So, is Joss running the brit talkshow circuit just to plug the DVD coming out overseas, or is there a heinous plot to take over the world hidden beneath his demeanor of subterfuge and hedgemony? I have no idea what those words mean I've just always wanted to use them.

ZachsMind | February 24, 12:03 CET

Ah, the evils of hedgemony. Those topiarists are a nasty bunch, truth be told . . .

I suspect this is bound up with DVD promotion - but why oh why didn't Joss and cast get decent TV exposure prior to the movie's opening? I do wonder what efforts were made.

SoddingNancyTribe | February 24, 12:15 CET

Will someone awake please record this?

TamaraC | February 24, 12:25 CET

They are talking about Serenity among themselves right now (before Joss is on). Jupitus loved it, the other guy didn't think you could without seeing the series. I have a meeting later on, but I'll try to record it anyway.

Caroline | February 24, 12:52 CET

I'm listening now but all I hear is some brit with an attitude dissing the show. Not hearing Joss Whedon. If I did record this, I have no way of putting it up on the Web to be downloaded. Also so far there's nothing here worth recording. The guy dissing Serenity gives reasons that prove he hasn't a clue what he's talking about. He doesn't like the idea of a space western and he doesn't like the idea of the 'aliens' actually being humans. What? It's like not liking a Superman movie because he has a thing against capes.

As for a lack of exposure on television prior to the movie's actual release, I have various conspiracy theories about this. Essentially the whole Firefly/Serenity franchise is anti-establishment. One can easily see correlations between the Alliance and present day America. Or more specifically the corporate mentality of monopolizing and entering smaller countries with the intent of improving things but actually just gutting the resources and making profits that don't help the community. Why would any big business invest marketing support for a show that's basically telling big business to buy a vowel?

[ edited by ZachsMind on 2006-02-24 11:03 ]

ZachsMind | February 24, 12:54 CET

My impression wasn't as negative as that ('some brit with an attitude'?) - it was just two blokes sounding off about the film and I didn't hear any 'dissing', just two guys having different opinions. And Jupitus loved it as far as I could tell.

Caroline | February 24, 13:06 CET

I think Universal didn't have a clue how to market the movie (it's not one that can be pigeon holed easily) and in the end used it as a test case to try out 'novel' marketing ideas. For example, inviting bloggers to screenings (which managed to backfire on Universal somewhat).

Simon | February 24, 13:15 CET

Ten minutes to go apparently. Will this show be online for a week like most BBC radio?

gilesno1fan | February 24, 13:26 CET

I'm recording at the moment. Have no idea how the quality is going to come out, and don't know where I'm gonna put this. I don't have a place for uploading mp3s. Tried to use the server where my home blog is, but it's a friend's and I don't think she wants me to have her server bombarded.

...I may also need to edit it a bit to cut out the music before posting it.. somewhere. The song playing right now is putting me to sleep. I'm open to suggestions, or hopefully someone with better resources will be able to beat me to it.

ZachsMind | February 24, 13:46 CET

I've got it covered.

Joss: 'The great thing about working for a large and stupid organisation...'

Caroline | February 24, 13:48 CET

Harvey Fierstein as Angel? Funniest thing in ages.

Simon | February 24, 13:53 CET

" it was just two blokes sounding off about the film and I didn't hear any 'dissing'..."

Woah. We were listening to the same thing and hearing two complete different conversations. I like to think Whedon would find that amusing, because much of his work involves different characters looking at reality and seeing completely different things. Which is very alright. I still think that other guy, don't know his name, isn't qualified to critique a scifi movie if he can't appreciate the blending of genres or the choice to avoid obvious plot devices like aliens because they've been done to death.

Whedon does appear to "have a knack" at doing things "ass about face backward." He wrote a moderately unsuccessful movie that became a moderately successful tv series. He produced a television that was entertaining but not financially lucrative, and from that produced a movie that's actually paying for itself... AND is entertaining. He's consistently been entertaining you can say that much about Whedon, making things that we love not just what we like.

"I've got it covered."

So... should I stop recording then?

ZachsMind | February 24, 13:54 CET

This is turning out fab. Joss is in good form and Jupitus is a fan and funny.

You can stop recording, Zachsmind, I'll put up the file within the next 30 mins.

Caroline | February 24, 13:54 CET

...I've decided I feel about interviews with Joss Whedon much the same way Whedon feels about other people directing his works. I'd prefer to just grab the mike from the interviewer and do it myself.

