Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon Interview - Slither Reaction, Serenity Hope and Wonder Woman

Serenity director on Nathan Fillion, DVD hope and bullets and bracelets

Joss Whedon is awesome. After braving an entire red carpet to support his Serenity star Nathan Fillion at the premiere of his new film, Slither, he still put up with more harassment on his way to the after party. I found a moment to walk up to Whedon after he hung with some browncoats. Though I barely said anything, he knew exactly what to do. I needed some bites so he’d give them. The result was pure Whedon magic.

How did Nathan do not being directed by you? You know, I mold him from clay. He is nothing without me. No, the great thing about Nathan is he just completely embodies the part. I wasn’t even thinking about ooh, Nathan made this choice or that. I’m just like, “What’s going to happen to the sheriff?” The only thing I noticed of Nathan is his hair.

Does a movie like this satisfy your genre cravings or is there a bit of overstimulation in the genre right now? This is a different kind of movie than every other movie that’s out there. Mostly they’re doing the really hot teens have sex and die for it at the hands of mutants, or inbred mutants or living dead mutants. This is more of a throwback to the older movies that I grew up with which had the grossout, the extraterrestrial, the comedy, everything all at once. They’re slightly less pornographic. You actually care about the characters even though they’re really silly, so this is the kind of movie I haven’t seen in a while. It’s fun. I liked it a lot.

Would it be inappropriate to keep asking about Serenity? It wouldn’t be inappropriate but I don’t really have any answers for you except we’re just going to let the DVD continue to truck on and then see if anybody scratches their heads and says, “Say...”

Universal loves to do their straight to DVD sequels. Couldn’t you be the first one to make an awesome Serenity movie for DVD that blows the roof off the concept of DVD premieres? I have no problem with that scenario, but even on DVD it would cost a certain amount of money and you have to get a big organization to make a commitment to it and that takes a long, long time. But I’d be for it. I don’t think DVD is the curse that it used to be. A DVD sequel to or version of something doesn’t have to suck. It could actually be a great forum and just like making Serenity and like making my shows, nobody’s really watching that carefully. Then you can make really good stuff.

How does 4 million DVDs not equal $40 million box office? I don’t know any of the numbers. I keep calling and saying, “How are we doing?” I still don’t know. But I think we’re doing okay.

Will we see some bullets and bracelets action in Wonder Woman? Hell yes. It’s Wonder Woman. If it were Batman, she’d dress like a bat. It’s Wonder Woman so she’s got bracelets and a lasso and an invisible jet.

Are you finished with the script? Almost. Days away.

Have you had any creative confrontations with Mr. Silver? He hasn’t read it so ask me again in a week.