Somebody (Gervais?) spoke about the first few season 3 scripts for The Office, and said they are excellent. He's normally a fairly good judge, from what I've seen.

However, by season 4 it'll all go wrong. Heh. I've been scorned by many shows 4th seasons.

I had a Firefly thing. . . what was it?

Oh yes, the lj-Whedonesque thingy had a link to a blog that reviewed Steven Brust's reading of the first chapter of his Firefly novel -- which he is still shopping around to publishers. . . or wherever he needs to go with it what with the use of characters owned by 20th-Century.

I assume he knows what he is doing.

Oh, I had heard about this one. Brust is a well-regarded sf/f writer, right? I haven't read him personally, but I think I have one of his books (something about a snarky vampire, IIRC) in my to-read pile.

Brust's book won't get published. The licensing is with Pocket Books, from Universal Licensing LLC, however it's stalled -- last I heard Joss hasn't approved the writers spec yet.

They have two more ready for development, but there's speculation (from Brust) that the movie didn't do well enough to warrant two more books.

Anyway, Brust wrote his entire book without checking with the publisher, and I believe this has presented some problems - they had already accepted the specs and sent them over to Universal for selection, and the timeline Brust used is wrong (I believe they wanted the books set pre-Firefly).

I hope he fanfics it.

I'm right with Vonnie in the totally enthralled with the U.S. version of The Office club. We're making Jim posters for our bedroom walls right now, aifg.

Not-so-random comment about Steven Brust: I was at StellarCon this Feb. in North Carolina, where he's a regular, and he was on the Firefly panel. To which he showed up....about thirty seconds before the end of the panel.

He's also well known at that con for hanging out in the hotel bar smoking, and some additional less-than-stellar interpersonal skills. Which, for the latter, it's at a con, so not really judge-y.

the movie didn't do well enough to warrant two more books.

Here's what really cheeses me off about this: they just made another frelling Garfield movie. Am I wrong, or did that movie seriously tank? Like, about three people saw it (maybe one of the grips, his mom, and his sister)? And yet it gets a sequel. Not a direct-to-video, even. Why can't we have another Serenity?!?!!!

they just made another frelling Garfield movie. Am I wrong, or did that movie seriously tank? Like, about three people saw it (maybe one of the grips, his mom, and his sister)? And yet it gets a sequel. Not a direct-to-video, even. Why can't we have another Serenity?!?!!!

I'm guessing the Garfield movie didn't cost $40M to make and it sold like crazy on DVD.

I think seeing the UK Office first spoiled me for the US version. From what I saw it certainly wasn't bad, but it wasn't as, I dunno... excruciating.

The two books I've read by Brust were excellent, and people I trust like the Vlad series.

Per Box Office Mojo, Garfield actually cost $50 million. And grossed almost $200 million worldwide.

We're making Jim posters for our bedroom walls right now, aifg.

Heh. Seriously, I haven't had this big a crush on a fictional character since... ever. Not even during the height of my David Duchovny thing (shut up.)

I gotta quit talking about this show, because I'm starting to sound like that woman with the monkey baby and the Star Wars fetish.

Uhhh, topic. Nathan Fillion was in the movie Slither, which was directed by James Gunn, who's married to Jenna Fischer, who plays Pam in The Office! See? I was sort of on topic.

Brust is really good; I'd love to read his take on this universe. Which is not to say it'd read like Joss--it's a different thing learning to write someone else's characters than your own.