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| Okay. . .so I called the Universal rep this afternoon, just sort of a "Hi. . .just wanted to see if you guys were in a position to give me hard confirmation on Serenity showing at Mission Valley." This is cool #1. . .he said, "I think we can do that. . .I'm just not sure when. They're being a little weird..." and I realize he thinks I'm talking about an ADVANCE screening. This is cool b/c he was actually in the 'advance screening' state of mind. So. . .I reassure him that the only date I'm w**king on with him is September 30th. . .that I realize he's got tons on his plate and I don't want to ask for anything uber-special. . .just want to make the nationwide release something of memory. THEN he tells me. . ."Oh. . .you guys probably won't even have to wait until September 30th anymore. Our test markets and advance screenings are off the charts. . .we had no idea. . .when you said, 'Big following', I didn't realize how big. . ." And THEN he said, Quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "All of us (Meaning the Distribution folk at 'Versal) really wish we'd just gone ahead and premiered it in May. It's w**king out as well as "Star Wars" and if we'd started in May, it would have run all summer." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now. . . See. . . For a Firefly fan to say, "It'll be as big as Episode 3!!!" is delerium and delusion. For a MOVIE CRITIC to say, "It'll be as big as Episode 3!!!" is optimistic if not slightly unrealistic. For a DISTRIBUTOR. . .who's JOB involves looking at numbers and analyzing statistics, etc. etc. etc. . . to say something along those lines, however. . .and to have the OBVIOUS frustration in his voice of "Dammit, I wish we'd thought of that". . . I mean. . . WOW. So. . .yeah. As the conversation ended, his words were, "I'd go ahead and look for a nationwide release to be earlier than September 30th." |
| QUOTE (prophecy girl @ Jun 15 2005, 10:41 AM) |
| just wonder if the film will also be release early in the uk :ponder: |
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| where's the fingers crossed smiley>> |
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| The premiere of the new and edgy European trailer for Serenity will be held at London Film and Comic Con 3; UIP have given us exclusive rights to air it first at this show, ahead of anywhere else in the world. In conjunction with this exclusive, the Official UIP Serenity Booth will be handing out posters and other brand new promotional freebies to fans attending the show, the first place in the world these will be available! Stay tuned for further updates. |
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| The best sci-fi TV series you’ve never seen has gone from cancellation to the big screen. Will a never-tried marketing strategy w**k for "Serenity"? "HI, MY NAME IS JOSS WHEDON. Before we begin the special screening, I have a little story I want to tell you. It’s about a TV show called Firefly." I’m sitting in a movie theater in Portland and along with 200 other fans, I’m staring at a 20-foot-tall projection of the bleary, peanut-shaped head of Joss Whedon--creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; he’s snarkily introducing Serenity--the partially-completed film we’re about to watch. We’re paying to see this unfinished movie four months before its release date. It’s the second of three rounds of sold-out sneak-preview screenings, scheduled for May 5 and 26 and June 23 in major cities. It’s an unprecedented way to market a movie. But then, Serenity itself is unusual: It’s a big-screen sequel to a canceled TV show named Firefly--a space-Western that was the biggest bomb of Whedon’s producing career. "Firefly went on the air two years ago," the giant Whedon continues, "and was immediately hailed by critics as one of the most canceled shows of the year." Everyone laughs. "It was ignored and abandoned, and the story should end there--but it doesn’t. Because the people who made the show and the people who saw the show--which is, roughly, the same number of people--fell in love with it a little bit. Too much to let it go. . . . In Hollywood, people like that are called unrealistic, quixotic, obsessive. In my world, they’re called ’Browncoats.’" (Firefly fans call themselves "Browncoats," for reasons I’ll explain in a minute.) "This movie should not exist," he continues. "Failed TV shows don’t get made into major motion pictures--unless the creator, the cast, and the fans believe beyond reason. . . . It is, in an unprecedented sense, your movie. "Which means, if it sucks, it’s your fault." WHEDON IS RIGHT: Serenity really does belong to its fans, who are now willing pawns in one of the stranger movie marketing campaigns ever devised. You can read a tidy summation of the movie’s TV incarnation, Firefly, here. Think of it as Star Wars, if Han Solo were the main character, and he still shot Greedo first. In Firefly’s case, the "galaxy far, far away" is a solar system humanity is colonizing after the Earth’s demise. East and West have mingled to the degree that people dress like cowboys and curse in Chinese. The Han Solo character is Capt. Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion)--a smuggler who led a group of soldiers (called "Browncoats") on the losing side of a galactic civil war. And Reynolds’ Millennium Falcon is the Serenity--a cargo ship that’s home to nine bickering outlaws. Of course, this premise could be loosely applied to any number of horrible rogues-on-a-spaceship entertainments--from Space Rangers to Kev Trek to Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone to the pirate-crew supporting cast of Alien Resurrection (written, incidentally, by Whedon). What made Firefly stand out was its odd, romantic characters and gutsy, strange writing. The dialogue tended to be a bizarre puree of wisecracks, old-timey Western-paperback patois, and snatches of Chinese. The stories were mostly simple genre exercises: train heists, double-crosses, duels at dawn, running from the law. And they allowed the crew--which included a fugitive doctor (Sean Maher), his psychic sister (Summer Glau), a missionary (Ron Glass), a cute mechanic (Jewel Staite), and a courtesan (Morena Baccarin)--to bump and occasionally grind against each other in amusing ways. The chemistry was irresistible. And so, of course, the Fox network pulled the plug in 2002 after showing 11 of the 14 filmed episodes. The network even decided, in its infinite wisdom, to air the episodes out of order, so that the final broadcast was the two-hour pilot, which was, unfortunately, the episode which spelled out Firefly’s rather elaborate concept. As an afterthought, Fox released the 14 episodes on DVD and something surprising happened: The expensive boxed set sold somewhere north of 200,000 copies. On the strength of the DVD sales, Universal green-lit a small-budget movie, to be written and directed by Whedon. MAKE NO MISTAKE: Budgeted at a mere $40 million, Serenity will almost certainly break even once box office, home-video, and other aftermarket revenues are counted--which means Universal can afford to use the film to beta-test a new way of selling movies. Rough-draft versions of films--with temporary music, editing and "placeholder" special effects that look like Nintendo 64 screenshots--usually have a carefully controlled release only to tightly-monitored focus-group screenings. They’re never shown repeatedly to their core audiences (paying core audiences, mind you) four months in advance of their official release dates. Nor do actors and producers attend these screenings with barnstorming vigor: But in Serenity’s case, all the major cast members have made surprise appearances during the screenings--signing autographs and holding lengthy Q&A sessions afterwards. At the May 26 showing in Portland, some significant studio brass were on hand. Universal Pictures marketing bigwig Julie Brantley and Serenity executive producer Chris Buchanan introduced the film and watched it from café chairs on the side of the auditorium. (Buchanan is so courtly towards the show’s base that he still posts at the old Propsero Firefly Forum under the name "AffableChap".) Buchanan explains the altruistic fan-screening strategy: After the film’s release date was pushed from April to September--officially to make room for The Interpreter--Whedon asked Universal to set up screenings to reward Firefly fans. "We wanted to reach out to you guys, because you’re why we’re here," Buchanan says. But it’s altruism with side benefits. The screenings preempt the sort of negative buzz that can erupt in the wake of a scheduling change, since multiple showings of a w**k-in-progress prove that Whedon isn’t hiding Serenity because of quality issues. And then there’s word of mouth. As Buchanan says at one point, "Who’s gonna tell their friends [about Serenity] more than the Browncoats?" After the screening, one fan asks Buchanan point-blank if he’s worried about the previews cannibalizing an audience that now might not turn up in September. His answer is telling: "We know you guys are gonna go September 30 to see the finished