Good thing you are Johnny-On-The-Spot there Caroline. My recording came out too soft and amplifying it makes it sound icky.

ZachsMind | February 24, 14:00 CET

Part 1 (2,7mb)

Part 2 (3,9mb)

Caroline | February 24, 14:11 CET

Thanks Caroline - I was trying to listen to this at work but kept getting interrupted and missed a lot.

sorchasilver | February 24, 14:13 CET

Bwah, just had a big LOL moment when Phil did the Harvey Fierstein gag.

(Disclaimer: am huge Jupitus fan, love him on Never mind the Buzzcocks)

Caroline | February 24, 14:19 CET

Again with the rapid response. Caroline have you thought about coming up with an exit strategy for Iraq ? I doubt it'd be any worse than the 'real' one and, i'd bet, almost definitely quicker ;).

And thanks, BTW.

Saje | February 24, 14:20 CET

For those who can't listen, there's not a lot of new news to report. Whedon admits he's still working on the Wonder Woman script, then corrects himself and says "finishing it." He has no particular plans after that, save directing the thing. He's waiting for offers, basically. No indication that Universal or Fox or anybody is entertaining the idea for a sequel yet, or aa revisit of the tv show. Then there's Goners of course which I don't personally know much about. Wish the interviewer had spent more time on that and less on talking about Roseanne. (Just give me the mic Jupitus and sit down.)

I don't recall Whedon mentioning the Spike movie in this interview. Please correct me if I'm wrong. There was brief talk about Ripper, but Whedon quickly changed the subject. Doesn't seem like that's even a pipe dream for him now. The window of opportunity has passed, and was perhaps never even there. It's possible that the Ripper BBC miniseries idea was just an option they explored in the last seasons of Buffy when ASH was commuting from England to California and wanted an out. Whedon was perhaps trying to think of ways to keep ASH in the franchise while letting him spend more time with family. They were just never able to hammer it out. I strongly believe there's still merit there, and Whedon would be able to finally do one of those "mature for adults" works like some of the cool cerebral British mystery dramas. If he poured on the straight horror, and kept the humor properly dry it'd be one of the best things he ever pulled off, and ASH can only mature further into that role for that vehicle as he gets older. Poirot eat your heart out.

ZachsMind | February 24, 15:14 CET

Wait. Hang on. A Spike Lee movie wasn't mentioned? I don't understand these words. Joss' middle names are, after all, Spike Movie. Along with YOU KILLED WASH YOU BASTARD.

gossi | February 24, 15:36 CET

I love Phil Jupitus. For a year he kept me sane and awake past the halfway point in my overnight shifts here in Nova Scotia. Not a bad interview at all.

herb | February 24, 15:43 CET

Yeah, but in fairness that's a family name that's been handed down through generations of Whedons. Who knew he'd take it as an instruction ?

Saje | February 24, 15:49 CET

I heard Joss' birth certificate is being turned into a TV series. Just for the Buffy Magazine people: this is a joke.

gossi | February 24, 16:06 CET

Another good interview, though he did go on about Roseanne for a bit too long, sadly no mention of the Spike movie, but I doubt that means that between the recording of the two interviews he got a phone call saying "You're never going to get to do a Spike movie".



I'd felt for a while that that's where the show was supposed to fit in, there's a line after Giles' return where he says (something along the lines of) "Met up with some old friends, almost made a new one", which sounded like it could be referring to some possible never filmed pilot of Ripper.

[ edited by Ghost Spike on 2006-02-24 14:23 ]

Ghost Spike | February 24, 16:22 CET

Regarding the Ripper series, i honestly believe that ship has sailed. It's much more likely that we may see a Giles telemovie following the Spike one, assuming that goes ahead, naturally.

Buffysmglover | February 24, 17:03 CET

Caroline, do you need mirrors for these files also? I've got bandwidth to burn yet.

janeway216 | February 24, 17:07 CET

Yes, please, janeway216.

Caroline | February 24, 17:08 CET

Thanks a lot for that Caroline, a very good interview. It's always good to have a fan interview Joss and then just let him talk.

Paul_Rocks | February 24, 17:20 CET

Interview Part 1
Interview Part 2

My server is much like the Rum Tum Tugger: for it will do as it do do, and there's no doing anything about it.

Happy to be able to help out.

janeway216 | February 24, 17:28 CET

Good interview - thanks for the links guys.

