Amph Still Flying: Serenity

BIG NEWS: The Serenity Trailer will hit theaters January 14th!

Universal announces January 14th, 2005 as the premiere date of the Serenity trailer in theaters in response to a fan's inquiry. The trailer will debut with the Marvel Comics movie, "Elektra," starring Jennifer Garner.

From Fireflyfans.net

Also, Joss Weadon just updated the official site with a blog entry:


September 17, 2004 - Greetings from Joss


Well, sports fans, it's official. The movie is shot. Done. And I couldn't be happier to be through with it. No more of that exciting, vibrant set, that warm camaraderie, that creative stimulus, free donuts... Excuse me. I have something in my eye... free donuts...

Oh, there's things I'll miss. But there's definitely things I WON'T miss.
In no particular order:

1) Fillion. People who are prettier than me are not supposed to be funnier than me. I think it's a guild thing. And that whole 'gracious and professional' thing got old on day ONE, you know what I mean?

2) Cinematographer Jack Green. This guy lights stuff ALL THE TIME. Seriously, like eighty-three percent of the shots had light in them. He totally didn't get my "Just Like Radio" concept for the film.

3) The incessant meddling of the studio: where was it? We waited and waited, what, are they all too busy and important to take the time to ruin my little film? This is Hollywood, people. Learn our ways and customs while you're here. Sheesh.

Just a taste of the Hell I've been through. And being surrounded by beautiful women, and, let's face it, beautiful men, all of whom get along, work hard and play their characters with such ease and nuance it's clear they were born for the roles -- who needs that?

But no matter how much I suffer for my art, it's worth it. 'Cause come April 22nd I think we'll be bringing you an exciting film that's a powerful statement about the right to be free. Which is not as cool as my original statement about the right to tasty garlic mussels in a cilantro broth, but the freedom thing's okay too. The editing started this week, and after just a first cut I can safely say this will be the greatest film since whatever film comes out right before it. And I'm not backing down from that.

Thanks for your support. And I mean that more literally than people usually do -- Coming back from the Chicago Con and telling people there was a Serenity booth put up and run entirely by fans... you should have seen their faces. Hell, you should have seen mine. But not too close. And not before, like, 10:00 -- maybe 11:00 a.m. And maybe sort of from the side. The back-ish part of the side. You should have seen my hair.

Be well. Good things are coming.

Cilantro!

-joss.

 

Okay, some other stuff:

From Zoic, the special effects company:

SERENITY LAUNCHES

Continuing a collaboration that has lasted eight years, director Joss Whedon and Zoic Studios vfx supervisor Loni Peristere are reunited for the upcoming Universal feature SERENITY. The move marks the most ambitious feature to date for Los Angeles-based Zoic.

The pairing is a natural extension of the work the duo completed for the television series FIREFLY on which the film is based. Peristere and Zoic Studios garnered the visual effects Emmy for FIREFLY in 2003, and Peristere has served as VFX Supervisor on Whedon's successful episodic programs BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and ANGEL.

"We always felt that we were creating a feature film-level series, complete with effects that had a uniquely cinematic feel," notes Peristere. "Now we have the opportunity to take the concept to the big screen and build on the work we started in the TV realm. Joss and I have worked together on many projects and it's a thrill to collaborate with him on this project."

"Loni Peristere and Zoic constantly expand my concept of what can be done with digital effects," says director Whedon. "They're masters of the new technology, but not slaves to it: their work integrates effects seamlessly into the story instead of showing them off for their own sake. What they did on my TV show I had never seen in a movie. What they'll do on my movie... I'm just really excited to be working with these lunatics."

SERENITY will continue and expand upon the adventures of the memorable characters launched in the series, and will be joined by new characters created expressly for the motion picture adaptation. Whedon will act as both screenwriter and director, and 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.

 

Firefly was not a bad TV show when watched in the right order. It may have been one of the better ones on TV if Fox had not messed up the whole thing big time. But.........

Lets just sit and think about this movie for a sec....

