Interesting, non-spoily bits:
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Leaving aside for the moment “Wonder Woman” and “Batman” and “X-Men,” is there a comic-book franchise you’d be especially keen to bring to screen?
The only time I ever read a comic and said, “Jesus, that should be on the screen,” I found out that somebody else was already developing it, and it was “Global Frequency.” It should be a TV show. I adore it. [“Global Frequency” creator] Warren Ellis is like a God to me. I met him by chance years ago. I walk into [the Hollywood comic-shop] Golden Apple, which is not my usual store because I don’t live there. And he was there doing a signing and they’re like, “Oh, it’s so good you came out for this.” And I was like, “For what?” I had no idea he was even in the country. And he was so sweet because I was just about to start “Fray” [a Whedon-authored comic-book series set centuries after the events of “Buffy”], and I had never written a comic. And he said, “Well, have you seen any scripts?” And I was like, “Uh, they sent me an Alan Moore script.” He’s like, “Oh my God, you poor thing!” I’m like, “He does describe things … a lot.” And he said, “Yeah, yeah, he’ll do three pages on one panel. I’ll send you a script and you can see how little you can get away with.”
I’d love to see a “Global Frequency” series come to be.
And I heard good things about the pilot and the script from a bunch of my comic-writer friends and my TV-slash-comic-writer friends. And I don’t know what happened. It just made perfect sense as a show.
Have you added any other season-passes to your TiVo of late?
“House.” I adore “House.” I’ve loved Hugh Laurie forever, but I love that character. I actually choke up at the thought of how powerfully noble and beautiful his total misanthropy is. He touches something very special in me because he’s just so mean.
Anything else?
“Numbers.” “Cold Case.” “Veronica Mars.”
You watch “Veronica Mars”?
I’m a latecomer. We just started.
You know what they call “Veronica Mars”?
“The New Buffy.”
“The New Buffy” is what they call it.
Well, the pilot was pretty damn good. So, yeah, I just demanded the tapes so we could catch up.
Much Joss-love in the air today....
That's because Joss spreads the buttery goodness of his love all over the pourous toast of comic book writer's egos.
Anyone else notice what I took to be an anvil of foreshadowing in the latest issue of the Serenity comics?
You mean the Fanty & Mingo reference?
Actually, I was thinking of the last panel. Maybe it's because I know what happens, but it hit me like when I saw a screening for the second time and there were the lines about what makes a hero, with the camera happening to be on Wash.
At the Q & A on Monday, Joss was asked if there was any chance of Book and Wash making an appearance in a sequel, and, whilst I can't remember the exact words, he seemed to respond in a positive, yet non-patronising, manner.
I liked that Books death was prefaced by a conversation with Mal, along the lines of Mal saying that Book was going to have to tell his life story at some point, and Book responding that he really wouldn't. And now he won't.
And regarding Wash's death, my friend said that he had just reached the point where he was thinking that there was no way that all the crew should have survived that battle, and then Wash bought it, so it really worked for him. Joss did say that the whole crew (including Book, I think) survived in the original script, but it just didn't seem to work, and I think that I agree with that. Sure, it might have been nice to have a moment to absorb the suddeness of it, but I think that it served to underline the fact that they just had to get on with the situation.
The other point that Joss made was that it then had the effect of making the rest of the cast fair game. I'll admit that at that point I was wondering if all that talk of a sequel was just a smokescreen, and that they were all going to die.
Oh, and they really are so very pretty in real life. Very, very pretty. 200th in the queue and still in the front row, a mere ten feet away from all that prettiness? That's almost enough to make a man do the dance of joy... ;-)
I think his words were along the lines of "I wouldn't be entirely lying if I said that Wash and Book would be back in a sequel."
And yeah, killing off Wash really did make the rest of the crew fair game. I was really worried they were all going to do a Butch and Sundance.
