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Gaiman and Whedon Discuss the Rise of the Geek
CABridges writes "In a lengthy Time Magazine interview, Neil Gaiman ("Sandman," "American Gods") and Joss Whedon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Firefly") talk about their audience.
Gaiman: "Mostly they're people. They're us. That's what they look like."
Whedon: "They're a lot more attractive than I am, actually, which kind of disturbs and upsets me."
Both men, known for their cult-favorite creations, have movies debuting this Friday. For Gaiman it's MirrorMask, for Whedon it's Serenity."
In the list of works for which Gaiman is known..."Don't Panic" is missing!
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
Always with the multiple pages, yes I know you get ansy and start doubleclicking words or some other psychological thing, but for those with attention spans:
One Nice Single Page With No Ads
Please watch Firefly. It's nothing like Buffy, by which I mean both are good in their own ways but: "It's like watching EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and EverQuest II on TV. A bunch of well endowed girls with doll-like figures capable of defeating creatures 10 times their size." does NOT apply to Firefly.
The movie has flashes and slow pans of dead and decaying corpses.
The reaver scenes are very quick cut away shots that are more to surprise and shock than anything else.
There are no scenes that in my memory that are physical gore. I don't want to spoil the movie, there are no flesh eating scenes or the like. But let me again point to the slow pans of dead corpses, I guess that could be considered gory.
Serenity is one of the best movies I have ever seen. I have read some posts that some don't like going to the theater. In truth you don't have to see Serenity on the big screen to enjoy it. But please plan on seeing Serenity at some point, it is a GREAT story. I took 8 people to the preview last night (Tuesday) and every one of them enjoyed the movie. Even after I raved about it non stop. One of my friends said "This was the first movie that has been hyped up (mainly by me) and lived up to the hype."
Slashdot the theaters for the Serenity release.
- Bruzer
"Tempt not a desperate man" - Willy S.
From interviews with Neil Gaiman, the movie got started when the Henson company looked at Dark Crystal and Labyrinth and noticed that while they didn't do very well in theaters, they've turned out to be quite successful in the home video market. People keep buying the tapes, DVDs, etc. year after year.
So they went to him and said, "Can you come up with an idea for a movie in this style, that we could produce on a low budget, and could you put in a word with Dave McKean? And we know we can't affort you as the writer, but would you at least come up with the story?" At that point he said something like "If Dave's direting it, I'm writing it," they got the deal, the two of them went off to spend a week or two in the Hensons' vacation home developing the story, and launched into it from there.
So while it would be wonderful if it did well in theaters, the studio is really counting on it being part of their home video line for the next 20 years -- just like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.
Since you still don't get it, maybe this is an honest request for information, rather than an attempt at sarcasm or irony. So, here goes.
A geek was a carnival sideshow freak, whose act was doing disgusting things like eating a live rat or biting the head off a chicken or two (chickens were too big to eat whole, unlike a small rat). Tradition has it that they were usually alcoholics, made to perform by witholding booze until they got the shakes so bad they'd do anything for a drink. Like all end-stage alcoholics, they didn't usually eat much, unless they happened to swallow a rat or a chicken head. The booze was the pay, so they were cheap. They didn't usually live long, but you could always find another in any town big enough to have a town drunk. Every carnival had a geek, and he was the very lowest of the low: the one person that everyone, including the hermaphrodite and the crap-shoveler, could look down on.
That is why I never refer to myself as a geek.
See what I've been reading.