Slashdot Mirror
New International Serenity Trailer Released
Tenken writes "The international Serenity trailer has just popped up online and it looks to be even shinier than the first. This new trailer doesn't really spell out the plot of the film as explicitly as the first one, but for that reason it may play better with fans. Chiwetel Ejiofor's "Operative" character is also shaping up to be one of those memorable Whedon villains along the lines of Jubal Early from the episode "Objects in Space.""
IMDB: http://imdb.com/title/tt0379786/f 052ec99e36f/index.html
MirrorDot: http://mirrordot.org/stories/cf80588bb543b2334180
[fanboy]
Someone tipped me off about the original TV series about a year ago...after getting the movies from Netflix, I was blown away by how great they are...what an unfortunate turn of events that they got cancelled so soon. I can't wait for this movie!
[/fanboy]
You can pick your nodes, and you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your friend's nodes
Another version of the trailer can be found at Apple - Trailers: Serenity.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Sweet.
Super sweet.
Good. I hate watching trailers that give away too much of the film. The worse is when it's a particularly bad film and you realize that all the good parts were IN the trailer.
It was a popular series (popular among sci-fi fans) on fox when it was canceled pre-maturly. Thats why there is so much hype.
I love to slaughter the english language.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It'll be in theatres September 30th, dork.
WTFT.
I got to 35%, when everyone else here on /. noticed the trailer too...and my work has Bittorrent blocked...
*sigh*, so, here I am, downloading at a whopping 5k/s.
Of all the days to stop taking methamphetamines...
Usually trailers and hype happens before the movie hits the theater. Serenity is due Sept 30th.
I'm part of the team that produces The Signal, the only podcast in the 'verse totally dedicated to Firefly. http://www.serenityfirefly.com. The response from listners has just been amazing. We had to switch providers 12 hours after launch because of bandwidth problems. I'm sure the international trailer is about to have the same problems. Serenity is definitely one to keep your eyes out for even if you never saw the TV show.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Hoochie mama!
Early: "You know, with the exception of one deadly and unpredictable midget, this girl is the smallest cargo I've ever had to transport. Yet by far the most troublesome. Does that seem right to you?"
Simon: "What'd he do?"
Early: "Who?"
Simon: "The midget."
Early: "Arson. Little man loved fire."
Setting: Nice, calm and serene office for United International Pictures in the Netherlands.
Premise: Evil technocrat (Taco) unleashes hordes of his minions on the poor defenseless webserver.
Don't forget, the Sci-Fi channel has picked up Firefly. They will be airing the orginal series, in the correct order, starting tomarrow (Friday) at 6pm central time.
-Daniel
KD5UZZ
www.w5yj.org
Downloaded 10.6 megabytes in 16 seconds. (649.49 KB/s)
thank you axel.
-- i am jack's amusing sig file
Or is it coincidence that someone else used the same description of the trailer?
Best Windows Freeware
RTFA. This is about Serenity, not FireFly. They're two totally different things.
Well, that's what I got from the writeup, anyhow. The article itself is unreadable.
Yes. Yes, you are.
whatch the series. or at least the first 10 minutes. it means good and is a term used several times in the show.
-- i am jack's amusing sig file
You must have seen the premier on Fox - like I did. I was bored senseless, turned it off and never watched again.
Until, just a few months back, I gave in to all of my geek friends telling me how amazing it is and bought the DVDs. It's amazing.
The problem with the show as I (and I assume, you) originally viewed it was that Fox showed the series out of order - the episode we saw had no context. We didn't know anything about the characters, universe, or meta-story.
Rent/Buy the DVDs and watch them in order - you'll be glad you did.
-gary
slang from the show. I tend to think of it in the same way as someone saying "cool".
Well, no, they're not. Serenity is a movie based on the cancelled FireFly series.
(\(\
(^v^)
(")")
This is the cute vorpal bunny virus, copy to your sig or runaway, runaway in fear!
"Shiny" is used a lot in the series. It would be like linking to Stranger in a Strange Land with the hyperlink of "Grok This!"
-- I am become sig, destroyer of posts.
get the DVDs!
I remember seeing part of the first episode and thinking, "Eh, just a western set in the future." and (due to work obligations) never saw the rest of the episodes. I recently picked up the DVDs and was blown away by the quality of character development and story line! Light-years beyond what I'd thought when I saw the snippet when it originally aired.
I'd really love to see Firefly come back to TV (SciFi Channel) and see more of what Josh Whedon has to offer! Can't wait for the movie!
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
Instead of buying them... you could watch the re-runs on SciFi...
...but hey, the Slashdot text does! Thanks!
There's clearly a certain type of sci-fi fan who hangs out on Slashdot whose tastes are totally different from my own. I, for example, really can't stand most anime, and even the stuff that's pretty good (Cowboy Bebop, for example) has some qualities about it that I find totally grating. But obviously a lot of Slashdot people love the hell out of the stuff.
