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Serenity Trailer Out Tuesday
SiliconEntity writes "Joss Whedon's movie Serenity, based on his much-loved but short-lived TV series Firefly, will have an official trailer out on Tuesday, according to an announcement from Joss: 'EXCLUSIVELY on Apple movie trailers (and linked through this site as well of course) will be a small, medium, large or FULLSCREEN trailer for Serenity the major motion movie. Yeah, THE trailer. And the following Friday said trailer hits theaters. Which theaters? Until I get confirmation you'll have to guess, but I'm betting you can.'"
So is Serenity the movie adaptation of Firefly? Having never seen Firefly, I have to ask what the movie is about.
I've heard that Firefly is the Sci-fi fan's latest wet dream. But not getting Fox up here at the North Pole, I have to wonder what the attraction is.
The link doesn't seem to be working for me.
Firefly was the best scifi series on tv since Babylon 5. Fox canned it to concentrate on reality shows... Great characters, great stories, and a cool blend of cowboy and tech.
He created Buffy then its spinoff Angel: both doing well, especially the former. Now every TV exec will be expecting him to produce shows that pull in the kind of audiences the likes of Buffy did. Firefly was a victim of that: here at least, the first few episodes didn't bring in the ratings, so the rest of the series got put together in a muddled order and just wasn't given a chance. After being burned by this experience, at least with a movie he gets to write a script and a story that WILL get shown in its entirety.
It's EXCLUSIVELY in FULLSCREEN this SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY. THE trailer. Get your tickets now.... TO THE MAX, EXTREME!
The short (and not very detailed) explanation is a "Space Western." But that's not doing the series justice. Like so many other innovative series, Firefly was sandbagged by network execs that have the same level of comprehension as Paris Hilton. They nixed the pilot that explained who everyone was and set up the situation, so everyone was confused as hell. The suits then used that as justification to kill the series in favor of Queen Latifah's latest vehicle, or whatever. Google for it, and you'll find plenty of info.
Firefly was OK - the first time I watched it I was disappointed, but subsequent times gave me a chance to catch the subtlety and depth of the characters without having to concentrate on the plot too much.
:)
One series I have really enjoyed but doesnt seem to get much attention is Lost. Fantastic premise, great characters and a setting that is brilliant, Im hooked and I recommend the series to anyone I can. Plus it has Mira Furlan from B5
I really doubt it, I do.
Joss likes to tell stories about people, and the interesting thing is people who change. I've never found movies to be the best medium for that. There's just not enough time to get the audience to bond with the character at A and experience the complete transistion to B. I like series where it sort of starts out slow and change come creeping up on you.
I loved it in Angel how Wesley moved from being this uptight unintentionally (from his PoV) funny character, to a dark and gruesome killer, ready to do whatever it takes -- pretty much apexing with him taking an axe to the body of his former lover.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Joss also warned in that post that the trailer has major spoilers for Firefly fans who are familiar with the TV series and would prefer to see the movie unspoiled. For what it's worth, Firefly is one of the better SF series ever made. For one thing, spaceships don't make whooshing or rumbling sounds - scenes in space are completely silent. :-)
It's likely that the Serenity trailer will be attached to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
a world in progress...
Wow, you really didn't get what it was all about, did you?
One of the points of the Firefly universe, if I may be so bold, was that things wouldn't be too different from what they are here and now! There's still good and evil, there are still hierarchies, things are dirty, messy... and the old motivator of wealth is still driving people on...
And as always with Joss, it's about people. So yes, if your only reason to watch a show is to experience hi-tech gadgets, then Firefly isn't for you. It never was.
If you're going to evaluate something, at least do it in it's proper genre.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Shiny!
one of the reasons the tv show didn't go well is that it was played in a confusing order. the show has a logical flow which the dvds are shown in... but on tv it was all mixed around.
wouldn't it be confusing if they played the PILOT of all things last? well, that is exactly what fox did. they also rearranged other eps. it did themselves quite a disservice.
and yeah... it is odd seeing a sci-fi western, but it certainly hasn't been done like this before. its hard enough doing sci-fi on a low budget.
How AWESOME was that mirror universe episode?!
Oooo! I missed the episode!
Was it about a mirror universe where time-travel wasn't an over-used plot device?
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
That's actually what they're trying to do to Arrested Development right now. Never mind the fact that it won the Best Comedy Emmy in addition to four others in its first season, and will most likely pull off something similar in its second. Never mind the fact that Malcolm in the Middle and a Topher Grace-less, Ashton Kutcher-less That 70's Show have already been renewed, despite both being well past their prime and having worse ratings than Arrested Development. Never mind the fact that nearly every critic has referred to it as the hands-down best show on television. Fox would rather make room for a repeat episode of the Simpsons or for the terrible American Dad, even though the former does worse in the ratings and the latter's reviews were all terrible.
