Report: New 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' movie stalled
One of the most controversial reboots being developed in Hollywood appears to have hit a snag.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the proposed new "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" movie is looking for a new writer.
According to the paper's Hero Complex blog, the script "fell far short of expectations and, in the end, was rejected completely." (That script's writer, Whit Anderson, has not posted anything recent about the project on Twitter.)
Many fans and former cast members of the cult TV show that the movie would be based on haven't exactly warmed up to the idea: Sarah Michelle Gellar, currently starring in the CW series "Ringer," told CNN in May that it was the "dumbest idea ever," because it did not involve series creator Joss Whedon. Alyson Hannigan and others expressed similar feelings.
Whedon himself reacted to it with his trademark wit, expressing mixed emotions.
Kristy Swanson, who played Buffy in the original 1992 movie, on the other hand gave the project her full support.
On Twitter, reactions from fans to the L.A. Times report seemed to be more mixed than they were in the past.
Benjamin Blue tweeted triumphantly, "Victory! Logic has the last laugh!" while @echolalia expressed hope that the report was true.
Anton Jones simply tweeted a joyful "Snoopy dance," a reference to Xander's "Charlie Brown Christmas"-inspired scene from the series.
Others tweeted support to Anderson: @bloggyelf wrote, "My conclusion: you were too good for them. To future success!"
Keith Gow said, "I would have loved to have seen someone else's take on the character."
Tamara Brooks tweeted, "I bet you have great ideas and I look forward to seeing your non-Buffy work in the future. Hope this hasn't scarred you."
As for the shelved script, one anonymous source told the Times, "[Anderson] had reinvented some of the lore and it was pretty cool but in the end there just wasn’t enough on the page." In the meantime, it's back to square one for the new "Buffy," or it could be scrapped altogether.
What do you think of this latest development in the "Buffy" reboot saga? Share your view below.
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I think they should use the characters from the series. It would be cool to bring back the old scooby crew.
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Why not do the one thing everyone OBVIOUSLY WANTS... bring back Joss.
duhhhhhhhhhhh.
Addendum: Dear Miss Landau will (touch wood) be published on 14th March 2012 by Chaplin Books. This is all really happening. I think the IT industry often makes the point that there's always someone sitting in a garage somewhere working on an idea which will turn the industry upside down. In this case it wasn't a garage but a Glasgow tenement flat, but that's just what has happened.
To quote "Rocky Balboa":
"There's always someone out there. Always."
10) What’s your next project?
“Well, my story gets even more incredible. After I finished Drusilla’s Roses, Dru refused to allow herself to be pensioned off, so I then wrote Drusilla’s Redemption and Drusilla Revenant.
“Roses and Redemption are in Drusilla’s section of the Buffy writers’ guild web site, Charm School version: lessons in etiquette, but Drusilla Revenant has never been seen.
“This is because I think I found an unfinished story arc from the original TV series and, as well as incorporating Juliet Landau’s two-part Drusilla tale from Angel 24-25, Drusilla Revenant developed this arc and ends with an unbelievable twist which may well change fan perceptions of the Buffyverse.
“I also gave Dru a happy ending. I thought this time I’d finally managed to pension the old girl off, but yet again she found her way back. So once DML is finished I intend to write the fourth part of the trilogy, in which Spike and Dru go back into action again…
“There is a possibility the trilogy may be published and, at the risk of tilting recklessly at windmills, I think it (or elements from it) would be a better plot for the new Buffy movie than the current script which (due to a contractual stipulation) will probably just send the Slayer back to high school, without most of the beloved characters from the TV series.
“On a different tack, Dear Miss Landau was first conceived as a film as I was walking down the hill from Candlewood Drive. There is plot, theme, location and spectacle galore. Imagine Rain Man meeting Notting Hill via 84 Charing Cross Road, punctuated by a poetic set of articles written while I was going across the US, running for L.A. to meet the best and most beautiful gal in all the world one Sunday morning in March, on a boulevard west of Sunset…
“Any film producers out there listening?”
6) When were you first diagnosed as autistic?
“2002.”
7) What strengths do you think Autists possess that ‘ordinary’ people don’t have?
“It is an irony of the modern world that the greatest achievements are often only achieved after fifteen to twenty years of focused work, and often only by the minority who can achieve such focus. In general, the majority of ordinary neurologically-typical people (known as neuro-typicals) tend to be less focused and more prone to multi-tasking than the minority of people with autism. The majority of people are therefore (and I do stress that this is a huge generalisation) less likely to achieve exceptional results in a single area of study. With my “Asperger focus” (the name for the intense focus Autists can bring to bear on a single subject) helping me to develop my writing ability, it was perhaps more easy for me to reach the level I did than it would have been for a neuro-typical.”
5) What was the best moment of your trip?
“The original aim of the trip was to see the Californian locations I’d used for Drusilla’s Roses – Point Lobos and the house on Candlewood Drive – but in the end it was all for my dear Miss Landau.
“The best moment? Each and every time I saw her was the best moment.”
4) You travelled alone across the US to meet her: what aspects of this did you, as an autistic man, find most difficult?
“You’d think the tale behind my last answer would be extraordinary enough for one lifetime, but yes, despite being tired, damaged, middle-aged and autistic, I broke with my routines and travelled alone across America.
“I am high functioning and I had done it before, but that had been twenty years earlier; and there’s many a man who remembers the days of his youth and dreams he may return to them, but knows deep down they’re gone for good.