1.) How many TV shows have been turned into decent movies?? I can count them on one hand myself

2.) Firefly has to low of a fan base to do well with the mainstream public. While all of the hard core fans go see it twice or maybe even three times its box office profits will suck, making sure that there is no come back on TV

3.) The Movie Critics are going to rip this movie to shreds....enough to keep most people from checking it out

4.) The release date sucks!!! I mean come on, Star Wars Episode 3 will be coming out soon after that hence the following conversation will happen between many people considering going to see the movie


Person 1: "Hey what do you guys what to do tonight"
Person 2: "I dont know, ya want to go see that new Firefly movie, I heard it is pretty good!"
Person 2: Nah, I want to save my $ for Episode Three the following week, plus going to the movies two weeks in a row will be no fun"
Person 1: He is right man lets just go hang out elsewhere and wait till it comes out on DVD

"Cue Star Wars talk"

5.) Firefly has limited appeal, mostly geeks and
sci-fi nerds (being sterotypical) Most people with a girlfriend or a date will not go near this movie, Also no kids will want to see it, no old people etc...... Hence there only market is the Single Male 15-24 range who are most likely pretty poor (as myself) and are saving there money to see Star Wars

 

1.) How many TV shows have been turned into decent movies?? I can count them on one hand myself

How many good Hollywood movies come out each year, even not based on TV shows? I can count them on one hand myself. . .

2.) Firefly has to low of a fan base to do well with the mainstream public. While all of the hard core fans go see it twice or maybe even three times its box office profits will suck, making sure that there is no come back on TV

The point isn't to bring it back to TV. I even think there's a clause in the movie contract that regardless of how well it does they're not bringing it back. Anyway, a low fanbase off the bat is better than the zero fanbase most movies have, y'know, not having been TV shows in the first place. . . Science fiction movies tend to do decently in the box office, even complete pieces of crap like Matrix II, Chronicles of Riddick and so forth. If this is good, why should it not do well?

3.) The Movie Critics are going to rip this movie to shreds....enough to keep most people from checking it out

Why do you say that? Why do you think the critics will hate it, and why do you think the people will care? The critics trash a lot of movies that people flock to.

4.) The release date sucks!!! I mean come on, Star Wars Episode 3 will be coming out soon after that hence the following conversation will happen between many people considering going to see the movie


Person 1: "Hey what do you guys what to do tonight"
Person 2: "I dont know, ya want to go see that new Firefly movie, I heard it is pretty good!"
Person 2: Nah, I want to save my $ for Episode Three the following week, plus going to the movies two weeks in a row will be no fun"
Person 1: He is right man lets just go hang out elsewhere and wait till it comes out on DVD

"Cue Star Wars talk"

Umm, maybe you don't understand the American public, but for a whole lot of people moviegoing is a weekly ritual that's practically as close as they come to anything spiritual. Very, very few people won't go to a movie one week because they're saving their money for the following week.

5.) Firefly has limited appeal, mostly geeks and
sci-fi nerds (being sterotypical) Most people with a girlfriend or a date will not go near this movie, Also no kids will want to see it, no old people etc...... Hence there only market is the Single Male 15-24 range who are most likely pretty poor (as myself) and are saving there money to see Star Wars

Yeah, that one sci-fantasy won't appeal, but the other one with the same demographic target will for some reason. . . Joss Whedon has a huge built-in fanbase of females as well as males, adults as well as children.

 

5.) Firefly has limited appeal, mostly geeks and
sci-fi nerds (being sterotypical) Most people with a girlfriend or a date will not go near this movie, Also no kids will want to see it, no old people etc...... Hence there only market is the Single Male 15-24 range who are most likely pretty poor (as myself) and are saving there money to see Star Wars

Dude, you VASTLY underestimate the power of the fangirl.

 

How many good Hollywood movies come out each year, even not based on TV shows? I can count them on one hand myself. . .

At least twenty decent hollywood movies came out last year! I guess everyone has different standards of what a good movie is.

I was just pointing out that not many people take a cancled show and decided to make a movie, risky.....

The point isn't to bring it back to TV. I even think there's a clause in the movie contract that regardless of how well it does they're not bringing it back. Anyway, a low fanbase off the bat is better than the zero fanbase most movies have, y'know, not having been TV shows in the first place. . . Science fiction movies tend to do decently in the box office, even complete pieces of crap like Matrix II, Chronicles of Riddick and so forth. If this is good, why should it not do well?

True about it not being bought back to TV, I guess I was personally just hoping that a good movie would bring new intrest. But..... Matrix II was coming off the first movie which was very well done and was ground breaking in some aspects
Chronicles of Riddick had one thing that drew people to this movie...STAR POWER, you would be suprised the power of a movie stars name. I dont see Firefly's having either one of these helpful things which could mean Box Office Bust.

Why do you say that? Why do you think the critics will hate it, and why do you think the people will care? The critics trash a lot of movies that people flock to.

k, maybe it is too early too tell, but scifi does not typically get good reviews. Enough people listen to critics or else they would be out of a job right? Most movies that people flock too regardless of a critics ratings is because they dont care and just want to see hot chicks and mindless action......

