A little help, please...

POSTED BY: Jstn
UPDATED: Friday, August 17, 2007 20:54
VIEWED: 13513
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JSTN

Thursday, February 22, 2007 8:50 PM

Hi. My name is Jstn and I'm the admininstrator from savesurface.com, the leading fan site on the web, dedicated to the return of another great sci-fi series cancelled in it's prime, Surface.

I also organized the internet campaign to save the show, called Project Nim.

So what am I doing here? Last night I had the pleasure of watching Serenity (excellent movie), and realized that it was the follow-up movie to Firefly, a show I enjoyed, but had only got to see a couple of episodes of before it was (stupidly) cancelled.

In the special features was a discussion of the excellent internet campaign you guys put together, which was successful in getting a movie out of it. As there were tons of loose ends in Surface, we too would love a Surface movie to get some "closure"

I am in touch with the brothers Pate, who wrote Surface, and was thinking perhaps it might be possible to get some assistance from you guys, or even better Mr Whedon, for the Pates, in how to go about getting a movie out of a cancelled show.

Would one of the mods or administartors here, please sign up at savesurface.com, go to the message boards and use our private mail system to contact me directly? I have a few questions.It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

While we have tried several different types of efforts to change NBC's Kevin Reilly's mind, we have not had any luck. We would happy to hear any suggestions from you fans, as well.

Thank you for your time, and I hope this was an appropriate place to post this. Look forward to your reactions. We hope you would check out our site as well. It's a great place to hang out when you aren't here. - Jstn

EMBERS

Thursday, February 22, 2007 11:08 PM

I'm not a mod... but I didn't want your post to be buried and lost:
in fact we didn't cause the movie to be made:
when Firefly was cancelled Joss tried everyone everywhere in the hopes of getting the show moved to another network, or cable station, or premium station....
without any luck.

But Mary Parent who was (at that time) a producer for Universal knew that Universal Studios had been wanting to do a film with Joss Whedon, so she signed on Joss to write a movie script, and Universal bought the film rights from 20th Century Fox.

AFTER that deal was made the Firefly DVDs went on sale and they sold at such a great rate that Universal felt all the more confident about their decision to make a movie: they budgeted $40 million for the first film and made it a three picture deal.
(obviously the 2nd film hasn't received the green light)

So what can you do? First of all put pressure on to make sure DVDs come out soon,
buy LOTS of the DVDs to insure that they get listed as a big seller
(the Browncoats bought extra sets for military personel and for libraries around the country)

Don't let you fandom die, not if you truly love it!
Good luck

MSG

Thursday, February 22, 2007 11:11 PM

Well you've started to organize so that's good. Checkout the dvd Done the Impossible for lots of good ideas and just keep pushing no matter what! Good luck!

"I'm not all that interested in the mental health of people who want to kill me. "- Leroy Jethro Gibbs

CYBERSNARK

Thursday, February 22, 2007 11:51 PM

Shortest answer I can give: move those DVDs. Get people hooked on it. Get the fan-merchandise machine up and running. Find someone capable of making little Nimrod dolls and beany-babies (just keep 'em off-brand, so you don't get sued).

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

JSTN

Friday, February 23, 2007 6:07 AM

Embers, MSG, and Cybersnark - Thanks so much for your responses and for keeping my thread alive.

You should know that, i started the internet campaign long before the show was even cancelled, when there was nothing but a rumor that it was to be cancelled. We've been working hard ever since, although in the last few months things have dropped off a lot, since Reilly seems bound and determined to replace quality programing with mindless game shows and so-called reality TV. This, in spite of the fact that Heroes is credited with saving the network. Heroes, btw, has about 4 million more viewers each week than Surface's nearly 9.5 million average, during it's season, (when the network wasn't bumping it for the Olympics or otherwise messing with the schedule). This is more viewers btw, than Smallville and Supernatural combined.

I'm telling you this to point out that Surface would likely have been a hugely popular show, had it been given network support. The DVD came out a few months ago, but I haven't a clue how well it sold. Nonetheless, our loyal fan base is equal to any for any show, as far as enthusiasm goes and many of the fans regularly "make" their friends watch the DVD, which inevitably increases support for the show.

We also have regular additions to our site as people in other countries watch it, only to discover it's been cancelled.