movie," he replies. "[Tonight’s preview] was on 20 screens with--what, 250, 300 people per theater? So you’re talking about maybe 5,000 people. But on an opening weekend of a movie, you’re talking about 3,000 screens. We’re not worried." And even if the producers are worried, it’s a calculated gamble. The June 23 wave of previews has been expanded to 35 cities--including a couple in Canada--but the movie has still only been seen by a small percentage of hard-core fans. So the screenings create the illusion of scarcity and keep the fan message boards alive by relieving pre-release suspense in little kettle-steam puffs. It creates all-new sub-hierarchies of fans with "I saw it before you did" bragging rights. It inspires free advertising in the form of entertainment-press stories (including, well, this one) about the "Browncoat phenomenon." And, best of all for Team Whedon, revenue from these screenings will very likely be applied to Serenity’s opening-weekend gross. The marketing plan rises to evil-genius levels when you realize all the ways the move from April to September pried open six months’ worth of free-publicity for the entire Firefly/Serenity franchise. Since the fan screenings began, Firefly DVD sales have shot up the genre charts at Barnes & Noble and Amazon. In July, a Dark Horse Serenity comic book, written by Whedon, will hit shelves, and the Sci-Fi Channel will soon start broadcasting the 14 Firefly episodes--all of them, in order. None of which cost Universal a dime. There could be another hidden benefit of the September release: By the fall, some key competitors will be lying in their cinematic tombs. As Ain’tItCoolNews.com put it recently, "Most of the major geek franchises are rolling flaming across their finish lines. Star Trek just lolled off the air. Star Wars is migrating to TV. The Wachowskis reduced the Matrix audience to--what?--the Venn-diagram intersection of philosophy undergrads, S&M aficionados, wuxia geeks, and wankers in denial? And the rights to The Hobbit are currently being pried apart by the jackals of finance." "As Joss has always said, it’s about world domination," Buchanan laughs. "You gotta pick your shot. We’re like: ’Lucas? Done.’" NONE OF WHICH MATTERS to the Browncoats who started standing in line 5:00 p.m. for the 10:00 p.m. screening. Publisher’s Weekly dubbed this sort of gathering a "Nerd Prom," but the Serenity queue feels more like a Nerd High-School Reunion. The overwhelming suggestion is that this is where "Star Wars" fans go when they grow up. It’s an older crowd, courtly and even genteel, many of them killing time in line with their PDAs. They make and sell their own bootleg merchandise with Universal’s tacit, look-the-other-way approval. They use words like "menfolk." So pleasant are the Browncoats that at the screening Sarah McKinlay--a woman wearing a floor-length dress and a vest inscribed with quotes from various Whedon shows--gives handwritten thank-you cards to the studio publicist and theater personnel. Handwritten thank-you cards. The studio flack, acclimated to the more, shall we say, adolescent behavior of other sci-fi fans, looked as though he might cry. I later learn that Rick Bilyeu--a local courier and quite possibly the biggest Firefly fan in the whole wide world--stopped by the theater earlier in his white delivery van, which is plastered with two magnetic Serenity signs. (I made Rick, age 51, the star of a comic I drew for the Oregonian about the May 5 screening.) Rick skipped the May 26 screening, telling me he wanted to "give another Browncoat a chance." Instead, he dropped by to show off his memorabilia collection, which includes a chunk of the Firefly set, a replica of Malcolm Reynolds’ pistol, and a Firefly press kit re-assembled through multiple auctions. Another member of the Serenity audience is Ted Hurliman, who works for the Northwest Film Center, which puts on the Portland International Film Festival. "I think there’s something significantly wrong with Star Wars--not with the story, but with what it’s done to the pop culture at large," Hurliman says. "Everyone I talk to who’s loved [Revenge of the Sith] has said, ’Sure, the acting is bad. Sure, the whole Darth Vader screaming "NOOO!" was bad. But there were three good things.’ So basically now, to make a good movie, you can have bad acting, you can have terrible sets--as long as you get one or two good things in there." "Then I went, ’Wait. There’s this new thing that’s about to happen,’" he says. "I mean, Firefly didn’t even have aliens. It had people making a living." As Hurliman is talking, a fellow in an awkwardly made knit cap--a nod to a tuke worn by Jayne, one of the Firefly characters--takes the stage. He starts leading the auditorium in a halting sing-along of a folk ditty heard in an episode of the show: He robbed from the rich and he gave to the poor! Stood up to the Man and he gave him what for! Our love for him now ain’t hard to explain! The Hero of Canton--the man they call Jayne! Hurliman smiles as more and more fans join in on the song, mumbling like parishioners who can’t find their hymnal page. As I wander around the auditorium, Browncoats--some of them suspecting I’m a studio flunky--walk up and offer me messages to pass along to Hollywood executives: "All of us here are delighted that Universal had the wherewithal to move forward with this project." "We’re gonna take [Firefly] from the very bottom all the way to the very top." "Fox made the most monumental mistake in its history by not taking advantage of this franchise." That last one is debatable. Fox still controls Firefly’s TV-broadcast rights--for which the Sci-Fi Channel just paid $450,000--and an enormous chunk of Serenity’s success rests on Universal moving as many Fox DVDs as it can between now and September 30. You see, even if Serenity bombs, Fox will have reaped some very tidy aftermarket revenue for a show they aired only 11 times. Without even lifting a finger. SO HOW’S THE MOVIE? *****SPOILERS***** Well, despite a title that makes it sound like a Buddhist art film (and a logo that looks like a sign for a boutique candle store), Serenity is a harrowing, slightly dented Firefly series finale. The film more or less wraps up the TV show’s story arc about the psychic sister, River Tam--a crazy girl rescued by her brother Simon from a lab where government spooks poked needles in her brain. The crew is pursued by an eerily calm, sword-carrying assassin (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Vast conspiracies are uncovered. Captain Reynolds takes a number of Harrison Ford-style beatings. There’s a joke about "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Adam Baldwin turns in a hilarious, star-making performance as Jayne, a man so tough and stupid he cracks wise with a spear through his leg. The story is grim and quippy and should make sense, more or less, to non-fans. But if the preview-screening audiences are any indication, anyone who has seen Firefly or cares about its characters will be knocked on his or her fanny by the final third, during which Whedon basically directs the movie like it’s his last--heaping world-changing, Kobayashi Maru levels of abuse on his characters. It’s a nervy, almost sadistic way to reward the long-suffering Browncoats--who were literally gasping and crying during the screening--but it also immediately removes the sense of fluffy-pillow safety that episodic television provides. This strong cup of coffee is mitigated by the fact that, on a structural level, Serenity is also a self-referential valentine to its fans. By film’s end, Reynolds and his crew are circumventing vast bureaucracies to broadcast a long-lost message, aided by a dork named "Mr. Universe" who basically surfs the Web from his own hidden planet. The metaphor for Firefly’s own struggle--and its possible salvation, thanks to fans surfing the Web from their basements and office cubicles--is too blatant to be accidental. (The film’s current tag line is the equally unsubtle "You Can’t Stop the Signal.") This love-letter quality--combined with the laughs, scares, and human moments missing from another notable science-fiction franchise--is probably enough to paper over the film’s problems, some of which may be addressed in the editing room over the next few months anyway. A few characters get short shrift. Mr. Universe is deeply silly. A couple of post-traumatic emotional beats could be handled better. And our heroes fight cannibals driven mad at the edge of space who seem just a little too crazy to aim straight, much less pilot spaceships. At any rate, it’s a pretty bold, take-no-prisoners story to be throwing in front of your fans four months early. Whedon’s got brass. As he says toward the end of his opening message: "If this movie matters to you, let somebody know. Let everybody know. Make yourselves heard. "If you don’t like the movie, this is a time for quiet, silent contemplation." |
| QUOTE (prophecy girl @ Aug 25 2005, 10:56 AM) |
| Firefly - "Serenity" Mention - Iofilm.co.uk negative Review -> http://www.whedon.info/article.php3?id_article=10979 <_< |
