"The two things that matter the most to me: emotional resonance and rocket launchers. Party of Five, a brilliant show, and often made me cry uncontrollably, suffered ultimately from a lack of rocket launchers." -- Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon* (; born June 23, 1964) is an |archivedate = 2008-05-19}} The show, Dollhouse, was announced by Fox in November 2008 to begin airing on February 13, 2009. Dollhouse was canceled after two seasons due to low ratings.
Whedon is also noted for his directing work in television, which includes two 2007 episodes of The Office ("Business School" and "Branch Wars") as well as a 2010 episode of the musical series Glee ("Dream On") in which he reunited with his Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog star Neil Patrick Harris.
Although not an actor, he has made cameos in his own shows as well as others. He appeared as a newsreader in the Buffy season one episode, "I, Robot... You, Jane". During the second season of Angel, he made a cameo appearance as the character Numfar under heavy makeup, where his entire role was to perform comical dances in "Through the Looking Glass". In Firefly, Whedon appeared as a guest at a funeral in the final produced episode, "The Message". He made a brief appearance as an overbearing rental-car clerk in an episode of Veronica Mars, "Rat Saw God", in 2005; Whedon is a vocal fan of Veronica Mars. He voiced himself in two episodes of Seth Green's television series Robot Chicken titled "Rabbits on a Roller Coaster" in 2007 and "Help Me" in 2008.
Feature films and video
Whedon wrote or co-wrote several films, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Toy Story, The Lost Empire, Alien Resurrection and Titan A.E.. The song "My Lullaby" from Simba's Pride was written by him and Seattle native Scott Warrender. He was nominated (along with six other writers) for an Academy Award for Toy Story's screenplay.
He also wrote uncredited drafts or rewrites of Speed, Waterworld, Twister and X-Men, although in interviews, Whedon disowned the latter three films. He claimed that he had a good script for Alien Resurrection, which he felt was spoiled by its director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. His Waterworld script was thrown out , and only two of his lines were kept in the final script of X-Men. Even the Buffy movie bore little resemblance to his original screenplay. According to Graham Yost, the credited writer of Speed, Whedon wrote most of its dialogue.
He wrote and directed 2005's Serenity, based on his television series Firefly. Serenity won the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. Beginning in January 2006, fans (with Universal's blessing) began organizing worldwide charity screenings of Serenity to benefit Equality Now, a human rights organization supported by Joss Whedon. Over $415,000 has been raised for Equality Now since 2006. As of May 1, 2009, 42 cities were registered for CSTS 2009 in 4 Countries and 24 US States.
Whedon wrote a horror film titled The Cabin in the Woods with Drew Goddard which is currently in production with MGM, with Goddard directing.
In November 2008, Whedon guest starred in the premiere episode of The Write Environment, a direct to DVD series featuring in-depth, candid one-on-one interviews with some of TV's most prolific and well known series creator/writers.
In April 2010 it was confirmed that Whedon will direct The Avengers, a live-action adaption of the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name.
Comic books
Whedon, a lifelong comic book fan, is the author of the Dark Horse Comics miniseries Fray which takes place in the far future of the Buffyverse. Whedon returned to the world of Fray during the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight arc, "Time of Your Life".
Like many other authors from the Buffy TV show, he also contributed to the show's comic book version: he wrote three stories in the anthology Tales of the Slayers (including one featuring Melaka Fray from Fray) and also the main storyline of the five-issue miniseries Tales of the Vampires.
The three-issue miniseries Those Left Behind, based on the Firefly series and leading up to the film Serenity, was released June through August 2005. Co-written with Brett Matthews and pencilled by Will Conrad, the first issue featured covers drawn by John Cassaday, J.G. Jones, and Bryan Hitch, as well as other artists for the second and third issues. The first two issues went to a second printing. The trade paperback featured a new cover by acclaimed painter Adam Hughes.
A second three-issue Serenity miniseries Better Days, was released in March, April, and May 2008. "Better Days" reunites Whedon, Matthews, Conrad, and Adam Hughes, who will provide all three covers. The three covers form a larger panorama of the ship's crew. "Better Days" is set before "Those Left Behind", and features the full crew of Serenity. A trade paperback featuring a cover by Jo Chen was released in October 2008.
Whedon and others have mentioned that more Serenity comics are planned for the near future, and will be based in the Firefly continuation of the series, including one about Shepherd Book. Likewise, Whedon and other former Buffy writers have released a new ongoing Buffy which takes place after the series finale "Chosen", which he officially recognizes as the canonical "Season 8". The first issue was released on March 14, 2007 by Dark Horse Comics. Following the success of issue one of Buffy season eight, IDW Publishing approached Whedon about similarly producing a canonical Angel Season 6. After the Fall has 14 issues published as of November 19, 2008 with 3 more to come following the adventures of Angel and his team after the TV series ended, where the title of the series will then change to Angel: Aftermath. Although Whedon has not had the time to write the series, he has served as executive producer with Brian Lynch, writing the season 6 story.
