Joss Whedon

Boosted by the blockbuster power of The Avengers, which Whedon projects could be next for the big screen?

With The Avengers set to pass the $1bn mark at the global box office this weekend in just its third week, it’s perhaps safe to say that 2012 is a very good year to be Joss Whedon. Are the Fox executives who once screened episodes of his short-lived cult sci-fi TV show Firefly out of sequence (before promptly cancelling it) quaking in their boots? Probably not. Are the producers who botched his screenplay for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie wishing they had never been born? Not likely. But as Whedon himself hinted this week, a lot more Hollywood doors are likely to open up for the director and writer of what may well end up being the year’s highest grossing movie.

If Guillermo Del Toro, who seems to have fingers in so many Hollywood pies that it’s a wonder he doesn’t take out shares in Greggs, can cherrypick projects, where might Whedon be able to conjure himself next? It goes without saying that a second Avengers film is a shoo-in, but here are five more potential projects, near unthinkable three weeks ago, that might now become a possibility – at least in my own particular dream world.

Wonder Woman

The other Princess Diana is hardly the first comic book character who springs to mind in an era when superhero tales are no longer treated as throwaway fluff for kids, but with Whedon on board a big-screen Wonder Woman movie would stand a real chance of being taken seriously. With the Buffy TV show and Dollhouse, he has a genuine track record of creating intriguing, unorthodox and original female characters, and was in fact on board to direct such a film for Warner Bros in 2007. Somebody somewhere should drag that one out of development hell, because if the studio wants another comic book franchise to sit alongside Christopher Nolan’s Batman series, it’s suddenly looking a lot more lively than Green Lantern 2.

• Chances of happening: 7/10

Buffy the Movie

Yes, the original full-length 1992 film, complete with uncomfortable looking Luke Perry and anodyne Kristy Swanson, was a mess, but Whedon had very little influence on it after handing over his screenplay. Plans for a reboot emerged in 2010 but received short shrift from fans of the character when it emerged that the vampire slayer’s creator was once again not involved. Instead, an unknown, untested (but highly photogenic) screenwriter named Whit Anderson was said to be reimagining the character (as well as possibly starring). Shockingly, a few months later, she was dropped after it emerged that her screenplay resembled the scribblings of a sixth-form creative writing student. So let’s see: the hottest writer-director in the world right now also happens to be the guy who created the character you’re planning to make a movie about. Maybe it’s time for rights owners to pick up the phone?

• Chances of happening: 6/10

Serenity 2 and 3

OK, this one might be rather beyond the bounds of possibility, but wouldn’t it be great? The finest space opera since Empire Strikes Back more than deserves to be turned into a Star Wars-style trilogy. The original film, based on Whedon’s excellent Firefly TV series, was hardly a turkey, though it fell just short of making its budget back at the box office. The denouement left matters open for sequels, and anyone who doesn’t want to see Mal and his motley crew of space cowboys take down the Alliance for good (not to mention more of Chiwetel Ejiofor as the superbly sadistic Operative) clearly deserves a torrent of cuss-words aimed in their general direction.

• Chances of happening: 3/10

Terminator 5

At first glance, Whedon seems an unlikely fit for a continuation of James Cameron’s dystopian science fiction saga, which has been on a significant downturn since its originator stepped away following 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Whedon’s main qualification is that he has actually expressed an interest in getting involved with a new film, offering in jest to buy the rights for £10,000 a couple of years back. Arnold Schwarzenegger is said to be up for another stint as the T800, and could certainly benefit from a touch of Whedon wit to brighten up his Teutonic tones.

• Chances of happening: 5/10

Afterlife

Genuine Whedonites may remember Dollhouse, the writer’s futuristic TV show about brainwashed operatives who are "imprinted" with the personalities and skills of trained professionals, allowing them to carry out almost any required task. It was weird, left-field, morally dubious and never quite held together, but nevertheless made for a highly entertaining show. Many of the ideas are said to have been drawn from a screenplay for a film titled Afterlife which has never been filmed. Whedon sold it to studio Sony for $1.5m in 1994, but again it ended up in Hollywood purgatory.

• Chances of happening: 3/10

There are dozens more unfinished, unfilmed and unlikely Whedon projects out there, of course. In an ideal world, which would you love to see make it to the big screen?