"The Operative" sounds too familiar. Why didn't Joss just bring back Jubal Early for a rematch? =(

ZachsMind | June 01, 19:28 CET

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe there's a connection between Early and 'The Operative' in the hunt for Simon and River.

Simon | June 01, 20:21 CET

Maybe Joss wrote it as Jubal, but he's playing with the big boys now. You don't know what they want casting wise. If they're footing a $50m bill, they're gonna want some say, and Ejiofor is certainly hotter than Richard Brooks, having just come off completing films with Spike Lee and Woody Allen. Or, people like ICM could be exerting external pressures. Whedon will have known that some compromises will have been necessary moving into cinema.

The thing that seems a little more worrying to me is the way they described the story - seemed a little too similar to the pilot, but I trust Joss not to run back over too much beaten ground. Some is inevitable, as the majority of the audience won't have seen the show I imagine.

Hollowman | June 01, 21:27 CET

The guy that played Early in "Objects In Space" had that feeling about him which you get from ASH in those rare Ripper moments, like when he killed Ben, or intimidated Snyder. Early just exuded that with every second on screen. An intelligent and analytical evil that comes from some blind authority of unquestionable jurisdiction. He gave me the creeps! Major cringeworthy. How could they NOT want that guy for the movie? As for this other guy I don't know his previous works so got no opinion of him whatever.

ZachsMind | June 01, 22:03 CET

I got the impression that Jubal died at the end of his episode. I mean, he did get pushed off in to space. The chance that someone happened upon him and picked him up before he ran out of oxygen was next to none... My guess is that's why we have this new guy who may or may not be a character similar to Early...

CrazyMutha29 | June 01, 22:36 CET

A character that good never dies so easily.

ZachsMind | June 01, 22:48 CET

A character that good never dies so easily

Well certaintly not on a Joss show anyhow.

When they pick up two passengers, they find themselves caught between a military force and cannibalistic savages

The Alliance is finally aware of the Reavers?

Simon | June 01, 23:55 CET

ZachsMind, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Enjoyed Brooks' performance immensely. Wasn't for a moment advocating him being replaced. Just suggesting that the control Joss wields over his TV shows isn't going to be fully estended to this movie, and some decisions, including casting, may bear the mark of a suit.

[ edited by Hollowman on 2004-06-01 23:18 ]

Hollowman | June 02, 01:17 CET

That plot description's been around for a long time, and it's almost certainly just somebody getting confused and talking about the beginning of the series.

KernelM | June 02, 01:17 CET

In my opinion, the character of Early was still alive. I'm sure if the show hadn't been canceled we would've seen him show up again in the future. Who knows what kind of oxygen tanks they could have in the future that could sustain someone for months or put them in a crypto state or something. I could seriously picture season four of Firefly and that guy just suddenly showing up for revenge or something.

Firefly Flanatic | June 02, 01:23 CET

The chance that someone happened upon him and picked him up before he ran out of oxygen was next to none...

Unless an infinite improbability drive is involved. Just saying. Ejiofor is great actor -- his understated work in Dirty Pretty Things elevated that film in many ways.

feelinglistless | June 02, 02:35 CET

Do we know yet whether Serenity takes place just slightly before the timeline of the TV series, after it, or is a kind of reboot that honors the series but basically resets it in a larger-scale format and runs along a parallel track?

If it's set after FF:tTVS, then I think JE probably spun off into the black until his air ran out, without any thought of being rescued (that's what made his "well, here I am" so bitterly funny to me). Much as I was captivated by him in OiS, I never expected to see him again.

Who's going to pick up someone who's obviously been dumped, anyway? Not a lot of do-gooders around in such a hard-scrabble environment, and with the prevailing code of survival and social justice seemingly framed around 'every man for himself' in the FF-verse, suspicious minds would probably conclude there was a good reason for his expulsion from wherever it was he came from. (And of course picking up Early would just serve to confirm that attitude, in retrospect -- if his rescuers managed to survive the encounter.)

Guess I need to see Dirty Pretty Things. My list of 'must-see' movies is about a mile long already, but somehow this one got left off.

Wiseblood | June 02, 22:39 CET

Serenity takes place 6 months after the series ended.
And you really do need to see Dirty Pretty Things; it was one of the best movies of last year.

Invisible Green | June 02, 22:56 CET

Nevermind, Invisible Green got to the answer before me!

[ edited by lalaa on 2004-06-02 20:59 ]

lalaa | June 02, 22:59 CET

Thanks, Invisible Green. So all the previous continuity will stand and JE probably did go *pop*. (Yes, eww.) And I'll be checking DPT out soon, on your recommendation.

Wiseblood | June 03, 00:52 CET