WARNERS REBOOTING BUFFY

I'm a big fan of the show but I'm not bothered by this. Is that weird?

I wonder if "not your high school Buffy" means that it won't take place in high school.

It just means it won't take place in your high school.

So is this a...re-BUFF, instead of a reboot? Either way, the Idea doesn't...Slay me!

I'm with you on this. A reboot doesn't affect the show, and it's way past the time anything can happen with those actors/characters. The comics are trying pretty hard to fuck with that cannon anyway.

I'd like to give that gal the benefit of the doubt, but Buffy without Whedon will end up as just another generic genre film.

Reboot writer Whit Anderson is what Lindsay Lohan could have looked like.

In other news, I'm not too perturbed by this. The character is ensconced enough in the pop-culture canon to undergo a reinterpretation.

Seems like a no-win for these folks potentially having the entire Whedon fanbase turn on you.

I know it has almost no cultural footprint, but why don't they just make Fray and substitute Fray with Buffy. That at least would be somewhat different enough to get behind.

It's all psychological. You yell "remake the Buffy movie", everybody says, "Huh? Wha?" You yell "reboot Buffy on TV"? You've got a panic on your hands right before Thanksgiving.

Maybe things have changed since DVD, but I don't recall the ratings on the show itself resembling a license to print money, so I would assume (Ms. Anderson's interview notwithstanding) that this is going to be shaped to pick up the tweener slack as Twilight ends.

They only have the rights to Buffy herself, right? So we're not going to see a new iteration of Willow, Xander, Giles, Angel et al, the writers are forced to create a whole new story. With that in mind I don't mind this so much. Like Tony Ryan said, we'll always have the show.

I want, no I DEMAND the gritty, realistic approach, ala BATMAN BEGINS and CASINO ROYALE. No silly stuff with wacky rubbery demons. I want this to be meticulous and plausible.

Oh yeah, I went there.

I think you answered your own question. Studio logic dictates that there's no such thing as a sure thing, but you can come close with a brand name.

I have little to no interest in anything Whedon's ever done, so a Whedon-less Buffy or whatever the fuck this is going to be is fine with me.

Man that's insane, I mean even if you managed to gain purchase, it'd still be pretty inadvisable

I wouldn't buy a cannon if I wasn't going to fuck with it. So many things you can shoot out of a cannon, it would be endless fun.

I can't get mad at this because I don't see it as Buffy. It'll use the name, try to get some of the humor, and rip off Twilight.

Bored now.

Heh. The original Buffy movie has a certain charm to it, but it's full of fluff. I suppose a darker, but still funny Buffy would be okay, as long as it wasn't Twilight.

I mean her name is Buffy, right?

"Not your high school Buffy" suggests to me they're going to "Muppet Babies" route: Buffy fighting vampires as a toddler. Toddler vampires, too, one hopes.

A reboot with no access to the creator, supporting cast, actors or writing staff from the show? And one that apparently ditches the high school setting? It sounds so utterly divorced from everything that made the show special that I can't even muster any ire as a fan. It'll be awful, but so what? It's not like I was jonesing for some kind of "proper" remake.

The Whedonites will only matter to Hollywood when they are legion enough to make his projects successful, which hasn't happened for almost a decade. I'm not a hater (love Buffy, Angel, Firefly, etc) but pointing out that we live in a bubble. Your only hope is to fool the suits into thinking Avengers is a hit because of him (good luck with that).

Where's Barry Woodward on this?

Rather see a BUFFY reunion movie by Whedon & Co. but hey if WB wants to remake a shitty movie (save for Paul Reubens as a vamp) then by all means go ahead...after adding in the fact that the TV series will always be better.

Let me be the first to say: Warner Brothers raped my twenties!!!

It ain't Buffy The Vampire Slayer without Joss Whedon. I know the Cult of Whedon* isn't that big. However those are the only people who would want to see a Buffy movie. Without Joss I don't see a Buffy reboot making a dime.


*Cult of Whedon would be a good name for an indie band.

