SNC -OFFICIAL SERENITY WEBSITE UP!
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The UK Daily Telegraph names Serenity as the pick of the Edinburgh Film Festival;
And SFX Magazine (popular science fiction magazine in the UK) gives Serenity 5 out 5 stars.
From The Daily Telegraph (A british Uk broadsheet paper) from the arts section on Staurday July 30th, 2005
essentialedinburgh
FILM
The Choice
Both screenings for Joss Whedon's feature debut sold out within hours, and small wonder. It sees the Buffy and Angel creator whip his less famous, though very smart, television series Firefly into a full-blown sci-fi epic, now pitting the spaceship Serenity's crew against the murderous Operative (British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, in his biggest role to date). The film cost $40 million - a pittance compared to most modern blockbuster budgets, but few would bet against this being spectacular fun and a massive hit when it goes on general release later this year. Tickets: 0131 623 8030. Aug 22, 24, with further screenings to be announced.
And SFX Magazine (popular science fiction magazine in the UK) gives Serenity 5 out 5 stars.

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http://movies.msn.com/beacon/editorial1 ... 348aa3e695
Dear 'Serenity' Fans ...
Ah, there is nothing like the wrath of a geek scorned. After filing reports the past few weeks on July's San Diego Comic-Con, the Hitlist inbox was flooded with e-mails similar to the following:
Josina: "You missed covering the best event of the Con! The premiere of the movie, 'Serenity'! Best movie I've seen all year! Let's hear more about the fabulous standing ovation that film got."
Angelina: "I'm shocked that there was no mention of 'Serenity,' the fact that creator Joss Whedon and the entire cast (minus one) attended or that an early viewing of the movie was made available (to a lucky handful) on Saturday. Tsk-tsk ..."
In fact, it turns out my reluctance to mention the film was even a subject of a posting on the official Browncoats message board (thanks for the traffic, guys). Now, if you feel out of the loop, don't worry -- here is a little back-story.
In 2002, Joss Whedon, creator of TV's "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," produced a new television series for FOX called "Firefly." Set 500 years in the future, the show followed the adventures of a rag-tag team of mercenaries as they travel around the galaxy. After 11 episodes, the show was abruptly cancelled. However, when the DVD of the show was released the following year, it stunned everyone by selling over 200,000 copies. Whedon then decided to make a movie to resolve the show's storylines. He called it "Serenity," Universal greenlit the project and the movie will be released this September.
Unfortunately, for the legion of "Firefly" fans out there, the mainstream media hasn't jumped on this bandwagon yet. In fact, beyond the core fan base, you could make the argument that the general public doesn't have a clue the movie is even on the way. That's partially due to the fact that the movie has no recognizable movie (let alone TV) stars in it or an out-of-the-box premise. Meanwhile, Universal has decided to focus on pumping up the fans first by showing the movie months before release in exclusive paid screenings that sold out all across the country (Nothing like getting fans to spread the good buzz to all the other "Firefly" fans). Budgeted at a relatively low $40 million, only a certain percentage of the fans that bought the "Firefly" DVD need to see the movie for it to make a profit. As for the uninitiated, well, there is still plenty of time for the studio to spread the word to rest of America.
In fact, we might as well start now. Check out this exclusive behind-the-scenes look at “Serenity” for an even more in-depth look at the new flick.
Now, let's get to the reason "Serenity" was not discussed in the Hitlist's Comic-Con coverage. While every other studio made talent available for interviews before or after their presentations, Universal sadly did not. And while the packed "Serenity" panel was taking place, interviews for movies such as "Aeon Flux," and "Underworld: Evolution" were underway at the same time. Additionally, the press was not invited to the screening of the movie, but that only allowed more fans to get in (so no complaints about that).
Don't worry though, Universal has assured the Hitlist it will get invited to the official press day closer to release. So expect the low down on the movie from the cast and Whedon sometime in September.
I hope the movie's good. Can't imagine the response if the Hitlist didn't like it.
