Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon, co-writer of Toy Story and the quirky visionary behind the TV series “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, has to feel as though he’s on the wrong end of a sharp pointy wooden stake lately.

First, Whedon’s script for Alien Resurrection, was disembowelled by its director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. “Firefly” was canceled by Fox after only eleven episodes. Serenity flopped. “Dollhouse”, Whedon’s ambitious SF series starring Eliza Dushku was canceled after two seasons. Other than the oddball “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”, Joss Whedon hasn’t come close to replicating the amazing success he found in Sunnydale.

But Whedon’s biggest disappointment was losing the “Woman Woman” movie. It was a painful fiasco that near the end almost compelled the long-time comic book fan to hang himself with a golden lasso. “I in no way want this to be a slam on Warner Bros., but the fact of the matter is, it was a waste of my time. We never [wanted] to make the same movie; none of us knew that.”

As usual, it goes to show that the real monsters in Twilight, 30 Days of Night or Let Me In aren’t the vampires. It’s the studio guys.

You can’t kill ‘em either. The studio guys are impervious to crucifixes, holy water, or compassion. Unfortunately, they’re a necessary evil because that’s where the money is. As much as I hated the last three Star Wars films, I loved the fact that George Lucas didn’t have to worry about interference from the studio guys because he financed his trilogy himself. Not too many directors have that kind of power. Even after Citizen Kane, Orson Welles was never given the freedom to make another film the way he wanted to ever again. Brilliant as he was, Welles couldn’t beat the studio guys.

In the never-ending battle between Art vs. Commerce, Joss Whedon was collateral damage, and it’s a shame. Whedon didn’t just lose a job but a great opportunity as well. Whenever a movie turns into cash cow, the lucky director suddenly has leverage to use against the studio guys.

A good case in point is Che, Steven Sodenberg’s biopic of Che Guevara. Usually, a four-hour film about a controversial political icon doesn’t get green-lighted by the studio guys. However, because Sodenberg is the auteur behind the Ocean’s Who Cares What Number It Is, We’re Still Making Money! movies, he has the power to tell the studio guys to roll over, beg, and play dead.

James Cameron couldn’t have done Avatar if it wasn’t for The Terminator. The School of Rock gave Richard Linklater the clout to do A Scanner Darkly. And as long as George Clooney and Brad Pitt want to keep on doing movies with Sodenberg, the studio guys will give Sodenberg the money to do a risky, non-mainstream film like Che. If you don’t use your power to do the movies you want to, what’s the point?

Joss Whedon’s is presently working on the Avengers movie. Although it’s a big-budget Hollywood superhero project better suited for a traffic cop than a film director, I wish him luck. If it’s successful, it will give Whedon the necessary leverage he needs for his next movie. Who knows? Maybe he’ll get another shot at Wonder Woman after David E. Kelley screws up the TV series.