Whedon creating second Dollhouse pilot

File this one under “deja vu all over again.”  Joss Whedon is creating a new prequel pilot for his upcoming series Dollhouse. 

Whedon says that he decided to create a new pilot for the show after meeting with FOX executives.  The executives cited issues of “accessibility” for the first episode.

“When we talked to the network I got a sense of hesitation about what we had and I understood why,” Whedon said. “There’s a concern about the audience coming into this world. I respect their need to draw in an audience and present this a certain way. That said, I feel it’s a very strong episode.”

For those of you keeping track at home, this is exactly how another Joss project on FOX, Firefly, got started.   Whedon acknowleged this but tried to assure fans there’s nothing to worry about.

“That’s why I hit myself on the head for this,” Whedon said. “Having been through this I should know I need to deliver a way to get into a story. I get their perspective, I get my perspective, these are not stupid people [at the network] and I decided I needed to make a preemptive strike. I wasn’t going to entrench around my art. It is very fluid — the creation of a television show. So I said that I know a way to satisfy everyone.”

Series star Eliza Dushku quipped the real reason to create a new pilot was she didn’t get to “wear my leather pants” in the original pilot, saying that was a “dealbreaker.”

In Dollhouse, a group of people can be programmed with various abilities and personalities and rented out for assignments to high-paying clients. They are kept stored in an underground compound that resembles a Zen-like spa. One of the Dolls, Echo (Dushku), begins to gradually become self-aware.

“I wanted everybody to feel like Echo is in this terrible situation, slash, ‘can somebody wipe my memory and feed me and put me in a wonderful spa and give me massages too?’ Whedon said.

The tone of each episode, Whedon adds, will shift based on the Dolls’ assignment, a tactic that some might consider risky.

“I live to subvert [an audience’s] expectation,” he says. “There’s a part of me that was clearly born for this and a part of me that will never be right for it. I live to do the episode of Murder She Wrote where nobody dies. Because the greatest joy is to be genuinely surprise by human behavior or narrative structure. “

Dollhouse will debut on FOX in 2009.