Urge to Kill rising.....The Buffy Remake.

[Hellsbuttmonkey]

Why? WHY? WHY?!?!?!!

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer remake is official.

Obviously this classic, iconic series with a huge cult following of legions of fanatical fans needs remaking. I mean, 7 years off the air is a long time. Noone remembers it now. Noone will remember it so it won't matter if they decide to start fresh, get rid of the core of fantastic characters who helped the series reach it's cult status and ditch the man who gave birth to it. Noone will remember so it's ok if we use a recognizable name to cash in on the Twi****e generation.

Someones gonna burn for this.

 

[ProjectX2]

It's worth it just for Joss Whedon's response:

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.

 

[Bass]

Joss Whedon's response is hi-larious:

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.

 

[Bass]

Dammit, Proj! Stop being a ninja!

 

[ultimatedjf]

Everybody on the internet needs to Stop *****ing. Does the fact that this is being made unvalidate the seven seasons that Joss gave us? No. EVERYTHING in Hollywood that was ever successful will be remade again and again. So the Buffy remake is arriving sooner. Oh well. Doesn't mean you have to see it.

 

[Zombipanda]

Why not?

If anything, it's proven that Joss Whedon has created a property that can undergo support varying interpretations in various mediums. Best case, we get a fresh take on the mythology that allows it to become a long-lasting brand. Worst case, the film tanks and people forget it happened.

 

[Jaggyd]

Yes, you should want to kill. The owners of the character/story have no right to make more money on it. It should be locked down, never to be touched again. Ever.


</sarcasm>


I hope Whedon was being less than serious in his response. He was hired to develop something for the Kuzuis, nothing more. It's not his property, any more than the X-Men or the Avengers. Plus, if it weren't for reboots and the like, we'd still be stuck with the Schumacher Batman.

I understand fan attachment, I still think that Whedon's run on Astonishing was the worst thing to happen to the X-Men since Chuck Austen's run. I'm not disparaging the fans' disapproval, it's part of being a fan, I'm just saying, like with the X-Men, it's the owners' right to hire who they feel will take their property into a profitable direction.

I never understood the appeal to Buffy, the movie was fun and kitschy, the TV show was unbearably stupid. (I did enjoy Angel though. That was a fun and kind of kitschy show) Maybe it was that I was too old for the show, maybe it was the horrific dialog, maybe it was the pandering with Willow/Tara/Kennedy thing.

Unno, but I wish the Kuzuis luck, and I hope the remake does well. If not, it's just another failed reboot.

 

[Zombipanda]

I hope Whedon was being less than serious in his response. He was hired to develop something for the Kuzuis, nothing more. It's not his property, any more than the X-Men or the Avengers. Plus, if it weren't for reboots and the like, we'd still be stuck with the Schumacher Batman.

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.

Dude, that is so clearly tongue in cheek.

 

[Jaggyd]

Dude, that is so clearly tongue in cheek.

I'm hoping so. I may not like his dialog, but I respect his ability as a writer. I genuinely hope that he's not as douche-baggy as to take what he said seriously.

 

[Random]

I'm hoping so. I may not like his dialog, but I respect his ability as a writer. I genuinely hope that he's not as douche-baggy as to take what he said seriously.

I think that's his way of saying "I don't approve but I get it and accept it." Personally I don't see a reason for it. Putting aside Hollywood's obsession with reusing everything than doing something original. I just don't see why a Buffy movie even fans of the concept generally don't want one, just seems pointless. I'd rather they remake something everyone would want to see get made.

 

[DIrishB]

I've never been a Buffy fan so maybe I'm biased (but I do love Whedon's Firefly ), but this just seems really, entirely unnecessary.

Of course, necessity is often dictated by finances, so in that regard (with the current Twilight-inspired Vampire craze), I guess it makes sense.

 

[Bass]

Someone realised that teenage girls are going ga-ga for vampires and all they want is teenage girls falling in love with vampires.

And that same someone realised that BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is probably the most popular franchise that has teenagers falling for werewolves and vampires and it's been off the air for seven years.