Umm, maybe you don't understand the American public, but for a whole lot of people moviegoing is a weekly ritual that's practically as close as they come to anything spiritual. Very, very few people won't go to a movie one week because they're saving their money for the following week.

??? A weekly ritual ?? Most people I know, tend to go to the movies when there is nothing better to do....... The convo, was suppose to be of the 13-17 age group ie.) Those with limted money and transportaion on avearage. This a group that the movie needs to attract in order to do well. True, college students will not typically have to "save money" by not seeing a movie.

Yeah, that one sci-fantasy won't appeal, but the other one with the same demographic target will for some reason. . . Joss Whedon has a huge built-in fanbase of females as well as males, adults as well as children.

umm......I dont know about that.... Joss Whedon does have a huge fan-base ie.) Buffy, X-Man Comic.... But I dont think he that big of a fanbase outside of who is already in scifi. Where do you get children?? I see nothin that would make any of his work appeal to a younger age group

I have not had a chance to look this up...but I would be willing to bet that most of buffy's viewership was male...

 

2.) Firefly has to low of a fan base to do well with the mainstream public. While all of the hard core fans go see it twice or maybe even three times its box office profits will suck, making sure that there is no come back on TV
Actually, the Fan base has exploded since the DVD release. They get bigger every day. The DVD set is still in the top 150 or so at Amazon.com, and everyone that I've shown the series to has loved it. Secondly, the Firefly fans as a whole are very very vocal. More so than Star Wars. They're persistant and very loyal to the movie. They'll be spreading the good word around, and I think that the movie will be very sucessful on the 22nd.

3.) The Movie Critics are going to rip this movie to shreds....enough to keep most people from checking it out
And that's no different from what happens normally. What makes you think that they'll tear it up now? The places that have seen the scripts have loved it. True, they're probably going to comment that the movie is based off of a failed TV show, and that might deter some people, but critics don't always que in when it comes to boxoffice receits. Besides, I think that they'll like it.

4.) The release date sucks!!! I mean come on, Star Wars Episode 3 will be coming out soon after that hence the following conversation will happen between many people considering going to see the movie

Actually, it's a pretty good one. If the movie was after Star Wars, it would bomb, no question of that, but after Star Wars, there's a ton of other sci-fi movies, and we're into the dreaded Summer movie season, when many of the studios bring out their heavy hitters. War of the Worlds is coming out, with some big names in the cast, as well as the Fantastic 4, with other big names. These will probably do well, and without the huge names that these two have, Firefly wouldn't do as well there. The fall typically isn't the greatest after that. Now, in the spring, people are getting hyped up for the Star Wars movie, so they'd be more receptive to a Sci-Fi movie before hand. Besides, I don't think that a lot of people plan out a yearly budget with movies planned out in that. They'll just go.

 

Just found an interesting rumor: Keith DeCandido will be writing the Serenity Novelization, according to the author's blog and reports from www.fireflyfans.net
Has anyone heard of this author or read his work? How is he?

http://www.livejournal.com/users/kradical/

 

As far as the Star Trek stable of writers goes, he's actually one of the better ones, but word is his original novel that recently comes out reads like a padded short story. They could've done worse than KRAD, but they definitely could've done better.

 

I was hoping that they'd pick up Peter David.
Is he better than KJA?

 

Lots of stuff today: The production notes are online:

http://media.movieweb.com/galleries/2508/notes.pdf

 

Has anyone by chance read Joss Whedon's ongoing x-men comic book series? If you are at all a fan of X-men and Joss Whedon you should pick it up!!!

 

I've heard that they're good, and his next movie is rumored to be X3

 

Wait - the movie's coming out in the spring? Whoa! How did I miss that? Awesome! So I get a new SW movie and Serenity around the same time? Whee!!!

I finally saw all the episodes (I was savoring the DVDs) this summer. The show really had potential. Fox should've given it a better chance.

 

Should've, could've, would've. No sense in complaining about the series cancellation now, but yes, the movie will be out in the Spring, April 22nd.

 

Okay, some more pictures out:

Serenity Pictures

These are pretty interesting. I recognize one ship, and Inara is in one image.

 

Up. Word is that the movie has been cut (edited) already. That's excellent news, which means that they've been working hard, and reports are that it's excellent.

 

It looks like Joss Wheadon isn't doing anything more with Fox:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon has ended his TV production deal with 20th Century Fox TV, effectively shuttering his Mutant Enemy production company and putting a close to his TV plans for now, Variety reported
~Scifiwire

 

Release date April 22nd, eh? A few weeks before RotS.