Sorry, if I'm rambling a bit here, but I'm just trying to give you guys an idea where we are at.The beanie Nim idea came up long ago, although to my knowlege, no one ever got it going. Our site is chock full of Nim art and fanfiction around the show, as well.

Overall though, things have slowed up. Basically, Jonas Pate told me he would let us know if they were going to pitch it to another network (Sci Fi channel said they didn't have the budget for it) and if that happens, we will re-energize and carpet bomb the potential network with emails and letters again.

My thought in coming here was that I might be able to connect Mr Whedon with Jonas, and that he might be able to guide the Pates in a successful direction, giving us the movie, we are so desperate for.

I should also mention that on the Serenity DVD clearly gives you guys the credit for getting the movie made. Mr Whedon and the cast were quite clear about that. Of course, support from Universal made your dream a reality, but don't underestimate yourselves.

Thank you very much for your comments and support. You guys rock. I hope you'll feel free to visit our site as well and together, we can stand up for quality Sci Fi, like Firefly, Surface, and SG-1 (my other favorite) and maybe slow this decline of quality shows on the networks.

Any plans for other movies, or for getting your show back on TV? I'd love to see that, and if you guys need our assistance, I will "fire up the troops" for you. Just let me know.

I'll stop by later to see any responses, but I hope to see you at savesurface.com as well. Thanks again - Jstn

6IXSTRINGJACK

Friday, February 23, 2007 6:24 AM

I thought Surface was great, but I kinda got caught up in stuff and missed a couple of episodes and was out of the loop. I always wondered what happened to it. I guess I kinda just assumed it was just intended to be a one series show.

I feel your pain man. I can't even watch a show on FOX anymore because they continue to cancel shows that I like, including Firefly, Arrested Development and Greg the Bunny.

I hope you get it back on. I loved the girls they had on there, especially Leighton Meester. I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to show me somebody else who looks that good in a tiny pink bikini.

I don't have much advice for you, except that anything that you try to do to bring this show back should have pictures of Leighton in a bikini. I can almost guarantee that more than half of the audience that Surface had was initially attracted to the immense sex appeal that the show offered, if not more. If there really was 9.5 million viewers a week, I'm sure they ended up sticking around for the great story, but they still came back because of Leighton and her friends in bikini's too.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack

JSTN

Friday, February 23, 2007 7:31 AM

Wow, fast response, Jack

Thanks for your good wishes. It's not my intention to advertise my site here, but we have several things that I think you particularly might like. The most obvious is tons of screen-caps, including lots of Leighton (Yes, she's smokin' hot). She doesn't write on our site, but once in a while, Linsey Godfrey (Mile's girlfriend, Catlin) writes to us, as she got cancer and we ran a support campaign for her. She's doing great, btw.

Our board also has an invitation only (invisible to most) section for arguing Politics and such. Man can't live on TV alone, you know.

Also, I've been known to play a bit of sixstring myself. LOL

Anyway, I hope your mods here will forgive me these slightly off topic comments. Just thought you might be interested, in that stuff.

I'm looking forward to exploring your site as well. Anyone have any suggestions? I saw the Wallpaper downloads. Cool stuff. Anything, I really should check out? - Jstn

SHAMELESS

Friday, February 23, 2007 8:54 AM

DUDE! I LOVE THAT COMIC! (in your sig, sorry, totally random, but... yeah)

------------------------------------------
RPG launcher bought in third world country illegally - $10
Landmines - $50 per
Attack/track dogs bred 1st class - $250-500 per
Highpowered assault rifles - $600 per
The look on your face when I show up on your doorstep with a bigfoot - ... Priceless

"You gotta love that the first pirated HD DVD is the one about space pirates who broadcast a video that the government wants to keep secret.

Can't stop the signal."
-reavers_ate_my_dvd

JSTN

Friday, February 23, 2007 5:06 PM

I forgot to mention that I love the use of language in that movie. It's awesome how it sounds so natural and like real slang, and yet still is so understandable. I wish I owned a copy, so that I could go through and cherry pick the phrases that impressed me (or as we say at the Surface site, "Nimpressed me"LOL) so much.

That said, can one of you tell me the orgin of the word Reaver? It has a familiar ring to it but I can't quite place where it came from. It really fits though. LOL

Thanks again - Jstn

COSMICFUGITIVE

Friday, February 23, 2007 5:21 PM

Welcome aboard Jstn!

A few definitions of the word Reaver can be found here:

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Reaver

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