It's a sign of an apocalypse

[locker_monster]

Warner Bros. is making a Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie without Joss Whedon.

The one upside? They only obtained the rights for the original Buffy movie. So TV Buffy remains Joss' through and through. Only characters from the old movie can show up in this new movie.

Frankly, this is just a stupid idea. Yes, vampires are super hot right now, but that doesn't mean you should go out and ruin a perfectly good franchise to make some money. Leave Buffy as its own entity and instead make something original that actually might be half decent.

But this seems to be the trend for Buffy right now. Just yesterday I saw one of the omnibus editions for the Buffy novels. Buffy/Sarah Michelle Gellar isn't pictured on the cover and the cover itself looks like it could be the cover for a Young Adult vampire book. The book company is clearly trying to make a buck off an old product they already have. I mean, it would be great if a younger generation discovered Buffy, but don't try to re-brand the franchise.

The only thing I can compare this to is James Bond. One of the film studios re-made Thunderball or something because they were able to get the rights and it was friggin' horrible. Just because you can re-make something doesn't mean you should.

Edit: Joss responded in typical Joss fashion. See, this is why you can't do anything Buffy without Joss. Only he can be funny, witty, angry, and respectful all at the same time: "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."

Comments

[ninamazing.livejournal.com]

OH GODDDDDD, THIS IS WHY I NEVER WANT TO POKE MY HEAD OUT OF MY HIDEY-HOLE! And then I'm all, oh, I should Engage With Society and the World at Large, and I poke my head out, and I HEAR ABOUT STUFF LIKE THIS.

I am going back in my hidey-hole until time somehow reverses and Twilight is erased forever.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's an excellent time to be a hermit. We can only hope the script crashes and burns before they can get to any actual film making.

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

I just don't understand it. I mean, the popularity of Buffy isn't on the movie. It's on Xander and Willow and Giles and Angel and Spike and Drusilla. That's not to say Buffy was the weakest part (though the movie version of her lacked depth... then again, for a movie character she was all right), but she's... the most REPLACEABLE part. Not in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, obviously, but if you made a series with all the supporting cast and centered it around a Werewolf Girl named Tammi, or a teen who discovers she's a superhero, you'd still have a pretty good show that I could still see everyone getting invested in.

But making a movie just on Buffy? You might as well just create a totally new thing!

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

The thing that irks me is Buffy isn't a dead franchise. New stories are still being written via the comics. Sure, the show isn't in the public eye much these days, but people still care about it passionately. A new movie might get new fans, but you're just going to alienate the old ones.