Discuss the CBS Sunday Morning segment about Joss - General

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April 29 2012

Discuss the CBS Sunday Morning segment about Joss. "You want to see the tiny person suddenly take control. God, my whole career is basically about that." ETA: Watch the video on CBS's site or YouTube (includes the first clip from Much Ado About Nothing).

The segment was an overview of Joss's career to date, including much Buffy love, an Equality Now mention, Black Widow, and a Much Ado clip. We expect the video will be available online later today, but for now we're linking to the transcript.

Sunfire | General | 06:37 CET | 46 comments total | tags: joss whedon

That was more than I expected but all the behind the scenes stuff they filmed- the interview with Joss and Kai for instance - I want to see the rest of the conversation!

Lioness | April 29, 06:42 CET

Me too.
Got up just in the nick of time to catch it. Liked that it was about more than just Avengers. And that there was Much Ado About Nothing footage.

NYPinTA | April 29, 06:49 CET

My favorite part was:

Believe me, people are like, "Oh, this is big, don't mess it up! Oh, we need to make this amount of money!" And I'm like, this amount of money exists? Whoa!

Sunfire | April 29, 06:55 CET

So glad it was a really well produced piece, not just a blatant promotion of The Avengers.

It deserved more spotlight, maybe primetime, but hopefully was caught by the right eyeballs.

[ edited by Numfar PTB on 2012-04-29 15:58 ]

Numfar PTB | April 29, 06:57 CET

Oh no! My DVR failed to tape. I am heart broken (I trusted it so I didn't set my alarm clock... woe is me).

embers | April 29, 06:58 CET

@sunfire. Good job. You can only work with what's out there,

The money pile quote rocked and his wife calling him a geek. Loved it.

hann23 | April 29, 07:13 CET

This was quite enjoyable - and yeah, I sure would like to see the bits they didn't use - it was fairly short & tightly edited. It was nice to see Kai again, looking not one day older than shots I've seen of her from years ago. ; ]

I took a few screen shots - I'll add 'em to this post's comments once I get 'em up on flickr.

ETA: After the vids went up I realized that this was unnecessary & in fact kinda stoopid. ; ]

[ edited by QuoterGal on 2012-04-29 23:35 ]

QuoterGal | April 29, 07:18 CET

Now, that I've read the transcript, it does read like a never been to Comicon article, nothing wrong with that, just pointing it out. Gotta preach to the un-preached (or as I joke on Twitter, the "civilians") after all.

[ edited by Numfar PTB on 2012-04-29 16:47 ]

Numfar PTB | April 29, 07:45 CET

I loved that! Esp some of the footage from Much Ado.

Also I kind of hate that they downplay the significance of his show on like Television as a whole. But w/e thats just me.

Less than a week left till the avengers!

FrellaC | April 29, 08:24 CET

Fair play to them for linking to the Equality Now site. Looking forward to seeing the Much Ado clip.

Simon | April 29, 08:39 CET

I thought the segment did a great job of introducing Joss to a general audience. And the Equality Now mention and Much Ado clip were really nice touches.

Sunfire | April 29, 09:13 CET

It distresses me that most of my friends haven't the faintest clue about Joss, and thanks to this I can now rectify that issue. Great piece.

Dude Meister | April 29, 09:23 CET

That was a great little tidbit. Guy does a great eyebrow raise. Also loved his expression in the shot with the Uber-Vamps.

viewingfigures | April 29, 09:25 CET

I was NOT expecting the Much Ado clip in there! I had a HUGE fangirl moment when that happened. : )

mossome | April 29, 09:42 CET

Nice job by Sunday Morning, but it would have fit 6o Minutes. One thing: Angel was NOT a short-lived show like Firefly and Dollhouse, CBS.
Aside from that, a good job by all, especially featuring Joss' wife. From the numbers we got overseas, The Avengers should turn a profit before noon Friday, and earn double the supposed cost by a week from now.

impalergeneral | April 29, 09:51 CET

No impalegeneral, you're mistaken. They would have to be close to DOUBLE the production cost in box office dollars before profit is anywhere in the neighborhood. Avengers will have to have $400 to $450 in box office receipts before breaking even since on average the studio will only get 50% and the rest goes to the theaters.

