Firefly

Most of the cast of the upcoming SF movie Serenity told SCI FI Wire that they have signed on for two more movies if the film version of Joss Whedon’s canceled Fox TV series Firefly is a hit. They include Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, Sean Maher, Jewel Staite, Gina Torres and Morena Baccarin. Star Nathan Fillion wouldn’t say whether he’s signed for more films, but writer/director Whedon said that the entire cast would likely return if a sequel is warranted.

As for his ideas for the sequel, Whedon said he was focused only on completing the first movie. "It’s very sweet to mention the word sequel," Whedon said in a press conference in Beverly Hills, Calif. "Obviously that’s the way my brain works. It continues to tell stories. ... So it’s inevitable for me that I do that, and of course I love this universe. I love these people, and I would jump at the chance to do it again. But I couldn’t think about that while I was making it, because, ultimately, you have to make [the first one]. ... It’s a trilogy if you make two that are so good there’s a third. ... Now that I’ve finished it, ... I think about it all the time. But it don’t tell anybody that. Except just now."

Serenity picks up the story of the ragtag crew of a transport ship 400 years in the future as it tries to avoid a menacing central galactic government intent on capturing a fugitive aboard the ship. Whedon said it was a challenge adapting the TV show for the big screen.

"Well, ultimately, you know, that’s certainly the hardest job I ever had," Whedon said. "It’s a question of opening it up, and it’s a question of closing it down. You know, opening it up in the sense of: We need a giant, epic story that is not the kind of thing these people usually get involved in in a TV series, which is more mundane. You need a reason for this to be a movie. ... The closing comes in making sure that it is accessible to everybody: that you explain everybody as much as you need to, that you explain the world as much as you need to, that you begin and you end, that you have an arc for the character, as well as a plot that has a question and then an answer."

Whedon added: "I’ve actually said once or twice that the difference between TV and movies is that TV shows are a question, and movies are an answer. And so in this we had to have a definitive statement about freedom and humanity and what we need and what we should be allowed to have as people, which is all our flaws. And then I answer that. I make a definitive statement. I put a period or, hopefully, an exclamation point on that, as opposed to just sort of pursuing the question for years, which is what a TV show would do." Serenity is being released by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. The movie opens Sept. 30.