*Chews on that thought*

I'm really happy this was made. I just watched the series on DVD after managing to only catch a few episodes when it was actually on. The order of the episodes on DVD made a lot of sense and gave the show a huge, sweeping story arc. I love the characters and the storyline and now after seeing the DVD am exceedingly POed at Fox for dumping it so prematurely.

At least the movie will help tie up some loose ends, and who knows, maybe a new series will reappear on TV somewhere.

 

The movie's supposed to tie up some loose ends, mainly River's, but apparently not with Blue Sun. Weird. Hopefully, the response to this movie will be overwhelming, and more will be made. Unfortunently, there won't be a series for a while.

 

cant wait to see this movie , does anyone know if it will have a cinema release in the UK the dvds arnt out here
i had to get the sereis it off explodingstar because its not been on tv here yet

 

I believe that you can get it in the UK, at least from what I've heard.
I would bet my life that it would be released in the UK

 

YAY! NEWS! The SciFiWire has just posted up an article on the movie:

Serenity Jumps From TV

Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed the upcoming SF movie Serenity, told SCI FI Wire that it's been a challenge adapting his low-rated Fox TV series Firefly for the big screen. "It's incredibly hard, you know, building a story that doesn't repeat or contradict what we've already done, that satisfies the fans, and yet is really made for people who have never seen the show," Whedon said in an interview on the film's set at Universal Studios in Los Angeles last August. "[It's] incredibly tricky. There's pitfalls everywhere."

Serenity, set 500 years in the future, picks up the story of the intrepid crew of the Firefly-class transport ship Serenity. Fox canceled Firefly in the middle of its first season, but fan enthusiasm for the show and its subsequent DVD release persuaded Universal Pictures to green-light a movie adaptation. "It's the hardest story I've ever had to structure," Whedon said. But, he added, "once I get writing these people, it's the easiest thing in the world, because I know them so well. The other thing is, a TV show is built around slow development of character. A movie ... is built around momentum. They're very different things. So ... you have to let some things drop, and you have to speed some things up, and you have to sort of know which ones are which."

Serenity also marks longtime TV veteran Whedon's feature-film directorial debut. Whedon has been critical in the past about how his movie scripts for such films as Alien: Resurrection and the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie have been realized. "After Alien: Resurrection I said the next person who ruins one of my scripts is going to be me," he said, with tongue in cheek. "And I think I'm doing a fine job. Actually, I think that the director on occasion could use a little more imagination and the writer could have shut up occasionally. We fight, but we're still getting along better than I usually do."

Seriously, Whedon said, "It's been great. ... Unlike TV, I have the time to really explore what it is I'm doing and to go back and reassess every day. But the piece is so fluid, because it's a domino effect. Every time you shoot a scene, it affects 50 other scenes. It's not like you have eight days and you know exactly what you need, and you're out and you go on to the next one. It's constantly shifting. Hopefully not so much that it doesn't know where it's going." Serenity, which is in post-production, opens April 22, 2005. Universal Pictures is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.

 

Hey everyone!

Just checking in to spread the good word but it seems you guys have a running thread going already. I really love Firefly and I can't wait for this movie to come out. I have been a Trekkie and Star Wars fanboy for as long as I can remember but I saw Firefly I had to turn both those cards in and go full blown Browncoat!! Ha Ha, I'm just kidding. There's always gonna be room for other Sci-Fi in my life. However, I will still maintain that Firefly is the best Sci-Fi that no ones heard about. Those of you that have seen it, tell your friends. Those that haven't, give it a shot. I guarantee you won't be disapointed. You can get the DVD set from Amazon.com for 35 bucks. Hell, 2 regular movies will cost you that much and with this you get 14 GOOD if not great episodes. That's alot of value for not much of commitment or loss if you don't like it.

Anyway,
I can't wait for this movie, I've been posting at alot of message boards in anticipation of the event. April 22nd seems so far away. I'm even excited to see the trailer. I just hoped that we get a good movie and that it's well recieved which I think it will be. I no way expect it to break any records but I hope it does at least break even or produce a little profit. That way, people that went to see the movie, might purchase the DVD set/s, which in turn may produce more Browncoats and then the 2nd movie can be the one that makes all the cash. That's kind of a best case scenario but it think it could happen.

Anyway, see ya later and Keep on Flying!

 

However, I will still maintain that Firefly is the best Sci-Fi that no ones heard about.

One site: www.fireflyfans.net . There are quite a few browncoats here, and there, and the boxed set is outstanding. Love that series