WB to reboot Buffy the Vampire Slayer without Joss Whedon

[Klaus]

Yeah, probably.

Me, I'm considering this "Earth-2 Buffy".

 

[Umbran]

The series will be a tough act to follow and it has many rabid fans who will pick a movie apart if it's not top notch.

In order to pick it apart, they have to see it. To see it, they have to buy a ticket. If they buy a ticket, the movie's done its work.

 

[Sir Brennen]

They're raping my childhood!

Rabble rabble rabble rabble rabble rabble.

Don't think that comparison is really in the same ballpark. The Star Wars prequels:

1) were not a "re-boot", telling a different version of Luke Skywalker's origin as a Jedi. They expanded the existing story's universe, not "re-imagined" it*
2) were still in the hands of the original trilogy's creator, for good or ill
3) did have the benefit of enough time passing that there was a nostalgic childhood rememberence, amping excitement about the new movies

*midichlorians notwithstanding

Sure you can boil it down to "the sun is going to rise; fans are going to grouse", but I think the third point the most critical - it's going to be recent fans grousing, whose memory of the show is still fresh in their minds.

Yes, some may see the movie to compare/contrast/complain, but I have a feeling a large portion of existing fans won't be interested, or at least not enough to see it in theaters, or buy it on DVD. It'll probably be a cable/rental/borrow situation for the curious among them.

Of course using "brand names" is usually less risky, but again, in this particular case, I think it's the use of that brand plus the fact it's also a re-boot that makes it problematic. It might actually be somewhat more risky than going with an original character and perhaps skewing the marketing with hype like "a worthy successor to Buffy" and what-not.

Also, the comparison of re-booting Buffy being like Nolan doing Batman? Nolan's "Batman Begins" had the benefit of not only a decent number of years since the last Batman movie, but also the fact that the last couple of prior Batman outings in the theaters sucked and the character needed a fresh take. Again, neither is really applicable to Buffy.

 

[Mark CMG]

The can be only one (television series).*






*Plus the one original movie.

 

[Sir Brennen]

This gal gets what I'm trying to say, plus with a couple of other good points to boot:

We need more vampire slayers — just not more Buffy

 

[DumbPaladin]

In order to pick it apart, they have to see it. To see it, they have to buy a ticket. If they buy a ticket, the movie's done its work.

Au contraire ... any true Whedon devotee would band together with his or her other Whedonesque fanatics. One would draw the short stick and force themselves to watch the movie so they could pick it apart ... the rest will wait until it's on Netflix, downloadable for free via pirate warez, or just wait till it's on TV, and then talk about how terrible it is.

I certainly have no interest. They won't be getting any money from me. I really wish more people would figure out that's the way to go about this, if in fact you really think the studio should NOT make this movie ...

 

[Klaus]

Here's the fun part:

The producers offered for Whedon to be involved with the new movie, possibly even write it, but he turned them down, being in the middle of the Avengers project. Only after Whedon turned them down did they look for a new writer.

 

[john112364]

Well, at least he was offered the opportunity to be involved. I guess I'll wait and see. Maybe we'll all be surprised.

 

[Diamond Cross]

1) were not a "re-boot", telling a different version of Luke Skywalker's origin as a Jedi. They expanded the existing story's universe, not "re-imagined" it*
2) were still in the hands of the original trilogy's creator, for good or ill
3) did have the benefit of enough time passing that there was a nostalgic childhood rememberence, amping excitement about the new movies

Well, I agree that Star Wars prequels are not a reboot, per se, boot (pun intended) they were changed from what I was brought up on.

For example, I was told that the Clone Wars was from a lot of different cloning groups, not just one.

And it was the Mandalorians who hunted down the Jedu, not an ambush like in ROTS.

Just a few changes like that.

I was nine years old when I first saw the movie. This was long before I even knew of computers and the like.

 

[ssampier]

Here's the fun part:

The producers offered for Whedon to be involved with the new movie, possibly even write it, but he turned them down, being in the middle of the Avengers project. Only after Whedon turned them down did they look for a new writer.

Huh. Wouldn't that be kinda weird for the original creator not being able to legally use his previous work? I mean it's a reboot, but still.