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A Whedon-less Buffy reboot?
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Gaze into the eyes of your enemy
Producers Fran and Kaz Kuzui are reportedly in talks with Vertigo Entertainment to reboot the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. Sounds great right? Wrong. Apparently the project they’re working on would be a reboot of the original 1992 film starring Kristy Swanson and Donald Sutherland, and would completely disregard everything that came after it (i.e. both TV series Buffy and Angel and their respective comic book continuations).
The TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its subsequent spinoff, Angel, were honestly some of the best television in the past ten years. Masterminded by the veritable deity of geek culture himself, Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Dollhouse), the shows developed a cult following that is still fanatical five years after they went off the air. But it doesn’t end there. Buffy has made its way into academia, sparking its own subset among film, television, and mass media scholars, nicknamed “Buffy Studies.” Papers have been written and published on every aspect of the show from its allegory to teen social issues to the impact the rabid fandom has had on mass culture.
The film, on the other hand, sucked. This is not my opinion; this is scientifically proven fact. That movie, adapted (with many alterations) from Whedon’s original screenplay and directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui, is so bad that it marks a low point in the careers of almost every actor associated with it including: the aforementioned Kristy Swanson and Donald Sutherland, Luke Perry, Hilary Swank, Rutger Hauer, David Arquette, and even Paul Reubens.
The only good that the film ever did in this world is allow for the spinoff TV series. (Whedon the miracle worker has twice now pulled off the impossible: he created two successful TV spinoff series from the terrible and unsuccessful Buffy movie, and then he made the successful Serenity spinoff movie from the tragically underrated Firefly series.)
And now the Kuzuis, who made a travesty of Whedon’s screenplay for the original film and then hung like leeches onto the rights as executive producers for the entire life of both series, are attempting to bring back the one part of the franchise that everyone would rather forget. To make matters worse, they’ll probably do it without Joss Whedon. They have stated that they would not be opposed to bringing Whedon aboard, but they haven’t contacted him about it yet either. Read: we’d rather not deal with him if we don’t have to. While it may improve the end product, Whedon’s dignity would really do best to stay away, and with a new season of Dollhouse and the horror project Cabin in the Woods on the horizon (more on this in the future) he’s really got his hands full as it is.
So there will be no Joss Whedon, no Sarah Michelle Gellar, and none of the beloved side characters. The only things that this potential movie has are the legal rights to use the title, and the two people who nearly crashed the franchise into the ground before it began. Yea guys, good luck with that one.
Acquaint yourself with the Buffy fandom at the BuffyWorld fansite.
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