If you haven't been paying attention to the Whedonverse of late, you may have missed a key fact: Joss Whedon's "next big thing" is not FOX's new series Dollhouse. That's certainly a "big thing" it just doesn't happen to be next. What is next is Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. If you haven't heard of this project it's a musical web series written by Whedon and his brothers Jed and Zack, starring Neil Patrick Harris as "Doctor Horrible" and Firefly's own Nathan Fillion as "Captain Hammer." I know what you're thinking, been there, done that. But wait, there's more!
Doctor Horrible came about as a result of Whedon getting tired of "writing movies that don't get made." Whedon, who posted about the project on Whedonesque said "Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system."
Translation: This was an initial attempt by Whedon and company to not just get better internet revenue profit sharing from the corporations, but to use the internet to get straight to the fans. Will it work? Who knows. Will people pay for it? Hard to tell. Will a musical about superheroes with Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion be something we'll watch? Hell and yes.
The details are these: The series will make its debut on
Dr. Horrible , and it will do so in three parts. The first part will be available on July 15th, the second on July 17th and the third on July 19th. Whedon has explained that the episodes (or "acts" as he calls them) will be available streaming for free – and at a later point it will be available for a fee – both as a download and then as a DVD.
Whedon explained his intent on Whedonesque: "The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first."
As fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer know, Whedon has shown surprising skill with the musical genre, on display in the episode "Once More, With Feeling." That episode spawned not only a soundtrack, but a series of sing-along screenings around the country (which were eventually shut down by Buffy's studio, 20th Century Fox). This time we get Fillion, superheroes and NPH. What more can you want?
July, 5th, 2008, 01:51 AM
For you "Buffy the Musical" fans...
I finally changed my signature!
Similar Threads
Linear Mode
