Firefly

New Serenity Poster

And Whedon talks.

September 8, 2005 - Even though Firefly only ran for 13 episodes, it was enough to begin exploring the ins and outs of the show’s nine main characters. A two-hour film, on the other hand, gives very little time for character develop, a fact that has made Serenity a real challenge for creator-director Joss Whedon.

"It’s very hard and some people do have less screen time," Whedon told Now Playing Magazine. "I got to explore their relationships less than I would want to. Ultimately, anybody who’s in the movie has got to have a perspective, at least be a person. And if they’re one of my many, many heroes, it’s not that hard [for me] to spread the love - especially because their voices are very different. The kind of joke that Book makes is different from the kind of joke that Jayne makes. I think every character in the movie has at least one opportunity to make everybody laugh, and it’s not that hard when you have an ensemble as talented and varied as these guys are."

And while many different stories were unfolding at their own paces during the series, Whedon has had to give Serenity more focus on specific characters. Still, he’s managed to avoid the typical movie formula of one main protagonist and one plot to resolve.

"Obviously you want to know where your focus should be. You want to say, ’O.K. this is about maybe Mal’s journey,’ and everybody else is part of his crew. [But] the idea of Serenity is a little different. You could say, ’Psychic girl on the run falls in with some rebels.’ But that’s [still] not really the whole thing, because the movie changes - her place on the ship, what she needs and what she might do, and she’s doing what to whom... It’s more of a story that unfolds as opposed to, ’Here’s the premise, now let’s knock them down one by one.’ Which makes it a harder thing to market, but hopefully more gratifying to watch because it does sort of zigzag."

Whedon admits that a lot of things existing fans would have loved have been cut from Serenity to make the film more accessible to new viewers. He says the advance screenings have helped him determine what works and what doesn’t, and will undoubtedly help to shape the final product.

With the September 30th release date just a few weeks away, a new official poster design has surfaced in Australia, and it’s arguably a lot cooler than the American design. River’s pose seem to be an homage to the original Star Wars poster, and the solitary placement of the other figures is quite Western-like. Fans have also observed that Capt. Reynolds in his dark jacket and tough pose looks a lot like Angel from Whedon’s vampire television series.