BuzzSugar

Joss Whedon Headed to the Director's Chair For Glee!

BuzzSugar — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:30:36 -0700

News doesn't get much better than this: Joss Whedon is coming on board to direct a future episode of Glee! I'm a long-time fan of the man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer and his signature brand of biting humor. Whedon's no stranger to musicals either (hello, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog). I think he'll be the perfect fit for the gleeks, and I can't wait to see what he brings to the show. A blood-sucking rival chorus? Robotic-type high schoolers a la Dollhouse?

Whatever the case, I bet a dose of Whedon sci-fi would add a lot of fun to the storyline, and I wouldn't mind seeing the show do something completely one-off for an episode. The show could benefit from some fresh meat, right?

Are you a Joss Whedon fan? What do you make of this news?

Photos courtesy of FOX and Source

Comic-Con Day Two Closes At the Dollhouse

BuzzSugar — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:00:20 -0700

I wrapped up another long but amazing day at Comic-Con with the Dollhouse panel. Joss Whedon was a character as always, and both he and Eliza Dushku constantly reiterated how thankful they are to their fans for saving their near-canceled show. We were treated to screening of season one's "lost" episode, "Epitaph One." It was eye-opening to say the least, set in the year 2019 and showing a far different world than what we saw in the first episode. Here are a few highlights from what we learned:

Naturally, there were lots of questions for Joss about Buffy and his affinity for recycling his favorite actors. He revealed that Alexis Denisof will be joining the cast next season, and Eliza chimed in about being excited to kick his ass. Apparently Joss is also trying to get Summer Glau on board.
Spoiler alert! According to Joss, Victor is going to get better quickly.
Eliza on which characters she enjoyed playing most: "I'm a tomboy, so I do like when I'm in action, and I loved 'Man on the Street.' I loved all the characters in that. Joss loved the doily dress so much. I also had a really nice time shooting 'Haunted' with Olivia Williams. The last episode was kind of awesomeness as well."
Joss on how the theme of social justice is portrayed in the show: "More and more, we're interested in dealing with the abuse of power and the various ways that people can do that and what it can really bring out in characters when they are pushed to the edge."
Finally, Joss played coy about what we can expect in season two but did say that "no one is to be trusted, especially in the Dollhouse" and revealed that the audience will begin to question the veracity of the character's memories.

Sounds like there's plenty of fun in store for season two. Be sure to keep checking back in for more updates live from Comic-Con!

Photo courtesy of Fox

Buffy Could Come Back to the Big Screen - Sans Joss

BuzzSugar — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:30:00 -0700

With vampires all the rage these days, I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone started talking about bringing Buffy the Vampire Slayer back to the big screen. But I'm still surprised at the thought that this movie-turned-TV show could get a total reboot with all-new characters and no Joss Whedon.

Here's the deal: Original Buffy movie director Fran Rubel Kuzui and her husband, Kaz Kuzui, have owned the rights to the Buffy story and characters since the beginning. They developed Whedon's movie script and helped him make the Buffy and Angel TV series. And now, they and Vertigo Entertainment are talking about a potential reboot or remake (but not prequel or sequel), as The Hollywood Reporter writes:

The new Buffy film, however, would have no connection to the TV series, nor would it use popular supporting characters like Angel, Willow, Xander or Spike. Vertigo and Kuzui are looking to restart the story line without trampling on the beloved existing universe created by Whedon. . . . One of the underlying ideas of Buffy allows Vertigo and Kuzui to do just that: that each generation has its own vampire slayer to protect it. The goal would be to make a darker, event-sized movie that would, of course, have franchise potential.

The article notes that while the producers haven't ruled out Whedon's involvement, they also haven't approached him yet.

So, what'll it be, Buffy fans? Is a Buffy story without Xander and the rest really a Buffy worth seeing? Or do you believe there's potential for an entirely new Buffy world that could take on a life of its own?

Source

TV Tonight: Dollhouse's Season Finale

BuzzSugar — Fri, 08 May 2009 06:30:53 -0700

Alpha is in the house! The former doll (played by Alan Tudyk) revealed himself on last week's episode of Dollhouse, and he's definitely the scariest character on this show by a landslide. His story is also the most fascinating to me: Back when he was a doll just like Echo (Eliza Dushku), all his pre-programmed personalities blended together one day, and he turned into a psychopath. He broke out of the dollhouse, killing a bunch of people and slashing up the faces of a few survivors. That face-slashing thing he does is so freaking creepy! Oh, and he's also a genius.