“I mentioned quests before, and every grating moment I ground through the bureaucracy, the grudging return to shared dorms in backpacker hostels, the long roads across the US and the crossing of the Mojave, the image of my lady was ahead of me.
“Drusilla was my guide along the way, but Juliet was my muse.
“No great experience comes without hardship, and any man who embarks on such a road must be willing to fight to the last drop of his blood.
“And I told her, not long after, that I’d do it all again in a moment, even if I had to walk.”
3) You went on to write a trilogy of novellas about Drusilla. Is this when you first made contact with Juliet Landau?
“DML will detail the stops along the way to Sunset Boulevard, but when I began to write Drusilla’s Roses, the first tale of the trilogy, I basically went on a complete creative bender. I wrote, I would say, not a story about Dru, but the story which should have been written for her at the time of Buffy but wasn’t.
“In my opinion, the character of Drusilla had not been developed as fully as the other members of her vampire family – Spike, Angel and Darla – had been. It was as if Dru herself chose me to finish the job. I know how strange that sounds, but that’s how it felt at the time. There are any number of technically proficient writers around, but she needed someone who also loved her passionately, with all his heart and soul, and would fight to the last drop of his blood to bring her back.
“She needed her noble knight, and she found him.
“Then, when it was all over, there was nothing else I could do except put Dru in the care of her creator. So I sent Drusilla’s Roses to Hollywood, to an actress I did not know, whose middle name was Rose…”
2) What appealed to you about the character of Drusilla in particular?
“The absolute truth about my relationship with Drusilla is reserved for DML, but I will say that despite being an insane demonic killer, underneath the mask of the vampire was a shy, sweet girl who was a lot more pleasant than the racist xenophobes myself and a black colleague had been putting up with.
“In a word, the demon was kinder than the human, and I loved her dearly for it.
“As people with autism are generally not that empathic, I would say that my abnormally strong emotional connection with my dear old Dru is worth some academic study.”
I know a way to do a new "Buffy" movie while avoiding the contractual stipulation which has crippled this attempt and possibly with original cast involvement. The stories/screenplays you will need have already been written. I myself am a soon-to-be-published author (touch wood) and the tale I have to tell (available for pre-ordering from Amazon's UK site) is called "Dear MIss Landau." If you'd like further verification of this rather dramatic claim, please read the following article I've pasted in, contact Chaplin Books (www.chaplinbooks.co.uk) or email them on: chaplinbooks@virginmedia.com.
1) How did you first get interested in Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
“Without giving too much of Dear Miss Landau (DML) away, let’s just say that Buffy’s tales of knights, demons, redemption and quests, relocated from the green and pleasant fields of King Arthur’s England and Hammer Films’ Transylvania to the stucco and adobe-adorned small town streets of Sunnydale struck a deep and abiding chord with me. The “all for one and one for all” camaraderie of the Scoobies was a badly-needed contrast to some of the nasty sides of human nature I was seeing at the time. Buffy really was a chink of light during a very dark time, and did lead to a real-life quest.”
To explain in more depth, I am a forthcoming author and I have Asperger Syndrome. My book "Dear Miss Landau" will (touch wood) be published by Chaplin Books (www.chaplinbooks.co.uk) in March 2012. That book details the fictional return of Drusilla and the real-life quest to meet Juliet Landau, so incredible it could only be true, and I'll try to paste in segments of an interview I did for Chaplin which will explain things more clearly. The complete article is on Chaplin's website in PDF format.
I can do it.
Omgness Jurby I feel the exact same way about the CSI shows. Pretty soon there will be one for every city. I was just discussing with my fiance this same thing. We however were centered on scary movies. When I was coming up and we watched scary movies we were scared because it was just a little bit realistic. Even with Nightmare on Elm Street. Now with all the remakes that make these guys seem superhuman and bigger than life they are just ridiculous. Look at the latest adaption of "Elm". Plain out stupid. He doesnt even look like the Freddy we grew up with lol. Writers now don't want orignal they want to soup up the old and in the end make them worse. I don't even go to the movies anymore because I refuse to spend my money on the new stuff when I can get Netflix and watch the old good stuff.
Re-makes are fine when they are updated and/or have an interesting plot. I can't stand it when re-makes of dramas are produced as spoofs. Starsky and Hutch, starring Owen Wilson and Ben Not-so-funny Stiller?!? Give me a fu ck ing break. An example of a true re-make was Miami Vice. No spoof and followed the feeling of the original. Bewitched was a comedy, sure, but Darrin was never supposed to be the lead, Samantha was. That became a spoof the second they cast Will-fu cking-Ferrell as Darrin. They changed up the leads to make money and insulted fans at the same time. Nicole did a great job as Sam, but Darrin should have been played by someone who was going to be the supporting to her lead – just like in the series. Darrin was never a goof-ball – Will Ferrell will be one forever.
I agree. I think that original ideas are not cranking out for two reasons: 1. Studios are scared to put alot of money in an idea that might not make them enough money, but will put money into something that has in the past made them losts of money. 2. Cocaine is not as popular as it was in the 80's so there went Hollywoods creative juices.
For the love of God, Hollywood, try to come up with a new idea for a change.
i agree 100%. Hollywood needs to create new creative stuff, not keep making remakes and sequels to things that have already been schlogged to death (ie. all the dam* CSI's and Law & Order's – seriously, how many of the same dam* show do we need as they are all the same darn show just set in different cities with different character names!).