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Once More, With Feeling: JW Revisits Dr. Horrible (NYT blog)

POSTED BY: canttakesky
UPDATED: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 01:04
VIEWED: 1410
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CANTTAKESKY

Monday, April 18, 2011 10:10 PM

(Don't miss 2 Firefly mentions in the interview!)

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/once-more-with-feeling-jo
ss-whedon-revisits-dr-horribles-sing-along-blog/?src=tptw

Quote:
In the pantheon of fantasy and science-fiction projects that Joss Whedon helped create, the Internet musical “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” can be easy to overlook: it’s not his beloved television series that ran a healthy seven seasons (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), or its beloved spinoff (“Angel”), or his misunderstood television show that was canceled before its time (“Dollhouse”) or his other misunderstood television show that was canceled before its time and spawned a misunderstood movie (“Firefly” and “Serenity”). “Dr. Horrible” is simply a three-act musical about an aspiring super-villain (played by Neil Patrick Harris), his smug do-gooding nemesis (Nathan Fillion) and the woman who comes between them (Felicia Day). Dreamed up by Mr. Whedon, his brothers Zack and Jed, and Maurissa Tancharoen during the 2007-8 writers’ strike and produced on his own dime, it is the pure expression of what they wanted to make at the time, without any outside interference.

For that reason alone, “Dr. Horrible” holds a special place in Mr. Whedon’s heart. (Another sign of his affection: he made time to talk to about it when he really should have been preparing to direct his superhero mega-movie “The Avengers.”) In these excerpts from a recent conversation, Mr. Whedon spoke to ArtsBeat about the making of the musical, its recently released companion volume “Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog: The Book” and his future online ambitions. (O.K., so we asked about “Avengers,” too.)
Q.

How are you?
A.

I am super-tired. I just have insomnia, so I’m like, [zombie voice] “Uhhhh. Prepping.”
Q.

It’s been almost three years since “Dr. Horrible” was first released. What does it mean to you now?
A.

It means, what the hell have we been doing? Where’s the damn sequel? The shame. Mostly that. And it remains one of the purest experiences of my life. It just makes me happy all the time. It wasn’t like anything else.
Q.

As much as the project was initiated by the writers’ strike, was it also in some way an acknowledgment that you couldn’t produce something like “Dr. Horrible” anywhere but on the Web?
A.

My ideas are always slightly left-of-center. I like to think that I’m a populist entertainer, but I’m a little bit idiosyncratic and sometimes the networks wouldn’t really roll with that. I was trying to – this was during the strike – make a deal with a big Internet company that had expressed interest in doing some low-budget production, and I laid out these ideas that I had, that I thought they might be interested in, the last of which was “Dr. Horrible.” I said, “And here’s the one you’re definitely not going to want to do.” And they said, “Yes. We don’t.” It became clear that nothing was going to happen with this company before the strike was over. So I got more and more obsessed with “Dr. Horrible” and asked my wife, “Honey, would it be O.K. if—” And she said, “Hells yeah.” We just eliminated the middle man. Or actually, the top man.
Q.

This was totally financed out of your own pocket?
A.

Mm-hmm. I’m like, hey, you know what? Some mid-life crises are cars. They cost about this much. Mine has songs in it.
Q.

I was amazed to see, in the book, your original handwritten lyrics to “My Freeze Ray,” which contain no crossed-out words, changes or even misspellings. Did all the songs emerge from your head fully-formed like Athena?
A.

I’m shocked about the misspelling thing. And yes, it was fully-armored. But I usually write things in my head before I ever write them down. When I write it out, usually I’ve already figured out what it is I’m trying to do. Sometimes I’ll forget to write them down, and then I’ll be like, “Here’s how this song goes: Uh. I don’t remember.” I’m that organized. Also, it’s a pretty simple lyric. There are other song sheets with many scribble-outs. But that one just sort of formed in my head pretty quickly.

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Tuesday, April 19, 2011 1:04 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by canttakesky:

Q.
-so after something like “Dr. Horrible,” are you ever tempted to chuck it all and only produce things for the Internet?

A.
I’m more than tempted. I’m a little obsessed. And after “Dr. Horrible,” I thought, well, somebody will come around. I talked at great length and planned at great length the idea of a portal and putting shows together, having an Internet identity and starting my own little micro-studio. Nobody in town was interested, and then by the time they were, “Avengers” came around. I was and will continue to work on a very, very different Internet mini-thing that I was writing with Warren Ellis, and I have a lot of ideas for things I want to put up there. I still believe it’s a viable financial model, and a creative playground and I miss it. But in the year that I was supposed to do that, I instead decided to make this little Sundance movie that I’m making.

& here's what Warren Ellis had to add (beginning with quoting Joss's answer)

http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=12452

Keep the Shiny Side Up,

YT