Mehitabel | February 24, 17:30 CET

I'm trying to place Phil Jupitus. Hasn't he appeared on "Q.I." (that awesome Stephen Fry/Alan Davies show) a few times?

What a wonderful interview, thank you!

You can compare me to The Clash any time you want to. Heh heh.

chickenbird | February 24, 17:58 CET

Yeah, he's been on the excellent QI (it's about the only thing I watch on UK Gold, well that and the occasional A-Team repeat for old times sake but I don't tell anyone about those, wait a minute, did I just type that out loud ? Damn.) as well as being a regular on 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks', as Caroline mentions above, and guesting at one time or another on just about every major UK panel quiz (on both TV and radio).

If a physical description would help with the memory jogging, he's got a goatee beard, short dark hair and is quite a big fella (or did/had/was the last time I saw him on telly).

Saje | February 24, 19:03 CET

"Aside from the clanging when I walk," "curious heroin," and "mainlining Whedon."
:: snicker, snicker ::
Great interview. Thanks for the links!

Syren | February 24, 19:09 CET

"I heard Joss' birth certificate is being turned into a TV series."

Not possible. Joss didn't write it.

"YOU KILLED WASH YOU BASTARD."

Those damned gaelic surnames.

Actually when I first read (yeah i purposefully spoiled myself for the movie so there) that Wash was dying in the film, I couldn't believe Whedon would go there, and perhaps that more than anything is precisely why he did kill off Wash, because we the audience wouldn't have expected it. Book okay that's understandable. You gotta kill one major supporting character in a movie like this to show that anyone can die. Otherwise you have James Bond, where you know he's going to survive falling out of an airplane without a parachute you just don't know how.

I'm glad I spoiled myself for the film because I had to prepare myself. Wash is perhaps my favorite character in the Firefly pantheon from a perspective of ..well, perspective. I relate to Wash better. He's the observer - like Xander in Buffy or (to a lesser extent) Gunn in Angel. He's not strong like Zoe or in charge like Mal and he's not crazy like River or has the power to heal like Simon. He's just a guy. He's actually Xander With A Car. Wash is the guy who gets the others to their destinations, but except with perhaps the mule (in the series) he doesn't really have strength in a fight. So he's the observer. We kinda see things through Wash in the series and if you watch him carefully, throughout the film Alan Tudyk's job until he dies is to observe and react, and he does so much with so little the guy's just an awesome supportive actor, like Dan Ackroyd in Driving Miss Daisy. Tudyk's not only a good actor in his own right but he knows how to make everyone on screen with him look just a little bit better. Powerful talent there, knowing how to lend focus and when to steal it. "Let's get to the beacon." "Let's talk to Mister Universe."

The guy's just awesome. His timing is impeccable. And of course Whedon knows Tudyk's strengths and he perhaps abuses those strengths just as he knows that Summer performs from her feet UP and he purposefully utilizes his people's strengths to a fault.

But Whedon kills Wash at the moment he does in order to kickstart the entire final stand at the end of the film. We really think everyone's going down in that last battle. He had to kill Wash just as any Olympic runner has to place himself at the starting block in just the right way to maximize the effectiveness of that first push at the sound of the gun. Wash dying launches us into the last twenty or so minutes of the film. It would not have had the dread and intensity that it did if Wash left the cockpit unscathed.

So as much as it hurt to say goodbye to my favorite character in the show, I'm glad Whedon killed off Wash. I wouldn't have it any other way.

[ edited by ZachsMind on 2006-02-24 18:43 ]

ZachsMind | February 24, 20:41 CET

from the show: "Your televisual work is like a kind of curious heroin and I was mainlining Whedon a lot of the time."

I've been there, man.

Thanks to all the file putter-uppers :-)

[ edited by giles (yes, it is my real name) on 2006-02-24 21:49 ]

giles (yes, it is my real name) | February 24, 23:36 CET

Thanks to all, especially Caroline, who have been making all this available to us. I just finished hearing Josscentricality and all the fun the Ozzies had with Joss and it seems so lonesome up here.
But the interviews are great and I liked hearing a bit about his beginnings. I knew all about Rosanne, etc but had never heard Joss talk about it himself, to my knowledge.

Lioness | February 25, 01:13 CET

Caroline many thanks. Fun interview. The MOST autograph requests they've ever had, yeah.
Mainlining Whedon. Oh yeah.

barboo | February 25, 08:48 CET