I don't agree at all. The Buffy brand has enough name recognition that people who maybe missed out on the show (the Twilight kids, for instance) might be swayed to check out a new theatrical take on the material, provided it looked good. The Whedon factor is totally niche, and most of those people will still check out a new movie regardless, if only to bitch about it.

From a business standpoint, it's a totally sound decision.

It's going to be utter shit. Calling it now.

If it doesn't have Paul Reubens or Rutger Hauer it will never be worth watching.

The TV show had to be saved by an alternate network and then went limping into its last season. The vampires will mean more to people than Buffy.

It didn't have to be saved by an alternate network, it was a coup. The contract was up for the show and there was a bidding war, UPN won. It would have continued but Sarah Michelle Geller said she didn't want to play buffy anymore. UPN (now CW) wanted Angel too but WB (also, now CW) wouldn't let it go. So thats why there were no crossovers after they shifted, because of bitterness between networks. Also UPN promised to pick up Angel if it were canceled by the WB but that only worked while Buffy was on the network.. thats why it only went one season past Buffy's cancellation. Also worth noting, Angel went out as one of the top rated shows on the WB and... if not for that decision, we would not have had Supernatural.

Because WB was bitter they ran an ad campaign depicting this as buffy's final season but it was already signed up for next season on the UPN network. UPN (by contract) couldn't combat this until a certain date, so everyone (who didn't read the internet) thought it was canceled. It was just dirty pool by WB.

I have no idea if you're serious, but the wacky, rubbery demons was a big part I was not able to get into the show. Admittledly, I know very little about the Buffyverse, but the way demons and supernatural enemies were portrayed on the show left me cold and unable to get into it at all.

Exception: the baddies in the episode "Hush." Some seriously creepy mofos in that one.

Check out Whedon's reaction to all of this, via E!:

"This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths — just because they can't think of an original idea of their own, like I did with my Avengers idea that I made up myself.

Obviously I have strong, mixed emotions about something like this. My first reaction upon hearing who was writing it was, "Whit Stillman AND Wes Anderson? This is gonna be the most sardonically adorable movie EVER." Apparently I was misinformed. Then I thought, "I'll make a mint! This is worth more than all my Toy Story residuals combined!" Apparently I am seldom informed of anything. And possibly a little slow. But seriously, are vampires even popular any more?

I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death. But, you know, AFTER. I don't love the idea of my creation in other hands, but I'm also well aware that many more hands than mine went into making that show what it was. And there is no legal grounds for doing anything other than sighing audibly. I can't wish people who are passionate about my little myth ill. I can, however, take this time to announce that I'm making a Batman movie. Because there's a franchise that truly needs updating. So look for The Dark Knight Rises Way Earlier Than That Other One And Also More Cheaply And In Toronto, rebooting into a theater near you.

Leave me to my pain! Sincerely, Joss Whedon."

I don't think we have enough info on the project to make any kind of call yet. That said, I'm old enough and smart enough now to know that this will not destroy the show I liked in any way.

I'm going to try and take the same "whatever, maybe it'll turn out alright" stance as I do with the Spider-man reboot.

The thing wit the Spidey reboot is that there've been a billion versions of Peter Parker already, so wha's one more on the pile. It's a lot easier to be laissez faire about just another reimagining when it's a fifty year-old media-spanning cultural icon being reworked. BUFFY has had one mess of a movie and a great run on TV, and that latter success is down to pretty much one guy's vision of things.

If they had any brains, ANY, they'd hold off on this and let Whedon have a say in proceedings. At least get him onside, take his input, and let the new team run with his blessing. Even if you discard most of his stuff, it's just good sense.

I welcome any new reboot. Whedon already created Buffy, it makes no sense to have him go back for a reboot.. his ideas have already materialized. I say let some new folks have a crack at it, might turn out cool or it might not but at least we'll find out one way or ther other.

But the idea - teen girl fights vampires and monsters - isn't what makes BUFFY work. On paper Buffy is silly and cliché. It's the creator's voice that shines through. If hot chick versus supernatural evil is what Warners is interested in they might as well have just picked up a Kurt Wimmer spec script or something.

