Joss Whedon“I think everyone who makes movies should be forced to do television, because you have to finish. You do something because it's efficient, because it gets the story told and it connects to the audience.” source: www.rottentomatoes.com |
Joss Whedon has a pretty strong claim to the gold medal in the "Most Wronged by Hollywood" category. When trying to make the jump from television to movies, Whedon did plenty of script-doctoring on movies like Speed and X-Men, but went uncredited. In terms of films he was credited with writing, Toy Story obviously did quite well, but he was one of 8 people with a writing credit, so it was easy to lose him in the shuffle. His more recognizable contributions were the movie version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was written as a much darker drama more closely resembling his later television series in tone, but was shifted to a comedy by the studio. Although it featured plenty of small roles for future Hollywood stars like Ben Affleck, Tom Jane, and Hilary Swank, they were ultimately wasted on a pretty mediocre finished product. After that was Alien: Resurrection, a script that featured a horrifying-sounding Xenomorph (obviously, a lot of that would have been in the on-screen execution, but still) and featured a battle on Earth between humans and Xenomorphs. What we got was a misguided attempt at inspiring compassion for a Xenomorph, and a movie that never left space. In each of these cases, Whedon essentially publically disowned the film, frustrated with how his scripts had gotten butchered before making their way to the screen.
His work on oft-cancelled, but critical darling television shows is the sort of thing that gets noticed by Hollywood execs. Combined with his love of comics (in the 2000s he authored plenty of comics for Marvel and Dark Horse), and how impressively he'd run Serenity on a relatively low budget ($39 million), it's the sort of the thing that gets you the opportunity direct The Avengers and make all the money. Interestingly, for a man who worked feverishly when he was on television, often with multiple shows going at once, he's slowing his pace considerably as he shifts to movies. He has only one movie slated for 2014, a low budget paranormal romance called In Your Eyes, and then of course Avengers 2 in 2015. He has delved back into television production with "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", but otherwise, his schedule is wide open.
Whedon's trademark ability to mix witty dialogue with deep emotional connection to his characters (which may sound generic, but if you know Whedon's work, you know he has his own brand of it) will be interesting to see on the big screen now that he'll have the clout to make what he wants including possibly keeping shows on the air long enough to build their audience (although after the cancellations of "Firefly" and "Dollhouse", don't be surprised if he never works with Fox again). Whedon is at his best when he really has time to tell a story, meaning he's at his peak working in television or in the rare movie like The Avengers where he won't have to waste precious time on character introduction. Ideally, I'd love to see him back on television with a high-concept of his own making, rather than the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."-style low involvement he currently has with television. As long as those huge piles of Marvel money keep calling though, it's not very likely.
His work on oft-cancelled, but critical darling television shows is the sort of thing that gets noticed by Hollywood execs. Combined with his love of comics (in the 2000s he authored plenty of comics for Marvel and Dark Horse), and how impressively he'd run Serenity on a relatively low budget ($39 million), it's the sort of the thing that gets you the opportunity direct The Avengers and make all the money. Interestingly, for a man who worked feverishly when he was on television, often with multiple shows going at once, he's slowing his pace considerably as he shifts to movies. He has only one movie slated for 2014, a low budget paranormal romance called In Your Eyes, and then of course Avengers 2 in 2015. He has delved back into television production with "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", but otherwise, his schedule is wide open.
Whedon's trademark ability to mix witty dialogue with deep emotional connection to his characters (which may sound generic, but if you know Whedon's work, you know he has his own brand of it) will be interesting to see on the big screen now that he'll have the clout to make what he wants including possibly keeping shows on the air long enough to build their audience (although after the cancellations of "Firefly" and "Dollhouse", don't be surprised if he never works with Fox again). Whedon is at his best when he really has time to tell a story, meaning he's at his peak working in television or in the rare movie like The Avengers where he won't have to waste precious time on character introduction. Ideally, I'd love to see him back on television with a high-concept of his own making, rather than the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."-style low involvement he currently has with television. As long as those huge piles of Marvel money keep calling though, it's not very likely.