Well, that's just the coolest thing ever -- I'm so jealous. It's like a Flan Sleepover! I'm imagining arriving at the theatre with a pillow and blanket in my 'j's, ready for a night of salty Firefly goodness amongst friends. 'Course, I'd probably be the only one thus attired, and then someone would probably call security about the grown woman in the feety-pajamas that seems a little, well... off.

Do tell us all about it if you go, Trienco!

barest_smidgen | August 29, 16:47 CET

Used to live in Munich, and still have lots of friends there--I will bring this to their attention.

The link doesn't indicate the address of Cinema in Muenchen, but rudimentary research provided this:

http://www.toytownmunich.com/wiki/Cinema_Muenchen

At Stiglmaierplatz, not far from the Hauptbahnof.

Looks very cool indeed.

Chris inVirginia | August 29, 17:22 CET

That is a very good idea, hopefully it will bring the show to the attention of a lot of new fans. That can only help the success of Serenity and strengthen the chances of sequels.

It's strange how, despite the fact i'm admittedly nowhere near as big a Firefly fan as i am of Buffy and Angel, i still go out of my way to promote the series to friends and family whenever i get chance. I guess Whedon loyalty knows no bounds! :)

WhedonTrivia | August 29, 17:31 CET

I wanted to go to the LotR cinema marathon last year, but this would be much more fun.

herb | August 29, 17:36 CET

Yeah, I would totally go to one of these if I could. Who organises these things? Is it someone connected with Firefly, or a fan who has asked the cinema and got official permission, or what?

Razor | August 29, 18:00 CET

The website is www.cinema-muenchen.de. It's available in English and German.

They sometimes have double features, Star Trek nights etc. It's popular because they only show original versions. Unfortunately I'm not a Firefly fan :)

[ edited by Elo on 2005-08-29 16:33 ]

Elo | August 29, 18:28 CET

Go wash your mouth, Elo :p

But, yep, it is a pretty good plan, this. Finally something for the German fans, after UIP Germany refused to do any pre-screenings or special premiere events like they're doing in other parts of Europe and Australia and the like.

At least German fans living close to the Dutch border can come over for the Dutch events. There were 2 germans at the dutch pre-screening, and there's gonna be Germans at the Dutch premiere the 6th of september (which, latest news has it, Summer and Nathan are now going to attend) as well.

But like I said, finally something good for German browncoats. Now if only UIP Germany would wake up and smell the potential for a good movie as well.

GVH | August 29, 19:16 CET

Others have commented about the marketing stratgegy employed by Universal here and there in the threads here at The Big W. But, darnit, this latest event (if it's organized by Universal and I would have to think so because fans just don't buy the rights to conduct public screenings of Firefly) is really another example of innovation.

There's been a string of promo events, each of them unique and seemingly random (multiple screenings, film festivals, con appearances, now FF marathon and others). Combined, they are a test of non-conventional strategies that Universal may never have applied before on one project, with implicatoins for world programs.

I think it's very smart and bloody amazing of Universal to try something so profoundly different. Who knows, the Serenity project may turn film marketing upside down and scholars will look back and call it the Browncoat Rebellion.

(Okay, that last part you can, you know, chalk up to enthusiasm.)

Drifter | August 29, 19:42 CET

The 40 minutes of the movie part indicates Universal/UIP involvement, but not the episodes marathon thing. A group in Seattle is showing four episodes in a theater, and the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin is doing a full marathon.

KernelM | August 29, 20:16 CET

Yep, besides, the rights to the Firefly episodes themselves rest with Fox, not with Universal, right? Okay, so Universal might pay to show them, but I'm not sure that that's what happened. It's probably the Cinema that came up with the plan, and then asked Universal to contribute.

But I might be completely wrong, ofcourse.

GVH | August 29, 20:47 CET

Is it a slumber party? Do you go in your pajamas and bring your sleeping bag? Will there be intermission so people can go eat?

Yes, definitely the coolest thing ever! Come on, Portland, why can't WE do this???

electricspacegirl | August 29, 21:06 CET

We were just getting my sister's boyfriend into Firefly last night (he came with us to the June 23rd preview screening of Serenity in Toronto and liked it a lot, though wasn't incredibly eager to see the series right away. We made it through the first disc last night and he's eager to see more). We were all in agreement that the entire series would be cool to see on a big screen. Maybe not too big, since it wasn't shot for theatre-viewing and who knows if it'd hold up on anything larger than a huge-screen TV...but a decent-sized theatre screen at an indie cinema might work nice.

Kris | August 29, 21:13 CET

Thought this might be useful for some people: Map

Trienco | August 29, 21:17 CET

Personally, I wouldn't want to see 40 minutes of any movie before seeing the whole thing later. Talk about spoilers.

jaynelovesvera | August 29, 21:59 CET

Wunderbar! Absolut wunderbar!
I hope scads of folks attend. Whedon's name alone should draw at least some. There are enough "Angel" and "Buffy" fans in Munich (I know because I wore my ueber-snazzy "Sunnydale High School" T-shirt when I was there this summer and got lots of positive reactions) that understand English well enough to chance it (although, they may not be ready for the kind of English spoken in "Firefly" -it can be terribly difficult!).
And since it's being issued in Germany on November 3rd (yay!), this might kick the buzz up a notch there. Although the site at Amazon does not mention the language yet, let's hope it's in German. And by the way, Trienco has written a splendid review of it there at Amazon.de.
101010

Anna von Ovonov | August 30, 06:43 CET

>>although, they may not be ready for the kind of English spoken in "Firefly" -it can be terribly difficult!

The funny thing is, you can always follow the plot, but the more often you watch and the more lines you can finally make out the better it gets. That's why I usually suggest to watch with English subtitles

>>Although the site at Amazon does not mention the language yet, let's hope it's in German.

I'm sure it is. It's not an import and it's unthinkable to release a "German" DVD without German language. They would get a million complaints for that. More worried if they have enough time to do a decent job. It took me two afternoons to translate just the subs for one episode, with a bunch of temporary "have to think of something for this" parts. So I would guess it's at least 3 full days per episode for a good translation.

>>And by the way, Trienco has written a splendid review of it there at Amazon.de

<Wash>I think I'm being followed.</Wash> I liked the other ones better.

I just hope they will advertise this event in some way that not just reaches the fans. Maybe a biggish banner at the theater and a few posters around the city. And I'm afraid they will have to go with the usual "creator of Buffy" thingy, or nobody will know who that guy is over here.

Too bad it's probably far too early for Serenity spots on TV. Maybe the theater can play the trailers a little more often the next few days.

Trienco | August 30, 10:26 CET

>>Yeah, I would totally go to one of these if I could. Who organises these things? Is it someone connected with Firefly, or a fan who has asked the cinema and got official permission, or what? (by Razor)

According to my information Fox Germany has thought of the idea, and UIP jumped on the bandwagon.

It's so sad that I live only 5 hours away from Munich but can't go, since I have to work that Saturday evening. *sniff*

FOX is at the moment quite busy promoting the about to be published Firefly DVDs, and yes, they're dubbed in German. UIP and FOX got together and used the same studio, voice talents & regisseur to do the dubbing for Firefly and Serenity. Neat, huh? So there will be no problem with continuity. :)

Harpy | August 30, 21:58 CET