Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Back on the chain gang

I found a picture of you
So, what's all about, then? Geekness, fandom, life, this business called show? While recovering I saw the Star Wars documentary, reliving the excitement, the ups, the downs, the wacky hairdos. It was a welcome distraction and had some footage I'd not seen before. Ole Georgie-boy, he knew (and still knows!) a thing or two about how to make a movie. The sheer persistence and bloody-mindedness needed to get the thing done. The compromises and the tears. And he changed the way movies were made, no doubt about it. Good business sense but still an artist. What a guy. (Still not had my copy of Star Wait, BTW).

The powers that be
And yet...there is controversy over the way things were done. Breaks with the writer's and director's guilds hurt him financially and no doubt personally, but it's hard to see how things could have played differently. Now we are lucky that the recent Writers Strike came to a fairly amicable ending and works are back in progress. The way things are going at the moment it would be good indeed to have some inspiring, uplifting productions to look forward to in Autumn (ok, Fall, if you must).

To a place in the past
For me, there is the prospect of seeing a new Joss Whedon series as it comes out! This will be a first for me. England has great TV (and I miss the BBC A LOT), but always getting things second hand was really hard. You will probably gasp to hear that we had only four (yes, FOUR) TV stations in our house. There should have been 5 but we were in a valley and couldn't get the reception. And the satellite channels were so rubbish I couldn't be bothered to have them. And we couldn't get cable because of the valley...Yes, no wonder I was so out of date (...but I still wouldn't have satellite if we moved back). Now I have over 50 channels-worth of rubbish to click through! That's progress, I guess.

A circumstance beyond our control
But Dollhouse - that will be worth it. In fact, I've been checking the boards and already we are poised to start the 'Bring back Dollhouse' petition just in case Fox pull the plug. Now, I'm not going to start an anti-Fox campaign because who knows what goes on in these big corporations. I'm sure there are many able and dedicated people working at the Network. There have apparently been a lot of personnel changes since Firefly was so cruelly squished. So hope springs eternal. The writing for Dollhouse has been going on apace according to Whedonesque and other sources, so it will be interesting to see when casting is going to start and who gets what.

When I see what they have done
Oh yes, and we might get some exclusive insights into how it's all going, but you have to keep this really, really hush-hush. I mean it! I have some insider information from the world of Joss. Yes, I am about to get hold of some authentic extracts from Joss' personal diaries! Me! Now, don't go spreading that around because the deal could still fall through. Obviously, in order to protect the innocent and save my own butt I'll have to amend them slightly, so some of the details might not be 100% accurate. I'm meeting the guy (well, I'm assuming he's a guy) downtown later in the week so I'll let you know. He's emailing some older extracts today so I'll soon know if they're going to be worth it. As soon as I can check it all out I'll start posting. Here's hoping.

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