Slashdot Mirror


Serenity Pushed Back to September

iontyre writes "According to Joss Whedon and reported at fireflymovie.com the much anticipated feature film adaptation of the superb but canceled tv show Firefly has been delayed till September from its original April release to supposedly avoid too much genre competition."

20 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. obligatory Seinfeld reference by mgs1000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    SERENITY NOW!!!!

  2. Dang... by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...Firefly is really superb. Its a shame they are delaying its premier. Maybe people can argue that, but not that it's unique in its own kind. I really loved the western feeling, although it only lived 14 episodes :\ I wish they would have supported it instead of those brainless reality shows, etc.

    --
    It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
    Be yourself no matter what they say
  3. what else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    so what else is supposed to pop up in april that would cause such a ruckus?

  4. Take my love, take my land, by PIPBoy3000 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Take my release date too.

    Sigh. Firefly was a great series, though it took awhile to grow on people. I've been making my coworkers watch the series on DVD. After watching the first one their response is "So it's like a western in space?" A week later they hand back the DVDs with a glum face, asking "Why did they cancel it? That was a great show."

    1. Re:Take my love, take my land, by Romeozulu · · Score: 4, Informative

      The first two episodes sucked

      The first two episodes where shown out of order. No wonder they didn't make any sense.

  5. I sense something... by pogle · · Score: 4, Funny

    As if millions of geeks suddenly cried out in anguish...

    *sigh* Hopefully it'll be worth the wait. My Firefly addiction needs more material!

    --
    http://thechubbyferret.net - Ferret pictures and informative links.
    1. Re:I sense something... by pogle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      *eyes troll*

      *bites*

      Aside from your remarkable counting ability, your desire to hide behind the shield of AC, and your obvious trollishness, I'll respond.

      For people who grew up watching Star Trek, and then saw it utterly ruined after Gene died; for people who see modern television shows and gag in disgust; for anyone who lives the western or scifi in general...Firefly is for you. It was comical, serious, witty, thought provoking by turns. Its not the second coming or anything, but its a darn sight better than any other television scifi I can remember seeing in recent years. And despite diving in with multiple deep story arc possibilities, Fox did its usual* and killed it with crappy timeslots and mixing the episode order up.

      You don't like it, thats your opinion. I don't get whats with you adolescents who feel the need to snipe at anyone and everyone who expresses an opinion about something simply to harass them.

      *- Fox cannot let a good, innnovative show live unless it is the Simpsons, pretty much. Malcom in the Middle is trying hard to be added to that list IMO.

      --
      http://thechubbyferret.net - Ferret pictures and informative links.
    2. Re:I sense something... by mclearn · · Score: 4, Insightful
      You should sign up for the direct-to-dvd poll they're running over there http://www.fireflymovie.com/directdvd.html. I would honestly pay $6-9 per episode (probably closer to $6), which is approx. half the price of a movie ticket (given a 60 minute ep).

      Also, there is some interesting stuff on guerilla marketing. One of the best (and easiest) idea is to write "Firefly: Keep on Flying" on your dollar bills. People will inherently wonder what it's all about. Those saavy enough will plug it into Google and *bam*.

  6. My experiences with Firefly by Seek_1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm posting this simply because I'd heard from a number of people that Firefly was worth watching, and want to continue to spread the word about it.

    ---

    I download the Firefly pilot. I watched it. I enjoyed it so much that I then got off my ass, ran down to Futureshop and picked up the DVD set (that afternoon) without a second thought.

    Not everyone may like this series, but I certainly did. Enough that even though I'd already downloaded a few of the episodes (without watching any but the first), I went out and bought the DVDs anyways, based on how good the first one was.

    And it's NOT Sci-fi. It's set in a sci-fi environment yes, but the show itself is not sci-fi themed. (ie, there's no alien-of-the-week-kinda-crap going on..)

    1. Re:My experiences with Firefly by Scrameustache · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And it's NOT Sci-fi. It's set in a sci-fi environment yes, but the show itself is not sci-fi themed. (ie, there's no alien-of-the-week-kinda-crap going on..)

