Joss Whedon/Astonishing X-Men press conference - X-men

Pretty pictures from Cassaday as always. I added the line about the press conference as it'll give us something to get excited about.

Simon | January 19, 15:04 CET

Yep, that looks great as always.

And ooooh!:

Marts confirmed that Astonishing won't be Whedon's only Marvel work in the coming year, saying that he will likely have a second Marvel Universe project of some kind in 2006, though he declined to say what the project would be, or any details on length or format…

Interesting....

GVH | January 19, 15:21 CET

Stay off the Internet, stay off the internet

Another t-shirt worthy slogan. I like this conference. I'm having fun.

I reckon the new project will be S.W.O.R.D..

Simon | January 19, 15:26 CET

Awesome stuff. Not a big comic reader but I have read Joss's stuff and despite not knowing any of the continuity, I enjoyed Astonishing X-Men.

BamSaidTheLady | January 19, 15:32 CET

Asked if a Starjammers/Firefly crossover would be a possibility, Marts, while admitting the idea was a good one, said the decision would be Whedon's to make.

That has got to be one of the lamest ideas ever. One of the things that made Firefly interesting is that there was no aliens. I sure as hell hope that doesn't happen.

war_machine | January 19, 15:40 CET

I figure Joss and Marts are teasing.

Simon | January 19, 15:41 CET

Just for the characters, I think the interaction between the crews of the Starjammer and Serenity would be great. Wouldn't mind seeing that as a special or a gag, even if the 'verses do clash. Maybe Marvel can do another issue of "Wha... Huh?" ;-)

Niels van Eekelen | January 19, 15:48 CET

War-machine, do you seriously think that a Starjammers/Firefly crossover wouldn't be a good read?

Like Simon said, the idea is most likely just a joke but if it ever came to pass i'd definately get a copy, if only to see the no doubt colourful conversations between Corsair and Mal! :)

WhedonTrivia | January 19, 15:53 CET

River meets the Silver Surfer *head explodes*.

Simon | January 19, 16:00 CET

River telling Galactus that it's not nice eating people's planets. :-D

Niels van Eekelen | January 19, 16:02 CET

Well, she could at least warn Galactus that the ice planets are problematic...

Septimus | January 19, 16:03 CET

Yes I seriously do. I've never been a fan of the Starjammers. I'm not even sure I'd buy it it Joss wrote it. Thankfully it will likely never happen.

war_machine | January 19, 16:04 CET

I read one issue of Starjammers and I can't remember how many years ago that was. But I'm getting excited about the next two arcs of AXM. And that's good.

Simon | January 19, 16:06 CET

I'm not even sure I'd buy it it Joss wrote it.

I might be a weird fanboy, but I don't think there's anything I wouldn't buy if Joss wrote it. If the big man think it's a good enough concept to be able to tell a story worth telling, then I'd just trust him - Joss' work hasn't let me down yet, after all.

Having said that: I'd love to see a cross-over like that, as long as it isn't serious in any way.

GVH | January 19, 16:09 CET

Yes much excitement about the AXM.

war_machine | January 19, 16:09 CET

In speaking of his progress, Whedon noted that he is ahead on his scripts, citing a bet he's made with his wife where, if he's late, he has to watch an unnamed movie three times in a row.

hm. I'm betting the unnamed movie is something along the lines of that cinematic gemstone St Elmo's Fire (which is definitely one of my horrible guilty pleasures, god the eighties were good for that). Actually, I think I just want to make Joss watch St Elmo's Fire with me and make horrible, horrible fun of everything.

dottikin | January 19, 16:15 CET

Bollocks. I missed this at Comic Com Pulse.

Simon | January 19, 16:26 CET

Thanks, Simon. You crack me up.

Madhatter | January 19, 17:00 CET

So, is it a movie that she loves and thinks he ought to as well? Or is it strictly punishment? And yes, what is the movie?