... this is exactly the kind of crap I expect to see on any given Tuesday on the Sci-Fi Channel. I like Star Wars, I like some (but very little) Star Trek, I like the new Battlestar Galactica, I'm a big fan of Doctor Who (both old and new) ... but this thing doesn't seem to have a single redeeming quality that would make me want to even rent it.
Similarly, I saw the first Serenity trailer and my immediate reaction was that this movie looks like one of the worst pieces of sci-fi fanboy garbage to hit the screen since The Chronicles of Riddick. Space ships, people shooting guns, "mercs," a hot chick doing kung fu
Obviously, I must be missing something. Is it the subtleties of the plot, though, or is it just something in my genetic make-up?
Breakfast served all day!
1. Each successive screening has been better than the previous. They're still in post-production and they're still improving stuff.
They probably have a relatively small advertising budget. So,
2. You don't want to compete with the summer blockbusters - because you don't want to compete with their advertising budget. So you schedule a fall release to not compete with them.
3. You want to magnify your small $ as much as possible. So you release trailers on RELEVANT movies that interested people are going to see. And you do what you can to make your fans advertise for you for free/cheap.
Looking for freelance Actionscript (Flash/Flex) or ColdFusion work and/or freelance developers. Email me, put Slashdot
over a show that couldn't even make it through one season?
I certainly hope you're not saying that a show being canceled means it isn't good. All of my favorite shows have been canceled (at least once): Wonderfalls, Futurama, Farscape, Family Guy, and (though not officially) The Inside. Instead of these shows we have shows like So You Think You Can Dance. Cancelation != poor quality.
CC Licensed Serialized Story and Podcast: Ingenioustries
Yes, I saw the premiere on Fox, and predicted the show was going to get the axe. Shame on Fox for screwing it up like they did, but the premiere left me with no desire to see what the rest of the season was like. I don't think I'd even waste a selection getting it from Netflix at this point.
Apart from BSG, the current state of sci-fi shows sucks. Fox killed off my other fav sci-fi show before its time... it seems they have a knack for doing that. At least with Firefly it wasn't upsetting.
In the correct order it's better than in its original aired order. Of that I have heard little disagreement.
Paraphrasing Joss Whedon: "About the same number of people as worked on the show, saw the show. But you people insisted we make this movie....so if it sucks, it's your fault."
What I really liked about the show is that the characters aren't tired "bad boys", but instead is a revival of "The Han Who Shot First" and his adventures in the outer rim territories, his dealings with the Hutts, the rabble he associated with... Yes they run outside the law, but it's refreshing to see situations where there's no clear "sheep" answer to a situation. Case in point: Train Job - the crew has a choice to make and neither outcome is very attractive - good vs. evil is much less exciting than evil vs. worse evil! It's this complexity that I miss about the series.
Hello, my name is LqqkOut and I am a fanboy.
-- In Soviet Russia, radio listens to YOU!
Did you watch more than a few episodes? In the right order?
Were you hoping for more action?
You are definitely entitled to your opinion. Personally, I saw a few glimpses on Fox and was never that intrigued. Later, I rended the first disc from Netflix and I was hooked. Firefly had more thoughtful writing, more compelling characters, and a better mix of drama, humor, and action than I had ever seen in a TV series.
If you enjoy a drama with good writing, characters, settings, and (usually) plots, you might want to give the series another try. Watch the episodes in order.
thanks
For everyone that's seen the Serenity Sneak Peak, I'd just like to point out how Awesome (was this intended???) it is that this Slashdot story is right above the story about the little mind-altering depression curing device. If you did this on purpose, whoever you are, VERY FUNNY.
Simon: "Are you Alliance?"
Early: "Am I a lion?"
Simon: "What?"
Early: "I don't think of myself as a lion. You might as well, though. I have a mighty roar."
Simon: (pause) "I said 'Alliance'."
Early: "Oh." (pause) "That was weird."
http://www.uip.nl.nyud.net:8090/Pictures/seren/tra iler2.mov
:)
Works like a Charm
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof for my post which this sig is too small to contain.
Trust me, this is one movie that's worth the hype.
:)
I haven't watched the trailers, but if the scene is the one I'm remembering from the movie, the ones getting it in the throat are bad guys.
And that's all I'll say.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
It looks like the same movie, unless you take into consideration factors like characters, plot, setting, actors, set design, art design, wardrobe, etc.
So yeah, they're both space fantasy, have lighting, and were filmed on photochemical film.
Yeah, and a conetticut yankee in king arthur's court and gone with the wind are basically the same movie too.
Firefly is not about fight scenes or "bad boy" characters, and it is sci-fi in setting only. The series only used action as a vehicle, not as an end in itself.