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Joss on Serenity - "it was the hardest piece of writing I've ever done". A good interview from a mainstream UK broadcaster (contains a couple of brief minor plot spoilers). |
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| First look at the 'special' Serenity action figure. Very spoilery for the movie but it does have 14 points of articulation (which apparently is a good thing). |
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| Serenity TV spots available online via Universal's Serenity site, under "Menu", "Video" - called "Passenger" and "Good guys" (Flash required). They showcase a lot of funny dialog, a bit of mystery mixed with a dollop of violence and a smidgen of CGI. Fellow Whedonesque posters report they have been airing with sports, MTV and last nights Fox season premieres (eg The Simpsons). With 3 weeks to go, this is some serious exposure -- arguably the most Joss' w**k has ever had. |
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| Whedon Not Serene About Serenity Joss Whedon, writer and director of the upcoming SF movie Serenity, told SCI FI Wire that he's just starting to get nervous about the potential reception for his film, which is based on his failed Fox TV series Firefly. "How nervous am I? Uh, I'm actually pretty calm," Whedon said in a new conference in Beverly Hills, Calif. "I am being medicated right now steadily to keep me that way. I got really nervous when I realized, ultimately, I have absolutely no idea how this movie is going to do. I believe that if people see it, they will like it, and that is sort of my first job, and I feel like that was more or less accomplished. But I have no idea if they actually will see it. And if they don't see it, how can they like it?" Serenity picks up the story of Capt. Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and the crew of a transport ship 500 years in the future as they run the edge of the galaxy trying to evade the malevolent Alliance and the rapacious Reavers. Though the show was canceled in the middle of its first season, it found a loyal audience on DVD. Whedon said that he's trying not to panic on the eve of Serenity's premiere. "I sort of realized it's out of my hands," he said. "I will do everything in my power to try and get people to see it, but there's only so much that's in my power, and if that they don't, ... or if they—how can I put this?—hate it, then that's just ... what's going to happen. There's nothing I really can do about it. I believe in the film. I loved making it. I love what we came up with. I love everyone. I'm really proud of all my actors. So that's going to have to sustain me. You know, that's me now. Talk to me on the morning of the 30th, when I'm hiding in the bathtub with a hat on." Serenity opens Sept. 30. It's being released by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. |
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| Serenity Cast Reveled In Time The cast of the upcoming SF movie Serenity told SCI FI Wire that they had one big luxury making the movie version of their canceled Fox TV series Firefly: time. "I think it was the time factor," Jewel Staite (Kaylee) said in a new conference. "We had so much more time on the movie than we did on the series. We could do a three-page scene all day long if we wanted to, which was nice. You know, when you're doing series w**k, you have 12 hours, and then that's it, and in those 12 hours, you have about eight or nine pages to shoot. And yeah, on the movie I just felt like we had all this rehearsal time. We could stop. We could talk about the characters, we could talk about the vibe of the scene, what we were going for." Serenity centers on the crew of a transport ship 500 years in the future. It picks up the story of Firefly, which Fox canceled in the middle of its first year. For the movie, "We had two weeks of rehearsal time before we started filming, and I think we focused a lot on the main dialogue scenes early on," said Adam Baldwin (Jayne). "But we also focused on that 'Mule' [a hovercraft] chase scene, because we had two weeks of exterior w**k ... on location that we had to get in those two weeks to stay on budget and on time. And the weather cooperated, and we were able to get all that stuff in. And I feel that once we got to the studio, the controlled atmosphere on the sound stages, we were home free. ... It just, it felt like we were back workshopping our little TV show ... on the gigantic Universal sound stages." "It was very strange," agreed Sean Maher, who plays Dr. Simon Tam. "We had obviously a lot more time to tell the story than we did when we were shooting the series. But ... to me it just felt like so similar ... to the show. ... Everything just felt a little more spectacular. It just felt a little grander, and there was a wonderful feeling of redemption to sort of come back with these people. It was this great reunion, and so it was a wonderful energy on the set." Serenity opens Sept. 30. |
