Joss Whedon, the scribe who birthed Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and swore off the small screen after Firefly was cancelled, is part of the Fox family again, reports Maria Elena Fernandez...Whedon's Dollhouse was officially unveiled yesterday as part of Fox's line-up at a presentation in Manhattan. The drama is about an illegal house of men and women whose memories and personalities have been wiped out so that they can be hired to be anyone and do anything. It stars Eliza Dushku (Faith from "Buffy"), who unintentionally served as the inspiration for the idea. It will air in mid-season.
Describing their initial meetings with Whedon, Fox President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly and Gary Newman, chairman of 20th Century Fox Television, used terms not often heard from powerful executives regarding pitches. "He had me at 'hello,'" Reilly said, admitting that the first time Whedon visited the network, "I was kinda drunk with the surprise of it all. He laid out the whole concept, but I think it was one of those things where I heard every other word of it."
"I don't quite know what to liken it to," Newman said. "He pitches as if he's thinking of it for the first time. There's an extemporaneous nature to it, which keeps you kind of riveted. You have to listen really carefully because the wicked and clever asides are non-stop."
Q & A with Joss Whedon, writer, producer and director:
Is it true that this idea came to you over lunch with Eliza Dushku?
Eliza had made the deal at Fox and we got together to talk about her ambition, her management, her opportunities, because I've always felt that she's a huge star. Plus, she's a friend.
But I was trying to get a movie off the ground, Goners. Wonder Woman had already crashed and burned. Goners they had already lost control of the instruments, but who knows? So things were not that auspicious, but I was working it. Not shunning television but not intending to come back. But as we discussed Eliza's predicament, I started giving her some ideas about what I thought she would need: a genre show so she could be political without being partisan; an ensemble show so she didn't have to be in every scene. And I thought about it for a bit and then literally went, oh, curse word, I just came up with the show and the title. And it was the title that I knew I was doomed. Because if you have the title, you know it's right. And that's just bad.
When we really discussed the whole thing, she said, "You're talking about my life. In my life, everybody tells me who they want me to be while I try and figure out who I am." And that spoke to me. I agreed that I'll write and maybe oversee the pilot. So I went home and said, "Honey, I'm sorry, I accidentally agreed to a Fox show at lunch."
That was some lunch. What did you eat?
The Gouda pizza with shrimp at the Ivy [at] the Shore. Eliza still looks around the set and goes, "That's all the Gouda pizza." Back then, I was all hopeful about it. Now I'm exhausted about it. That pizza's ruined my life.
Recently you had decided to become more of an independent filmmaker. Why?
I was lucky for a while. I got a lot of breaks, including the brief existence of the WB and UPN. So I got to do things my way, which is a rare privilege in television. Then I had [Firefly], and, for the first time, I was not under the radar anymore, which meant they would give me everything I wanted. Except a full order. So it was a heartbreaking experience, and the only way to resurrect the show was to make a movie [Serenity] out of it.
And your fans loved it.
People loved it but not so many people that they asked me to make another. I had scripts and offers, and three years later I seemed to be running in place. It was harder for me to write, and partially because I was adjusting to having a family. But it was also the movie-making process. In movies, they really will question everything. Sometimes that makes it better and sometimes that makes it die in development hell or filled with notes. And notes that you can practically see floating around the screen.
How long after your lunch with Eliza did Fox offer you the opportunity to make a guaranteed seven episodes?
One week. This just felt right. Fox understood the show, and they've continued to prove that that is the case. I've pitched shows to people who didn't and they made them anyway, and that didn't go so well.
Then I went into a state of blank panic. Oh, wait, all of my writers have jobs. So I went upstairs and I laid out seven notebooks, and every night I'd go up and put my seven notebooks all in a row, and I'd look and see what do we need to get from here to here. I even had to take them to New York. I thought, oh, I'd just rip off the page. 'No, you can't rip off the page. You'd kill the magic.' So I brought them to Kevin Reilly and I laid them out on his coffee table, and he said, "This is great. I love all of them." I said, "Great. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm on strike." And for the entire strike, I did not think about Dollhouse. Occasionally, I would get a feeling.
How could you stop yourself from thinking?
I had a lot of other things on my mind. Like the strike.
And the Internet musical you've been doing?
Eventually. At first I was just really working the problem because the strike was a very serious issue and one that I don't feel we resolved adequately. I reached out to the people in Silicon Valley, like everyone else, and said, if you will finance something, I will put it together. I will shoot it tomorrow. I will make something so low-budget that will look so good. That deal still isn't made. It took so long. But I wanted to get out there and create jobs and tell stories, and really explaining to people that there really is another way. Well, I found out that wasn't it. And that ate up a lot of my time. So I thought maybe something smaller. "Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog" was something I'd thought of before to do as an audio podcast so I could write some songs. I thought it would make a nice little piece -- three 10-minute segments. Maybe find a way to monetize it. And I got my brothers involved. So we all wrote it together, the four of us, and then Neil Patrick Harris, who is a buddy, agreed to star in it. And that was our dream because he's got the greatest singing voice and he's a brilliant actor. And Nathan Fillion agreed to star in it as the villain. And Felicia Day agreed to star in it. And when we came back, Fox said instead of 3 1/2 months to write a script and a few months of prep time, we're shooting [Dollhouse] in two months. And we hadn't even fully broken an episode.
And I had "Dr. Horrible" to shoot two weeks from then and no line producer for that. It was a time of work. The thing is, I wasn't going to abandon or short-shrift either project. You just can't. You can't put something out there with your name on it that isn't the most wonderful you can make it. I also had the comic books that I should have written during the strike, but I didn't. Apart from being sick, I really have no excuse, and they all hate me now. And they should.
When will "Dr. Horrible" launch?
We're dropping in the last effects and colour- timing it right after upfronts, and then I'll be talking to people about how we can put it out. I would like to monetize it so I can not only say, 'Look, I can tell stories,' but people can be paid.
How are you balancing being a writer, producer and director?
After the first day, we were in this tiny cramped apartment, which I had scouted. The actors would do three lines and we'd have to move the camera. It was a nightmare. I was like, I forgot how to do this. You get a big apartment and you make it look tiny. I'm away from my family. This footage is terrible. It's over. Bury me. People who know me know that's probably not the first time I've said that. But it always feels like the first time. And I really thought, I've blown it. What am I doing? Where are my children? What's going on? I'm dizzy.
Directing is my way of creating the style, of relating to the actors and dialing in what their characters are. For me to be doing that as an executive producer over another director's shoulder isn't fair to them. And I happen to be one of my favourite directors. I'm not the best, but I'm just easy to get along with. I agree with almost everything I say. I won't do it the whole season. I have to be home and I have to get the scripts out on time. It's going to be a new skill that I'm learning.
Do you feel more pressure because it's a big network?
No. I feel the same pressure I always feel, which is all the pressure in the world. My name is on it. It's a story. My name now means something to people that it didn't before. But I still tried my hardest when it didn't.
I'm sure when you became a writer you didn't think viewers would be this familiar with your name. Do you like it?
There are not two parts to that answer. I like it. I'm sorry. I'm superficial.
Do you ever sense that nowadays fans feel like they really know you because they have more access?
If somebody comes up to me, it's because they're moved by something I'm moved by. I've never taken a job I didn't love. And, yes, I am including Waterworld. I didn't love it at the end, but what a good idea. So when somebody's coming up to me, or they're writing, they're in the same space I am in. I write for fanboy moments. I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of. I write to do all the things the viewers want too. So the intensity of the fan response is enormously gratifying. It means I hit a nerve. Dollhouse might not. Dollhouse might make them go, "What else is on?"
