number on the DVDs before we greenlight the movie.’’ I was already into the script, I was giving it to them, the timing was fortuitous and if nobody had bought the DVDs they might well have gone, “Well gee I don’t know.” At the same time, everybody knew that nobody saw the show so we didn’t really know what a big fanbase there was.

I don’t think Universal gets enough credit. People assume they decided to do it after the DVD sales. But they’d been in it for almost a year before that. Based on the shows, the cast and the world they said “Yeah there’s a movie in there.”

DRE: One can’t be as successful as you have been without being able to navigate through the business side of things, how much does that impact what you are doing?

JW: We knew that this movie was going to be made for a certain budget and we had a pretty good idea what that budget was going be. It was not going to include giant star salaries but it was not going to be a tentpole movie budget. Now I’ll write something where the universe explodes and turns into a butterfly but at the end of the day I’ll pick my battles. In the case of Serenity, I had to literally pick my battles because I could only afford to film one or two of them and tailor it to whatever I can get. I like the parameters. If it’s $100 million, $50 million, $2 million or if it’s a $100,000 I’m telling you the same basic story. I’m talking about people and it’s just how grand can I make it. So we came to a budget based on the script that was smaller by Universal standards but bigger by mine. Then it was all about being extremely responsible with that money. To make sure it showed up on the screen and making sure I didn’t spend anything I didn’t have. Every season, of every show that I did, and that’s 12 and a half seasons, came in under budget.

DRE: Wow.

JW: And sometimes those were some expensive looking shows. I believe in being responsible with other people’s money. When you do that, it gives the studio an enormous amount of confidence and it gives you a little leeway in case the unexpected happens, which it always does. So yeah, I think about money, but I think about it like a producer and not like an executive.

DRE: In Serenity, watching the outerspace battle scenes in and even watching the hand to hand combat scenes I felt it all had kind of an anti-Star Wars feel to it. I don’t mean an anti-Star Wars feel in a negative way but it just didn’t look like World War II dogfighting and you had a lot of interesting angles in the hand to hand combat fight scenes. Was that conscious?

JW: It was basically the same directive that I had for the entire movie. Which was make it kinetic, make it lived in, make it gritty, and unkempt and real. That’s what I thought was missing from sci-fi. In movies and TV everything had gotten so CGI, distant, purposeful and grand. I felt that life in space isn’t going to be that much different than life here. So the action an

BARCLAY

Monday, October 31, 2005 4:40 PM

Quote:
JW: We did do a three issue sort of bridge from the TV show to the movie from Dark Horse in comics and that was really fun. It was well received so I think we’ll definitely go back there. We’re waiting to see the fate of the movie.

Shiny!

"You are on the Global Frequency."
http://www.frequencysite.com
http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com

ONETRANSMISSION

Monday, October 31, 2005 8:07 PM

Quote:
DRE: Were the big changes that happen in the movie Serenity there when you first came up with the concept?

JW: Some of the plot devices are basically boiled down from where the series was heading. Then obviously there are some changes and there’s a toll on the characters that is tougher, bigger, harder, grittier and more final than it would be for a series, because when you’re writing a movie, there is no second movie. There can be sometimes but if you start writing for them you water yourself down. You have to assume that this is the only statement you’re ever going to make with these characters.

Not everything that came from the series is wrapped up in the movie. But the major parts that the series was headed for are dealt with. I had to make the movie absolutely self-contained so that you didn’t need to see the series. But this is what I wanted to say with it, just wider.

this pretty much sums up why the movie is the way it is. all of you complainers that talk trash on the movie, or try to unjustly compare it to the tv series have to adjust your thinking like Joss did.

EMBERS

Monday, October 31, 2005 8:47 PM

Thank you onetransmission,
I LOVE this interview!

Quote:
Originally posted by onetransmission:

DRE: You have to be a good yeller when it comes to dealing with Joel.

JW: I don’t have to. I don’t yell, I do the other thing. I lower my voice. It’s very scary. You don’t want to be there when I lower my voice.

heh heh heh
I think that should be my new signiture:
"You don't want to be there when I lower my voice"

**********************************************
watch the R. Tam Session vids: http://www.hittarivertam.nu/
and buy the 'Serenity' comics published by Dark Horse,
and have you joined the Browncoats yet?
http://browncoats.serenitymovie.com/serenity/?fuseaction=tools.invlink
&u=embers&linkID=36

ANGELCRUSHERD

Monday, October 31, 2005 8:52 PM

Quote:
I’m not sexy. I mean I’m wicked sexy, but only if you’re well, me.

Aww come on Joss. We can see past your modesty.

PIFFLE101

Monday, October 31, 2005 11:55 PM

Quote:
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?

JW: I am tat free. I am as God made me, including the baby fat.

LOL!! I smell new siggie!

-------------------------------------------------
Because Dancers are tough,mean...Chicas!! -Summer Glau

UNSARDONIC

Tuesday, November 1, 2005 12:30 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by embers:
Thank you onetransmission,
I LOVE this interview!

Totally with you on this - man that was good...

I was particularly taken by this:

Quote:
Originally posted by ontransmission:I don’t think Universal gets enough credit. People assume they decided to do it after the DVD sales. But they’d been in it for almost a year before that. Based on the shows, the cast and the world they said “Yeah there’s a movie in there.”

That puts a whole new spin on it all

If you make me 'lower my voice,' "your friends will think you're a stupid, inbred stack of meat"

UNSARDONIC

Tuesday, November 1, 2005 12:34 AM

If you make me 'lower my voice,' "your friends will think you're a stupid, inbred stack of meat"

Sigh... that was supposed to be a siggie but I screwed it up so... sorry...

HOHOHO

I must 'lower my voice' at myself as I seem to be a "stupid, inbred stack of meat"

BELISARIUS

Tuesday, November 1, 2005 9:17 AM

Might wanna mention that suicidegirls is a little... ahem... not safe for work.

ONETRANSMISSION

Tuesday, November 1, 2005 3:51 PM

haha, ah yeah i assumed everyone knew what suicidegirls.com was all about (alternative/punk porn).

that's why i copied the whole interview and pasted it here!