Cantr II Discussion Forum

Festival filmgoers in a frenzy for Serenity




By Mona McAlinden



THE Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) has arranged two extra screenings of Serenity, the feature-film directorial debut of Joss Whedon, creator of the cult TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel, following the “extraordinary” demand for its world premiere.
The Oscar and Emmy- nominated Whedon wrote and directed Serenity, which is the big-screen incarnation of his TV series Firefly.

The action thriller, set 500 years in the future, will now have two additional screenings, arranged by the festival and the film’s distributor, Uni ted International Pictures.

The film is not due to make its US theatrical debut until September 30, and will open at cinemas in the UK and Ireland on October 7.

EIFF artistic director Shane Danielsen, who has described Whedon as more influential in TV sci-fi and fantasy than anybody since Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, said: “When we get such a clear signal from the fans that they’re so passionate about a particular film, we’re more than happy, wherever we can, to make additional screen ings possible.”

Serenity will receive its official gala premiere screening on Monday, August 22, to be followed on August 23 by a Reel Life interview with the writer and director.

The first extra screening will be a matinee on August 23. The second will be part of the Festival’s Best of the Fest line-up on August 28. Tickets will not be available until tomorrow, July 18. Full details of ticket availability will be posted shortly on the EIFF website.

The programme for this year’s EIFF is being distributed with today’s Sunday Herald. The event, which was launched in 1947 as part of of the Edinburgh International Festival, is now the longest continuously running film festival in the world.




www.edfilmfest.org.uk

17 July 2005

Festival fans dash for flicks tickets

GARETH EDWARDS

MORE than 40,000 people tried to buy tickets online for the Edinburgh Film Festival in their first hour on sale, in what was one of the busiest opening days for sales the event has ever seen.

Hundreds more joined queues at the official box office in the Filmhouse,

while thousands jammed phone lines as staff struggled to cope with the rush.

Online buyers were greeted with a tongue-in-cheek message saying "Huston, we have a problem" as the unprecedented number of hits clogged up the site.

However, after a few hours it was able to process booking and festival organisers said they were delighted with the public response.

The line-up for the event is seen as one of the strongest for a long time, with stars such as Richard E Grant, Paul Schrader, Peter Mullen, Elijah Wood, Julie Walters and Jason Biggs all attending.

The organisers have also managed to scoop a number of world and UK premieres. Among the films to be screened for the first time is Wah Wah, Grant's directorial debut, which is about the actor's childhood in 1960s Swaziland and will open the festival.

The most controversial movie is likely to be British director Thomas Clay's debut feature, The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael, whose main protagonist's fall from grace climaxes with an act of horrific and shocking violence.

Another highlight is expected to be the appearance of Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood at the premiere of his new film Green Street, about English football hooligans.

However, the biggest draw on the opening day for ticket sales was the sci-fi film Serenity, the first feature by Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon.

Most of the tickets to the world premiere of the film, about an intrepid band of space mercenaries, including its world premiere, were sold after just a few hours.

Whedon will also talk live at the festival in one of a series of interviews with industry players, and tickets for that event are expected to go almost as quickly.

A festival spokesman said: "There were queues winding out of the doors at Filmhouse when we opened the box office, and there was a real buzz of excitement.

"The world premiere of Joss Whedon's Serenity attracted much of the attention, particularly with online sales.

"The website was hit very hard by an enormous number of people trying to buy tickets as soon as it opened with a staggering total of 40,000 page views in the first hour.

"Unfortunately, this did cause some problems and some people will have had difficulty trying to book early on, but we have managed to get it up and running again fairly quickly."

Tonight's Best TV
Friday, July 22

By Alynda Wheat
Entertainment Weekly
Monday, July 18, 2005; Posted: 11:44 a.m. EDT (15:44 GMT)

(Entertainment Weekly) -- Entertainment Weekly's daily guide to notable shows:

7PM-8PM
FIREFLY (Sci Fi Channel, TV-14) Although it may be hard to envision a future where horses and spaceships seamlessly coexist, "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon's space Western did just that. The short-lived series starring Nathan Fillion as Capt. Mal Reynolds rides again, including three episodes that never aired during its original run on Fox, which is bound to make the show's devoted fans happier than a ranch hand on payday. As a bonus, the rebroadcast leads into the September 30 theatrical release of "Serenity," a full-length feature film -- with the original cast intact -- based on the show. Saddle up! -- Andrew Clevenger

EW Grade: A-

'Firefly' glows in the deep, deep black

By C. A. BRIDGES
TWENTY-FOUR/SEVEN

Last update: July 20, 2005

Starting Friday, July 22, at 7 p.m., the Sci-Fi channel will begin broadcasting the best science-fiction series ever made. Coincidentally, it will also be showing one of the best western shows and one of the funniest comedies. And it's called "Firefly."