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| Joss Whedon's Fans are Scaring Me ... Since reviewing the movie "Serenity" last week, I've become convinced that the new film by writer/director Joss Whedon has spawned the most hard core science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts ever to walk this planet. This includes people who learn to speak Klingon, people who remain in character after they leave the Renaissance Faire and people who boycotted the "Lord of the Rings" movies because there were elves at Helm's Deep. www.movieweb.com This is the greatest movie ever. We should all stop seeing other movies and just watch this one over and over. ... Now please stop sending angry e-mails. As you may be able to tell -- if nothing else by the fact that I casually use words such as "Klingon" and "Helm's Deep" -- I am a huge geek. I recently went to a screening of "Serenity" and gave it a glowing review. Out of nearly 50 movies I reviewed this year, it was one of only three that I gave the coveted Chronicle clapping-guy-falling-out-of-the-chair rating. Then the hate mail started. From "Serenity" fans. They were angry that the review didn't praise Whedon's TV show "Firefly" enough ("Serenity" is the movie version of "Firefly"). They were angry that I pointed out that critics generally didn't like that show. One reader saw the review as an attack on all of science fiction: "Probably the only way you could have made this a more reprehensible article would have been for you to posit that hacking and phishing crime would decrease if you aborted every Star Trek fan's baby." My feelings certainly aren't hurt, and believe it or not most of us greatly appreciate feedback from readers -- even those who accuse us of seeking the genocide of Trekkies. But as a lifelong dork, who wishes there was more science fiction on the screen, these responses make me worry: Is this a rogue geek faction or is this what science fiction fandom is becoming? What are our chances of seeing more movies like "Serenity" if fans are ranting at the critics who loved the movie the most? I should clarify that science fiction fans in general are greatly misunderstood and the majority of "Serenity" fans are probably perfectly normal. I wrote an article on "Firefly" when that Fox network TV series came out and was quickly canceled three years ago, and none of the fans I talked to spoke in tongues or smeared feces on the wall. The movie would certainly never have been made without the support of fans, who I assume were communicating rationally when they helped convince Universal to green light the project. But in terms of the extremists, I'm putting the "Serenity" uber-fans at the top of the list of zealous letter-writers, just edging out people who hate Michael Savage, people who love Nancy Grace and people who love Michael Savage (in that order). Posted By: Peter Hartlaub (Email) | October 04 2005 at 04:25 PM |
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| Whedon seeks return of 'gritty' sci-fi Director Joss Whedon has said he made new film Serenity partly because he wanted to see the return of the "gritty" side of science fiction. Whedon, best known as the creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, based Serenity on his own short-lived TV series Firefly. In it, a crew of rebels and smugglers - the losers in a war against a brutal military dictatorship known as the Alliance - are pursued after giving a lift to two mysterious strangers, one of whom is a teenage psychic. "There's something in science fiction, which I love very much, that I've missed of late - which is a sort of grittiness, the reality of what it must be like to be up in a small community or a small ship," Whedon told the BBC. "So I had a perfectly disparate set of elements - I had people who were actual size in a story that was larger than life, and I think when you put those two elements together you get the most exciting kind of film-making." Touch of Solo Whedon said that much of Serenity has elements of a Western, in terms of the element of life on the edge, where people exist remotely in areas where laws are often non-existent. He admitted that the term "science fiction/Western" made people "cringe", but