Serenity in the News

[Rowan]

http://www.inkworks.net/products/serenity/serenity/serenityannpress.html



INKWORKS NEWS

Press Release --

INKWORKS TO RELEASE NEW TRADING CARD LINE INSPIRED BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES’

SERENITY

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON – July 21, 2004 –Inkworks announced today that they have signed an agreement with Universal Studios Consumer Products Group for the trading card license for Universal Pictures’ upcoming movie, Serenity. Written and directed by Joss Whedon, (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel), Serenity is a futuristic action-adventure film scheduled for release April 22, 2005.

Inworks will release its Serenity Premium Trading Cards in Spring 2005. The set will capture all of the action and adventure from the film, and include character cards, behind-the-scenes information and much more. Randomly inserted bonus cards will include autographed cards, Pieceworks® costume cards (featuring pieces of actual costumes used on-screen in the movie embedded in the cards) and other highly collectible cards.

About the Film

Joss Whedon— the Oscar®- and Emmy-nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel—now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity.

The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family – squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

When Mal takes on two new passengers—a young doctor and his unstable, telepathic sister—he gets much more than he bargained for. The pair are fugitives from the coalition dominating the universe, who will stop at nothing to reclaim the girl. The crew that was once used to skimming the outskirts of the galaxy unnoticed find themselves caught between the unstoppable military force of the Universal Alliance and the horrific, cannibalistic fury of the Reavers, savages who roam the very edge of space. Hunted by vastly different enemies, they begin to discover that the greatest danger to them may be on board Serenity herself.

Serenity is written and directed by Joss Whedon; produced by Barry Mendel; and executive-produced by Chris Buchanan and Alisa Tager. The film stars Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Summer Glau, Sean Maher, Ron Glass and Chiwetel Ejiofor.



Excerpt from empireonline.co.uk
Comic-Con: Sunday

Serenity
Last but not least, Joss Whedon turned up with the cast of Serenity, the big-screen version of his short-lived TV series, Firefly. And judging from the reception in Room 20, it was like God himself had decided to show up (He hadn’t of course; He was in the Autograph Area, doing a signing). Still, to many geeks, Whedon – the creator of Buffy, Angel and Firefly, but also the guy who wrote the ‘Do you know what happens to a toad when it gets hit by lightning?’ line in X-Men, so he’s not perfect – is God. And he’s brought something with him to show us. It took him more than seven days to make the montage of recently-shot footage from Serenity, but lo it was good.

A quickfire series of action shots (including plenty of gunplay) and clever Whedon-patented wiseass dialogue, the clip received a huge ovation. And then on came the cast of the series, each of whom has made the step up to the big screen. The diehard Firefly fans will also make the step up, when the movie comes out in Spring.

There were no major effects shots to speak of in the clip (although Chiwetel Ejiofor makes an appearance as a deadly assassin), but the prospects for Serenity look very bright indeed. Look out for more details and a transcription of this later this week.

thread: http://www.empireonline.co.uk/site/news/NewsStory.asp?news_id=16038

[Rowan]

The Disembodied Brain
Special Comic Con International Edition
Taking sci-fi and fantasy far, far too seriously.
« Serenity photo gallery | Main | Gellar on The Grudge »

Whedon and cast talk Serenity

July 25, 2004

JEFF DILLON / SignOnSanDiego

Actor Nathan Fillion answers a fan's question during the Serenity question-and-answer session.

Serenity cast photo gallery

There's a crowd of about 2,500 people watching as Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, plays a brief trailer for the upcoming feature film Serenity, based on his short-lived television series Firefly.

Fast-moving clips show gun battles, furious action, witty snippets of dialog and all nine main characters from the Western-themed space fantasy drama, a typical Whedon tour de force, promising much and surrendering little.

During the question-and-answer period that follows one fan stands up and asks, "Can you tell us anything about the plot of the movie?"

The infamously secretive writer-producer-director looks at the fan as if he's made the terminal mistake of calling him "Josh."

"Have you met me?" Whedon drawls.

