It didn't read to me like he is actively working on it, maybe just added his idea's onto the plot perhaps and Michael Arndt will be doing writing. If anything looks like his involvement would be over then.

pongluver | April 10, 18:23 CET

Hmm, I'm not sold that "to the person" would necessarily include Joss. Not like anyone in Hollywood ever uses hyperbole.

jclemens | April 10, 18:31 CET

"Michael Arndt (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE) is scripting..."

I took this to mean Joss Whedon isn't. Bummer.

whedongeeky | April 10, 18:37 CET

I posted the link with a dollop of irony. I'm inclined to think that Pixar have shamefully brushed Joss' contribution under the carpet.

of course i could be wrong.

[ edited by bivith on 2008-04-10 18:55 ]

bivith | April 10, 18:43 CET

"To The Dollhouse and beyond...!"

alexreager | April 10, 19:14 CET

Joss actually didn't write the story for Toy Story. He wrote the script. The story was mostly done by John Lasseter. The credits are on IMDB for it.

micjwelch | April 10, 19:23 CET

Woody's going to die, isn't he?

Hazz | April 10, 19:27 CET

"For the first two", it says - I don't think he was involved in Toy Story 2.

daylight | April 10, 19:36 CET

I hope he's not involved. I'd rather see Joss working on his own projects- like Dollhouse, Ripper, and Goners, Buffy, Angel, and Serenity - than take on another Disney romp.

And I thought I was bad holding down 5 jobs.

Nebula1400 | April 10, 20:05 CET

Does anyone remember Joss' horror film project he briefly mentioned that he was thinking of doing with Drew Goddard? Something like Cabin in the Woods? Wonder what happened to that.

BlindHawkeyes | April 10, 20:38 CET

As I remember, the script is actually written, so it's past the 'thinking of' phase, and stuck in the 'getting someone to pick it up' phase along with Goners.

Winther | April 10, 21:16 CET

Am I the only one who thinks that the people who're still trying to get a Serenity 2 would be better spending their time trying to get a studio to pick up one of these films? (Don't get me wrong, I'd love a Serenity 2, but it seems like a bit of a lost cause.. these still have hope, and are lower budget too.)


As for Pixar, since they've been bought by Disney, I'm beginning to think that their work is suffering. Wall-e sure, sounds great, but Cars 2? (just announced for 2012) It's not as if the first Cars got that much acclaim. Sequel territory is dangerous.

As for Joss' contribution to the original Toy Story, I'm not quite sure what that was. I remember reading an interview with Steve Jobs (he bought Pixar around the time Toy Story was about to be made), and he said that they ran into an issue because they basically had an awful story, and he halted production for several months until the plot could be ironed out. At what stage did Joss get involved? I'm aware Joss has done rewrites in the past for other scripts, like Speed, but I'm not sure where he was with Toy Story.

MattK | April 10, 22:52 CET

Fixed that for you.

jclemens | April 10, 23:15 CET

At what stage did Joss get involved? I'm aware Joss has done rewrites in the past for other scripts, like Speed, but I'm not sure where he was with Toy Story.

I can't give great specifics, but I did read an interview a while back in which Joss said he felt his contribution to Toy Story--that is, the main thing that stuck from his draft--was the characters. That is, I assume, fleshing them out and giving them distinct voices and all that. I could be misremembering, and when I have more time I'll see if I can dig up the specific interview, but yes. This is what I recall. That doesn't answer your question a ton, except that it sounds as if he came in after the main plot thing had been sorted out.

Jobo | April 10, 23:39 CET

jclemens, I thought that Disney did buy Pixar, but because Jobs was the largest shareholder, he ended up wielding most power. I might well be wrong about that, I honestly don't know. In any case, the board of directors now has quite a few Disney people on it, so it makes you wonder how much of a say John Lasseter has these days.

The fact that Pixar have just unveiled their plans for the next 4 years is sign enough that things are changing, because that's the first time they've done something like that to my knowledge.


Jobo, thanks for the info! I'll have a look on Google for that interview later on.

