Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog: “We had the freedom to behave like professional amateurs…”

Anyone who can’t wait until next year’s Dollhouse for their Joss Whedon fix is in luck. His musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which he financed, directed and co-wrote with his brothers Zack, Jed and Jed’s fiancée Maurissa Tancheroen, premieres in July, for free, on the website www. drhorrible.com. Abbie Bernstein attended a screening and heard what the Brothers Whedon had to say about making the series.

We’re not allowed to give any spoilers for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog but what we can confirm is that it makes for incredibly entertaining viewing. The ‘three act’ series stars Neil Patrick Harris as the titular would-be supervillain with Nathan Fillion (of Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity) as Dr. Horrible’s nemesis Captain Hammer and Felicia Day (Buffy Slayerette Vi) as the woman in both their lives.

Act One debuts on 15 July with Act Two on 17 July and the Act Three finale on 19 July. All segments will stay live until midnight on 20 July, at which point they will be taken down. So why the short window of opportunity? “We wanted to make an event out of it,” Whedon explains, “like an old TV thing where you had to be at a certain place at a certain time [to be able to watch it].”

The idea for Dr. Horrible came about during the 100-day Writers Guild of America Strike. “The first thing we said was, let’s do something for the internet,” says Jed Whedon.

“Everybody on the strike lines was saying, ‘Let’s go do something for the internet,’” Joss Whedon clarifies. “But ‘Musical!’ was us.”

Joss Whedon says Dr. Horrible’s budget is “in the low six figures.” Though many favours were called in, Whedon adds that there was no financial corner-cutting in trying to get around the various unions that represent him, his fellow writers, the actors and the technicians. As a supporter of the WGA strike, Whedon stresses that he felt it was particularly important to follow union rules. “You don’t make a statement about what we [in the film and television business] have to do as a community by screwing people over.”

It wasn’t hard for Whedon to persuade the actors to sign on. “Any time Joss calls you, it’s going to be something cool,” says Fillion.

All parties agree that not having to answer to an outside funding entity allowed them an unusual amount of leeway in their work, something they loved about the project. “Because it was so crazy when we were doing it, we had the freedom to behave like professional amateurs,” Harris says.

Dr. Horrible came together in a remarkably short amount of time. “It only took six days,” Jed Whedon says of principal photography. Even with the complications of a musical score and special effects by Zoic, the company that did the CGI on Firefly and Serenity, the three-part, 43-minute production began shooting in February and has been completed by July.

After the free internet airings, there may be pay-per-view internet showings. There will definitely be a soundtrack album, overseen by Jed Whedon, who did the score and orchestrations, and a DVD release. “We have some very specific DVD plans,” Joss Whedon says. “We may partner with a studio or release it ourselves.”

The DVD will have some uncommon special features. “We are writing an original musical called ‘Commentary’,” Joss Whedon explains. He appears to be in earnest. “There will be one regular commentary and one sung commentary!” Participants will include Whedon, the other writers, the cast and perhaps crew members as well. There is also an online Dr. Horrible comic book penned by Zack Whedon, with more editions planned. Whedon and co. will have a screening of the entire Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog at the San Diego Comic-Con at the end of July, with a panel and, Whedon promises, t-shirts for sale.

If the series is successful, would Whedon consider making a sequel? “What about a giant Broadway adaptation?” Whedon laughs. “Have I thought about a sequel? Yes. But the plans at present just consist of us going, ‘This would be awesome!’” “That’s how this started…” Jed Whedon reminds his brother.