Lioness | January 19, 17:38 CET

The Starjammers are a severely underused part of the X-Men universe, certainly in recent years anyway. I'd definately be there for a Joss written Starjammers series.

Simon, if you are talking a few years ago then you must mean the first limited series by Warren Ellis and Carlos Pacheco. I'd have bought that series even if i hadn't loved the team. One of my favourite writers combined with one of my absolute favourite artists made that a must buy.

As for the Galactus/River thing, i can totally see him making her into his latest herald. Now that is another comic i would read! :)

WhedonTrivia | January 19, 17:40 CET

That Warren Ellis gets about. I've added another link to the subject line, it's a full transcript of Joss' chat.

Simon | January 19, 17:50 CET

Mmmm, transcripty goodness. Well spotted, Simon.

ETA: From the transcript:

I have other projects that I would love to do, but I have movie scripts that are a little bit late and TV shows and other things.

(my emphasis) Is that just a general reference/slip of the tongue or tantalising hint of something on the cards ?

[ edited by Saje on 2006-01-20 01:27 ]

Saje | January 19, 18:18 CET

I did this interview a few hours ago and now I'm reading it. The interweb is freaking me out!

I want to point out that in the transcript where it says (laughs), it means the other people on the call, not me. If you don't understand that, I come off even dorkier than I usually intend.

Also, though I enjoyed the Starjammers (and Starlord, EARLY Byrne/Austin) (and Star Wars) (A New hope) no way in heckity would they ever cross paths with the Firefly crew, for reasons stated above. Having said that, YEAH, I TOTALLY flashed on River as Galactus's new herald. Why does that seem perfectly reasonable?

Comics are awesome. Leave me.

[ edited by joss on 2006-01-20 01:29 ]

joss | January 19, 18:29 CET

So, did you mean TV shows?
And, welcome.

[ edited by Lioness on 2006-01-20 01:31 ]

Lioness | January 19, 18:30 CET

Comics are awesome. And it was a great conference call. Cheers :).

Simon | January 19, 18:32 CET

Comics are awesome. Leave me.

Can't we bring you with? :) The interview was today, huh? That was some speedy writing-up.

And, JW, you are more like Earshot Cordy ("I don't have an unspoken thought") than I ever would have imagined.

I'm inferring that the 'Jammers had their own book at some point - anyone got specifics? I loved them in the Byrne/Claremont Dark Phoenix sequence, and a little later in the Brood story of the UXM 160s, but haven't seen them since. Maybe because I was walking past comic book stores with my eyes closed for a number of years there.

SoddingNancyTribe | January 19, 18:37 CET

Hey joss *waves*.

Yep, this TV shows remark is intriguing the flying flapoolas (yes, it's late, I couldn't think of an actual word to use) out of me. It'd be ever so awesome to have more whedony tv things to look forward to.

Agreeage with, well, all of you, on the River/Galactus thing. And, yes, comics are awesome. We are all most wise.

GVH | January 19, 18:38 CET

Joss wrote:

Having said that, YEAH, I TOTALLY flashed on River as Galactus's new herald. Why does that seem perfectly reasonable?

Okay, i may have just inspired Joss Whedon to write something. My life is complete!

Oh, hang on a second. Still got that "get a date with Amy Lee" thing to do. Better get working on that now then! :)

WhedonTrivia | January 19, 18:40 CET

SNT, regarding your Starjammers question:

Starjammers Vol.1 by Warren Ellis and Carlos Pacheco. 4 issue limited series, first issue dated Oct 95.

Starjammers Vol.2 by Kevin Anderson and Alé Garza/Sean Parsons/Jorge Lucas. 6 issue limited series, first issue dated Sep 04.

There is some dispute over whether the second series was true Marvel 616 continuity but it generally accepted that it is. Hope that helps.

WhedonTrivia | January 19, 18:47 CET

Thanks, VWAG! And kudos on the Galactus/River suggestion - t'was a great image.