"Serenity" opens nationwide on September 30.
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Serenity/Firefly fans have created a podcast. It is into its sixth podcast.
This week they interview Ron Glass.
http://signal.serenityfirefly.com/
This week they interview Ron Glass.
http://signal.serenityfirefly.com/
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- |william|
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- |william|
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Serenity wrote:In the Fall Preview of Entertainment Weekly, an article on Serenity quotes a Universal Executive at saying that Serenity must gross over 80 million dollars worldwide in order to be even considered for a sequel.
i am pretty sure Serenity will meet that by the end of its worldwide run...
"Two by Two, Hands of Blue."
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The Serenity Featurette being shown at the 20 at Regal and AMC theatres is now up on the net. If you don't know what Firefly or Serenity or who the Browncoats are and are interested in knowing a little bit about it then by all means watch this.
http://browncoats.serenitymovie.com/ser ... n=tools.av
http://browncoats.serenitymovie.com/ser ... n=tools.av
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/ ... 34,00.html
The Sunday Times - Culture
August 14, 2005
Film: Hang on in there
Serenity may be based on a cancelled TV show, but it’s autumn’s most anticipated film, says John Harlow
Can Joss Whedon save the Hollywood action flick? Right now, as he hobbles about with a damaged knee, it may seem a bit of a tall order, even for the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But, if not Whedon, then who? The old masters of noise and spectacle are in trouble. A billion dollars’ worth of digitally enhanced action films — from Ridley Scott’s crusaders to Michael Bay’s clones — have landed in America with a bored splat. Only releases that have surprised, from the retooled Batman to a documentary about penguins, have made any kind of lasting impact. So here we are, at the end of blockbuster season, and box- office hopes are resting on a low-budget sci-fi tale, based on a little-seen television series made by a man whose track record in big-screenery is, in his own words, an “abysmal failure”. And it is being premiered, not in LA or Cannes, but next week in Edinburgh. Is Hollywood insane? Usually, but maybe not this time. For, in the two years since Buffy ended, followed last year by its sterner spin-off, Angel, Whe- don’s fans have only grown more devoted, especially in the UK. The proof is in the crush: more than 40,000 of them crashed the website when sales opened for two Edinburgh film festival screenings of his directing debut, Serenity. The organisers arranged two more: the first of them sold out in 60 seconds. Tickets for a public interview with the amiable auteur are selling on eBay for hundreds of pounds. And this for a mere writer.
Back at home in west Los Angeles, the 41-year-old is struggling with more mundane problems. Universal, the studio that bankrolled the film, has sent somebody to get back the Apple computer they loaned him for scoring Serenity. Whedon is having trouble unplugging it. His second child, eight-month-old Squire (sister to Arden), is bellowing in the background. This afternoon, he is preparing for an operation on a knee ligament. He tore it while running — an entirely predictable result of a new midlife health regime. “But I shall be ready for Scotland. What’s this about deep-fried Mars bars?” And what is this about Serenity? After Angel was prematurely killed, Whedon started with a space-opera, set 500 years in the future, where everyone speaks a mixture of Wild West American and Chinese. They dress and shoot like cowboys. Breaking Star Trek directive number one, there are no aliens, just a dysfunctional group of nine irritable strangers on board a rattling Firefly-class cargo ship called Serenity.
Fans are still outraged that episodes of Firefly, as it was then known, were shown out of order, postponed due to sports events and then cancelled after a handful of episodes. Others were amazed the series went out at all. Firefly was not cheap to make, its wit slyer and darker than Buffy’s or Angel’s, its concerns more humane. Friday-night Americans prefer their genres unblended: none of this pummelling one moment, punning the next. Nobody but Whedon would have got the series made in the first place.