he said that the genres were interesting because they reflected a way of life that was ever more distant in an inter-connected world. "They think it's going to be big hats, and it's going to be hokey. The fact of the matter is that I think the two are intrinsically related, because it's the final frontier - and what's exciting about frontier life is the physicality of it. "That's something that we're losing in the internet age. "So to me, the Western and science fiction belong together." Unusually for a film of this type, the commander of the ship, Mal Reynolds - played by Nathan Fillon - is not an obvious hero, although the story is about him. Whedon admitted there was more than a touch of the Star Wars character Han Solo in Mal. "I've seen Star Wars more times than I care to count, and Han Solo is an enormous influence on Mal," he said. "The idea of the way Han Solo lived was really one of the biggest inspirations for the show - but it was the idea of, 'what if he just lived that way, and never met Luke Skywalker and never heard about the Force - what if he just had to make a living?' "Then, when he's finally presented with a truly epic story - which is what happens in the film - it's not a happy story." Through Mal's powerful lieutenant Zoe, Serenity also continues the theme of strong female characters - something that is consistent throughout Whedon's w**k, dating back to his first job as a scriptwriter on comedy series Rosanne. "Zoe is possibly more powerful than Mal, because her moral compass didn't get knocked out of whack when she lost the war," he explained. "She's somebody who has managed to make a very decent normal life. She has a strict sense of morality, and absolutely can command both the ship and the crew." Whedon is now in the midst of tackling another strong female character, as he is directing the feature film version of Wonder Woman. "I hadn't intended to make the movie until I started thinking about what that character was, why she was an icon," he said. "What was fascinating about her was that in a way she'd become an icon without the benefit of some of the great storytelling that had been done in some of the old and more recent Superman, Batman and Spidermans. "She's a goddess, and she will not be denied. I tried to deny her and failed." Story from BBC NEWS: |
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| 00:00:21:21 (EXTENDED LILAC ENTRANCE) 00:01:05:20 (EXTENDED KAYLEE AND JAYNE) 00:02:18:20 (INARA AND SHEYDRA) 00:02:12:15 (OPERATIVE TRACKS MAL) 00:02:22:15 (EXTENDED RIVER AND SIMON/HAVEN OPENING) 00:01:27:01 (ESCAPE FROM COMPANION TRAINING HOUSE) 00:00:13:17 (MAL AND INARA SHUTTLE CHASE) 00:02:16:04 (MAL AND INARA QUIET MOMENT) 00:01:06:20 (EXTENDED MAL AND OPERATIVE CODA) We'll Have A Fruity Oaty Good Time 1m 35s Serenity - Future History 4m 27s |
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| Official Universal press release for the Serenity DVD From Yahoo.com - By Webmaster - 2005-11-9 From the Creator of ’Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ ’Angel’ and ’Firefly’ Comes a Visually Spectacular and Thrilling Action Adventure Tuesday November 8, 5:58 pm ET Serenity Landing in Stores December 20, 2005 on DVD and VHS From Universal Studios Home Entertainment ’A triumph! A Thrillingly Original Science-Fiction Creation.’ - Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ — A band of intergalactic outlaws on the run emerge as the most unlikely of heroes in the visually spectacular and thrilling action adventure, Serenity, available on DVD and VHS on December 20, 2005 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. Written and directed by Academy Award® and Emmy nominee Joss Whedon, the creative genius behind "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," Serenity combines mind-blowing visual effects with an ingenious plot and unforgettable characters to take viewers on an edge-of-the-seat chase through fantastic and dangerous new worlds. Based on Whedon’s cult phenomenon television series "Firefly," this explosive adventure features the series’ original cast including Nathan Fillion (Dracula 2000, Saving Private Ryan), Gina Torres (The Matrix Revolutions, The Matrix Reloaded), Alan Tudyk (I, Robot, "Into the West") and Adam Baldwin (Men In Black, "The Poseidon Adventure"). Serenity transports its audience into a truly original, fully realized vision of mankind’s possible future. Set in a post-apocalyptic universe, Serenity finds Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and the crew of the rebel spaceship Serenity taking on both the all-powerful