Granted, they haven't formally cancelled the show either, but it still hasn't been renewed, which at this point in the year is not a good sign. You have to realize that this is what Fox does to good shows. They did it to the Ben Stiller Show, they did it to Greg the Bunny, they did it to Firefly, they did it to Family Guy (although it lucked out), and they're about to do it to Arrested Development. They screw around with good shows until they've rationalized an excuse to cancel them in their own "twisted minds" (their words, not mine).
Didn't see him produce a tv-series though. Kinda "lose by default" on that one.
That seem right to you? :-)
...the world gets excited not about the film, not about the trailer for a film, no... we're excited about an announcement of a trailer for a film. Hot diggity, it's that good.
So you're saying everybody should just shut up and stop telling new stories because it's all been done?
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Or know criminal psychopaths by name. Or can identity guns used by analyzing their burn patterns. Or know a lot about a lot of shady things.
You know that Book was probably a made-up on the spot name right? When Kaylee asks him his name he looks at the book in his hand and says, "Book...yes, my name is Book." Kind of odd. He's probably someone in law enforcement, except that I don't think even cops get that kind of treatment. So my favorite theory is that he's an alliance general (or high military), specifically one that orchestrated the battle for Serenity Valley. After the war he checked into the Abbey to start a life of peace. Then got to feeling that he needed to make some kind of amends. At the spaceport on Persephone he was looking at the ships, but he was searching for Serenity.
I'm pretty sure "Objects in Space" got broadcasted. Only three episodes didn't get aired: "Trash", "The Message" and "Heart of Gold".
Je ne parle pas francais.
In the commentary for Objects in Space, Joss Whedon comments that the bounty hunter takes people out in the most efficient way possible for their characters. (Something he didn't realize until his wife pointed it out.)
...
So
He beats up Mal.
He threatens to rape Kaylee.
He uses logic on Simon.
And the clincher
He comes at Book from behind, when Book is distracted, and knocks him out as fast as possible. He also comments, "That's no Shepherd."
Answer your question?
People use what's cheap and does the job. Did the four wheeler hinder them? Guns kill people and don't require expensive batteries and care like laser guns did in the show.
I keep saying this, but read about people living in Mongolia or the Amazon. In our age of cars they still horses to pull things? In our age of construction equipment they still build houses by hand? They still use machetes to clear brush?
There are people that live long and happy lives (even in the US or other modern countries) without ever personally using a computer. On a present day tv show do you complain that some people still do their taxes on paper?
I guess people like to hope that in the future we will all be in the future. Sorry, as a species we will never all be at the same technological level. Print out that prediction and read it every fifty years, it will always be true.
For one thing, spaceships don't make whooshing or rumbling sounds - scenes in space are completely silent. :-)
...
My cousin does sound mixes for movies, and pointed out that all those sound effects are actually a pretty significant budget item in special effects-heavy movies. Whether it was part of the calculation or not, they actually saved a bunch of money by doing it that way.
I like to think that was on purpose -- I'm definitely prepared to give Joss credit for being clever in more than one way at a time. And for the record, in a symbolic way at least I get sad for the world every time I remember that Firefly was cancelled. Groups of people with that much talent who like what they're doing that much shouldn't be broken up over money.
And babies should never die and no one you love should ever stop loving you back and war sucks too, I guess. It's just one of those things
If I'm contemplating whether I want to get to know someone, I lend'em firefly and ask them what they thought of it.
It's as good a personality test as I've ever found.
Let me know when Tolstoy writes about vampires or spaceships. Half of War and Peace was enough for me.
Pompous ass.
I'm too lazy to summarize what really happened. Okay, maybe a short version: Buffy and Spike's reconcilliation took an entire season, never actually led to Buffy loving Spike, and required great sacrifices from him. He suffered greatly for his sins, got a severe alteration to his personality, and finally sacrificed his life (to save the world, of course). Meanwhile, Willow's transition was foreshadowed throughout season 6, and her powers were crippled by her own fear until the very end of season 7. Yes, there were dissatisfying elements to both plot arcs, but Whedon had a series to wrap up.
In closing, use bloody whitespace, and learn to spell "misogynistic". Thank you.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
How lucky for the movie industry, that they get to refer to their advertisements using a word other than the hate-laden "advertisement."