The preview for tonight's season finale shows the aftermath of Alpha's return and just how deep his obsession with Echo goes. The craziest part in the clip is Alpha sticking Echo's former personality, Caroline, into some random lady. So "Caroline" wakes up only to find herself in a strange body staring at, well, herself. Weird!

Are you still tuning in to this show? Are you sad to see it end? And how much do you want it to come back next season? To watch a preview for tonight's season one finale, read more.

Photo courtesy of Fox

Link Time! 4/16

BuzzSugar — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:30:57 -0700

Is the Wolverine pimping milk or crumpled paper bags? - Popwatch
Renewed, canceled, on the bubble? A quick rundown. - TV Squad
I so wish I could go to Carnegie Hall tomorrow night to see Kevin Smith talk. - Cinematical
Joss Whedon is feeling good about a second season of Dollhouse. - HitFix
Is Bella's dad being cut out of New Moon? - MTV Movies Blog
David Lynch's music video for Moby. - Stereogum
A brief history of fictional bloggers in movies and TV. - Vulture
Real Housewife Alex McCord talks about her parenting book. - lilsugar

Joss Whedon Says Tonight's the Night to Watch Dollhouse

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:30:22 -0700

If you haven't been watching Dollhouse, no less an authority than series creator Joss Whedon says it's time to tune in. Earlier this week, Whedon hopped on the phone with a bunch of reporters to talk about why there's so much hype around tonight's sixth episode,"Man on the Street," which he says is the struggling series' best yet.

I wasn't sure about the show at the start, but it's been sucking me in - to the point that I might have told my real-life friends I was busy so I could hang with my fictional Fox friends instead. Uh . . . just kidding. That would be weird. Ahem.

Anyway. My point is, I'm into the show, but at this point there's still a lot to be explained in terms of the ground rules of this universe - possibly a result of Whedon's disputes with Fox over how to tell these stories. Whedon promises tonight's episode will answer a lot of questions for fans but says it's also a point where someone who has never seen the show before could jump in without a problem. Here are some of the big points from his chat:

On whether hyping this episode could have a negative effect: "You know, there may have been a negative side to it, because we may have said, 'The first five episodes are crap,' which I don’t believe. . . . There's also the negativity of somebody saying, 'Well, now he’s blaming the network for the other episodes.' Like, no, no, no, no. We did our best to try and figure out how to put the show over with a new paradigm under the gun while we were in production or occasionally out of production. And then what happened with 'Man on the Street' was really, it just came to me as a concept really quickly. I pitched it to the network and for the first time, there was a real simpatico. They went, 'Oh, yes, we get that,' and it was a very simple thing."

There's lots more from Whedon (including his thoughts on the show's "ick" factor) after the jump. Just read more.

On what about tonight's episode works so well: "I think it was doing an episode that somebody who had never seen the show could walk in on, because it explains very clearly the premise. In fact, it's kind of about explaining the premise and at the same time really getting under the skin of the dollhouse and of Paul's character and of what’s going on with everybody and the workings of the place and coming at it sideways rather than just showing an engagement and flipping in some information around that engagement. This was one where we really got to look at the cogs of the clock, and that’s what gave it such momentum for us."

On jibing with the network on how to tell this story: "We lay it out as simply as we did in the first five, but because we get to get inside the dollhouse more and have the events there take on much more resonance, it has got what I had hoped to bring to the other episodes that I didn't really have the opportunity [to do] as much. So I felt like it was really finding the code to a show that I can do my best work in that the network still really can get behind. So it was a meeting of the minds."
On the possibility that dollhouse staffers could actually be dolls themselves: "How many layers of unreality can you have in somebody's identity? . . . We have to pull ourselves back and say, 'If we make this a lie within a lie within a lie within a lie, people are just going to start slapping us.' We're like, 'Now we're not invested in anybody.' So we've talked about [it], but we've been very restrained with the concept, because you have to have some touchstone of reality, even in this world."
On the "ick factor" of the show's premise, where there are hints that some of the dolls may be essentially slaves instead of volunteers: "It makes me uncomfortable. I'm not going to lie. But for me, it's part of what we're dealing with. We're dealing with people who have power and are abusing it and people who don't and are trying to regain it. . . . It's not something we feel that we can shy away from without being a little hypocritical."

