Public service announcement

[annathepiper]

Okay, I've seen the Firefly Season 2 site mentioned twice now on my Friends list, so I thought I'd mention for the benefit of anybody interested: Whedonesque.com, a high-traffic, popular blog for all things Joss Whedon, has a thread about this thing here.

The gist of what's there is that while the guy trying to do this may be well-intentioned, he does not have the blessing of Joss Whedon, and in fact seems to be deliberately trying to NOT talk to Joss yet for reasons that are beyond me. Posters on the thread mention that this guy has been quoted as saying things like "Joss can't be bothered with this right now", on the theory that if he himself goes around and does all the legwork to try to convince a network to take Firefly on, he could then have everything "fall into place" and Joss will start making more Firefly episodes.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm as loyal a Browncoat as the next girl. But since Joss himself has been quoted as saying that there will be no more Firefly, a fan effort to resurrect it--no matter how well-intentioned--isn't exactly useful. And without Joss at the helm, it wouldn't really be Firefly anyway. Nor would it be Firefly without all the cast members--some of whom, if I understand it correctly, are already moving on to other committments. (Nathan Fillion is in a forthcoming movie, for example, and imdb.com lists him as being in another movie that's now filming.) Joss himself is of course working on other committments, such as the Wonder Woman movie, so he's going to be busy for a while too.

If you want to keep the Signal going, folks, let me recommend that you slurp up anything at all related to Firefly that we can get, whether that be the RPG, novels (there is another novel coming out next July by Keith R.A. DeCandido, the guy who wrote the novelization of Serenity), comics, what have you. Make costumes and wear them at cons. Write fanfic. Play on the Firefly-themed MU*'s. There are plenty of ways to satisfy our yens. ;)

But Firefly, the TV show, is just gone. The article I link to above (thanks to gamera_spinning for the link) does also say that Joss wants to tell more stories in the 'Verse--but it won't be in the form of the show.

Comments

[raise-a-jar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, as much as I'd love to see another season of Firefly, I just don't see it happening. And even if it did, it sure as heck wouldn't be the same without Wash and Shepherd Book...especially Wash.

Had a conversation with a friend where we both discovered that we'd had the same moment during the movie where the thought of, "Holy shit...they're all gonna die!" popped in.

It actually would've been a very Joss thing to do :)

[annathepiper]

I have seen quotes from Joss to the effect that Serenity's plotline was in fact a hyper-condensed version of all the stuff he wanted to throw into Season 2 anyway. So even if he did try to tackle another season of Firefly, he'd have to totally rework his prior plans for what to do, which I daresay would be a pain in the rear.

And yeah, I think every single diehard Browncoat had that very thought at that point in the movie. I certainly did. ;)

[hbpen.livejournal.com]

'Joss himself has been quoted as saying that there will be no more Firefly'

He's also been quoted multiple times stating that he would continue with this verse & cast in *any* forum that became possible.

*holds out hope, even if it's unlikely*

[annathepiper]

According to the article I quoted in my post, he said he wants to continue the story in whatever way he can, sure--but that that way won't be Firefly, the TV show, as we knew it. The pertinent paragraph of the article being this one:

Firefly/Serenity creator Joss Whedon told USA Today that he still hopes to tell more stories set in the futuristic universe, but added that there's no chance he'll do another Firefly TV show. "We'll never make Firefly again, because that was a thing that existed and is now gone," Whedon told the newspaper before Christmas. "And Serenity isn't Firefly, and whatever comes next won't be, either. But I would love to tell more stories of this universe and to hang out with these people on and off for the rest of my career."

And that article was fairly recent, so I would expect that that's solid enough word on it. There's also this bit of the article:

"The best-case scenario is that the DVD is such a spectacular, monster hit that we get to make another movie," Whedon said. "Then we get to make another movie. After three movies, we're all very tired. After Serenity: Revolutions, we feel like we've played it out. And then we make another series."

Which means, I suppose, that we all need to buy a zillion copies of the DVD. ;)

[marrowbourne.livejournal.com]

its at this time that I would like to remind you that Joss also said there would be No Firefly movie... so what harm does some well intentioned Fanservice for a continued series do?

[annathepiper]

I didn't say it would do any harm, I said it wouldn't be useful. Especially given that from what I've heard about this guy's approach, he's going about it all wrong anyway--making comments like "Joss can't be bothered with this" when people ask him if he's gotten Joss' blessing. If he's trying to go around to various and sundry places to try to drum up funding and renewed support for the show and such and doesn't even have Joss' blessing on the effort, I can't imagine that he will get very far.

I mean, if you're a network exec and some person comes to you asking you for funding to resurrect a cancelled TV show, and he can't even tell you that he's officially representing the show's creator, how far do you think you'd let that person get?

From what I saw on the whedonesque.com thread, he'd actually tried to contact Joss but hadn't gotten an answer. I should think that if he wants to be serious about trying to organize renewed effort, the very first thing he needs is Joss' sanction. Joss has not given it.

Something else I saw on the whedonesque.com thread was what I thought was an extremely pertinent point: what can this guy do that Joss himself cannot? If Joss himself couldn't find support to keep the show going, what's going to make networks listen to a man who isn't even connected with Joss himself?

And besides, from what I understand about the contracts involving the making of Serenity, Joss can't do more TV with the 'Verse anyway any time soon because of clauses that required that, in case further movies were made. They didn't want a conflict. (Source for this: I think I saw it in the official guide to Serenity that was released. I don't own a copy yet, I read through parts of a copy owned by a friend.)

[marrowbourne.livejournal.com]

Actully you could look at it along lines of 'hey Joss, I've gotten 5 million people to support this, will you make another movie or series now?

[annathepiper]

If the guy running fireflyseason2.com can actually come up with five million names, more power to him. I just don't think he's taking the right approach. Here's why:

#1, Joss can't make another series right now at all, whether it is more of Firefly or a second sequel series set in the same universe. The reason for this is that from what I understand about the contracting involved with Serenity, he had to agree not to do any TV-related work with this universe so as to not conflict with any further movies.

#2, Joss is busy right now anyway making the Wonder Woman movie.

#3, At least two of the cast members, last I heard, have other committments right now too. Nathan Fillion is making movies. Jewel Staite had said at the Serenity preview I attended last summer that she might get guest gigs lined up on Stargate: Atlantis--granted, I don't know if she actually got to do that, since I don't follow that show, but.

#4, I think that the networks already know Firefly has a devoted fan base. Joss certainly knows it. The fact that Serenity came into being AT ALL has demonstrated this. But in order to get networks interested in more episodes, a leap has to be made from "devoted fan base" to "devoted fan base who can make further effort on the Firefly universe profitable".

And I don't think that what the fireflyseason2.com fellow proposes is the way to convince the powers that be that there is profit to be made. I would have to see some numbers to know for sure, but I think that in order to have his proposal work at all, these various methods of distribution he is suggesting would have to be significantly cheaper than the cost of just putting the show on the airwaves in the traditional way.

(And at any rate, I can guarantee you that the minute any of these hypothetical episodes got out onto the Internet, somebody would put them on a server somewhere and let others download them for free. Because there are lots and lots of people out there who would do that, unfortunately. And lots and lots of people who will download them--because they will be thinking, "Why should I pay for something I can just download for free?")

#5, Lastly, again, the guy doesn't even have Joss' official sanction. And it seems backwards to me that a person who wants to try to put up a serious proposal to give the show another shot, serious enough that he wants to go around to networks and such and try to revitalize their interest, hasn't even gotten official permission from the show's actual creator.