The audience roared with laughter, but it was clear many still wanted to know the unknowable, what's going to happen in the movie Whedon resurrected from might have been the best sci-fi television series ever. (Yes, it was that good. The paltry 15 episodes that were played out of order on Fox -- if they got broadcast at all -- more than make up for their lack of scientific rigor and Wild West whimsy with whipsaw plotting, razor-sharp dialog and multi-layered character development.)

About all Whedon would disclose was that the feature film, named for the Capt. Malcolm Reynolds' fugitive starship, would involve both the galaxy-dominating Alliance and the cannibalistic Reavers which pillage the outlying regions.

One fan asked if Whedon agreed with a critic's assessment that characters in his shows weren't innately do-gooders, but were compelled to be good because they couldn't live with the consequences of what would happen if they failed to act.

"A large part of Serenity has to do with that very thing: Can you just walk away from something or do you have an obligation?" Whedon replied. "That's all I am saying."

Several scenes from the trailer showed gunplay; Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and first mate Zoe Warren (Gina Torres) finding something valuable in a safety deposit box; pilot 'Wash' Warren (Alan Tudyk) warning of a rough landing; fugitive psychic River Tam (Summer Glau) undergoing torment while sitting in a high-tech chair with equipment attached to her head in one scene, adhering to a ceiling in another and apparently using her mysterious powers (the product of Alliance brain-surgery) in a third; and we see the unarmed Serenity itself being pursued by a boxy, winged ship firing an ray that looked much like the scything beam weapons of the Shadow vessels from Babylon 5.

Whedon and the nine actors joked comfortably with each other.

Actress Morena Baccarin said she loved playing her character, the wily and seductive courtesan Inara Serra, who constantly revealed new talents in the series.

"Is there anything Inara can't do? I discover something new every day. It's amazing. She's so much smarter than I am," Baccarin said.

Asked what it was like to play the thick-headed fighter Jayne Cobb, Adam Baldwin said, "Of course, it's a lot easier for a stupid person to play smart."

Other cast members turned to look knowingly at Baccarin, who stood up to get a hug from a supportive Whedon, who then walked across the stage to stand over Baldwin and glare at him.

"He's basically the Cordelia of the bunch," Whedon said, referring to the Buffyand Angel character who began as a chirpy-but-dense socialite.

"Who's Cordelia?" Baldwin asked.

Fillion leaned over to whisper in Baldwin's ear, then raised one fist in a phallic gesture. Baldwin smiled.

One fan asked Whedon what she could do to get Firefly back on the air.

"Buy a network," Whedon quipped.

He said the cast looked so good on the big screen "I can't imagine them any smaller," elaborating later that "I don't mean that I don't want to see (Firefly back on TV), but I have bigger things on my mind."

Despite rabid fan rumors about Buffy and Angel movie projects, Whedon said the only two projects he's working on are writing and directing Serenity and writing a series of Astonishing X-Men comic books for Marvel. Though he'd like to put out a Firefly comic book adaptation and has been thinking about a sequel to Serenity.

"I'm still focusing on Serenity doing really, really well," he said.

And he does not intend to try to revive the vampire-with-a-soul Buffy spin-off Angel, cancelled by The WB this year in its fifth season. (The WB had cancelled Buffy, too, after five seasons, prompting its relocation to UPN for its final two years.)

"Angel, as a series, is over. But I would like to see what happens to those characters," Whedon said.

"I would definitely like to see the Buffyverse back on its feet in some form or another."


Posted by Jeff Dillon at July 25, 200409:35 PM



http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/w...es/000779.html

[thomas7g]

Thanks so much for finding this! I really enjoyed finally getting to read this!

And I really want to know what Fillion said to describe Cordelia.

[Aristotle Jones]

I'm looking for a spare ticket to buy for the Serenity screening this Thursday in Vancouver. I've read the FAQ, and cannot find any info on starting a new thread.

If anyone has a ticket they'd be willing to sell me, please r(asap)svp to:
aristotlejones@dccnet.com

Thanx ahead,

<*>aj

[cobrastrikelead]

Hey! That's very good news.