Why Serenity II is not being made.

POSTED BY: TECHTREKKER
UPDATED: Saturday, March 23, 2013 12:08
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VERASAMUELS

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 9:00 AM

1. Check out Browncoats: Redemption. It even has some BDHs in cameos [GG]

2. Dr Horrible is a good model.

3. Even more so, 'Sanctuary'. Started out as a CGI heavy but innovative pay-per-view download from the web. Now about to enter its 3rd season on Syfy.

4. I suggest, not so much Serenity 2 as 'Tales from the 'verse'. Webisodes with one or more actors, gradually painting a picture of an event or series of events from different standpoints. Who is telling the truth? Who is hiding something? Who got the wrong end of the stick? Who holds the vital pieces of the puzzle?

Devout Keeper of Jayne's Lunchbox

TWO

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 3:31 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
TWO, I know everyone dissed on your idea, and I think you were just kidding, but if someone wrote that story over at fanfiction.net where I read, I would actually give it a go, try it out. Whether I finished it would depend on how well its written, but I'd try it.

I was serious about the Serenity story - an employee of Dr. Mathias switches loyalties, contacts Simon, and flys the helicopter that rescues River from the Alliance Institute. Because everybody hates politicians, I think it would be fun to watch River embarrassing a roomful of politicians that have come to see the psychic in action. I wanted to show 'Storymark' that a Serenity movie could be made without filming all 9 original actors for 6 weeks and without Nathan Fillion and Summer Glau spending months in fight training.

The story only needs a good script. A made-for-TV Serenity movie on a SyFy budget is too small to attract Joss Whedon to write it. That is unfortunate because SyFy would probably let a camera operator who wants to supplement his income write the hack-spectacular script, which would prove Storymark's claim that cheap movies are bad and would destroy the Firefly franchise.

I spent $25.90 for the Remastered Browncoats Redemption Remastered Deluxe Edition shipping April 2011. http://shop.browncoatsmovie.com/ That is my contribition to supporting small films.

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

ZEEK

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 5:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by InvaderChat:
Well I'm with STORYMARK on this one, I'd rather have no more at all than some cheap crap spoiling what Firefly is right now. Additionally, Schwarzenegger and 'low budget' should probably not be mentioned in the same sentence, quality productions cost money and if there was going to be a Firefly ANYTHING then I would want quality.

I mean, how much did Dr. Horrible cost? Wasn't that like a quarter of a million or something without licensing, distribution and with the actors working for free?

And WTF!? Firefly without seeing Serenity? No thankyou. And that means rebuilding the sets, the startup costs of anything decent would be pretty big, not to mention actually coordinating everyone to come back to the show.

I can't think of anything worse than a poorly done, low budget piece of crap that would ultimately seal the fate of Firefly firmly in the dustbin. If it's going to be done, it needs to be done right.

Why would it have to spoil things? You think the more money spent on a production the better it is? Seems like movie reviews and awards shows would have a really easy time were that the case.

I don't see why something new would necessarily ruin what we already have anyway. I mean I don't particularly care for any of the comic books. I read them once and that's enough for me. The only one that I feel has any impact on what came before it is Shepherd's Tale. The others have been more self contained and easier to just forget about IMO.

STORYMARK

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 11:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Zeek:
You think the more money spent on a production the better it is?

That's a straw man. No one said that. But the fact is, productions cost a lot, Science fiction being one of the most costly. Anyone who knows anything about production knows that unless it is just a few people (not known actors to boot) sitting around in a room talking, a film is going to cost more than a million dollars. In the film world 10 million is considered ultra low budget. A million is considered a micro-budget. Be realistic.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

STORYMARK

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 11:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by two:
How do you claim the X-file script is not to blame?:

I already answered that. People don't know if something is well written or not unless they see it, and very few did. Giving me a synopsis is missing the point completely. I know the story, I saw it.

Rule of thumb in the industry is that opening weekend is about the marketing - because no one has seen the damned thing, and can't judge the content. This is why crappy movies with good trailers open huge then taper off. If they continue to draw crowd, then it's attributed to word of mouth - which equals people liking the story. But that can't happen until people actually see it.

And the vast majority of filmgoers are not people who scour the internet for plot points. No one here is a general viewer.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

RIONAEIRE

Thursday, February 3, 2011 12:39 AM

TWO, like I said I'd read your story if you wrote it, if you do, include some bits inbetween your main plot about the other Firefly charactors flying around, Simon trying to get River out etc. I will read that story and probably enjoy it.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

TWO

Thursday, February 3, 2011 1:48 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:
People don't know if something is well written or not unless they see it, and very few did. Giving me a synopsis is missing the point completely. I know the story, I saw it.

Rule of thumb in the industry is that opening weekend is about the marketing - because no one has seen the damned thing, and can't judge the content. This is why crappy movies with good trailers open huge then taper off. If they continue to draw crowd, then it's attributed to word of mouth - which equals people liking the story. But that can't happen until people actually see it.

