Joss Whedon Finds "Serenity" for "Firefly"

In Theaters Sept 30

Joss Whedon has provided many geeks an excuse to stay home and watch TV with his shows Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel. When Firefly was cancelled in its first season, fan interest was so great that Universal Studios picked up the property from Fox Television and commissioned a movie. But will the movie succeed where the show failed?

“No, I made this to wreak vengeance upon Universal,” Whedon joked. “They killed my father. No, oh wait. He’s fine. Whether or not people are going to come see the movie is not something I can predict. But, whether or not they will enjoy it is something I’ve worked very hard on for the last two and a half years. And when I say they, I mean absolutely anybody who steps inside a theater, not just Firefly fans or fans of the kind of work that I do.”

Whedon has been called a geek guru by journalists who identify his success with the sci-fi and horror crowd. He takes that label in stride. “I think of myself more as a nerd lama than a geek guru. It’s easy to go for the alliteration but let’s be clear. I do think that there has been some confusion about that whole thing about geeks. I do wear the mantle proudly of geek. Guru is one I can’t comment on, but at the same time saying that tends to pigeonhole my audience as a bunch of people who have never seen the opposite sex or been away from their computers for more than 20 minutes. And the more time I spend with the fans the more I realize that they are not only much more well adjusted but much more attractive than I am. And the fan base really includes a lot of people who would not consider themselves geeks or even sci-fi fans necessarily.”

For the non-browncoats out there, Serenity is the spaceship of Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion). He and his crew are outlaws in a future where The Alliance controls all but a few planets on the outer reaches of the solar system. In the film, the crew discover that one of their passengers is a weapon developed by the Alliance, and they have sent a bounty hunter to bring her back at all costs. See, now you’re ready to see the movie.

“Ultimately people who aren’t browncoats are just people who haven’t seen it. Any movie is going to have to find its audience. It’s going to have to appeal to people in its particular way. It’s not an easy movie to sell and [the studio] knew that going in, because obviously there are no famous giant stars involved. There is no simple premise. It’s more of a story than a premise film. At the same time they knew it would be exciting, it would be fun, it would be engaging, these actors would be very sympathetic and there was never a conversation about making it broader than the browncoats, because they knew it’s not an in joke. It’s not about the series. It’s not only for people who have seen it. I worked very hard to make sure anybody who’s never seen the series could understand and enjoy the movie. There might be more resonance for somebody who has, but that’s not something I can help and ultimately I’m looking at every single audience member when I make the film.”

Though his 15 year career includes writing for movies and producing/directing/creating TV, Serenity is the first film he has gotten to direct. “I have always wanted to direct films and got to direct a ton on TV, but not in the actual theater. There are two elements to that. One, everything I write is just half of the story I am trying to tell. I write very visually. I have an idea in my head that is very specifically visual. So, being a writer in movies was the worst hell of existence, because of course a good director is going to have a completely different vision and a bad director is going to have no vision at all. And neither of those things is really acceptable, so there was a side to me that just wanted to direct to protect the words and to tell the story the way I wanted it, but I’m not one of those writers who directs just because he’s bitter. A lot of them actually shouldn’t be. It was always just the next step. Telling a story is one part word and one part visual and I’ve always wanted to do both. And play all the parts, and do the editing and the costumes and the music but I’m not stupid. I know my limitations.”

Since Firefly already died once, Whedon is trying not to get his hopes up. Still, he couldn’t help but think of Serenity 2. “It would be incredibly presumptuous for me to ever even remotely think about a sequel and yes, I have plenty of ideas. That is how the brain works. You can’t stop the brain no matter how hard you try, by like sleeping or those other things that people do. No, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I would do if… But first I have to get people to see the first one. So, most of my energy has been in trying to make that good enough so there could be a sequel.”

And should it find its way back to television again, Whedon has some ideas for different variations of new series. “Contractually, I have no idea because I wasn’t part of those negotiations. Artistically, yes. Not Firefly. That’s something that has come and gone. But, there are a number of great characters and a universe that has been created out of this. You couldn’t make a movie from a TV show if there wasn’t a universe behind it because the mediums are so different.”

Serenity opens Friday.