Tag: Joss Whedon

September 11, 2013 / / Main Slate Archive

Much Ado About Whedon

 

Here are the things you should know about how Joss Whedon’s, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, came about:

– Joss Whedon hosts Shakespeare readings at his house.

– Whedon adapted the William Shakespeare play, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, for this production.

– It was shot in 12 days at his house during his short vacation from working on THE AVENGERS.

– The cast is made up of his friends, mostly actors he worked with in the past (Firefly, THE AVENGERS, Dollhouse, Angel) who had attended Whedon’s Shakespeare readings.

– It is in black and white. (But do not be daunted! The black and white removes the film one step from our reality, existing in a world that is both modern and Shakespearean at the same time. Also, it looks pretty.)

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December 9, 2008 / / Film Notes

SERENITY

Serenity: Sci-Fi on the Raggedy Edge

If you’re familiar with writer-director Joss Whedon’s much-beloved 2005 science fiction film Serenity, you’ve likely heard the tale of the picture’s convoluted path to the big screen. It begins with the 2002 premiere and subsequent, swift cancellation of Firefly, Whedon’s hour-long TV series that fell victim to an impatient network (not to mention a dreadful ad campaign that featured Smash Mouth’s then-ubiquitous tune “Walking on the Sun”). Serenity picks up where Firefly was forced to leave off, and Firefly’s vocal fans (some who watched the initial broadcasts, many who were converted by the hot-selling DVDs of the series) embraced the big screen version, only too happy to have their favorite characters back. Fans championed the film with a missionary zeal; at the time of Serenity’s release, a story circulated about a Vancouver man who bought 320 tickets to the film just to give them away to strangers. Alas, Serenity didn’t set the box office aflame during its initial run, but it has predictably had a strong DVD afterlife, and indeed more staying power than the Jodie Foster thriller Flightplan (a massive hit, moneywise, in 2005) that held the number one box office spot when Serenity opened, or the Vin Diesel vehicle Doom (even that had a bigger opening weekend). Serenity’s charms are many whether you’re a newcomer or a diehard, and in the past few years it has settled comfortably into a position of rare prestige in the cinematic sci-fi canon.

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