Whedon wrote Astonishing X-Men in Marvel Comics' popular line of comics about the X-Men but finished his 24 issue run in 2008 and handed over the writing reins to Warren Ellis. The title, recreated specifically for Whedon, has been one of Marvel's best-selling comics as of 2006 and was nominated for several Eisner Awards including Best Serialized Story, Best Continuing Series, Best New Series and Best Writer, winning the Best Continuing Series award in 2006. One storyline from this comic, the notion of a cure for mutation being found, was also an element in the third X-Men film, X-Men: The Last Stand. Whedon also introduced several new characters into the Marvel Universe such as the villainous Ord, X-Men Ruth "Blindfold" Aldine and Hisako "Armor" Ichiki, Runaway Klara Prast and Special Agent Abigail Brand, along with S.W.O.R.D., the organization she commands.
Whedon is the second writer of the critically acclaimed and fan-favorite Marvel comic Runaways, taking over after series creator Brian K. Vaughan completed his run. Whedon had been a fan of the series for some time, and had a letter published in the first volume, which was included in the Volume 1 hardcover.
Whedon's other comic-related work includes writing the introduction to Identity Crisis trade paperback and a contribution to the "jam issue" Superman/Batman #26 (to date his only published work for DC Comics), writing short pieces for Marvel's Stan Lee Meets Spider-Man and Giant-Size X-Men #3 and also being the subject of an issue of Marvel Spotlight (alongside artist Michael Lark). He contributed as part of a panel of writers to Marvel Comics' Civil War crossover event, lending advice in how to tell the story and how to end it.
In February 2009, Astonishing X-Men #6, which depicted the return of Colossus to the title, and concluded Whedon's first story arc on that title, was named by Marvel Comics readers the #65 in Marvel's Top 70 Comics of all time.
Online media
In 2005 he released a series of online shorts titled the R. Tam sessions, starring himself and Summer Glau, which served as a form of viral marketing for Serenity. In 2007, he launched a free webcomic, titled Sugarshock! hosted on Dark Horse comic's Myspace page.
In March 2008, Whedon teamed up with his brothers Zack Whedon and Jed Whedon, along with Jed's then-fiancée Maurissa Tancharoen to write, compose and produce the musical superhero spoof, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. The musical stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. Whedon conceived of Dr. Horrible over the year before and production took place over seven days during the Writers Guild strike. The project was freely available online from July 15 until July 20. In August, Whedon released a new Serenity/Firefly comic free online Serenity: The Other Half. In September, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Soundtrack, made the top 40 Album list despite being a digital exclusive only available on iTunes. The Soundtrack was successful enough to pay its crew and all its bills.
In February 2009, he stated that after his series Dollhouse is over, whether by cancellation or reaching its end, that he plans on putting his efforts purely into on-line content like Dr. Horrible. In the Dr. Horrible bonus feature Commentary! The Musical!, Joss sings the song "Heart (Broken)" about the crippling scrutiny and commercialisation of producing fiction for a modern consumer audience.
Unrealized projects
Whedon had a number of planned television projects that have become stuck in development or terminally stalled. Among these was a Buffy animated series, a set of made-for-television movies for The WB based on Angel and Buffy characters, and Ripper, a proposed BBC pilot about Rupert Giles. Ripper was announced to be in development at the San Diego Comic-Con 2007. The development process was set to begin in 2008 and Ripper to be shown that summer.
Early in his career Whedon sold two spec scripts that have not yet been produced, Suspension and Afterlife. He sold Suspension for $750,000 with an additional $250,000 if production commences. It has been described as "Die Hard on a bridge." A year later in 1994 he sold Afterlife for $1.5 million a with an additional $500,000 if production commences. As of 2000 Andy Tennant was in talks to direct and rewrite. In Afterlife are precursors to many of the themes Whedon would later explore in Dollhouse. The script is about Daniel Hoffstetter, a government scientist, who awakes after dying to discover his mind has been imprinted on a mind-wiped body.
Whedon had been signed to write and direct Warner Bros.' adaptation of Wonder Woman but on February 3, 2007, Whedon announced that he would no longer be involved with the project. "We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work. Non-sympatico. It happens all the time."
Late in 2009, Whedon made a humorous bid of $10,000 for control of future Terminator material. He was rebuffed at that time and it is not known if he has plans to attempt this again.
