Buffy The Vampire Slayer

I’m one of those guys that believes that Joss Whedon can do no wrong. Whether it be an independent movie or a sing-along-blog, Whedon has the Midas touch with screenplays. I’m also one of those fans that feels we can still do a Buffy/Angel movie, even though the shows have been off the air for a while now. They still have a lot of loose ends to tie up and the fans are still there. However, the recent news that Fran Rubel Kuzui is looking to re-launch the series from scratch is just an abomination on everything that Whedon created.

To be honest, I actually don’t think this will ever happen. Fran and her husband don’t have much else but they do still own the rights to Buffy. However, the challenges and fan outcry over a restart at this point will likely derail any funding Vertigo Entertainment was planning on contributing. It’s one thing to remake Asian films, but it’s a whole other thing to take a franchise as cherished as Buffy and redo it so soon. Also, the fact that they have no idea for the film doesn’t bode well for them. This clearly isn’t about telling a story, this is about milking a franchise that Whedon built to get Kuzui’s name back in the public’s eye.

But let me try to suppress the anger and point out the obvious, which is that Whedon would probably be up for writing a continuation of the Buffy/Angel saga. Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz haven’t exactly lit up the big screen since their shows were canceled, so there’s no reason to think they’d refuse the payday opportunity. I don’t know what the relationship between Whedon and the Kuzui’s is like, but I can’t imagine it would get better if the Kuzui’s completely ditch Whedon and do a Buffy movie on their own. The logical thing is for Kuzui to call up Whedon and they make the movie together.

One thing that they have to keep in mind is that the franchise is where it’s at because of Whedon and some of the other talented writers that worked on the show. Without Whedon, you have nothing but a cheesy, early 90’s movie that no one remembers. This isn’t Batman, where you can give it to a talented director and great actor and let them find an already written story to put on the screen. All of the Buffy stories have been either written by Whedon or created with his involvement somehow. Trying to take his idea and start over in a whole new direction is just wrong on so many levels.

I seriously hope that Fran doesn’t have any delusions of grandeur regarding her impact on the Buffy universe. Aside from having the foresight to find Whedon’s script, all of the success of the Buffy franchise has been achieved in spite of her, not because of her. Her memory might be short, but let’s not forget that the Buffy movie was a huge flop, even with Luke Perry at the height of his 90210 fame (that was meant to be sarcastic).

If I seem angry at this, it’s because I am. With all the shitty remakes and TV-to-movies we get these days, I’ve been patiently waiting for Whedon to go back to the Buffyverse and do a Buffy/Angel movie. There are actually storylines that need to be finished up or continued. But if this movie does end up getting made, you can be sure that another Whedon-backed Buffy movie will never see the light of day.