I suspect you'd need to be more of a "Whedon" cult fan than a Firefly cult fan. Yes, Firefly covers much of the same territory that any normal sci-fi B-films cover, but where most writers focus on the starships & firefights, Whedon puts unbelievable amounts of depth into his characters. I'm a latecomer to the whole "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" thing myself -- although the premise of that series was somewhat ridiculous, the interaction between the characters was wonderful, and drew me in despite the overt plot.
So, in Firefly, the action sequences are fun, but it's the banter around the dinner table that really sets the show apart. :)
--JohnYou left out Strange Luck. I wish that would come out on dvd.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
For the clueless: Jubal Early was a semi-famous confederate general during the American Civil War. After a string of crushing defeats, he went into hybernation for a while. Awakening into the 24th century, he became black like me, and retrained himself to become a schizo Boba-Fett-esque bounty hunter.
If you know the character and the developing plot then that scene was very entertaining - it's not just a chick doing Kung Fu scene. I love the new Doctor Who, and I also like Firefly, they're both a cut above the average science fiction series. Firefly has interesting plot threads that work their way through the epsiodes pulling you in. And Firefly probably has the highest production quality of any science fiction TV series I've watched. Firefly isn't going to make you have new revelations about the nature of the human condition, but you'll get to like and know the characters and they'll entertain you.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I can't wait. It was a shame the TV show was canceled.
I never liked you
yay for wonderfalls
and here i've been believing I was the only one that thought that show was great
one of the funniest ever on tv imho
Samurai Jack being another one.
Shame on Fox for screwing it up like they did, but the premiere left me with no desire to see what the rest of the season was like. I don't think I'd even waste a selection getting it from Netflix at this point.
But that's just it - you didn't see the "premier", you saw the episode Fox showed first - big difference. It's like starting LotR with the Two Towers and blaming Tolkien because the story doesn't make sense.
Look at it this way; by watching Firefly (as mentioned above, showing on Sci-Fi (didn't know that, thanks)) what you'll really be doing is thumbing your noses at the marketing idiots at Fox who were sure they knew how best to "position" the show, against the wishes of the creative folks.
-gary
The first episode sucks gigantic hairy balls - the rest however, rock.
My advice to anyone who first watches the DVD's:
Watch the first three episodes (force yourself if you have to), then make your mind up.
I've not yet had one person come back to me saying they disliked it after following that advice, but most of them said they hated the first episode.
Nope... I'm a huge fan of both cancelled Bryan Fuller shows... Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me :)
Just so you know, September and February are usually considered throwaway months for Hollywood, meaning that this is when they choose to release films which they consider inferior but still worthy of release (by virtue of audience size or a soft spot in the release schedule at large).
This is interesting. Kids usually don't go to films the first month of school. Their parents start to embrace the theaters in September, but they only see quality films. There's been a bit of a row over the fact that Cinderall Man, starring Russell Crowe, should have been a fall release given the kind of film it is.
I wonder how it will do?
un burrito me trampeó.
in the local cineplex does not mean that you work in the film industry.
Although I love Joss Whedon's work on shows like Angel which was dark and as soon as you thought the show was pradictable and boring it would throw you curveball and completely change.
After seeing the trailer for this, I really want to see this movie.
Treat me like a marketing stat, and I'll treat your movie like a series of ones and zeros
I'd say that if all of the good parts of the film are in the trailer, it's more the film's fault than the trailer's. If the film only has three good jokes in it, and they're all in the trailer, I can usually tell, and then I've saved myself $10 and two hours.
(How can you tell? If there are three good jokes and six so-so jokes, the odds are that they're reaching for material just to fill three minutes. Occasionally a film is better than the trailer makes it out to be, but generally it's on the money.)
Actually, insofar as I can tell, shiny originiated in the Chicago area BEFORE Serenity ever broadcast. I've used the word on and off since the mid-90s, although I will admit it's become more prevalent since the show aired. Prior to the airing of the show, very few people used it, and all the people I knew that used it had connections to the particular region of Chicagoland where I grew up.
You should use AdiumX on your Mac.
For those interested, apparently some songs from the soundtrack can be found here:
www.cantstopthesignal.co.uk
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
Because that sounds awful?
I saw a screening of Serenity last month, and then saw the US trailer at Batman Begins. That trailer is really more of a shoot-em-up, ooh look at our special effects trailer, and it actually displayed a scene near the end of the movie that, while spectacular, should be left to the film - once you had seen some events near the middle of the film, you would almost certainly recall that image from the trailer and instantly know what was going to happen. That would spoil a very well-placed surprise. The new international trailer does a much better job of drawing you into the characters and getting you interested in the plot, instead of just showing off the effects. And it's so jumbled up and out of sequence that it really doesn't give *anything* away.
I have something to say. It's better to burn out than to FADE AWAY!
SERENITY NOW!
Hey, you plagiarized my sig!
---------------------------------------------
SERENITY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But that's just it - you didn't see the "premier", you saw the episode Fox showed first - big difference. It's like starting LotR with the Two Towers and blaming Tolkien because the story doesn't make sense.
