Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo Entertainment, and the original franchise rights holders, Kuzui Enterprises (Fran Rubel Kuzui and Kaz Kuzui), of the movie Buffy The Vampire Slayer are looking to remake the popular vampire slayer movie and at the moment, it looks like they’re looking to do it without Joss Whedon.
Joss Whedon wrote the screenplay for the 1992 movie and as we all know, was brought back to helm the highly popular TV series that ran from 1997 to 2003, and also led to the 1999 spin-off, Angel.
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Despite the rich history of the Buffy TV franchise, there are no plans to use some of the more popular characters from the TV series like Angel, Willow or others. They’re looking to take the franchise into a darker direction than the original and have a slayer that is destined to protect each generation of humanity.
At the moment though Whedon is not attached to this new project.
It may only be that he has not been contacted by Kuzui Enterprises yet and has not been ruled out. At this point they are meeting with writers and hearing what they have for ideas on the new premise.
Our Take
For this premise to actually work, they need to be very careful how they approach this new idea of theirs.
I like the idea of it being darker but the idea of anyone else helming a Buffy project aside from Whedon might be breaking a holy seal of such.
They already have an installed fanbase, but it will be a fine line they’ll be walking if they use anyone besides Whedon. Yet sometimes, change is warranted and can be successful. It will be interesting to see what happens. As details develop, we’ll keep you apprised.
How do you feel about this potential change to the Buffy The Vampire Slayer franchise reboot? Who do you think might be a good writer to replace the irreverent Joss Whedon – or do you think this is just noise to generate media buzz, saying they aren’t looking at Whedon to guide the reboot?
Source: Hollywood Reporter
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56 Comments
Um, Whedon is as much a part of the Buffy “franchise” as the character herself. Without Joss I believe you’ll find that “fanbase” mostly empty. If the effort was numerous years in the future with an issue of Joss no longer being around it would be one thing, doing this, which in my mind would be very akin to legal theft, is something completely different.
Bad idea
Whedon CREATED the character.
They should at least contact him out of respect .
Agreed, I can’t imagine anyone who liked the series being interested in a Whedon-less reboot. Surely there would be literally no audience for this. I personally wouldn’t even bother seeing it out of curiosity.
I am so pissed! What jacka$$ takes someone else well-thought out world and changes it around to make it their own??? These people have the imagination of a pet rock. MAKE YOUR OWN DA#@ VAMPIRE WORLD! STOP STEALING OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS!
No one likes a copy cat.
Hollywood is dead.
This is just a craptastic idea.
I would just rather see them continue the series(not in a feature length film though). The series was sooo much better than the movie in almost every way possible.
lol looks like it’s a unanimous decision and i have to agree, there’s no chance in hell this’ll work because a) he’s the best writer out there, b) it’s the same guys that brought the craptastic feature length movie in the first place, and c) nobody will see it just to protest that joss was given the shaft!
oh and the idea about no Angel?? um, wasn’t he the one character popular enough to deserve a spinoff??? BAD idea…
I’ve prayed and prayed for a Buffy movie… But I guess I should have been more specific, because Buffy without Joss is like being without a head or heart, it just doesn’t work…
Joss whedon wasn’t just some guy who had something to do with the show, he made those characters, they are a part of him
I for one will not be seeing the flick if my childhood hero is not involved…. my loyalty’s not with the franchise but with the guy who made the franchise great.
This is unnaceptable!
I don’t know how I’d feel about a full-blown Buffy movie even with all the actors, writers, producers etc from the series.
The actors are older now, specially Boreanaz and Marsters to play vampires (who don’t age), but even THINKING about a new movie WITHOUT Whedon is preposturous.
I’m one of the biggest Buffy fans ever, but if this is ruined, I will take a sub-machine gun to everyone involved!!!
(Minus the Buffy cast and Whedon of course…)
Whedon had been playing with an idea for a Buffy movie for a while, hopefully with most of the core cast back from the show. So when I saw the headline for this news article this morning on another site, my heart jumped… and then I read what it was about.
Now, don’t get me wrong, a Buffy movie like Whedon would have wanted would probably only be a TV movie with a low budget since only the core fans who know the story, even past the comics would be interested in watching, it’s not like Serenity where he could catch everyone up in a ten minute stedicam shot.
But this… isn’t it a bit too soon? I mean, lets look at this for what it is, it’s the equivalent of the Starsky and Hutch movie, or the Dukes of Hazzard. I’m not saying it’ll be as bad, but with the TV show eclipsing the precluding movie so much, this is essentially a reboot of the TV show in movie form, much like those movies were.
Plus, you know what, replace the actors, remove the original writers, change the setting, whatever, but Buffy was unique and awesome because of it’s Whedonesque dialogue. Take that away and you have another generic vampire film. (man is it hard to write a comment about vampires when your V key keeps sticking).
If you look at Whedon’s original script for the movie and compare it to what we actually got, it’s hard not to be skeptical about the proposed new film’s chances. Whedon’s script was not only darker in tone than the Kuzuis’ movie, it was a lot funnier, too. Let’s remember that “Buffy” was a semi-big deal in 1991-2; a number of high profile actresses like Allyssa Milano and Alicia Silverstone were considered for the lead, Donald Sutherland and Rutger Hauer were brought on, and it was expected to make Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry big movie stars. (Ironically, Ben Affleck and Hillary Swank ,who played minor roles in the film, were far more successful in their careers than the actors who were “supposed” to break out from it.) This buzz can be attributed to Whedon’s concept and an early edition of the script he wrote, before the Kuzuis made changes. The result was a big, fat flop. I am not interested in another Kuzui Buffy movie.