SoddingNancyTribe | January 19, 18:49 CET

Joss, I totally thought the (laughs) were yours, and it did seem oddly dorky, even for you. ;-)

As far as working on "TV shows", I'm not reading too much into it. I think Joss always has ideas floating around in various stages of development. Also he might be referring to the Spike movie, which is easier to describe to a comics crowd as "TV show" than "a TV (maybe cable) or direct-to-DVD movie based on characters from my previous TV shows".

(Edited to fix the spelling of "referring". "Refering" would be something else entirely...)

[ edited by jam2 on 2006-01-20 01:51 ]

jam2 | January 19, 18:49 CET

Fair enough jam2. That does seems likely. So I will go back to wondering about my previous question. What movie is so horrible that he is on time with his scripts?

Lioness | January 19, 19:02 CET

That's the thing about tantalising hints, they leave you feeling all tantalised.

Well anyway i'm still hoping that when I wake up tomorrow there'll be a nice shiny TV show waiting (not asking much just 2-3 seasons to start with). It'd certainly make up for that bike Santa 'forgot' when I was 8.

Lioness: Alien 4 ?

Saje | January 19, 19:07 CET

Yeah, I'd love to know what The Movie is. I will say I've never heard him speak so negatively about a movie as he did about "Underworld". Or maybe Kai threatened to make him watch "Alien: Resurrection" 3 times in a row. A different kind of torture. ;-)

ETA: Ah, Saje beat me to it. =)

[ edited by jam2 on 2006-01-20 02:09 ]

jam2 | January 19, 19:08 CET

Ah, shiny transcript goodness combined with Joss postage. Indeed comics are awesome and so is this thread :)

Paul_Rocks | January 19, 19:16 CET

S'funny you bring Alien Resurrection up, Saje. I finally shelled out for the Quadrilogy boxed set (well well worth it - if you like that kind of thing), and finally got to see a very youthful-looking JW talking about his approach to the "canon" and material in a really delightful way. And then Sigourney and Wynona and a few others talking about how blown away by the script they all were, how it was genius, etc. I knew in general the material was on there, but it was lovely to see it.

And then I guess it didn't quite turn out the way it was meant to. (Although I like AR a lot more than most, I think).

SoddingNancyTribe | January 19, 19:17 CET

Y'know what? Regardless of what is said about Alien: Resurrection in comparison to the first three Alien movies, it still isn't all that bad a flick. There are a hell of a lot worse science fiction movies out there than that.

In fact i would probably say that, in certain ways at least, i prefer the fourth movie in the series to the one that came before. For whatever reason the third Alien movie just never grabbed me in the way the first two had managed to. The fourth may not have been perfect either but it didn't entirely suck in the way that many say it did. At least not in my opinion.

WhedonTrivia | January 19, 19:24 CET

Makes you wonder what could have been.

I'm quite tempted by the Alien set now that it's come down a bit (Amazon have it for £25 which is pretty reasonable) since it seems to have some worthwhile extras (especially the commentaries and first drafts of the scripts) and I haven't seen the director's cut of Alien yet. I thought 4 was OK, it just has some really bad moments which tend to overshadow the good stuff (I think the Ripley/Alien DNA mesh is a brilliant idea) especially in the last third.

Or I could wait for the £130 limited edition set which, for that money, presumably comes with its own working deep space vessel.

ETA: VWaG, yeah agree about 3 to some extent. Although I think 4 is the least good on average, 3 has, for me, the worst moment of the quadrilogy where Hicks et al are unceremoniously (and very lazily) written out of the movie in the first 5 minutes (presumably cos they couldn't get the actors). Poor.

[ edited by Saje on 2006-01-20 02:43 ]

Saje | January 19, 19:40 CET

3 has, for me, the worst moment of the quadrilogy where Hicks et al are unceremoniously (and very lazily) written out of the movie in the first 5 minutes (presumably cos they couldn't get the actors). Poor.
Exactly! Well said, Saje.

billz | January 19, 19:58 CET

"The interview was today, huh? That was some speedy writing-up."