Oh, so there are differing definitions of "premiere". Silly me to think that "premiere" would be the first showing of something.
Look at it this way; by watching Firefly (as mentioned above, showing on Sci-Fi (didn't know that, thanks)) what you'll really be doing is thumbing your noses at the marketing idiots at Fox who were sure they knew how best to "position" the show, against the wishes of the creative folks.
I do that by watching Family Guy on Adult Swim instead of on Fox.
You do realize that the first episode was actually the SECOND episode, as the two hour preimier was never shown by Fox, and that subsequent episodes were shown out of order as well.
You might try renting the first DVD from NetFlix and watching the first four shows in order. And the show did get stronger and stronger as each episode progressed. I found the premier shown on Fox to be dull as well, but I kept with it anyway and was rewarded. And when I finally saw the two hour pilot, I was hooked. I own it on DVD now.
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
Havent you guys heard? Sci-Fi Channel has picked up the contract for Firefly...so if all works out..more seasons + more movies = YAY! why would they ever bother making a live-action Cowboy Bebop now?!?! although Ed & Ein do rock like WHOA
Fox axed the pilot which was INTENDED to be the premier, and instead showed the second episode, which wasn't the premier episode, just the first episode shown.
Yes, it matters.
And it's really worth watching in order. Seriously. Sacrifice a Netflix queue slot. Or better yet, just wait until later in August when Sci-Fi will run the entire series IN ORDER, in the run-up to the movie's premier at the end of September.
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
What's not to like? Interesting and funny dialog, likable characters, a bevy of babes (Inara, come to Beavis :), better than average acting, and sh*t getting blown up.
It doesn't get much better than that!
A One that isn't cold, is scarcely a One at all.
I watched whatever Fox showed first. Apparently there is the first episode (shown second), the second episode (which was shown first), some premier that isn't a premier(which as never shown and the second episode was the premier)... I need a scorecard to keep up here. Obviously this show requires a level of involvement that I'm not willing to put in for.
/. groupthing yet again.
Hoping for more action? Not really, although that might have saved it. The story is enough for me, and the "premiere that wasn't a premiere but really the second episode" just really lacked.
That my original post has been labelled a troll is amusing though. I'm obviously out of sync with the
They recommend Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace if you're ending up liking this movie.
:-) ( or maybe the question should be frased -- how the algorithm doesn't work ;-) )
Wow...
Hmm, I wonder how that algorithm works anyway, if it's automated.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
I'm right there with ya brother, not to mention how I love a good throat stabbing.
No. The problem is that most of Whedon's characters all sound, talk and behave the same way across every series he's touched. He writes dialog full of cutesy banter to cover for characters which couldn't possibly be more one dimensional if they tried, and plots which are so predictable, by the ten minute mark you have a fairly good idea on where the episode is going.
I'd basically sum Firefly up as "Buffy in Space, minus the vampires and teenage drama."
Please help metamoderate.
I reproduced this twice -
WinXP SP2, QT 6.5.2, about 9/10 of the way through the movie, firefox hangs up, and I had to kill it with Task Manager.
Recommend a separate download, and play outside of the browser.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Go watch the first three seconds of the first trailer.
Did you hear that?
They put engine noises in space.
The series was very careful to NEVER put ANY noises in space. That's one of the reasons the show was awesome - they didn't feed us fake physics. Hell, they killed a guy by making him lose his grip on the ship!
So what? There's going to be some lame-ass scifi movie that dumbs down everything we know. Oh yeah, I'll line up for that.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
and
The new battlestar Galactica is full of space ships, people shooting guns and hot chicks doing kung-fu. And it's even on the Sci Fi channel.
Very, very well put.
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
Ummm. Just wondering. Have you even seen Firefly or Serenity? Didn't think so.
Freedom - Peace - Serenity
If you haven't seen it before, you should check out the old BBC sci-fi "Blake's 7" -- now, there was a show full of "bad boys". The concept was that Blake, a freedom fighter up against a corrupt interstellar Federation, gathered together a crew of pirates and thieves to pursue freedom. But the actor playing Blake left the show after the first season; so, one of the thieves took over the ship after that. :)
Now, that became a show without a truly clear sense of good vs. evil. The main characters occasionally did the "right" thing for the right reasons, often for the wrong reasons, and sometimes didn't accomplish anything good at all! It made things quite interesting...
--John
Well, that all falls square on the shoulders of Fox. You know, those guys who advertised for weeks about a show that included "a girl in a box", and then decided at the last minute to scrap the two hour premiere containing said girl in said box, and made Joss and Tim write a brand premiere over the weekend to be hurried into production. Oh yeah, the new premiere also had to be just an hour long... and with more action, so all of the backstory had to be compressed into quick blunt exposition so we could try to figure out who all these people on this ship were...
And then they had the whacky idea to jumble all the episodes more or less randomly, cause hey... who doesn't love Keno! And oh yeah... they finally decided to show the real premiere as the last episode of the series. Because that makes perfect sense...