Photos courtesy of Fox and Source

Are You Coming Back to Dollhouse Tonight?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:30:36 -0800

Joss Whedon's Dollhouse had a ton of buzz before its premiere last week, but that didn't exactly translate into big ratings. The show averaged 4.7 million viewers for its premiere last week, losing both in total viewers and in the key 18-49 demographic to ABC's Supernanny.

Still, I've heard good things about some of the upcoming episodes, and Fox swore up and down at TCA that it planned to let all 13 episodes of the show's first season air regardless of the ratings. So tell me: Are you sticking with Dollhouse?

Photo courtesy of Fox

TV Tonight: Dollhouse

BuzzSugar — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:30:04 -0800

It's possible that no show has gotten more press this season than Fox's Dollhouse. It comes from cult hero Joss Whedon, and it's already had its troubles, including a completely reshot pilot and a potentially problematic Friday night time slot. But the show finally premieres tonight, and I've heard from many of the people involved with the show that we shouldn't worry so much about it after all. Here are five essential things to know:

The set is awesome. Way back at July's TV press tour, I got the chance to explore the world of Dollhouse from the inside. The set is large and gorgeous, the centerpiece being a two-story control room of sorts with a glassed-in observatory from which the dollhouse employees can watch the "actives" - blank canvasses like Eliza Dushku's Echo - work out and lounge. Standing inside of it feels oddly calming, like a very upscale spa. Also cool: the room where the actives sleep at night, which has sleeping capsules sunken into the floor.
Friday might not be so bad. The show won't have to reach quite the bar for ratings that it would have on any other night, Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly said in January. "In some of the other scheduling scenarios, there was going to be enormous pressure on it," he said. "We're going to let the show play out for 13 episodes and hopefully catch on."

For three more key facts and some preview videos, just read more.

The shows will be a balance between stand-alone episodes and mythology. One of Fox's complaints with the original pilot was that the network thought the show had too much mythology right away. Now it's more of a mix, Whedon said in January, with the first five episodes being more stand-alone and the sixth one getting further into the show's mythology.
The actives aren't perfect. Even though they're programmed to do exactly what they need to complete their missions, things will go wrong. "Each show I think [some type of trouble] is going to go down," Dushku said this week, "because it’s obviously not a perfect system and it’s not a perfect world."
If the show succeeds, there's lots of territory to mine. If the ratings are good enough to get it more episodes beyond the original 13, there are plenty more stories to tell. "Apparently from day one Joss has had a five-year plan for the show and we’ve talked about what some of those are," Dushku said. "I think that’s one of the things that’s so exciting about this show is that it’s so open for endless possibilities."

Here are a whole bunch of Dollhouse-related videos to fuel the fire till tonight's premiere. Will you be watching?

" name="flashObj" width="300" height="340" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash">

Photo courtesy of Fox

Buzz News Roundup, 1/21

BuzzSugar — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:30:01 -0800

American Idol winner Taylor Hicks will release his second album in March. - Billboard
Tobey Maguire's production company has acquired the rights to Marcus Sakey's crime novel Good People. - Variety
In Sundance deals news, Fox Searchlight has acquired the Hugh Dancy romance Adam, and the bromance Humpday will be distributed by Magnolia. - Reuters
Law and Order: Criminal Intent won't air till the Summer. - TV Guide
Brandon Routh, Chris Evans, and Brie Larson have joined the cast of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. - The Hollywood Reporter
Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, Norah Jones, and Jack Johnson are among the acts confirmed for a Nick Drake tribute album. - Billboard
Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins have joined the cast of Joss Whedon's horror film The Cabin in the Woods. - Zap2it
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is taking a break - but supposedly not breaking up. - Pitchfork

Source

Dollhouse Lives! Watch the New Trailer

BuzzSugar — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:30:51 -0800

Joss Whedon's Dollhouse is probably the most anticipated show of TV's midseason lineup - not just because of the talent involved but also because of the behind-the-scenes drama that's led to the original pilot being discarded (and a healthy amount of speculation that the show might be essentially dead before it even premieres).

But now there's reason to believe the show might see the light of day after all: a new trailer, which more clearly lays out the show's premise than anything we've seen before. In it, we're introduced to Echo (Eliza Dushku), an "active" who can live any life, have any skill, and do anything - a life many of us would dream of, except that she's programmed to do it and has no choice in her role.

It's an intriguing trailer with several gorgeous shots of Dushku (one under water, another inside the pod in which the "actives" sleep), and it seems like it could pair well with Fringe when it premieres. You can check it out if you read more.

Photo courtesy of Fox