But DVDs have changed the economics of television. Networks can make more money selling unbroadcast programmes than by airing them. As with the cancelled cartoon series Family Guy and Buffy-influenced “quirky girl” nonhits such as Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me, the Firefly box set, complete with unseen episodes, sold by the truckload. The legend lived. And so Universal put up the money for the film version, Serenity, which starts six months after the conclusion of Firefly, with its ill-assorted ragamuffins being chased around the galaxy by cannibals and a big, bad corporation called Blue Sun that wants its genetically engineered “empath” back. Making Serenity cost a measly £25m, almost a third of Bay’s budget for The Island, but, judging by the rough-cuts, it looks like a hundred-million bucks on screen. That is the first lesson for Hollywood: get back to value.
Whedon says he insisted on regrouping the original cast, including Nathan Fillion (the mad priest Caleb from Buffy), Gina Torres (mad goddess Jasmine from Angel) and the ravishing Brazilian Monrena Baccarin as the nomadic courtesan Inara. “We had 18 months to workshop all this, so when we started shooting, it was like a release. I have never worked on something that was so much fun,” he says.
Critics writing in the book of essays Finding Serenity (yes, it is that kind of fandom) fear Whedon has gone backwards: Buffy liberated young women, but Serenity puts the cowboys back in charge. Whedon disagrees: “I looked into the history of whores and realised it was only recently the pimps took over. Inara is a powerful women, a geisha, and Zoë (a soldier, played by Torres) is a step forward of Buffy. They are sexually active, but neither weak nor ashamed of it, like the men.”
And why Chinese-speaking cowboys? “I loved westerns as a kid, films such as Stagecoach, but I wanted to show a galaxy created by the descendants of today’s superpowers, America and China, and how they might work together on the next frontier.” The Winchester-educated Whedon also uses Mandarin as he did the British slang in Buffy — as a sly way around the US censors. His western-speak is more laconic John Wayne than scatological Deadwood, but about half the Chinese phrases are rude. A family friendly example? Watch out for a line that sounds like “da-shian bao-jah-shar duh la-doo-tse” — used to compare somebody to “the explosive diarrhoea of a once- constipated elephant”.
Serenity’s release was postponed until the autumn to avoid the summer crush. In retrospect, Whedon is relieved. “There have been some disasters out there this year,” he says. “But there is still some room for more intelligent entertainment. Batman and Spider-Man have proved that. Something not driven by shock-and-awe marketing, opening and closing in a weekend, but spreading because people actually like it.” Cheap and popular — now that is radical.
Whedon hopes Serenity makes money so he can do a trilogy, even see it return to TV. Meanwhile, he is talking to James Marsters about a Spike movie and even a Buffy stage musical “if I can find the time”. And then there is the big screen. Whedon co-wrote the original Toy Story, but his work on Waterworld, Speed and the first X-Men movie was less successful. His next script is Wonder Woman. He wants to make the star-spangled heroine live again. After the bad breath of Daredevil, The Punisher and Hulk, this could a revolution. But it is what Whedon fans have come to expect.
Serenity opens on October 7; tickets for the last Edinburgh film festival screening on August 28 go on sale on August 22
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Excerpt from the Telegraph about Serenity and how it is quite possibly the best Fall movie and deserves to be a major hit.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jh ... edin22.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jh ... edin22.xml
For sheer, joyful entertainment, though, there's no question as to this festival's hottest ticket: the world première of Joss Whedon's Serenity. A science fiction western based on Whedon's cult television series Firefly, it picks up where the series left off, pitting Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his rogue crew of small-time rebels against the military might of a superpower called The Alliance. Between them lies the mystery of River Tam (Summer Glau), a psychic assassin who holds the key to the future of the universe.
As the man responsible for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, perhaps only Whedon could conceive of a science fiction western - and pull it off with such élan. His command of form and playful delight in extending it serve him well again here; Serenity delivers all the thrills, spills and eye-popping explosions one could demand of a big studio blockbuster.
A complex ensemble piece without major stars, it has characters to care about, a keenly political intelligence, and some of the most cracking banter since Howard Hawks was in his prime. It deserves to be a huge hit when it's released next month.
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