Joss Whedon

In the pantheon of fantasy and science-fiction projects that Joss Whedon helped create, the Internet musical “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” can be easy to overlook: it’s not his beloved television series that ran a healthy seven seasons (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), or its beloved spinoff (“Angel”), or his misunderstood television show that was canceled before its time (“Dollhouse”) or his other misunderstood television show that was canceled before its time and spawned a misunderstood movie (“Firefly” and “Serenity”). “Dr. Horrible” is simply a three-act musical about an aspiring super-villain (played by Neil Patrick Harris), his smug do-gooding nemesis (Nathan Fillion) and the woman who comes between them (Felicia Day). Dreamed up by Mr. Whedon, his brothers Zack and Jed, and Maurissa Tancharoen during the 2007-8 writers’ strike and produced on his own dime, it is the pure expression of what they wanted to make at the time, without any outside interference.

For that reason alone, “Dr. Horrible” holds a special place in Mr. Whedon’s heart. (Another sign of his affection: he made time to talk to about it when he really should have been preparing to direct his superhero mega-movie “The Avengers.”) In these excerpts from a recent conversation, Mr. Whedon spoke to ArtsBeat about the making of the musical, its recently released companion volume “Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog: The Book” and his future online ambitions. (O.K., so we asked about “Avengers,” too.)

Q. How are you?

A. I am super-tired. I just have insomnia, so I’m like, [zombie voice] “Uhhhh. Prepping.”

Q. It’s been almost three years since “Dr. Horrible” was first released. What does it mean to you now?

A. It means, what the hell have we been doing? Where’s the damn sequel? The shame. Mostly that. And it remains one of the purest experiences of my life. It just makes me happy all the time. It wasn’t like anything else.

Q. As much as the project was initiated by the writers’ strike, was it also in some way an acknowledgment that you couldn’t produce something like “Dr. Horrible” anywhere but on the Web?

A. My ideas are always slightly left-of-center. I like to think that I’m a populist entertainer, but I’m a little bit idiosyncratic and sometimes the networks wouldn’t really roll with that. I was trying to – this was during the strike – make a deal with a big Internet company that had expressed interest in doing some low-budget production, and I laid out these ideas that I had, that I thought they might be interested in, the last of which was “Dr. Horrible.” I said, “And here’s the one you’re definitely not going to want to do.” And they said, “Yes. We don’t.” It became clear that nothing was going to happen with this company before the strike was over. So I got more and more obsessed with “Dr. Horrible” and asked my wife, “Honey, would it be O.K. if—” And she said, “Hells yeah.” We just eliminated the middle man. Or actually, the top man.

Q. This was totally financed out of your own pocket?

A. Mm-hmm. I’m like, hey, you know what? Some mid-life crises are cars. They cost about this much. Mine has songs in it.

Q. I was amazed to see, in the book, your original handwritten lyrics to “My Freeze Ray,” which contain no crossed-out words, changes or even misspellings. Did all the songs emerge from your head fully-formed like AthenA. A. I’m shocked about the misspelling thing. And yes, it was fully-armored. But I usually write things in my head before I ever write them down. When I write it out, usually I’ve already figured out what it is I’m trying to do. Sometimes I’ll forget to write them down, and then I’ll be like, “Here’s how this song goes: Uh. I don’t remember.” I’m that organized. Also, it’s a pretty simple lyric. There are other song sheets with many scribble-outs. But that one just sort of formed in my head pretty quickly. Not quickly enough. It was actually more painful than that page would express.

Q. Were there other numbers that were written but didn’t make it to the final cut?

A. I don’t think there were, because we didn’t want to write anything extra. When I first thought of “Dr. Horrible” I had worked on a couple of other songs that didn’t make it – I didn’t even pitch them to the other writers because they didn’t work in the structure we’d come up with. There wasn’t a lot of “Well, what if?” We wrote exactly what we wanted to say and as many songs as we could, knowing exactly where, structurally, they had to go. We were going to cut up some of my endless monologue for Neil, or at least intercut it with things, but he just rocked that one take so well. And we liked the idea people would be settling into the idea of a guy doing a blog when the first musical number started that we ended up leaving it.

Q. Was Wonderflonium, the mystery material that Dr. Horrible wants to steal, the most ridiculous name you had heard of before you saw “Avatar”?

A. [laughs] Ah. The thing in “Avatar” was also in “The Core” so let us give “The Core” its credit. “Avatar” was not the first to come up with Unobtanium. However, I believe Zack first referred to the mysterious substance as Bananatonium. So Wonderflonium was our nod to real science. It’s more grounded.

Q. When you look at the success of “Glee,” do you feel like that couldn’t have happened without things like the “Buffy” musical episode “Once More, With Feeling”?