Five hundred years in the future, a veteran of the losing side of a galactic civil war must find a way to survive on his own terms under the government's radar. With a small, quirky crew and a small, quirky ship, Captain Malcolm Reynolds takes on whatever job, legal or otherwise, that he can get. And one day he picks up something that the government wants very badly.

"Firefly" was created by Joss Whedon, who also created a blonde vampire-slayer you may have heard of. His sci-fi show was cancelled midseason, only airing 11 episodes. So why should you watch a half-finished science fiction/western from three years ago? Here's why:

It was cancelled by Fox, which shouldn't count.

Cannily realizing that viewers enjoy the thrill of the chase, Fox skipped the pilot, ran the second episode first, mixed up the rest, and waged a heroic battle to keep interest high by endlessly airing commercials about "Oliver Beene." Had "24" been handled the same way it would never have made it to "12."

Of course, after "Firefly" was canceled, Fox finally ran the first episode because TV executives like a good joke as much as anybody.

It could be the only science-fiction show ever with a Chinese/bluegrass soundtrack.

The lack of this is exactly why "Enterprise" failed.

It's a dessert! It's a floor topping!

In this future the farther settlers travel from the central Core planets, the more rural they get. So you get spaceships and computers, but you also get horses and revolvers and pretty floral bonnets. There's excitement and comedy and romance and crime and even an autopsy or two. No swapped soccer moms or entrails-eating for money, but I think the other networks have those covered.

You won't feel stupider afterward.

Regular television consumption will leave you with the inescapable conclusion that everyone in the world is a moron. People say stupid things, make stupid assumptions, and consistently fail to see obvious solutions because then the show would end 52 minutes too soon. You can actually feel your brain freezing up from vapor lock

The folks in "Firefly," good and bad alike, tend to do the same things you usually scream at television people to do, before you think to scream them, except when they're doing something even better. As it turns out that doesn't always help, but at least then you've got no one to blame but yourself.

Anyway, how much "Stargate" can you watch?

I mean, seriously.

No weird new science.

No time travel or glowy swords or teleportation or clones or dimensions or sonic bathrooms or food in pill form or anything that isn't an obvious extension of existing technology. Our heroes' ship "Serenity" is comparable -- in personality, performance, and gas mileage -- to my 13-year-old Tercel. ( Firefly, in case you are wondering, refers to the ship's type.)

Most importantly there are no aliens, bug-eyed, lobster-headed or otherwise. "Firefly" is about human-type people, and that's plenty interesting enough.

It has whores and preachers.

Ordinarily two professions that television shows run away from like scared little girls. People don't change much, even in 500 years, and both the thrill and mystery of sex and the challenges and comfort of religion will still be with us. I hope.

It'll get you ready for the movie.

Yes, the movie.

Thanks to massive DVD sales and -- well, let's go with "devoted," because "dangerously obsessive" sounds so negative -- fan interest, Whedon and all the original actors will gleefully return to fly in the big damn movie "Serenity," which is scheduled to be released Sept. 30. This does not generally happen with canceled TV shows, but it happened with this one.

You may notice I've said little about the characters. I haven't mentioned Mal's frightening pragmatism, Zoe's loyalty, Wash's sense of humor, Kaylee's sunny nature, Jayne's cheerful violence, Book's wisdom, Inara's sensuality, Simon's sacrifice, or River's peculiarities, and that's because trying to label any of them with a single description is useless. You really should meet them yourself.

So, now's your chance. See the shows as they were meant to be seen -- in order (!), with the three unaired episodes -- and enjoy a truly great science-fiction show.

And remember, every time you support a canceled Fox show, somewhere a network executive loses his wings.

chris.bridges@news-jrnl.com

July 22, 2005


Whedon flock ready for 'Firefly' resurrection

By Anne Thompson
Now that "Star Wars," "Star Trek" and "The Matrix" are fading into the sunset, what will take their place in the hearts of sci-fi fantasy fans?