This is no surprise coming from Fran Rubel Kuzui and Kaz Kuzui. These two have the enemy of Mutant Enemy since day one. Fran Kuzui ruined the movie and she and her husband demanded “executive producer” credits for both the “Buffy” television show and “Angel”, which — for them — meant nothing more than cashing criminally sized paychecks off the success of both shows. No visits to the sets. No interest in the content. Owning a portion of the rights as a result of producing, directing and effing up the movie gives them a legal (if not ethical) right to the material. It’s no wonder that they’d come to spank the cash monkey after being without legitimate careers of their own since “Angel” went off the air. Apparently, the syndication cash ain’t enough to keep them in their Bel-Air estate.
If there’s even an inkling of truth to this mess, I’m calling every Slayer-ette and Browncoat I know for a preemptive boycott.
Bad idea. Whedon is the brains behind Buffy and without him, it would be like making Day the Earth Stood Still without Renie. What idiot would do that? Oh Wait….
Well, I won’t go so far as to say this film idea is doomed from the start (a darker take on the Buffy concept is interesting), but I can’t say I’m optimistic about this. Like Joshi, I just feel this is too soon. Even with Whedon involved, I just have bad vibes about this. The general mood I suspect they’re going for is a blending of “The Dark Knight” and “Buffy.” And these days, everyone is trying to find a way to steal a page from the Batman films.
As a hardcore Buffy/Angel fan I will refuse to watch this. With out Wheadon. To be honest even with him I wouldn’t watch it. The actors and characters are what made Buffy so great. WIth out people like Angel, Xander, Giles or Willow I see no point and with those characters and different actors I see no point. Honestly Anthony Head Defined Giles no one else can play that Role same goes for every one else. Buffy was my least favirote member of the Core cast and by Core I mean the people listed above. With out the others I simply don’t care.
“Buffy was my least favirote member of the Core cast and by Core I mean the people listed above. With out the others I simply don’t care.”
Never really thought about it before, but I completely agree, Buffy wasn’t a bad character, it’s just that all the other characters were so much more interesting.
That’s probably why I was never interested in watching the movie, the only linking character was Buffy and she wasn’t even played by Sarah Michelle Gellar.
I liked Buffy too but I can’t help but think of how people whined about Star Trek being rebooted without it’s own must-have actors.
Any remake likely will suck, so I agree mostly, but “Sabrina” and “The Italian Job” are examples of movies as good as the original, maybe better.
And I just don’t understand all the Whedon Worship. The Lord of the Rings movies were made despite the fact that the characters’ creator wasn’t around (same for Star Trek btw) so Whedon is not required, just desired.
@Sharpe
The difference between this and Lord of the Rings (among other things) is that they actually have a chance to get Whedon involved, and while I’m not saying they won’t, if they don’t it’d be bad for them. Had Jackson and co been able to get Tolkien involved, you can bet they would have, but mortality got the better of them all on that one. And plus, Jackson had a wealth of source material to play off of, whereas, from the sounds of it, it looks like these guys are largely ignoring the wealth of source material for this one.
And plus, if someone told me Peter Jackson wanted to do a reboot of the Buffy franchise and not involve Whedon, I wouldn’t be nearly as annoyed, it’d probably be pretty good. But Fran Rubel Kuzui and Kaz Kuzui? Whose past credits was… the last Buffy movie and then nothing until now?
I’m not saying it’s impossible for them to make a decent movie out of this, Lord of the Rings and Star Trek being the two obvious examples of decent movies, but good movies like them come few and far between, especially in the remake department (and this is technically a remake, it’s just that the word “remake” has gotten such a stigma that Hollywood execs have replaced that word with the word “reboot” instead). All things considered, I don’t see this going well.
I shall prepare to be surprised though, because who knows.
I’m not a Whedon nut either and have issues with some of his work (Dawn and Connor both annoyed the hell out of me) but like everyone else, I won’t have any interest in a Buffy movie without him.
I’m not desperate for a Buffy movie of any kind to be honest, but without the brain and heart of it, why bother?
I’m also sure Whedon fans would have nothing to do with this amd they would be the main people to appeal to.
Daft.
So it seems unanimous that the fan base will probably NOT flock to this project unless Whedon is pulled into the project.
Sounds good to me!
@Bill Blume: I appreciate being open to the concept of a different take on Buffy. Certainly Whedon is not perfect (just get his fans started on what they don’t like about his work, then try to shut them up!) and other voices could be interesting. I simply have no faith that this is anything but a desperate cash grab on the Kuzuis’ part; it is difficult to believe anything good can come from it.
I’d watch it… not in the theater though even with whedon and the original cast… would wait for the dvd but still i’d watch it. I did like the characters… most of them except for giles(he was just boring) and buffy(whenever she was all “the hills” with angel or that other military dude). Spike, willow, xander, the one gothic girl that was with spike and some others were the whole reason i watched buffy the series. Buffy as well but only around like the first season when she had more weight on her before she went all skinny like most women in the business. When buffy killed angel in that church that one time i was sooooo happy cause i thought it was going to be more serious after that and less soap opera stuff but i was sooo wrong. Ah well ill catch the flick on dvd whenever its out…
Where’s Wesley Snipes when you need him,,,
Doing a three-stretch with the Blood Pack…
LOL, Big D,,,
Its time for “Blade 4, Break Out”
^
Or even a Blade movie directed by Joss Whedon? Or would his “levity” be a bit too close to 3 for comfort? Just throwing that out there..!
Not that I want to put words in Joss’s mouth, but I feel that if he were not able to do more with Buffy, he’d likely want to stay away from the Vampire genre altogether and just move on to different things like he has done.
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