MattK | April 10, 23:44 CET

>>Am I the only one who thinks that the people who're still trying to get a Serenity 2 would be better spending their time trying to get a studio to pick up one of these films? (Don't get me wrong, I'd love a Serenity 2, but it seems like a bit of a lost cause.. these still have hope, and are lower budget too.)<<
--------------------------------------------------------------------

The easy answer here is NO. Those who care will never give up until Whedon says there is no chance and I suspect that even then there will be some who will continue to hold.

These other projects don't interest me much. Some sound like they COULD be interesting, but I already know that The SereniFly verse IS interesting, deep and wonderful. No doubt that there are some here who agree with you (yea!! more vampire stories) and some who will agree with me.

I fall in the category of "Never Give Up on Serenity"

Obsidian Mon | April 11, 00:02 CET

There's a difference between never giving up and diverting your immediate attention to something else that stands a better hope of being made. It's all probabilities. A new Serenity film would likely cost ~$50 million, whereas something like Goners or Cabin in the Woods could be made for much much less, to my knowledge, because it needs less elaborate sets (they'd be remaking the Serenity set yet again!), and less CGI, a smaller cast, and all that sort of thing.

On the matter of a Serenity 2, I think the real test will be Dollhouse. If Dollhouse can have the mainstream and long-term success that something like Buffy had, it'll reassure the studios that Joss can attract a larger audience and perhaps make them more willing to make a sequel. I honestly don't think that we, as fans, can really make much of a difference anymore -- they know how much we care, and it's fine to remind them now and again, but ultimately they need more than that.

That all being said, I could have easily had this attitude before Serenity was greenlit. I mean, who would've imagined that a cancelled TV series would get a film that big? I still think our energies would be better spent on other things though (like the charity screenings, which were a brilliant idea).

MattK | April 11, 00:26 CET

From the summary it looks like there might be some point to doing this, at least.

DaddyCatALSO | April 11, 00:54 CET

From what I hear, Pixar and people from Pixar are totally running all Disney animation these days. Disney did buy Pixar, but Pixar is definitely running the show.

TamaraC | April 11, 01:15 CET

I remember an interview from a while back in which Joss talked about his contributions to the script. He came in as a script doctor--someone who comes on board to a pre-existing project to "punch it up."

I believe he mentioned that the creepy toys and the line "You are a sad, strange little man" were his. Surprisingly, the "Claw aliens" weren't from his pen. I'd always assumed they were a Joss creation. You can almost picture Gunn and Wesley in there instead of Woody and Buzz.

JesterInACast | April 11, 03:03 CET

TamaraC gets my point, MattK. Disney bought Pixar like Apple Computer bought NeXT.

jclemens | April 11, 03:52 CET

JesterInaCast has it right. Joss was brought on as a Script Doctor. Enough of his writing made it in to provide him with an amount of credit. It's weird how all that works, some writers get screwed with that kind of thing sometimes. I could write a script, someone re-writes, so I get a story by credit, which makes it sound like I wrote an outline or something, and get screwed out of residuals. Oops, didn't mean to suggest that's the case with Toy Story, they were genuinely just trying to improve the script and I don't believe mis-credit was an issue.

Point being, Joss would not have been at the meeting for Toy Story 3, as he had nothing to do with developing the story for 1 or 2. But I wouldn't argue with him working on it. Man knows what he's doing with a script.

bobw1o | April 11, 04:03 CET

Joss also contributed the single greatest line of the movie: "Wind the frog." Worth the admission price.

ETA: Here's the classic In Focus interview - maybe the one Jobo had in mind, - wherein Joss talks a large amount about his participation in Toy Story.

SoddingNancyTribe | April 11, 06:10 CET

Yes, I was looking for that interview. If Joss is to be believed, and why shouldn't he, he was a major contributor to Toy Story.

bivith | April 11, 17:41 CET

No matter how much he put in, he did get an Oscar nomination for it!

UnpluggedCrazy | April 11, 20:35 CET