      That is the stupidest thing I have ever read.

      "Hey, guess what, none of Isaac Asimov's books were sci-fi! They didn't rely on the freak-of-the-week formu..."
      Sigh...

      Here's the thing: If you have people in a spaceship trying to escape the futur's extra-solar military dictatorship... there's a good chance it is in the realm of SCIENCE FICTION. They have terraformed alien worlds, flying cars, laser pistols, human organ trafficking, psychics, faster-than-light travel, etc.

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

  7. oh oh by fulana_lover · · Score: 5, Funny

    Man how bad does your movie have to suck if you are scared of the next Star Wars?

    1. Re:oh oh by Scrameustache · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Man how bad does your movie have to suck if you are scared of the next Star Wars?

      None at all.
      They aren't affraid of the next Star Wars, they are affraid of the next Star War's marketing, which you'll admit is a formidable beast the likes of which none of us would be happy to be pitted against.

      ph34r the marketing! PH34R IT! : )

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

  8. Re:In Movie Speak by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    Pushing a movie back due to competition means your movie sucks.

    As Joss said in TFA (emph mine)
    This isn't about a lack of confidence in the film -- in fact, they told me this before they even saw it. And now they have seen it, and unless they're way better liars than I'm used to, they dug it. Actually, they dug it pretty large, which is a good sign since there's not a single finished effect in the film. There's no reworking the end, no reshoots, no "does it have to be in space?". It's just a marketing issue.
  9. This is actually great news. by Doktor+Memory · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Mid-April release" usually means "disposable genre crap that the studio is rushing out early in hopes of making some money on the curiosity factor." Think "Bulletproof Monk" or "LXG".

    "Late September release" means "we think this is good and we expect to make some serious money on it and maybe we'll think about a sequel."

    --

    News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.

  10. Re:In Movie Speak by Khomar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, it just means that they don't want to put what is currently a cult favorite against the marketing giant known as Star Wars. Remember, most people have never heard of Firefly, and when put against a major film release, it could easily be lost in the marketing blitz (although I personnally do not care if I ever see Episode III).

    It is much better to give Serenity the best chance of exposure. People who never watched the show will not realize how truly great it is. Most people would probably rather watch Star Wars being a known commodity than take a chance with something new and strange.

    --

    I believe in de-evolution. God made the world perfect, man fell, and its been going downhill ever since!

  11. Re:Logic failure by phoebusQ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Your logic only follows if the measure of a piece of art is entirely based on its popularity during a specified timeframe. There are plenty of examples, across mediums and throughout history, in which works have been ill-received initially, or by certain groups of people. This does not indicated that they are any "less good". Additionally, the unique nature of Firefly probably guarantees that it will take time to be accepted by the general populace. As geeks, we tend to thing of the majority as fairly ill-opinionated and ill-informed (and that's putting our general consensus nicely). Given time and exposure, I guarantee that a lot of people will come to like Firefly and its derivative works. Just look at all the posts by people saying "My friends made me watch it. At first I thought it was kinda dumb/weird/not what I'm into, but after becoming addicted I can say this is a great show!". So I think it's a little premature to say the show isn't superb. It just didn't generate superb Nielsens. DISCLAIMER: I think Firefly is f'ing awesome.

  12. Re:Logic failure by Slurms · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If was superb it would not have been cancelled

    No, it was cancelled because Fox doesn't want another 800 pound gorrilla like the X-Files and the Simpsons. They want to keep a steady churn of new shows that will capture interest for a season or two. Then, before they become too entrenched with popularity and the actors/producers start looking for more money they can dump the show and put the next-new-thing on in it's place.

    They know people will complain about the show being cancelled, but that they will also tune in to the new show just as eagerly as the old one.

    They can't dump the Simpsons because that is the cornerstone of their image, but they would dump it in a heartbeat if they could.