"Always be yourself... unless you suck.""As far as I am concerned, the first episode of Buffy was the beginning of my career. It was the first time I told a story from start to finish the way I wanted.""Buffy loves Angel. He loves her. And I love Ho Hos.""I also don't trust Caribou anymore. They're out there, on the tundra, waiting... Something's going down. I'm right about this.""I am a great believer in found families and I'm not a great believer in blood.""I don't want the giant ego. I don't want to become Kevin Costner, singing on the soundtrack to The Postman.""I hate it when people talk about Buffy as being campy... I hate camp, I don't enjoy dumb TV. I believe Aaron Spelling has single-handedly lowered SAT scores.""I love fantasy. I love horror. I love musicals. Whatever doesn't really happen in life is what I'm interested in. As a way of commenting on everything that does happen in life, because ultimately the only thing I'm really interested in is people.""I love to write. I love it. I mean there's nothin in the world I like better, and that includes sex, probably because I'm so very bad at it.""I think everyone who makes movies should be forced to do television. Because you have to finish. You have to get it done, and there are a lot of decisions made just for the sake of making decisions. You do something because it's efficient and because it gets the story told and it connects to the audience.""I'm a very hard-line, angry atheist. Yet I am fascinated by the concept of devotion.""Loneliness is about the scariest thing out there.""Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck.""That title, is one of the things I fought for. A lot of people said "But it's stupid, and it's the title of a comedy movie, and people won't take it seriously," and I'm sure there are some people who still don't. But for the most part, people do see that we really have a quality show.""The thing about a hero, is even when it doesn't look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging, he's going to keep trying to do right and make up for what's gone before, just because that's who he is.""When I created Buffy, I wanted to create a female icon, but I also wanted to be very careful to surround her with men that not only have no problem with the idea of a female leader, but were in fact engaged and even attracted to the idea."
Common Themes and Motifs in Whedon's Worksmoreless
Feminism
Whedon identifies himself as a feminist, and feminist themes are common in his work. For his part, Whedon credits his mother, Lee Stearns, as the inspiration for his feminist worldview. When Roseanne Barr asked him how he could write so well for women, he replied, "If you met my mom, you wouldn't ask."
The character Kitty Pryde from the X-Men comics was an early model for Whedon's strong teenage girl characters: "If there's a bigger influence on Buffy than Kitty, I don’t know what it was. She was an adolescent girl finding out she has great power and dealing with it." Kitty Pryde was one of the main characters in Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men.
Whedon was honored at an Equality Now benefit in 2006: "Honoring Men on the Front Lines", and his fans raised a considerable amount of money in support of the organization.
Mind control
Whedon has repeatedly dramatized issues concerning mind control, DID/MPD, and human programming. Along with several episodes of Buffy and Angel, the entire "River Tam" subplot of Firefly was about this issue, as is the series Dollhouse. It is unknown why Whedon keeps returning to this issue in his work, but it is clearly a recurring theme.
Dialogue
The dialogue in Joss Whedon's shows and movies usually involves pop culture references both notable and obscure, and the turning of nouns into adjectives by adding a "y" at the end of the word ("listy"). According to one of the Buffy writers, "It's just the way that Joss actually talks."
Whedon also heavily favors the suffix -age (Linkage, Lurkage, Poofage, Postage, Scrollage, Slayage). Also, phrasal verbs usually ending with "out" are changed into direct verbs, for example "freak" rather than "freak out", "bail" rather than "bail out", or "hang" rather than "hang out". Whedon also tends to change adjectives into nouns such as "happy", "shiny" (positive thing), "bad" (mistake), "funny" (joke) — for example, a character may say "I made a funny" instead of "I made a joke". Another common phrase used in most of Whedon's shows is "safe as houses." So many of Whedon's altered usages, new words, and heavily popularized words have entered the common usage that PBS in their article series "Do You Speak American" included an entire section on "Slayer Slang".
Whedon has identified himself as an atheist on multiple occasions. When interviewed by The AV Club on October 9, 2002, Whedon answered the question "Is there a God?" with one word: "No." The interviewer followed up with: "That's it, end of story, no?" Whedon answered: "Absolutely not. That's a very important and necessary thing to learn." In one of the Buffy DVD commentaries, Whedon comments that "I don't believe in the 'sky bully'", referring to God under a name coined by his colleague Tim Minear. In addition, during a question and answer session found on the Serenity DVD with fans of the Firefly series at Fox Studios in Sydney, he identifies himself as an atheist and absurdist.
Whedon has also spoken about existentialism. On the Firefly DVD set, Whedon explains in detail how existentialism, and more specifically the book Nausea, by Jean-Paul Sartre, was used as a basis for the episode "Objects in Space". On this commentary he claimed interest in existential ideas and described the impact of Nausea on his early life.
Whedon also identifies himself as a humanist. In April 2009, the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard presented Whedon with the 2009 Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism.
Whedon often casts certain actors and actresses in more than one of his projects.
Actors that appear both in Firefly and Serenity portray the same character.
Eliza Dushku, Tom Lenk, and Alexis Denisof appear in both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel as the same character.
This list does not take into account the actors that portrayed the same character on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel (bar the ones noted above). Sarah Michelle Gellar, David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, James Marsters, Alyson Hannigan, Seth Green, Mercedes McNab, Julie Benz, Juliet Landau, Julia Lee, and Mark Metcalf all reprised their Buffy roles on Angel for at least one or more episodes. Dushku, Lenk, and Denisof's names are included in the list due to their appearing in more Whedon projects than just those in the Buffyverse.
Brian Thompson is not included in this list due to his involvement solely on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, however he does portray two completely different characters in the series, Luke (season 1) and The Judge (season 2).