Serenity: not your average ironicallyfunnysci-fi western
“ Joss pulled it off and never let us give up,” says Edmonton-born Nathan Fillion, who plays Serenity’s anti-hero captain. “ And I truly believe, at some point during the development of the movie, he stopped being our boss and started being our friend.”
And, besides revealing his fierce loyalty, the writer-director also showed his creative focus by refusing to let cinematic special effects overwhelm the delicious dialogue and the glib tone. “But I really was intending to do an epic movie and not just a glorified episode of what we had already presented,” he says.
Still, he adds, “there was this tightrope I was walking … I did feel restricted doing the movie, because I had worked out the characters so much for the series format.
“In a film, the screen time is a lot more limited, so I had to make sure every line counted for every character.”
It’s not easy to do in a sci-fi western with a mocking attitude, which is itself out of the ordinary. But then so is Whedon.
After graduating from Connecticut’s Wesleyan University, he arrived in Los Angeles with a fancy degree in film studies and a scathing wit, which he may have partially inherited from his TVwriter father. His first big break was with the fledgling low-rent TV series Roseanne in 1988, where he wrote as many as seven episodes and edited many more in the show’s critically acclaimed first few years.
In 1992, Whedon had his first script hit the big screen, but by the time it got there, Buffy was missing the irony and most of the snappy patter. Five years later, Whedon established his precedent by doing the TV series.
Certainly, another studio was impressed enough with both Buffy and Serenity to hand over the Wonder Woman movie to Whedon. He’s set to direct the picture and he’s currently writing the script. “But I’m a year away from finishing it,” reports Whedon, who refuses to name his Wonder Woman
wish- list cast.
Meanwhile, there is Serenity, a movie that so far hasn’t disappointed the fans. Time will tell if it will attract more mainstream moviegoers.
“First of all, I appreciate the fact that I am making a film for people who don’t know my sensibilities and my humour,” Whedon says. “So while I was doing the movie, I was always wondering if there was too much humour or not enough. And I was wondering if there was too much violence or not enough.”
After all is said and filmed, even the always-anxious Whedon seems to feel he may have achieved the delicate balance.
“ And although it would be incredibly pretentious of me to talk about a sequel,” he says smiling, “I do have a few ideas for one.”