Rumor has it that Entertainment Weekly Magazine Edition #855 due out on 12-23-2005 has Joss Whedon saying adios to “Firefly”.
Due to Serenity‘s lackluster worldwide box office showing the magazine quotes Whedon as saying, “In the end, it was what it was a tough sell.”
Concerning the movie and a possible sequel? “I have closure,” he says. “And now, I can have it in my home – which means that I can actually stop working on it.” Whedon had hinted in earlier interviews throughout the year that Firefly and Serenity had kept him away from home and family far too much. Is this his way of saying his involvement with Serenity is over?
Here is the actual article from the EW Mag according to Fireflyfans.net:
Adios, ‘Firefly’…
Joss Whedon lets ”Firefly” go — The ”Serenity” director may turn to ”Buff the Vampire Slayer” for his next big-screen project
by Jeff Jensen
When Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon looks back on 2005, he can take comfort in knowing that his film-directing debut, the sci-fi Western Serenity, resurrected his canceled-too-soon cult classic TV series Firefly, and was also one of the year’s best-reviewed movies. ”I should say I’m above reading reviews,” he says. ”But I would be lying.” Alas, Whedon’s fond memories are also tainted by Serenity’s status as a franchise nonstarter; despite Universal’s best marketing efforts, the film only mustered $25 million. ”In the end, it was what it was: a tough sell,” says Whedon, adding that it appears the Firefly saga has reached its conclusion. He has no regrets and he’s moving on. He’s currently penning a Wonder Woman flick for Warner Bros., and has the thriller Goners set up at Universal; he’ll direct whichever gets a green light first. Buffy’s papa has more Slayerstuff in the pipeline as well: an ongoing comic book (”the eighth season we never made”), and possibly a series of DVD flicks focusing on characters like platinum bloodsucker Spike. As for Serenity, ”I have closure,” he says. ”And now, I can have it in my home which means that finally I can actually stop working on it.”
I’m really sorry to hear of this. When I went to see the film(the weekend of release) I have never seen a happier and more engaged/entertained movie crowd in my life! There was clapping, cheering, laughter, gasps..! It wasn’t a normal movie-going experience, AND I FOR ONE LOVED IT!! ~S
Heavy sigh . . . Very unshiny.
That is a bummer. Another great series/story seems to have come to a close. In some ways I am saddened that it is quite possibly over. Yet, I also am glad it has gone out “on top” so to speak. I can’t wait to see what the DVD sales bring in.
I don’t think that is really what was being meant. If nothing more becomes of Firefly/Serenity then Joss is happy because he got closure…but if Universal came up and said they wanted to do something else then I’m sure he would do it.
I’m glad that with Serenity, at least Joss Whedon delivered.
Serenity got positive, even many glowing, reviews.
Universal had been very eager to work with Joss and got proof-positive that the man is one talented mofo.($40 million flick that looks like $100 million flick? How cool is that?!)
Joss passed his “audition” with flying colours. We got a great movie.
It would have been one thing if Serenity had been a shitty, badly made movie, but it wasn’t.
It wasn’t Serenity’s fault that things are the way they are these days: “Who’s in it?” has pretty much replaced “Is the story any good?”
I hope the DVD blows up like crazy, fueling even more sales of the Firefly set.
Joss once said that there were more stories to tell. Even if he moves on to other projects, I only hope we get to hear them in some format or t’other.
This article, along with another one from TVGuide, while presenting apparently conflicting takes on Joss’ attitude, seem to, together, present the whole story. At least, that’s how I’m interpreting it.
TV Guide: http://www.tvguide.com/News/Insider/default.htm?cmsRedir=true&rmDate=12152005&cmsGuid=%7B474C40BF-9ED5-4BED-A178-7C34C2A6BB01%7D
Joss is moving on, but doesn’t regret that he had the chance to make the movie. Would he make more Firefly or Serenity if someone gave him the money? Hell yeah, in half a second. Is he going to dwell on the fact that the movie didn’t do well enough for Universal didn’t give him the chance to make more Serenity *right now*? Nope.
There was a 5-year gap between Buffy the movie and Buffy the series. There was a 2-year gap between the end of Firefly and the start of production on Serenity. If we don’t get more Firefly/Serenity until 3-4 years from now, will I complain? Hell no! There you have it.
PS: here’s another article at The Star.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1134946211503&call_pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630
I’ll keep my hopes up when it comes to more Serenity/Firefly, but I won’t hold my breath. I’m glad to have gotten the film, which I really enjoyed and can’t wait to get my grubby little hands on… perhaps even tomorrow.
This might sound harsh, but this is the way I see it:
I loved the series and the movie. The story was more or less wrapped up (some loose ends, but I think the essentials were covered).
And it seems to be over. I won’t say that I’m happy about it, but I prefer a brilliant ending a thousand times over a series artificially extended, sort of like a walking corpse, like ‘Buffy’ which was three (maybe four) brilliant seasons, followed by crap.
It hurts to see characters you love to decay, much more than an abrupt ending.
So, what’s next?