A. No, but boy am I going to tell people that now. I’m going to run that theory up a flagpole. There’s other things like “High School Musical” that were more influential. However, let’s just say I invented television and leave it at that.

Q. You don’t feel you’ve played any role in -

A. Legitimizing musicals on TV? Maybe. Before “Once More, With Feeling,” you couldn’t not say “Cop Rock.” Nobody was giving it cred, so there is an element of, Oh, it’s cool now. That wasn’t there. Was I a snowflake in the avalanche? Yes, I was. Am I going to take credit for the whole thing? Possibly not.

Q. There have been performances of “Dr. Horrible” at conventions – has it been licensed for schools and other stage productions?

A. We did a little agreement, and many schools and some professional troupes have done it around the country. We actually had to put a pause on it, because people were starting to sell DVDs and stuff, so we had to figure out more complex legal language, which hopefully we’ll be done with soon. Obviously, we love the idea that people and schools are doing it, but if people are making money off it, then we go, “Hmmm, wait a minute. Isn’t there a rule about this?”

Q. What about producing it Off Broadway? Or even on Broadway?

A. We have spoken of that much. Especially every time Jed comes back from New York – “We’ve just got to do it! Come on, we just write some more songs to make these longer!” Because some of us have sat through “Spider-Man.”

Q. Does that include you?

A. [after a pause] I neither confirm nor deny. And you kind of go, “Hey, let’s do something for no money.” Which is the same feeling we had about TV and movies when we made “Dr. Horrible.” But I would say my heart is more in the idea of the sequel. We’ve done a lot of work on it.

Q. Really?

A. Oh, yeah. We’ve got several songs near completion and we’ve got a very specific structure. We’ve just all got jobs. And it’s not like Neil, Nathan and Felicia ain’t busy either. We get together at Christmas and family occasions, and then play each other our partial songs and go, “Yup, that’s still exactly as it was the last time we played it. We’re great.” It’s bad.

Q. Is there anything you can say yet about what the “Dr. Horrible” sequel will be?

A. It’s going to be “Dr. Horrible and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” And it’s going to be just as good as the other one. I don’t know why people are upset about that title. And by the way, by the time we finish it, Neil will be just as old. No, I’m not saying anything.

Q. You’ve had other projects that ended, perhaps, in ways you didn’t want them to, or before you wanted them to-

A. I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.

Q. -so after something like “Dr. Horrible,” are you ever tempted to chuck it all and only produce things for the Internet?

A. I’m more than tempted. I’m a little obsessed. And after “Dr. Horrible,” I thought, well, somebody will come around. I talked at great length and planned at great length the idea of a portal and putting shows together, having an Internet identity and starting my own little micro-studio. Nobody in town was interested, and then by the time they were, “Avengers” came around. I was and will continue to work on a very, very different Internet mini-thing that I was writing with Warren Ellis, and I have a lot of ideas for things I want to put up there. I still believe it’s a viable financial model, and a creative playground and I miss it. But in the year that I was supposed to do that, I instead decided to make this little Sundance movie that I’m making.

Q. I certainly hope you find distribution for it.

A. You know, I’m looking at the Independent Film Channel very closely. Knock wood.

Q. Did you happen to keep up with the March Madness tournament on io9.com, in which readers voted “Serenity” the top fantasy film of all time, over “The Empire Strikes Back”?

A. I have been alerted to this fact by certain of my friends. When I saw us going up against “Empire Strikes Back,” all I could think was, “Oh, they’re gonna hate it. They’re gonna hate us. They’re gonna call our fans names.” But while “Empire Strikes Back” is for me the more seminal film, “Serenity” at least has an ending. I don’t know when “The Matrix” got voted down – that’s my favorite. It is starting to be a double-edged sword. There’s no greater sadness than not still being on board that ship with that crew, in my career. All I can think is, maybe someday, someone at Universal will say, “Hey, we made money. Let’s do that again.” So I’m glad that it lives. But I also know that every time it gets in one of those polls, against beloved movies, we just get flamed. I feel sad, too.

Q. It’s like being a parent, and letting your child find its way in the world.

A. I can’t control how beautiful and popular my child is. What can I do?

Q. Since there’s not much you can discuss about “Avengers” right now, what can you tell me about the status of your long-awaited horror film “The Cabin in the Woods”?

A. I know that MGM is talking to people about it. Because MGM is, Everything must go – they’ve lost their lease. And I believe that there is some interest from other companies in acquiring it and distributing it. More than that, I cannot say, but I have hope that “Avengers” may not be the only thing I get to put out next year.

Q. Can you say when you start production on “Avengers”?

A. We’re just a hardscrabble bunch. Guerilla filmmaking. I start production a week from Monday. I’m going to get started on the script now. Apparently that’s a thing. I don’t get it. Improv stunts are always way more exciting-looking.