I just wish they'd make a movie that continued the series. Because I'm a f'n nerd.

Yes you are... and you made me one.

Right now, the prospect of a Buffy without Whedon is like someone other than Bruce Campbell playing Ash. However, I'm at least curious to see where this one goes... since it already feels like the definitive version of this story concept has been realized (in the first three seasons of the TV show.)

I just thought these truth-morsels deserved underlining.

Your soul was melded with ST: The Next Gen before we ever shook hands. I just made you MORE of one. A fact which is currently bulleted out on my resume.

I would see the everlovin' hell out of that: Lil' Buffy and the Fang Gang.

I was a pretty big fan of Buffy when it was on TV (never really got into the supplemental comics or anything like that). The reboot doesn't really upset me either. I'm curious to see if the new show can work. Will they go back to having the character concept of a shallow girl pushed into the role of vampire slayer, or will they just skip that and have Buffy start off as an ass-kicking hero?

It's kind of weird how everybody's acting like this is out of the blue. I mean, the reboot's been public knowledge for a year and a half.

I'm pretty ambivalent towards this.

Conceptually, Buffy is a pretty vague character, she's a smart attractive female who fights supernatural forces. The success of a reboot would be wholly dependent on whether or not this creative team truly has a fresh take on the character worthy of our time.

I don't know much about Whit Anderson, but she's very attractive, and I'm very gullible, therefore I assume her script must be great.

Also, who wants to take bets, that there will be demon love interest, possibly named Gabriel.

I'm not saying that you're incorrect (and in fact I appreciate your rebuttal - you obviously have researched this way more than I have and this rant isn't directed at you), but I've seen so many conflicting theories and stories regarding why Joss Whedon Project X was unsuccessful that I now treat them with all the credence I allow Moon Hoax believers.

The movie version of Buffy sucked because the director mis-handled it and Donald Sutherland was an asshole. Buffy ended because of SMG... or because UPN handled it wrong. Angel ended because of the crew deciding "it was time". Or because they didn't get an early pick-up. Firefly was cancelled because it was on Fridays. Dollhouse failed because they didn't air Whedon's ingenius pilot episode without alteration. No wait, that was Firefly. Dollhouse was scheduled poorly. Serenity was released at the wrong time. Or it wasn't given a big enough of a budget. The Buffy cartoon never aired because studios couldn't accept or understand Whedon's perfectionism. Wonder Woman didn't happen because of backstabbing studios. That "toad" line in X-Men sucked because Halle Berry said it wrongly.

If a Joss Whedon fan ever said to me, "It didn't work out because people didn't like it" I think I would have a heart attack.

But remember - he wrote Toy Story. HE WROTE TOY STORY!!!!!* (he even mentioned it in his recent Buffy lament).

*he wrote Toy Story

Dollhouse didn't work because it didn't have a compelling lead and they tried to avoid the fact that the only reason a person would ever want a doll would be to fuck it in the most egregious ways.

To be fair, they avoided that way less than I would have ever thought a network show would. The show made no bones about the fact that they were hookers, first and foremost.

But I mean egregious. They'd be disposable products and they'd be kidnapping folks off the street to meet demand. And no one would hire them to be mid wives.

Well to be fair the kidnapping them off the street thing actually takes away the fact that these people actually chose this. Of course as the show went on it turns out that choice wasn't so much of a choice. They had to make the company more evil because honestly if you tell a person outright whats going to happen and what they are going to be doing and then add on that they won't remember it and get 5 million dollars I don't care. Im betting a ton of people would sign up for that and honestly it wouldn't bother me. Now that technology existing and being abused IS interesting but by the time Joss decided to get into it the show was on it's way out.

EDIT:Oh and uhh I think it's a bad idea. The only people that would really want to see a Buffy movie are that hardcore Joss fanbase.

As a huge fan of the show, I really ain't fussed either way. What made the shows were the characters, and without them and to a lesser extent the actors themselves, this matters as much to me as the next tween audience grab.

Once again, someone has expressed my opinion in far less words than I did.