This is topic Firefly: Serenity, the Movie in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 03-04-2004, 06:53 AM:
 
Starting a new thread on this, as this is new stuff about the since cancelled FIREFLY television series by Josh Whedon. Universal Studios has given the green light on a motion picture to be directed by whedon from his script, with a budget of about $50 million. here is the press release from universal.

quote:
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Joss Whedon -- the OscarŽ -- and Emmy-nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and ANGEL -- is set to make his feature film directorial debut with the futuristic action-adventure SERENITY, it was announced today by Mary Parent and Scott Stuber, vice chairmen, production, Universal Pictures.

Based on Whedon's cult hit television series FIREFLY (which has taken on a second life following its December 9, 2003, DVD release, winning new fans and critical praise worldwide), SERENITY will continue and expand upon the adventures of the memorable characters launched in the series, who will be joined by new characters created expressly for the motion picture adaptation. Whedon will act as both screenwriter and director, with Barry Mendel (THE SIXTH SENSE, UNBREAKABLE and the upcoming Wes Anderson film, THE LIFE AQUATIC) producing and Chris Buchanan (president of Whedon's Mutant Enemy production company) and Alisa Tager (of Barry Mendel Productions) serving as executive producers. The SERENITY cast will include such returning FIREFLY cast members as Nathan Fillion as Captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds, Gina Torres as Zoe Warren, Morena Baccarin as Inara Serra, Jewel Staite as Kaylee Frye, Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb, Sean Maher as Dr. Simon Tam and Summer Glau as River Tam.

"We have wanted to be in business with Joss Whedon for a long time and we're incredibly excited to be working with him on his feature film directorial debut," stated Parent and Stuber. "Joss is a true creator, whose talent crosses all mediums. His mythic worlds are inhabited with rich, detailed and very human characters. SERENITY will provide him with a great opportunity to paint another larger-than-life canvas with very identifiable, real characters at the heart of the story."

Whedon -- whose compelling use of character, place and dramatic development helped BUFFY and ANGEL to break down genre walls and cross over into global hit mainstream territory -- now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, "Serenity." He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family -- squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

When Mal takes on two new passengers -- a young doctor and his unstable, telepathic sister -- he gets much more than he bargained for. The pair are fugitives from the coalition dominating the universe, who will stop at nothing to reclaim the girl. The crew that was once used to skimming the outskirts of the galaxy unnoticed find themselves caught between the unstoppable military force of the Universal Alliance and the horrific, cannibalistic fury of the Reavers, savages who roam the very edge of space. Hunted by vastly different enemies, they begin to discover that the greatest danger to them may be on board "Serenity" herself.

In addition to creating the series FIREFLY, ANGEL and BUFFY (as well as serving as executive producer on all three while writing and directing multiple episodes), Whedon's feature film screenwriting credits include the original motion picture BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, TOY STORY (for which he received an Academy AwardŽ nomination) and ALIEN: RESURRECTION. Whedon also composed the music and wrote the lyrics for the self-directed BUFFY episode "Buffy, The Musical," and the CD of the original songs from that landmark episode has sold more than 400,000 units. Whedon was nominated for the Emmy for outstanding writing on the BUFFY episode entitled "Hush." BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is the second highest-selling television series on DVD.


Excitement truly for those that have seen this show, and those that haven't really should get the DVD set and then you will anticipate this movie with baited breath, I guarantee it.

Ciao

Dave
 
Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 08-22-2005, 06:26 PM:
 

It has been 536 days since the last post.


 
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 08-22-2005, 06:26 PM:
 
I just got the Firefly DVD collection and the first episode is named "Serenity" which is about 2 hrs long. Is this the original pilot episode or is this the movie that they have incorporated into the DVD collection?
Seems odd they'd give it to you when they could charge you at the gate.

By the way, we're really enjoying the series. We didn't catch it when it was in it's initial release
 
Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 08-22-2005, 07:17 PM:
 
The pilot was indeed called SERENITY. One problem was that the network didn't show until the series was about to be cancelled. They wanted to dive right into an action-packed episode which unfortunately left viewers in the dark about who these characters were. The DVD set has all episodes in the order they were meant to be seen. Because of this, there are a few minor differences here and there (things changed for the network to bridge the gaps caused by showing out of order).

tHE THEATRICAL MOVIE IS A WHOLE NEW CREATION.
 
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 09-14-2005, 07:29 PM:
 
We just finished watching the series on DVD and I've got to wonder what Fox was thinking when they canceled this show. This is about the best SciFi (cowboy) show that has been on TV since The X-Files. We were surprised at how fast we felt taken into the Firefly family and now we feel somewhat depressed as there are no more episodes to watch.

OTOH....in a couple of weeks the movie comes out. Maybe some intelligent channel execs will recognize it for the gem it is and.....make a series of it.

One can only hope
 
Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 09-14-2005, 07:53 PM:
 
quote: Greg Mueller
OTOH....in a couple of weeks the movie comes out. Maybe some intelligent channel execs will recognize it for the gem it is and.....make a series of it.

Won't happen. When Universal bought the rights from Fox to make a movie the agreement was that you can make the movie but no TV series. If the movie is good there will be sequals.
 
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 09-15-2005, 09:54 AM:
 
Perhaps then the current owners of the TV rights will wake up, if the film is successful.

Anything is possible in Science Fiction
 
Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 09-15-2005, 06:41 PM:
 
Josh Whedon has talked about after a three film series, maybe going back to TV, however by then the cast probably wouldn't be up for a weekly show.

Ciao
 




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