    --

    -----
    Pretty Bad Privacy (PBP) Public Key
    6
  13. Re:Logic failure by TiggertheMad · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If was superb it would not have been cancelled

    Yeah, because the Execs at FOX have NEVER blown a call on a tv series. Please! FOX has a rep in the industry for making bad calls about their shows. The show, 'Family Guy' was killed after about 3 seasons and then went on to be a massive hit on DVD. (I have heard that it is being considered to be picked up by cartoon network as a new series.)

    It was cancelled because the majority of people did not think it was superb.

    It was cancelled because nobody knew anything about it. It was repeatedly moved to differing timeslots (This is VERY bad for a shows ratings, in general), and they didn't even show the episodes in order. I'm not even sure that they aired the pilot episode that sets the whole story. (You can go read all the gory details about how it was mis-handeled on most firefly sites.)

    so its probably pretty poor in the eys of most people.

    No matter how good a show is, unless you properly support and market it, it will die. Everyone I have loaned my DVD to LOVED it, including people who aren't sci-fi fans. This isn't a case of the masses not liking something. This is a case of some stupid Fox execs that blew a call (Yet again).

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
  14. Watch Battlestar Galactica Instead of Lamenting by superultra · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Huge Firefly fan myself, and this news makes me sad. However, thanks to some "peers" of mine I've been watching the revamped Battlestar Galactica episodes and have been blown away. It's obvious that Whedon was not alone in his realist approach to science fiction. He was just one of the first of what appears to be a School of scifi reactionaries, creative TV people tired of the fantastic and generally ungrounded science fiction of Star Trek.

    The new BSG begins airing "officially" in January. What it lacks in wit and humor ala Firefly, it makes up for with amazing drama that rivals anything on ER or West Wing. I would not be surprised if it comes up for Emmy, and not just for special effects. Watch it to quell the pain of Firefly withdrawl, and you mind yourself nearly forgetting about Serenity. Nearly.

  15. A conspiracy theorist tells why Fox killed Firefly by software_trainer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hank Parnell of the Texas Mercury asserts that Fox deliberately killed Firefly for political reasons. Personally, I don't think Fox's politics had anything to do with it, but his article is entertaining. The complete essay is on fireflyfans.net. I copied the most inflammatory, er, interesting, excerpts below:

    They wanted to kill this show. I believe that, as surely as I do that the sun rises in the east...
    The conscious patterning of the Firefly milieu on the Confederate defeat that Whedon publicly stated was the case may have not set very well in the Yankee-dominated halls of Political Correctness that rules modern America, be they "liberal" or "conservative" ("neoconservative"; again, the two are virtually indistinguishable). Firefly was an unabashed post-Civil War space Western where the losers were the good guys; and everything about the series echoed that, from the desert settings of the frontier moons and planets, the costumes, the music, even the characters' patterns of speech. We knew who these people really were. They had no slavery to fight for, only the right of self-governance...
    Firefly, in its way, was, in this post 9-11 climate, almost downright seditious. The Alliance enforcers--the "bad guys"--were called "Feds." The attempt to unite and homogenize people was seen, by Firefly, as not a "good" thing; and yet it is the undeniable Zeitgeist of the modern age and behind every bit of mischief and misadventure in the world today...
    Nor do most people agree with Captain Reynolds' words (as quoted by Reverend Book in the episode "War Stories"), "The government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."...Do not think that Firefly was not drawing allusions and parallels to our own society and its attendant beliefs, or that this implicit criticism went unnoticed by the powers-that-be...
    And Firefly made the case, through Reynolds, as persuasively as it has ever been made in American fiction, print, TV, film or otherwise, in my opinion, for the ultimate superiority of the rule of honor over the rule of law...For you see, the rule of honor demands what law must defer: individual responsibility, personal culpability, what is fair and what is just, of every man (and woman) who lives by it...And it is the greatest offense, the greatest affront, that Firefly could give to our vaunted modern age, and why, in my opinion, Fox never gave the show any kind of a chance.