This would be like the new huge trend in popular culture is teenagers living in boarding schools with superpowers and being called freaks, and Marvel going, "We need to do a big reboot of X-MEN." Remember when that happened? In 1999? With that movie X-MEN? And Marvel realised, three years later, that when the new movie came out and generated a franchise all their X-comics were about solving sub-plots that originated in the 1970s and involved obscure characters with quantum origins. No, really. They so dropped the ball, it inspired Bill Jemas to get Joe Quesada and create the ultimate line, the finest five-year output from Marvel in the last 25 years. All because they realised that the audience wanted a franchise they owned but weren't giving them.

In this particular market, a proper BUFFY movie/tv show is pure money goodness and it makes sense they'd want something BUFFY related out there. Unfortunately, all the original cast are no longer anywhere near being teenagers and so if they're all out, you need to cast it all again, and that means a reboot. And a series of films would be different to a new show, so it could be fine.

But the fact there's no Joss Whedon at all, and there's a lot of fun to still be had in the Buffy-verse will all the same characters and actors is rather upsetting. It's not like STAR TREK where half the cast is dead and there's been a dozen movies and spin-offs. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, like FIREFLY, seems eminently continuable in its present form and so a reboot is somewhat akin to pre-emptively killing the old franchise before time itself had the chance to. That coupled with the notion of BUFFY aping TWILIGHT (it's retarded rip-off) makes it feel blasphemous.

That said, Joss Whedon is doing THE AVENGERS and wouldn't be free because this BUFFY thing is specifically about capitalizing on TWILIGHT and therefore, it needs to be done yesterday. And it's completely understandable. I'm surprised this wasn't put in the pipeline as soon as the first TWILIGHT movie came out.

 

[Ultimate Houde]

Everybody on the internet needs to Stop *****ing. Does the fact that this is being made unvalidate the seven seasons that Joss gave us? No. EVERYTHING in Hollywood that was ever successful will be remade again and again. So the Buffy remake is arriving sooner. Oh well. Doesn't mean you have to see it.

Awesome post.

 

[Joe Kalicki]

It's exactly like Star Trek! The Star Trek spin-offs and reboots had to start somewhere.

And I'm pretty sure this will be at least as good as Star Trek 11.

 

[Bass]

Again, it isn't like STAR TREK because the first spin-off, THE NEXT GENERATION aired twenty years after the series ended, it took place after the original, and the original series was already in its fourth movie with the same original cast. The new movie is after forty years of the originals with six movies.

BUFFY is only seven years old, the cast is still around and capable of making more. If BUFFY was in a movie franchise with the same characters, or if the movie took place after the show, or, if the BUFFY-verse was just totally hated by its end, it would be easier to swallow now.

I totally understand the desire to reboot BUFFY, but the fact it's to capitalize on a genre that is a terrible bastardization originated by BUFFY, without the cast or writers, when they're all capable of working, and it really isn't that old at all, is kinda problem. It is a reboot like STAR TREK and that isn't inherently bad, but the timing and purpose of this reboot is why it's offensive to a lot of the BUFFY fans and why they're anxious about it.

 

[Dancanread]

Again, it isn't like STAR TREK because the first spin-off, THE NEXT GENERATION aired twenty years after the series ended, it took place after the original, and the original series was already in its fourth movie with the same original cast. The new movie is after forty years of the originals with six movies.

BUFFY is only seven years old, the cast is still around and capable of making more. If BUFFY was in a movie franchise with the same characters, or if the movie took place after the show, or, if the BUFFY-verse was just totally hated by its end, it would be easier to swallow now.

I totally understand the desire to reboot BUFFY, but the fact it's to capitalize on a genre that is a terrible bastardization originated by BUFFY, without the cast or writers, when they're all capable of working, and it really isn't that old at all, is kinda problem. It is a reboot like STAR TREK and that isn't inherently bad, but the timing and purpose of this reboot is why it's offensive to a lot of the BUFFY fans and why they're anxious about it.

This.

And also, THIS.

 

[Joe Kalicki]

The amount of time is irrelevent, it's still exactly like Star Trek. The Buffy franchise is dead, dead, dead as far as film or Tv appearances go. This is the only way to get new ones.