It will easily achieve that number, of course, but I'm compelled to correct this mistake every time I see it.

IrrationaliTV | April 29, 10:07 CET

From what I recall, studios now get 70-80% of the first week or 2 of release. It's a sliding scale that the longer the film stays in theater, the higher percentage theaters get to make (thus the 50% average). I think this is why the studios now have such a hard-on for opening weekend gross (besides the bragging rights). So the larger the opening weekend, the quicker to profit for these type of blockbusters.

danregal | April 29, 10:22 CET

That's true, danregal but every single movie is negotiated separately so there is no hard and fast rule on what the first weekend split is and then you have to take the international distributors cut out on top of all that.

Like I said, this movie is still a huge hit but people keep talking like Box Office all goes straight back to Disney and that is very far from the reality.

IrrationaliTV | April 29, 10:31 CET

I thought this segment was fantastic. Just the thought that they were introducing Joss to people who've never heard of him before, and they brought in Equality Now and Much Ado! I found it oddly thrilling. A few seconds about Dr. Horrible and the comics would've been nice, though.

jcs | April 29, 10:49 CET

Great clip. Apparently Kai never ages, so that's neat for her.

You know, When joss first took this project, I actually said "that's great! I hope he doesn't screw it up". At the time he was just announced as directing, and man, Zak Penn's script? Not very good. The fact Zak has a story credit shows he has a good lawyer, but the story? Not his. I've been itching to write something about The Avengers before joss joined the project, but I don't want to wee on other peoples shit - but I think joss will end up saving Disney/Marvel a lot of money. Like, a loooot of money. All credit to Marvel for speaking to him and actually listening and getting him to run with it.

gossi | April 29, 10:56 CET

@gossi, you've read Penn's script? Is it available online?

losthero47 | April 29, 11:05 CET

I cannot wait to see MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Please, can we see some more?

KeyserFan | April 29, 11:06 CET

It's not online (as far as I know). Although one of the people Marvel talked to about directing it before joss actually did an interview where he spoke about it in public, fun fact. I think it's on MTV's site somewhere, unless Disney killed it.

Also, re Much Ado - Fran! Amy! Alexis! Reed! Clark! That is all.

gossi | April 29, 11:07 CET

Oh thank you so much for the video link! This is a wonderful interview/portrait, and the clip from 'Much Ado About Nothing' really makes me excited about that. This is a very exciting time to be Whedon fan!

embers | April 29, 11:08 CET

Great interview. Good job CBS.

I'm sure The Avengers will be huge. Only questions i have:
-Will it beat Harry Potter's opening weekend record? (i kinda hope it won't)
-How much money will it gross compared to Batman, The Hobbit and The Hunger Games?

obillow | April 29, 11:11 CET

WAAAAH where can i see this?? I'm in the UK!

PurpleSerenity | April 29, 12:05 CET

@PurpleSerenity The link has been added to the top of this post.

viewingfigures | April 29, 12:10 CET

It's on YouTube now. Now idea if it's also geolocked.

@theonetruebix | April 29, 12:10 CET

Loved the segment--but I wanted MORE,especially for the Much Ado clip. But I'm glad Joss is getting the attention he has deserved. (Is it too much to hope that he might get a Daily Show interview, too?)

palehorse | April 29, 12:14 CET

Thanks, I added the YouTube link to the post.

Sunfire | April 29, 12:14 CET

Thanks, but it says it's not available in this country. :( HOWEVER - I've just discovered the video on the original link, am I right that's the video right there?? Which does work... Or is it a shortened version? It's only just over 6 minutes. Anyway i'm off to watch what's there anyway...

PurpleSerenity | April 29, 12:14 CET

The video on the CBS site isn't geolocked but the YouTube version is.

Simon | April 29, 12:18 CET

It's all the same segment.

@theonetruebix | April 29, 12:18 CET

The Youtube link is only available in the US, this one apparently works everywhere :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OgWxVV9rRo

[ edited by Liam12 on 2012-04-29 22:23 ]

Liam12 | April 29, 12:20 CET

Both versions are the entire video. It's a little over 6 and a half minutes. I got the YouTube version to embed for Tumblr, so that's a plus.