Universal Alliance and the murderous Reavers — cannibalistic savages living on the outskirts of civilization — as they fight to protect a beautiful young fugitive with a deadly secret. Jam-packed with deleted scenes, outtakes and more exclusive features, the DVD is priced at $29.98 SRP. Preorder close is November 15, 2005. INTER-GALACTIC ADVENTURE GARNERS STELLAR REVIEWS Serenity has been hailed by critics for its originality, superb performances and non-stop action. Mark S. Allen of UPN-TV/Premiere Radio Networks gushes, "Not since The Matrix has a movie rocked so relentlessly!" while Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle calls Serenity "A triumph!" "An absolute blast," raves John Procaccino of CBS-TV, while Steve Head of IGN.com lauds the film’s "Ultra-cool action." Tom Long of the Detroit News praises the "Slamming action sequences." A WORLD OF EXTRAS Exclusive bonus features on the DVD offer viewers a deeper look into the brilliantly constructed universe of Serenity. - Deleted Scenes - Outtakes - Special Introduction by Joss Whedon — The Oscar® and Emmy-nominated writer/director of Serenity. - Re-lighting the Firefly - What’s in a Firefly? - Feature Commentary with Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel" and "Firefly." SYNOPSIS A passenger with a deadly secret. Six rebels on the run. As assassin in pursuit. When the renegade crew of Serenity agrees to hide a fugitive on their ship, they find themselves in an action-packed battle between the relentless military might of a totalitarian regime who will destroy anything — or anyone — to get the girl back and the bloodthirsty creatures who roam the uncharted areas of space. But, the greatest danger of all may be on their ship. From the mind of Joss Whedon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel") comes a new edge-of-your-seat adventure loaded with explosive battles, gripping special effects and fantastic new worlds! For more information please visit: www.serenitymovie.com. CAST & FILMMAKERS Director: Joss Whedon Written By: Joss Whedon Produced By: Barry Mendel Executive Producers: Christopher Buchanan, David Lester, Alisa Tager Director of Photography: Jack Green, ASC. Production Designer: Barry Chusid Edited By: Lisa Lassek Costume Designer: Ruth Carter Original Music By: David Newman Cast: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Ron Glass, David Krumholtz and Chiwetel Ejiofor TECHNICAL INFORMATION DVD Street Date: December 20, 2005 Pre-Order Close: November 15, 2005 Copyright: 2005 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved. Price: $ 29.98 SRP Selection Number: 26327 (Widescreen); 26328 (Full Frame) Running Time: 1 Hour 59 Minutes Layers: Dual Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen); 1.33:1 (Full Frame) Rating: PG-13 Technical Info: English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround; English SDH; Spanish and French Subtitles VHS Street Date: December 20, 2005 Pre-Order Close: November 15, 2005 Copyright: 2005 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved. Price: $29.98 SRP Selection Number: 63008 Running Time: 1 Hour 59 Minutes Picture: Full Frame Rating: PG-13 Technical Info: Hi-Fi Stereo Surround For artwork or screeners, please log on to our Web site at www.ushepublicity.com or fax your request to Universal Studios Home Entertainment Publicity at (818) 866-0226. Universal Studios Home Entertainment is a unit of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios (www.universalstudios.com). Universal Studios is a part of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and Entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80%-owned by General Electric, with 20% controlled by Vivendi Universal. CONTACTS Universal Studios Home Entertainment Vivian Mayer Senior Vice President, Publicity (818) 777-3594 Evan Fong Executive Director, Publicity (818) 777-5540 Meghan Gamber Manager, Print Publicity (818) 777-0546 Christine Foy (818) 777-0523 |
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| "I wanted to make a great movie" - Joss on the aftermath of Serenity. Very recent interview with Joss which deals with the box office performance, the DVD and why certain major things had to happen in the movie. There's also the latest update on those rumoured direct to DVD Buffy movies . |
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| Firefly Timeline by Edgar Governo "Here's how it is..." --Malcolm Reynolds, opening narration The Serenity Timeline Giveaway has ended... Warning: This timeline now contains details from the feature film Serenity! |