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Joss Whedon slams Buffy movie reboot

A Buffy film without Joss Whedon? That's enough to drive a stake through your heart.

Screenwriter Joss Whedon has slammed plans to remake Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a feature film.

Warner Bros. plans to “reboot” Buffy in a film that is moving forward without him.

Charles Roven, one of the producers of Batman Begins, said of a script by writer Whit Anderson:

“Generally, I wouldn’t have said, ‘Let’s revive this,’ but Whit’s take is pretty compelling and a lot of fun, and it’s interesting to see all of this reimagined. This is a completely new reboot. Tone is extremely important, and you want the audience to realize what is at stake and the peril is real, but at the same time what’s going on should be fun and inviting and keep everyone engaged. It needs to be relevant to today too, and that is what Whit has found a way to do.”

But Whedon, who’s preparing to direct Marvel’s upcoming The Avengers movie, said to E! Online that “This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths – just because they can’t think of an original idea of their own, like I did with my Avengers idea that I made up myself.”

He went on to say that “I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death. But, you know, AFTER. I don’t love the idea of my creation in other hands, but I’m also well aware that many more hands than mine went into making that show what it was. And there is no legal grounds for doing anything other than sighing audibly”.

Source: LA Times

24 Responses

  1. When something is rebooted it never turns out the same as the original especially in the terms of characters. The characters end up being totally unrecognisable from the ones they were based on with the only similarity being the name.

    It will definitely create a “war” between the fans of the original and the fans of the newer version as it has done so with every other reboot that has happened.

  2. Sarah Michelle Gellar certainly owns that character, and I can’t see another person playing Buffy.
    Just like Peta Wilson was Nikita, and the new one doesn’t work.

  3. I’m a Buffy fan and watched it from the beginning. I think its too soon to make a remake and that Warner Bros are just “cashing” in on the vampire franchise with thanks to sparkly vampires ala Twilight.

    Though Buffy was a lot more than just vampires. The writing was excellent. I just don’t think you can really cram that into a movie.

  4. I dont imagine that anyone who is a Buffy fan will want to see this movie other than to deride it. In fact the movie producers obviously underestimate the passion of Buffy fans who are likely to boycott the film. Will be interesting. Sounds like other than the character of Buffy – that the film will have no connection to the tv series. Would have been better to remake the original film with a different name other than Buffy.

  5. I love Buffy, but this could be great or very very bad. No Joss is a shame, and Sarah Michelle Gellar owns that character. I’d rather see a movie to carry on from the tv show with original cast and Joss writing. The original film was a little lame. And this is typical Hollywood these days, not an original idea anymore.

  6. The original movie was not exactly an example of good writing, good acting or good story was it? It was fun. If this “re-imagining” can emulate the fun factor what more can we ask for? It would be good if they could cast some of the actors from the original move and tv series as parents of the new scooby gang.

  7. @ Will

    I’m not sure if you’re serious, but Whedon makes it clear that he’s aware of the irony of slighting others for recylcing ideas. He expressly refers to his role as writer/director of The Avengers in his press release about the Buffy reboot.

  8. That sounds fantastic! I can only hope that the rebooted Buffy can rival Bella from Twilight in terms of personality and character. The Buffy in the TV series was far too active. A nice passive vampire slayer who relies on other vampires to save her from yet more vampires will be a huge improvement over all that ass-kicking.

    Since they can’t use any of the supporting characters from the TV series, it also gives me hope that they can produce a true vampire love interest for Buffy since Angel and Spike were always too busy fussing with their hair to really pay her any attention.

    Megan Fox would make a fantastic Buffy. They could even cast her real life husband “David from 90210” as her vampire love interest. Real life romantic couples always translate well on the big screen. If Megan Fox is too busy with all her other film work, then I guess they could use Lindsay Lohan, although she’d work best as “Willow”, the red-haired, lesbian witch with an addiction problem. Of course they couldn’t call her Willow, so they’d have to re-name her Alyson or something.

  9. @Craig

    No, the reboot filmmakers do not have the rights to the TV show characters, so Giles, WIllow, Xander, Anya, Dawn, Tara, Spike, Angel, etc, will Not be in the movie. Only characters from the original movie (which Joss also wrote) can legally be included, so that’s basically Buffy herself.

  10. Bit hypocritical saying some are feeding of the carcasses of beloved stories when he’s doing the exact same thing- wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers_(comics)

    The take all they can get, then lick scraps from the bones… even you holier than thou whedon

  11. I was so excited when I saw the Buffy returns to big screen article. That was short lived after I read it. No Joss, no Buffy.

    I would rather see a Buffy christmas reunion special with the original characters.

    C’mon Joss. You know you want to do it

  12. This is just silly. Like Joss said, this is a sad reflection on our times that all the old (or not so old) much beloved shows are being rehashed and rehased. Something new people please! Whilst some work (Dr Who, Battlestar) others more often fail miserably. Leave well enough alone. Magic happened back in the 90’s, you can’t recreate that. And Buffy without Joss, well that’s just goram stupid. Buffy still lives on in graphic novels – and in my DVD player – and thats where it needs to stay

  13. He’s not really slamming it, is he? The first part of his comment is obviously humorous, considering he’s working on a project which isn’t exactly original material, so who is he to say anything. Then he concedes that he’s not the only person who brought ‘Buffy’ to life. I mean, the TV series was adapted from a movie originally. And from what I’ve read, Whedon was offered to helm the reboot but he turned it down. So you snooze, you lose buddy.

  14. Just like musicians gave a recognisable sound, Whedon has a recognisable style of writing which is why the show was a success. They may attempt to replicate this but will probably fail all the more miserably for trying. Reboots are never the same as the original, it will be Buffy in name only and whether or not it is any good it will have to stand on it’s own merit. Ripping off the Buffy name seems to be only making it harder for it to prove itself, if only they had signed Whedon on in some capacity this announcement could have been met with excitement rather than disgust.

  15. I figured Joss Whedon would know how Hollywood is by now. Noone stands around and waits for anything. And yes they’re starting to run awfully low on original ideas.

  16. I think it’s a terrible idea but I’ll give it a go anyway and if it’s as bad as I think it will be, I’ll just pretend it doesn’t exsist. xD

    The E-Online article that is linked in the story is really good, it has the entire email he sent talking about it and I love the way he wasn’t angry about it or anything, he talked about it with humour.

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