It's not that the show required too much involvement... it's that Fox got too damned involved with it.
-30-
Actually, that begins tomorrow night.
ESCAPE POD - The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine
And on top of that, that wasn't even supposed to be the second episode. It was a brand new "premiere" that Joss and Tim had to write over the weekend after Fox told them they weren't going with the true preimere (which they had been advertising for weeks).
So what ended up being shown as the preimere that was supposed to hook viewers was the equivalent of a hastily thrown together b-side. Boy... those folks over at Fox are goddamn programming geniuses.
-30-
I also reproduced it... Twice.
This was on Win 2K patched up, newest quicktime, but 400mhz cpu (can't actually tell what is x86 Family 6 Model 7 Stepping 3?) and 512 ram
I gave up and thought it was the computer.
+running firefox.
Gravity Sucks
Every show gets cancelled eventually (with the possible exception of The Simpsons). Getting cancelled after one series probably correlates well with sucking - I can't think of any good series that got cancelled so quickly (I've never seen Firefly so I can't judge).
Space Above and Beyond was cancelled during it's first season. No it wasn't the greatest, but it was definitely good. The first episodes were decidedly average, but given the last two thirds of the season it probably rates as one of the best Science Fiction series I've ever seen. The new BattleStar Galactica owes a lot to SAAB in many ways. Certainly SAAB didn't suck.
I'm sure there are plenty of other examples. That was simply one I could think of rapidly.
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I noticed that the wvm files want to connect to a download server for a license on the origional trailer. Is this still true for the international version?
BBH
I've been lurking on /. for about 5 years now. This is my first post. I had to for this one.
I freekin loved this TV show. From day 1. I'm stoked about the movie, (hope they did'nt dumb it down too much) and i'm really hoping it comes back to TV on the sci-fi channel.
I'm not a Josh Whedon Fanboy at all. I never watch one episode of Buffy or The other one...(can't think of the name right now), but Firefly I liked alot.
Nothing more important else to add....on second thought, maybe I wasted my first post ever? Dammit!
CB....
The Universal execs have stated that their decision to move the release from April to September was based on marketplace competition. I.e., Star Wars 3.
They have also stated that they now regret the decision, because the audience turnout and reaction for the previews has stunned them enough to think that it would have held its own against SW3:ROTS.
Oh, so there are differing definitions of "premiere". Silly me to think that "premiere" would be the first showing of something.
Yes, you've figured it out. There are differing definitions of "premiere" - good work.
The show had a pilot. Fox did not show it until the end of the season. The pilot set up a lot of context for the later episodes. The episodes in the sequence produced had implicit and explicit references to earlier episodes. Fox showed the episodes in an apparently randomly selected order that made the connections nonsensical because viewers had not seen the "earlier" episodes in the filming sequence. It really ruined the show. It makes much more sense in order.
http://hwcommunity.com/tracker/torrents/Serenity_I nternational_Trailer_2.torrent
I love SciFi. I love comics books. That noted, I hate everything else Whedon has done. His two other shows are spikes through the head at best and his comic writing is meh at best.
That said, Firefly freakin' rocks. Stop basing opinions off of what you saw on Fox. Fox kept jacking the order of the shows, content of the shows and towards the end, didn't even show it in place of sports. Even if you did see it in the first run, you really didn't see it at all.
Fox has jacked up other shows in the past, this is true. But either plenty of people have lost their jobs or they learned a stern lesson when they are going to bring back Arrested Development and brought back Family Guy.
Firefly was one of the balls they dropped. Unfortunately, since they have sold the rights to Universal, they cannot bring back Firefly. Thus, we have Serenity and reruns on SciFi.
Life is good again.
Pwned the DVDs. If you still don't believe us, check the reviews. If 1409 reviews with an average of 5/5 stars is still not good enough for you, rent the DVDs.
I, for one, envy newcomers. They can see "Objects in Space" and think, "oh cool and Serenity will be here soon." Imagine getting the DVDs way back when and no talks of any sort of movie. It was the only time I screamed at my TV.
ChozSun
ChozSun.com
Most shows have a 'pilot' episode, typically a two-parter, that defines all the characters and establishes their motivations and personalities. It's typically followed by a few shows of all the characters settling into their storyplace.
;-) until after the show was *cancelled*. So, that might explain why you didn't like it. Did you like "Dark Angel", with Jessica Alba?
You watched the settling; you didn't watch the definition. Fox chose "The Train Job" instead of the pilot as the first show they aired, because they wanted more "action". And in doing so, they screwed the writers and the entire series, because from that point on they had to play catchup to explain what was going on.
