This idea I have had for years and just need to share

POSTED BY: Emmi
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 01:31
VIEWED: 3307
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EMMI

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 1:44 PM

As a hardcore Firefly I have to admit I am STILL hardbroken over the lack of a second season. And a third, fourth, fifth season of course but I am not pushing it.

So for years now I have been playing with the idea of us fans 'producing' the series, rather than a ridiculous company like Fox. With producing I just mean providing the financial funds, of course. So what if this Utopian Idea were possible:

- Find out how much munney would be required for 1, 2, 3... etc episodes
(- Coordinate with Whedon & co)
- set up a Firefly trust fund / ' Firefly stocks' system
- get all fans to donate / buy Firefly stocks
- find sponsors to promote the project (myspace/facebook/blogs/whatever)
- As soon as there is enough funding (for say 6 episodes, there will be a minimum due to practicalities), Whedon & co will start filming
- When said episodes are ready, the rights belong exclusively to Whedon & co, so they can sell broadcast/dvd/merchandise rights to the highest bidder
- The returns on those first episodes go straight into the fund towards even more episodes!
- Should there be a lot of profit, perhaps the fans could be reimbursed

And voila, we have a series running without the money-sucking interference of a production company.

- Warning: I'm not of this world

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 4:35 PM

Lots of people offer suggestions on how to do this, not to say that you don't have some good ideas.

The main obstacle in any effort is Fox and Universal right now, because both of them own the rights and neither of them want to let any official (funded, for-profit) projects go forward without their piece of the pie. So it's pretty much down to either buying the rights off them, and they don't seem interested in selling, or waiting to 2012 for Fox's rights to expire. Then Universal might be able to do something. But who knows if they do want to, considering how Serenity performed at the Box Office versus on DVD, lots of these people want big quick impressive numbers instead of a long-term stable investment with a franchise.

Anyway, it's not impossible, but there definitely are some hurdles.

EMMI

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 5:08 PM

Thanks, I didn't know Fox still had the rights. Seems like a silly thing to me, but then again a lot does.

As I said, it's a Utopian idea, and we don't live in a utopia... But in an ideal universe that would be more or less the way I'd try to organise it. ;)

When it comes down to it, however, all I care about is that we get more Firefly. How it's done doesn't matter too much. :)

OUT2THEBLACK

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 5:54 PM

EMMI , it's good to have you on the boat ; thanks for sharing your thoughts...

It's Folk like you that keep us flying , and will help us relight our Firefly !

SHINYGOODGUY

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 7:05 PM

Yeah Emmi, Byte is right, Fox owns the TV rights until 2012 (and believe me they will scuttle any attempt by another network unless they 'gets' paid - remember The Watchmen fiasco?).

I'm ever hopeful that, in 2012, some smart individual (are you listening Universal?) will pick up the ball and run with it. What with Nathan's continued success with Castle; Morena with V and Adam with Chuck, there will be name recognition and a reasonable amount of Star power to float that boat.

Anyways, one can dream.

Welcome aboard BTW.

SGG

Tawabawho?

OPERATIVE1

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 7:13 PM

We don't live in a utopian world, if it was Whedon would have the rights to Firefly(which I didn't know Fox had.)

Regardless of how the show would be brought back, the world is a little less shiny without it, it needs to be brought back. I need more Firefly, it was one of the few shows that worthy in it's weight in gold.

The powers that were or be unjustly cancelled it.

Operative1

TWO

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 7:26 PM

Raising money and Fox's permission aren't the biggest problems. Time and Biology are bigger. Because of his prior acting commitment to Castle, Nathan Fillion can not be on The New Firefly unless you clone him. And while we're cloning people, Summer Glau's clone will need to be taken out of the oven early so she looks like she's seventeen, again, if she is going to be a convincing teenage telepathic ninja.

[ Postscript: Summer will be able to play telepathic when she's 70 and ninja when she's 50 but teenager? Maybe when she's 30, but not much older. So... we're gonna have to start filming The New Firefly sooner than later.]

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 8:08 PM

Aw, Summer still looks pretty young. In Dollhouse, she played Bennett, who was twenty something. She did some flashbacks where she was supposed to still be in college. River was seventeen in the series, and going on eighteen in the movies. She can pull it off.

People say Nathan is starting to look too old or out of shape, but I'm not seeing that either. I got into a big e-mail discussion about this, and I pointed out all the places Nathan has appeared while Castle has been in production, like conventions. Still looks like Nathan. I've concluded the problem isn't age or weight gain, he looks to be the same weight and unless he botoxes (I doubt it) his skin's fine. The problem, I think, is that for some reason they've made some really poor lighting and wardrobe choices over on the Castle set. Really makes him look worn out and haggard sometimes. He needs to start closing those jackets of his, because they make him look big around the middle, and he might want to consider growing his hair out just a half an inch or so. And maybe ask them to soften the lights up a bit, they may work at a police station in story but they don't have to look like they're under interrogation lights all the time!

So that's my take. Age a problem? Nah.

The prior commitments might be an issue, but if you did a few mini-series, might be able to get around that. Hey, didn't they film Dr. Horrible in like a few days? Schedule shooting for summer, put it out in the fall, bing bam, there you go.

PIZMOBEACH

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 8:20 PM

HI Emmi - nice to have you along!

Personally, I do think age is important, but not necessarily the physical look of the actors (although I do think that is pushing it), rather it's their maturity as actors. I think at this point it might feel like going backwards for them, they've grown and I'm sure they are keen for new challenges.
And don't think for a second they would say that, of course not! They don't want to break any Browncoat hearts! I just can't see career actors going backwards - too risky, makes it seem like they can't get work except as *that* character. It has the sad and dangerous potential of turning into parody. I would hate to see that.
I say bring in the new characters and new stories. Let new actors and writers (under Joss' direction/production) let loose on the 'Verse.

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 8:33 PM

Pizmo: This, I could see. To be honest, I kinda feel sorry about how in every interview they can expect to hear a question about Firefly come up. Much as I love the series, it must be tiring for them, to the point that it might taint the memories they have.

But, then, they did all come back for the movie, and that was a few years after the series ended. I hope they still feel the same way.

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