WB to reboot Buffy the Vampire Slayer without Joss Whedon

Surprised no one has linked to this quote yet, but here's an example of why Whedon is awesome:

Joss Whedon's hilarious reaction to that Buffy reboot announcement | Blastr

With or without Joss, however, I really don't see the point in a Buffy "re-boot" anyway. The original is still fresh in the minds of a lot of people. The series ended in 2003, with strong DVD sales for quite a while after.

The BtVS series is also unusual in that the identity of the show is strongly tied to the show's creator himself. Joss is still out there working on other projects (including the ongoing Buffy comic) garnering him new fans, some of whom are probably also checking out BtVS and becoming new fans of that.

You've also got many of the principal actors out there in the mainstream still to remind people of the characters they played in the series. And except for Buffy (and perhaps a "Watcher"), those characters can't legally be used in the movie. So for the large, active fan base still out there, these points all pretty much get summed up with "This will in no way be the same as the TV show you fell in love with and remember well."

Unless the studio really thinks they can tap into the much younger Twilight fan base and ignore the potential alienation factor of the existing Buffy fans, using the name recognition of Buffy and little else just seems like a project waiting to backfire.

So why not just make a "strong female character has destiny to fight supernatural creatures" movie, and apply one's "great take on the concept" to original characters? My local bookstore's shelves seem to be about to break off the walls with novels based on the premise, thanks in large part to Buffy. Just honor the source material that way, since, in either case, I think the movie will just end up a footnote in the genre anyway.
 

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So why not just make a "strong female character has destiny to fight supernatural creatures" movie, and apply one's "great take on the concept" to original characters?

Because the public does, in fact, respond positively to names they know. As much as we might complain about how we hate the remakes and sequels, the truth of the matter is that they are lower financial risk for the studio than a new piece of the same general type.
 
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Watching the reactions to the development of this should be entertaining.

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A lot of people proclaim Whedon as some creative genius, but I've also read that he tends to recycle a lot of his character archtypes. I never really got the appeal of Buffy though, so I'm not copncerned one way or other about this.
 

A lot of people proclaim Whedon as some creative genius, but I've also read that he tends to recycle a lot of his character archtypes.

There's some truth to that, but the two are not mutually exclusive. He does tend to center his shows around kick-butt women, for instance. But he generally shows a whole lot of creativity in the plots and interactions between characters.
 

I'm a little wary of a reboot this soon after the series. 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. I guess we'll wait and see.
 

I'm a little wary of a reboot this soon after the series. 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. I guess we'll wait and see.
Mind you, the reboot will have nothing to do with the series, since the makers only own the rights to the original Buffy movie, with Kristin Swanson and Luke Perry.
 


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