They didn't show the pilot ("Serenity", no relation to the movie
The fact that you took the time to post about it indicates to me that you have some (if minor) curiosity about the pheomenon. Just plop down the four bucks at blockbuster and check out the first disk. Then you can pass judgement guilt-free, knowing that you have made an informed decision. :)
In 2007, Wonder Woman. Why do I get the feeling that it will be a lot different—and a lot better—than the '70's Lynda Carter series? (Not that there's anything particularly wrong with the '70's Lynda Carter series...)
Personally, I want Good Vs Evil and Brimstome back.
September is still a very weak month for moviegoing in general, which is why it tends to be reserved for what are called "soft" movies.
Perfect example of such a film is "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" which was released on 9/17. It went on to gross ~$60 million worldwide boxoffice, with a production budget of about 70 million (the budget was actually closer to 100 because of CGI cost overruns).
It was originally scheduled to be released in the summer, but it would have been crushed. With little competition it was unable to earn back its budget domestically.
Serenity's production budget is listed at $40 million. This means its marketing budget is somewhere around $20-25 million, probably... Let's assume $65 million as the figure in question.
The film has to double its budget (assuming equitable split between exhibitor and distributor, which isn't always the case) in box office receipts to ensure zero risk for Universal at stage one of the revenue stream. It has to earn $130 million at the box office in OCTOBER! That's a stretch.
So what is more likely is that Universal is willing to take a loss on box office, which they are conceding by moving it to September so that they can get all the box office revenue possible (less competition). Geeks are loyal DVD purchasers, so they are banking on DVD sales to not only offset any loss, but for DVD sales themselves to buck the trend of flattening DVD sales as the DVD market matures.
No one releases a press release stating that they think their movie is going to fail, so refering to one in this instance doesn't amount to much. Also, other films released early summer, with established stars and directors (for example: Kingdom of Heaven with Orlando Bloom and Ridley Scott) failed miserably... with much bigger marketing budgets and the entire summer audience to cater to.
un burrito me trampeó.
Hopefully, this answer is a little less facetious than the others...
The overwhelming majority of people who would watch the movie because it's a Firefly movie already know that it's coming out. The people who don't know about Firefly don't really care what it's called.
And IMHO, Serenity is a much cooler name than Firefly. It will probably draw a bigger crowd from the latter group, which is composed of a lot more people.
But I'm just guessing.
Because really good SF on film is so bad, we're about ready to drink the sand, so to speak. In a culture that considers "Star Wars" to be science fiction, Firefly is way, way ahead of the rest.
If we don't encourage them to get it right, how will they ever learn?
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
That was one of the best scenes, you insensitive clod!
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Nah. In the Firefly universe, Earth got used up a long time ago. What you probably saw was one of the heavily developed Core Worlds. They're all terraformed.
Sorry to burst your bubble there pal. I wish it were true, but alas, that is not the case. It would be just too expensive for SCI-Fi to bring back "Firefly" right now. SCI-Fi already has 3 high cost original series currently in production, as well as their schlock-tastic "creature feature" movies to pay for. Maybe it would make financial sense if "Serenity" makes huge bank at the box office, but probably not.
Actually, the two hour premiere was shown by FOX... it was the last episode they air'ed... and really made you want to see more... and then you realized there would be no more... You're DVDs will show the original air date on the back... and Yes, they're amazing...
"Ah, curse your sudden - but inevitable - betrayal!" -Stegosaurus to T-Rex in Firefly
I didn't know it was considered a throw away month, it's obviously not a blockbuster holiday weekend like some movies get though.
If it's a throwaway month then the release will fit right in with the Friday night timeslot the series was shown in. :)
I suspect it will do quite well the first week or so when the die hard fans see it (I loved the series) but won't have the legs for a long run in the theater. I don't expect it to be breaking any sales records.
The two biggest moviegoing demographics are 12-25 and 45-64 at about 26% and 25% respectively.
the film industry targets 12-25s significantly because that audience is "review proof" - they'll see anything they like regardless of how the film is reviewed. They aren't in school during the summer, hence Hollywood being a summer and Christmas holiday phenomenon.
45-64s are smart, monied, well-educated, discriminating. They like going to the movies, but they have reviewers they respect, actors and directors they have long-standing relationships with. And they go to the movies in the fall when the kids are in school. Hollywood doesn't chase this audience as much - there's just not enough good movie material to please them. So they develp so called "specialty divisions" which make smart artistic films that cater to this audience.
So September is considered throwaway becasue kids are back in school. February for the same reason, although the dead-zone is disputed: some include January in the dead-zone, but the market is occasionally invigorated by kids on extended break.
un burrito me trampeó.
I take it you don't like Windows? Now you know how I felt during my attempted Slackware and Gentoo installations.
find . -name "noobs" -print | xargs rm -rf && echo "pwnd."
Dark Angel was mediocre. Jessica Alba's easy on the eyes, but the show itself wasn't very good. Intreresting premise, but I never bothered to watch more and a couple of episodes.
Locked for me too, although did manage to end the quicktime process and get windows back (running at 99% machine resources).
This is at about 1'43'' into the movie? (blusih frame with 'Serenity' on it).