Sunfire | April 29, 12:20 CET

Doh, I've watched it now! Sooo excited. Cannot wait for Much Ado.

PurpleSerenity | April 29, 12:24 CET

Just pasting over what I said in the other thread:
So amazing that is was ABOUT JOSS, not the Avengers, not its stars, but the man himself. I chuckled with the intro of "relatively unknown" when he's been my number one-would-like-to-meet/be celebrity since 1998. Awesome to see some footage from Much Ado!
Adding to reinforce that this is awesome and strange at the same time.

CaptainB | April 29, 13:07 CET

Soooo... there was a whole lot of footage from The Avengers interspersed with the interview. :( I was not expecting that from the description at the top and the lack of spoiler tag. I think I managed to sorta miss it with the mute button and a lot of hand coverage. But a heads up might have been nice. I've really been avoiding any Avengers film footage like the plague. (I just really wanted to see the Much Ado footage and I thought it was a safe.)

BreathesStory | April 29, 13:08 CET

Our little Joss, all growed up.

GreatMuppetyOdin | April 29, 14:18 CET

I forgot to mention that I liked this, too:

"I was raised by a pack of wild comedy writers."

I could actually picture this, sortof howling and prowling and all trying to "kill the people" and "knock 'em dead". #IYKWIM

QuoterGal | April 29, 14:39 CET

That was awesome. Especially the brief Much Ado part with its amazing cast :D. I love how all the Avengers bts stuff always has a nice collaborative, happy vibe. I've never seen Kai before so it's nice seeing her laugh with him. I remember a comedian (Mike Myers?) saying his wife never finds his characters funny and I guess I assumed Kai's got to be so used to Joss-isms that she'd be the same. So that was cool :).

luciddreams | April 29, 15:04 CET

Dang, that was good! I wouldn't expect a network news program to take the women's empowerment theme angle in a story about the director of the Avengers and was pleasantly surprised, especially with the notice given Equality Now. Almost as surprised and pleased to see Much Ado, but only pleased to see Fran Kranz can rock Shakespearean dialogue like it was contemporary standup raillery. And Kai Cole speaks! Couldn't really ask for more from a few minutes of network news (except possibly some notice that Angel was cancelled very slowly).

I am not sure how to handle this recent deluge of good news. Filmaggedon!

Pointy | April 29, 16:10 CET

QuoterGal I, like you, had that vision of wild comedy writers roaming the fire-breaks of the Santa Monica mountains, howling at the moon and at each other, sneaking into back yards in the Palisades to raid trash cans for discarded metaphors...it's enough to raise the hair on the back of your neck!
And Kai, the lovely Kai, could be taken and plugged right this minute into a Buffy cast and nobody would be the wiser.

FloralBonnet | April 29, 16:22 CET

That was awesome. Like others I am really pleased at how it was about JOSS more than it was about The Avengers. I loved the Equality Now mention, getting to see Kai (she's absolutely lovely, isn't she?) and the Much Ado footage makes me want to see it SO BADLY. Now please?

However, like BreathesStory, I kind of wished the post had mentioned the fact that there was quite a bit of Avengers footage in this. I too have been trying to avoid as much of it as I can before seeing it and it would have been nice if I had been prewarned.

Giles_314 | April 29, 17:00 CET

Much Ado footage was fantastic and agree, unexpected. Joss was great in this interview! They like to paint him like he's an unknown but come on, he's a pro to more people than just us....like every actor he's ever worked with and network brass. Whatevs, so glad he's getting more recognition and is now known to all the elderly types who watch the Sunday Morning news too. Hee!

Also, loved seeing him in his house w Kai and big up to the person who thought to add the Equality Now event footage which was just last week! Good stuff all around.

note: my auto correct chanced Joss>Josh and Kai>Kaiser. Hilarity.

buffyfest | April 29, 17:21 CET

Coming to Comic-Con this summer:

T-Shirts with the phrase: "I was raised by a pack of wild comedy writers," with Joss' face of course. Then again, Chris Eliot may try the same thing, if you know who his dad is.

impalergeneral | April 29, 20:37 CET

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