TV auteur Joss Whedon and Universal Pictures are hoping that it's "Serenity," his movie version of 2002's aborted Fox space Western TV series "Firefly," which opens Sept. 30. Universal launched its grass-roots awareness campaign for Whedon's directing debut in April, recruiting Whedon's loyal fans to help sell "Serenity," which features the original "Firefly" cast. The studio previewed the rough cut nationwide in markets where "Firefly" performed best, culminating last weekend with a rousing screening at Comic-Con International, where Whedon and his cast conducted a panel for fans.

Back in 2001, when Whedon sat down to write his follow-up to the two hit Fox series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," he wanted to try his hand at a space Western. "I thought, 'Wagon Train' in space," he says on the phone from Cape Cod, where he is conceiving his upcoming "Wonder Woman" script..

He didn't know that Gene Roddenberry had set out to do the same thing back in the 1960s, when he created "Star Trek," a smart TV show that was saved by its fans.

History is repeating itself.

Starting tonight at 7, the Sci Fi Channel is showing all 13 episodes of "Firefly" -- in the correct order. "Fox never got the show," Whedon says. "It was a bad match." After premiering the series late after a World Series game and running 11 episodes out of order, Fox dropped it. "I told the cast the day the show was canceled that I would not rest until I found another home," Whedon says. "I felt like I had let them down."

Not wanting to admit failure was part of it, too, Whedon admits. "I didn't want people thinking that the show didn't work. Nothing I've ever done has ever emerged so instantly. Even the pilot was the way it should be. There was never an awkward growing phase. It felt right. Every actor felt so right, they worked so well together. I couldn't bear to let the universe go, or let the actors out of my sight."

When overseas markets demanded a DVD release, Fox Home Entertainment complied. The "Firefly" DVD sold more than 200,000 copies.

Whedon felt vindicated. Having soldiered in the feature screenwriting realm on "Toy Story," "Titan A.E." and an unproduced "X-Men" script, Whedon told Universal executive Mary Parent that he wanted to make his directing debut on the movie version of "Firefly." She checked out the DVDs.

"Write it," she told him.

Renamed "Serenity," after the Firefly-class ship that scours outer space, the $40 million alien-free movie will register with "Firefly" fans without confusing people, Whedon says. And the movie retains the show's homemade feel. "It's like the ship Serenity herself," he says. "Crappy but scrappy."

"Serenity" reunites the original TV cast of nine shipmates in a dysfunctional family. That was the deal. There was never a question of upgrading the cast, though Universal did consider hiring a name villain -- and then dropped it. Added to the youthful ensemble headed by Canadian actor Nathan Fillion, who plays a jocular Kirk-like captain on the mercenary freighter, are archvillain Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Dirty Pretty Things") and David Krumholtz ("Numbers") as a hacker hermit. At Comic-Con, dancer-actress Summer Glau's martial arts scene drew thunderous applause and an Ain't It Cool News rave.

What generates this powerful response? "What captivates the fans is an entire world they can go to," Whedon says, "that feels complete, thought-out, genuine, that they can live in for a long time. From the first show, we made sure every character had their own patch of ground. Conflicts become the story. Everybody plays off everybody."

Says Anna Kaufman, arts editor of the Daily Californian in Berkeley, Calif.: "You feel for the family of nine characters and their well-being. They all have interesting dynamics, pasts and secrets. They're thrumming with life.." Kaufman checks the many Web sites devoted to Whedon, "Firefly" and "Serenity" (including cantstopthesignal.com) for updates on the movie. "I'm greedy. I want more," she adds.

In October, when Universal's co-president of marketing, Eddie Egan, booked a routine rough-cut preview in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, he was amazed by the explosive response from the research-screening recruits who were clearly rabid "Firefly" fans. He wanted to know just how they had learned about the screening.

It turned out that one fan had identified the movie and tipped off her entire "Firefly" community (known as "browncoats") with one Internet post. Some of them had driven from Arizona and Seattle, Egan says. Universal, deciding that they had something bigger than they thought, pushed the action adventure off of its spring lineup and into the fall.

The studio staged three waves of word-of-mouth sneak preview screenings (which do not advertise the name of the film) in 35 cities where "Firefly" had earned the best ratings, including Toronto and San Francisco. Each time, Whedon posted fan screenings on his blog: once, with a link to a Fandango site where they could order tickets. Each time, all the tickets were sold within five minutes. Fans return for repeat viewings, Egan says, bringing new people with them.

"As the industry struggles to redefine the paradigm of the movie business," Egan says, "and what makes people go to movies or avoid them, a piece of text on a Web page sold out theaters."