In my experience this is more probably Quicktime's fault than Windows. God I hate Quicktime - it never sits on Windows cleanly, and more to the point is always after you to upgrade. Only reason I ever install the damm thing is to play the occassional movie trailer.
I think it can manage it. With less competition, it's likely to stay in theaters longer than it might have otherwise, allowing word-of-mouth to build.
Even if it falls short, DVD sales will definitely make it worthwhile. Also, the sets are built and the cast is signed, so the sequels are less of a gamble.
Some people take Slashdot too seriously. My Freaks list proves it.
It isn't Slashdot they take too seriously, it's YOU they take too seriously.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Which is why I use Mandrake - or any other easy to install distro. Slackware and Gentoo are not known for easy installs compared to Mandrake, SUSE and Fedora, let alone Lycoris, Linspire and Xandros.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Yup - that was the exact point on my system, too.
And I hate QuickTime, too. Although I'm actually running it with QuickTime Alternative using MPlayer on Windows.
I booted into Mandrake 10.1, managed to get MPlayer installed after a ton of work rebuilding my repositories which must have been out of whack, and the trailer plays fine using a slightly older version of MPlayer than the one someone else used.
And while QuickTime may have been the culprit on Windows, at least if it had happened on Linux, a nice quick "kill -9 " would have been a lot easier than wrestling with that POS Task Manager on XP.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
So it's more important about how the trailer plays with fans rather than the movie or series having a wide appeal across all possible audiences?
I saw the Serenity trailer and it was atrocious. Came across as being some Joss Whedon Mary Sue fanfic that presumes the viewers already know the characters and are wise to the story and events. All I came away with is that spaceships are surrounding some earthlike planet and there's some ninja girl who everyone is supposed to accept as being really cool.
I don't think it's QT - the file may be corrupted. When I tried the first link and it's mirror it hung Firefox and Safari on my Mac at the same place. But since it's Unix I could kill the process and try again :P
9 08
Then I used this link (you have to click through some BS to get to the file) it worked perfectly:
http://www.filecloud.com/files/file.php?file_id=1
Nope - file plays perfectly fine on Mandrake 10.1 using MPlayer.
Of course, it could be some sort of glitch in the file that is not fatal under certain circumstances during playback and is fatal otherwise. Who knows?
I'm amazed at how many glitches show up in playback of video files. I don't know if it's the encoders people use to encode the video or the decoders used to play them back, but the quality of video playback frequently sucks. Of course, if the original video was recorded off a TV card or something, I guess I can't be too surprised that encoders have less than perfect resolution to deal with in the first place.
I don't think it's QuickTime per se anyway - I think it's QuickTime ON WINDOWS that was the problem. And I wasn't even using QuickTime itself - I was using QuickTime Alternative using MPlayer on Windows. In fact, I'd be more inclined to blame Windows or the video drivers than QuickTime.
But what really bugged me was how XP pathetically handled the lockup and shutdown. I mean, ten minutes to recover a locked up app and/or shutdown? Whatever happened to pre-emptive multitasking?
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Windows as a multimedia player plays everything out there, someone said here the other day. Oh, yeah, right, moron.
What's odd, what's really odd is this also happened to me using quicktime alternative.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
If you want to install and get to use Linux right away, get SimplyMepis.
Absolutely the easiest install that I have ever experienced. Boot up the liveCD, open the installer app, click through a few screens, and reboot. Dead simple.
It will use the proprietary Nvidia or ATI video drivers, installs the Flash plugin, and lots of other goodies that make it easy to just start using it.
God is imaginary
How right you are. I did the exact same thing, and now half-regret having done so, 'cause there won't be a season 2. Really looking forwards to Serenity though.
FWIW, it's been used in the UK for quite a while.
I think the first time I heard it may have been in a computer game: "Oooooh, shiny!"
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
I don't understand why people treat Joss Wheadon like he's the second coming of screenwriting. Listening to his dialogue is like listening to someone who grew up watching too much TV with too little Ritalin. Galactica is a little melodramatic for me, but at least I feel like I'm watching believable characters and not collections of quirks.
How long until I'm modded "Troll" for disagreeing?
I am a believer of momentum and curves.
Just as a heads-up, while that trailer played almost completely on my machine (WinXP, Firefox), it then took out the browser completely and rendered my system unstable for some time until I could kill Firefox. Something's not right...
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
How long until I'm modded "Troll" for disagreeing?
Shouldn't be long, look at my original post. I just received the summary of mods for that post and let's just say it's an interesting battle, but GroupThink(tm) is in full force.
Go here.
FYI, there are no spoilers in the post about the movie.
I saw the Serenity test screening in Atlanta on June 29th. The theater was full of fan boys and girls. Joss Whedon gave a speech of how the movie wouldn't have been made if it weren't for the fans (alot of Firefly fans are hoping that speech is ont he DVD). He mentioned how the movie was not completely finished, but was close.