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
If you're going to engage in literary criticism, check your spelling.
That being said, I'm curious as to why you consider Firefly sufficiently advanced only for ten-year-olds. Is it because it's science fiction, or because it's a TV show (and now a movie)? Either way, of course, your prejudices are clearly blinding you; I'd just like to know which variety of pretentiousness I'm looking at.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
But are TV shows required to just repeat the same old stuff over and over? I guess that's a dumb question -- of course they are. But every once in a while somebody who doesn't know any better tries to make a show that's sort of original. In this case, Whedon was trying to make an SF show about real people, who who don't have access to phasers and tricorders because the best technology belongs to rich people who don't share. What they end up with is a mixture of high-tech cast offs and revived 19th-century technology.
If you think in Hollywood stereotypes, than that's just a lame combination of "western" and "SF". But if you're into serious "hard" SF, or you know anyything about the history of technology, it's a thought provoking premise.
Good eyes, BTW. I did not pick up on him looking at the book. Here's one for you to look for. In "Trash" when Kaylee's reprogramming the garbage drone, the screen looks like it's displaying a Windows 9x install with a wizard open. Coincidence? Cost savings? Or is Joss a Linux/Mac geek? I can see their slogan in 500 years. "Windows...It Just Works...As A Garbage Disposal."
Dunno about Serenity, but it's interesting finding people trying to come to grips with Firefly.
First, I'll say that I've seen maybe 3 episodes of Buffy tops, and never seen Angel. I can't stand the silly prosthetics and nonsense of Babylon 5, and frankly haven't enjoyed much science fiction television lately. I happened to tune into to Firefly for Bushwacked, and saw maybe 4 episodes broadcast before it was pulled. Since then I bought the DVD set and have watched it religiously. It's just damn good, and I haven't met anyone whose seen (or to whom I've shown) the show who has found it anything less than great fun.
Enough about me.
Folks around here seem to be posting a bunch of things about Firefly, and they don't quite seem to have "gotten it".
Yes, Firefly is a science-fiction show.
Science-fiction often gets used on television and in movies to explore irreal circumstances: time travel, the nature of reality, how many lines of probable-sounding technobabble an actor can read with a straight face. Firefly didn't do that. Firefly used science fiction as a= means to bridge several traditional genres of action entertainment: Submarine Movies, Heist films, and yes, some westerns. At times, the plot is lifted from somewhere else: Unforgiven and Silent Running are both "borrowed" for episodes.
Like your 'Star Trek'-class show, the cast of Firefly play characters who are good at what they do; but they're not superheroes, and they're working neither for high-sounding ideals, nor for a faceless bureaucracy. Sure, there are times when the show slipped into cliche; almost always it would then wink and subvert tradition.
And yeah, as science fiction and on television, it's about as light entertainment as you can get. Don't get all worked up about it; but yeah, I gotta say I'm excited, but slightly apprehensive. Can they actually get 9 characters to work convincingly in a 2-hour movie?
Sigh. You took a perfectly valid observation, utterly misinterpreted it, then mocked it mercilessly. Net result? You look like an uninformed ass.
Look, friend, let me explain this to you in terms that might sink in. Good and evil are real. The term you want to look up is psychomachia. It literally means "the war for the soul," but it's used to describe the internal struggle in every person between choosing to do good and choosing to do evil. This is, like, modern storytelling 101.
It's also some pretty fundamental philosophy.
To deny that good and evil exist is to succumb to the worst kind of moral relativism. It's that kind of moral relativism that lets terrorists blow up buildings or a president kill 100,000 Iraqis. Denying that evil exists is a horrible, horrible error, and a big part of what's wrong with this world today.
It's that kind of moral relativism that motivates terrorists and neocons? Now that's a laughable statement!
Bush, who paints an "Axis of Evil". Osama who calls USA the "Great Satan". These guys are moral relativists?
You're right, it is pretty fundamental philosophy. It's Machiavelli. It's Hitler. It's Platos "Noble Lie". Good and Evil are perpetuated myths that people like Bush and bin Laden use as their power bases to manipulate their followers into righteous frenzies. They are the very concepts that are at the root of all the animosity and self-righteousness.
And that's a big part of what's wrong with the world today.
If you don't buy this, which I'd be surprised by if you did, watch the BBCs The Power of Nightmares and I think you'll find that your view on the world today and moral relativism is somewhat misconstrued.
Finally, I'm very sorry if I came across as a merciless mocker. It was not my intention in my post. But of course, you did the same to the great-great-grandparent, didn't you?