 

[Bass]

Except that the amount of time isn't irrelevant.

You can't reboot something too quickly, else it can hurt the market. You need to wait at least four or five years to reboot a franchise, with absolutely no coverage, else you risk confusion in the audience and glutting up the marketplace, as well as damaging the brand. This is true for THE INCREDIBLE HULK, STAR TREK, CASINO ROYALE, and even upcoming reboots like the new SPIDER-MAN and SUPERMAN movies. This is because there are two reasons to reboot a franchise; one, to refresh the franchise after a failure (such as BATMAN BEGINS or any of the ones I just mentioned), or to relaunch a franchise when it's out of date (such as STAR TREK, which is both types). Spin-offs and continuations are different and can be immediate, and the cast only changes if too much time passed between the original and the continuation (such as SUPERMAN RETURNS) or it's built into the mythos that the characters change (LAW & ORDER, DOCTOR WHO). (There's always an exception though; SMALLVILLE and SUPERMAN RETURNS for example, or THE BATMAN being immediately followed by BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD.)

Now, none of this has anything to do with the quality of the reboot (which is a different matter) but everything to do with the reception of the news of the reboot. Time has to pass when rebooting a failure in order for the bad taste of the failure to dissipate, otherwise people won't fork out $10 to see a crappy movie that they just saw. But time also needs to pass in order to relaunch a franchise when it's out of date, otherwise, if it's contemporary and still effective, it would still be ongoing.

In terms of the BUFFY reboot, while time has passed, it's being rebooted for the second reason (which I understand) - teenage romance with vampires is cool at the moment, and BUFFY is an iconic franchise of that genre (it pretty much popularized it). However, for a franchise to be out of date, it needs to be from an earlier generation (which BUFFY isn't) and/or the original cast and crew is simply incapable of returning to the roles (which they aren't). David Boreanaz, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Eliza Dushku, Alyson Hannigan, Seth Green, and Joss Whedon are all in work and doing very well and are more or less at the same popularity they always were. So you can have new BUFFY stuff with the old cast and crew and that's why not using them just seems 'wrong'. While it's certainly true that they couldn't pass for teenagers so much, a big BUFFY movie with the original cast and crew is not only doable, it's desirable by the fans since the show never fell from grace.

As I said, this doesn't mean the reboot will suck, but it does explain why the target audience is reticent about the reboot because it's simply too soon. Time is specifically why people are annoyed (and it's specifically why it's being rebooted now). If this reboot were announced in ten years, people would complain, but the quality of the complaints would change from offense to skepticism because people would just get that the actors would be too old (particularly Boreanaz and Marsters) to continue their characters, just as people were when STAR TREK was announced because everyone had enough of the extended universe (thanks to ENTERPRISE and VOYAGER) and the key actors not pushing 80 are dead. People were worried that the reboot might suck, but no one went, "Why can't they just get back the original cast?!"

Time is a key component in not only what type of reboot a franchise will have, but how people will react to the news of a reboot.

 

[Joe Kalicki]

If they're rebooting the franchise for the Twilight crowd, like everyone seems to think, then the target audience is probably only vaguely aware of who Buffy is to begin with.

 

[Random]

David Boreanaz, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Eliza Dushku, Alyson Hannigan, Seth Green, and Joss Whedon are all in work and doing very well and are more or less at the same popularity they always were. So you can have new BUFFY stuff with the old cast and crew and that's why not using them just seems 'wrong'. While it's certainly true that they couldn't pass for teenagers so much, a big BUFFY movie with the original cast and crew is not only doable, it's desirable by the fans since the show never fell from grace.

I would love to see that, because the original concept of Buffy was nothing amazing in fact pretty boring, a cheerleader who fights vampires. And in today's over saturation of vampires that just doesn't really have any appeal at all. It was the work of all the people mention above that made it into something truly amazing. Now who ever makes this movie may be able to recreate that same magic but why bother when these people already done it. I just seems so unnecessary, I can't even picture what they would do that would make it better or even egaul. So I can't help but feel negative about it. A continuation of the mythology would actually get me excited but this alone does nothing for me.