The curtains fell, the movie started and it was like we were back in the Firefly universe. The movie had the same feel and within minutes we were reacquainted with Serenity and her crew. The back story was laid out within minutes.
As for how I'd rate the movie as a fan, I'd say it was awesome. I brought three non-fan's and they all loved it and stole my DVD's. We absolutely loved it. This movie has everything from action, sci-fi, drama, horror, romance, and something the new Star Wars trilogy doesn't have - dialogue that is worth listening to that isn't just leading you along woodenly.
I'm a fan of Star Wars as well and am not bashing it, but where the new Star Wars trilogy was written more as closure, Serenity has fully developed characters which can grow in a new franchise.
The only other movie that had me glued to the screen this year like Serenity was Sin City. Totally different appeal, but nothing out there this year has compared.
It is worth a movie ticket and more.
(Don't flame me too bad.)
_________
The world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes, does it?
The shows had a unique perspective on Sci-fi, and often had a good twist to keep it interesting. The characters all have individual personalities, and they actually stay true to them during the show. The personalities are all interesting, and believable. Some of the skills possessed are far fetched, but then again this is sci-fi.
The people in the show had the same sorts of problems that people have now, (money) and are just trying to get by in their world. This helps people to relate to them.
The reasons it couldn't make it through a season are not due to the show, but rather the lack of scheduling. Nobody could find it. It was moved around so many time slots that it never had a chance to develop a following... (I obviously stand corrected).
I also like the writing. It is humorous and entertaining, without the need of a laugh track.
I'm so sick of cheers/friends/king of hill/fresh new price/fraser, that whenever I hear a laugh track the channel gets turned. This was original. This was entertaining.
The fact that some people don't like it is ok. They haven't had their fill of all the other shit that's on TV now.
That's actually what I was using.
Plays fine with MPlayer on Linux, though. So it has to be some interaction between the file, the QuickTime codecs, MPlayer and, who knows, maybe the video drivers. But only on Windows.
What pissed me off was the way Windows handled the locked up app. When I tell Windows to kill a process, I want that process DEAD AND BURIED immediately - just like on Linux. I don't want to sit there for five or ten minutes while it rummages around trying to figure out what to do next, and issuing stupid messages that are meaningless under the circumstances.
I think the problem is that "Task Manager" is way more than a task manager - it has all those freakin' tabs with performance animations, and God knows what else. This is Microsoft's problem - too many damn features loaded onto a system utility that should only do ONE THING: manage processes. If somebody wants to monitor system performance, they can get a Sysinternals utility. And the process manager should not sit there and second-guess me when I click on "Kill process!" I can imagine how wonderful this is on a server.
Sorry for the rant - I hate Windows...:-)
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
You know it's bad when the first post is redundant.
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
http://www.cantstopthesignal.co.uk/trailer/
They did dumb down a few minor things, but the movie is great.
This is assuming that this is a typical movie. There was a little film that hit theaters a year ago last February (long considered a "soft" movie month) called The Passion of the Christ that did $83,848,082. Now I realize that Serenity will not be quite this popular but it just goes to show that a movie can make money any time of the year. If you want an example of a breakout hit in September just remember that a little film called Sixth Sense premiered in September a few years back.
The Sixth Sense was released on 8/6/99. It was summer movie.
The Passion of the Christ is a religious movie that was marketed to Church groups and released during the holiest time of the year on the Christian calendar. The Passion of Christ mobilized the Bible Belt, a demographic that is consistently underrepresented at the box office. Quite simply, many who went to see "Passion" don't go to the movies. So the performance, while spectacular, is a statistical aberration.
Re: Assuming it to be a typical movie. Should I asusme that it will be a blockbuster and build a model around that? That doesn't make much sense. Of course I assume it to be typical. Most asumptions are made based on typical outcomes, I imagine. I have no reason to believe this film will perform spectacularly; it couldn't draw enough of an audience to remain on the air. It does not have a name cast to appeal to the MTV crowd (who won't be going anyway because they're back in school). The 45-64s rely on reviews and product with pedigree, which this doesn't have.
It's being release during a soft time in the box office anyway. I just don't see it.
un burrito me trampeó.
no shooting. merely observing. carry on. lol.
un burrito me trampeó.
The scene is clearly zooming in on the Gulf if Mexico, i.e. Earth. If not Earth then somehow an exact copy!
While I haven't been lucky enough to see a sneak preview, this question was asked a lot after the first trailer came out, and people in the know (and some who saw a preview) indicated that the image of earth is from an early scene in the movie giving the history of earth that was, and how and why we left it. In this trailer, the four ships in the forground of the earth shot are leaving earth not approaching it, which supports what I've heard.
One click on the link and everything just worked. FreeBSD, KDE, Konqueror KMplayer. It's the simplest thing in the world. Sometimes I'm amazed Windows even has a marketshare big enough to measure...
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!