And the vast majority of filmgoers are not people who scour the internet for plot points. No one here is a general viewer.

X Files (2008) failed because Chris Carter, the scriptwriter, pulled down his pants and mooned the audience. Way to go, Chris, you lazy writer. Carter left plot holes and logic slippages all over X Files. TV writers think mistakes will be ignored. No, they won't. When it's not free TV, when it's paid movies, audience's suspension of disbelief only stretches so far before it breaks. Since nobody here but 'Storymark' and me saw X Files, I choose an example from Serenity of a TV writer's mistake. I can show you from an early script that Joss Whedon knew it was a mistake but, surprisingly, he turned around and did it anyway.

Mal and the Operative are standing on the same platform, close enough to pee on the other's boots. Mal shoots the Operative's gun out of his hand. Does Mal then kill the Operative? Mal is a gentleman and wishes that the movie not end just yet. Unbelievable TV tripe in a movie! Joss Whedon originally wrote it with Mal and the Operative standing on two different platforms. Mal could not crossover to kill the Operative. That's believable. See page 171 of the 190 page Serenity script.

I do not know why Joss moved the Operative closer to Mal for their shoot out, but I know that was a mistake. I think most of the audience noticed.

X Files failed at the boxoffice because the script sucked and I got a related theory about why Pixar cartoons have all done well, so far. Pixar cartoons don't have stories where the writers do something stupid or senseless, like they do writing TV shows. That is probably because Pixar takes two years working on the pencil and paper storyboards. Mistakes are fixed before they ruin the cartoon. I think if live action writers were as careful as Pixar, fewer movies would stink. Too bad that ain't gonna happen. Hollywood is a sad world of anxious adults in a hurry.

Were a small, low budget Serenity II to be made, it would need a really good script. Probably need the good script far more than a bigger movie with lots of special effects and fight scenes to distract everyone from the underlying story.

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

BYTEMITE

Thursday, February 3, 2011 2:50 PM

Quote:
I do not know why Joss moved the Operative closer to Mal for their shoot out, but I know that was a mistake. I think most of the audience noticed.

? I didn't think it was that big of a mistake. Mal was 1) focused on getting the broadwave out, 2) had to get across the gap anyway, 3) knew that the Operative wears body armor, 4) knew that the Operative is better with hand to hand combat, and needed to get the hell away long enough to to shoot him, 5) didn't know the Operative had stumbled across Mr. Universe's message and knew what he was planning, and 6) figured the Operative would be confused by his apparently insane decision to cross the gap. One of Mal's favourite strategies, seen in all the war time flashbacks in the series, is to be so unpredictable that he catches his enemies off guard.

Unfortunately, the Operative's anger over Mal's trick with the Reavers and number 5) meant the Operative did attack him, and nearly succeeded in knocking him into a spinning rotor. Yikes.

MIKED

Thursday, February 3, 2011 2:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by two:
X Files failed at the boxoffice because the script sucked and I got a related theory about why Pixar cartoons have all done well, so far. Pixar cartoons don't have stories where the writers do something stupid or senseless, like they do writing TV shows. That is probably because Pixar takes two years working on the pencil and paper storyboards. Mistakes are fixed before they ruin the cartoon. I think if live action writers were as careful as Pixar, fewer movies would stink. Too bad that ain't gonna happen. Hollywood is a sad world of anxious adults in a hurry.

The only issue with the Pixar example is that yes you can story board every angle to make sure it will look amazing and yes you can work the script out so that, on paper, it looks good and works, but the element you can't control, and fully see till the editing room, is the actors performance. With animation they have hours of takes of just one line in all it's various inflections. Asking actors to take that kind of performance in a movie is time consuming and costly. Even with that, the wrong actor can make a great script shity and a great actor can make a shity script better, but until it's all done...you just don't know. Most filming isn't done sequentially so the full weight, or mess, of an actors performance won't be seen till after it's being edited. By then when you notice something just isn't working it's going to cost you more money to go back and do reshoots.

Hollywood's biggest problem is the marketing budget is just as big, if not bigger, than the actual cost of the film. So what would be a good movie, like Serenity(flaws and all), is seen as a "flop" because it didn't live up to the over inflated budget.

ZEEK

Thursday, February 3, 2011 3:21 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:
Quote:
Originally posted by Zeek:
You think the more money spent on a production the better it is?

That's a straw man. No one said that.

Quote:
Originally posted by InvaderChat:
I'd rather have no more at all than some cheap crap spoiling what Firefly is right now.

Maybe InvaderChat didn't say the more money the better but he did say the less money the crappier. Therefore if you take money away and make the movie crappier than as you add money you must be taking the crappy away. Which would seem to be making it better.

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