Heck, Newsarama had it up as the conference was going on, and was updating the page every few minutes with new bits. :-)

On Starjammers--If anyone wants to look into it, definitely go for the Warren Ellis version, as it was quite brilliant. I'd actuallt dispute that the Kevin J Anderson version was in (616) continuity at all--it's certainly not likely to ever be referenced again, being the sales failure that it was. And by the way, there was also actually a much older book, a two-issue X-Men Present: The Starjammers, with art by Starjammers co-creator Dave Cockrum. Written by Terry Kavanagh, I *think*, and very old-school sci-fi adventure.

On Alien: Resurrection--I maintain that it s a great film to watch, and that is so because the characters are very Whedon, and you immediately care for them. That being said, I understand why a movie like this or X-Men is unwatchable for Joss, because he got to figure out exactly how he wanted them to be, and then they were done differently.

Niels van Eekelen | January 19, 20:05 CET

Yeah 3 is my least favourite as well and I think of lot of it is down to the opening. That said I've not seen 3 nor 4 since they 1st came out so it's probably time I gave them a 2nd chance. Especially since Aliens is one of my all time favourite films.

Paul_Rocks | January 19, 20:05 CET

Say, if Joss is posting here, he's not really paying much attention to the second most important thing he learned since entering the comics industry, is he? :-P

Niels van Eekelen | January 19, 20:13 CET

Heh, Telltale, I was remembering the Fury interview posted of late that had been lingering for a year or so. By comparison, same day seemed nice and quick.

And nothing will *ever* top Alien for me - watching bits of all four movies in sequence, together with their associated special features confirms that for me.

When Ridley Scott tells a Q & A audience that he had guys pushing bits of the spaceship walls along with the action, or filmed the alien planet sequence through a 8mm camera because the poor quality of the model would have been too visible through a normal lens, well, you've just gotta love the genius and creativity that went into it (and which was demanded by the relative poverty of the budget). Aliens is terrific, but lacks that very personal labor-of-love vibe for me.

SoddingNancyTribe | January 19, 20:20 CET

Telltale, personally i would agree with you on your opinion that the second Starjammers series was only dubiously 616 connected but i believe that is what Marvel consider it to be. As you say though, it is likely that it will never be referenced again so i guess you can take it either way.

Totally forgot about that older X-Men Spotlight: Starjammers series, probably because i've yet to read it. Have to get around to that sometime.

WhedonTrivia | January 19, 20:30 CET

where did this conference take place? like in nyc at the marvel offices? or like, one of those strange press conferences we see on tv... or like over the phone? i mean maybe im the only one who doesn't quite get what "marvel had a conference" means- or the only one who cares. lol.
I finally got my hands on an issue of axm- and i have to say joss is brilliant- totally brought it back to the good old x-men days (which for me is claremont).

Drusillaloveskyo | January 19, 21:32 CET

Okay, I may have just inspired Joss Whedon to write something. My life is complete!
Incredibly kewl! Well done, VWaG! :-)

billz | January 19, 22:58 CET

Hey Joss!

I just wanna say, kudos for "Fastball Special" moment. I haven't read any X-men comics in a long time, but when I read that issue and Logan turns to Peter and says "I've got 2 words for you", all my love for the series just came flooding back.

So thank you for that, at the very least.

NickSeng | January 19, 23:14 CET

"The Danger Room is angry."

Why do I keep hearing this in River's voice?

newcj | January 19, 23:51 CET

Because you watched Serenity one times to many? :)

NickSeng | January 20, 01:11 CET

There's no such thing, NickSeng ;-)

GVH | January 20, 02:42 CET

Or Objects in Space.

eddy | January 20, 03:35 CET

I will never leave you, nor forsake you.

holymother | January 20, 03:40 CET

Seriously, I agree. "The Danger Room is angry" is just like River speak. Oh, giddy!