Joss Whedon
Joseph "Joss" Hill Whedon (b. June 23, 1964) is a writer, director, executive producer, and creator of several television series, most famously Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He has also written several film scripts and several comic book series.
He attended high school at Winchester College in England and received a film degree from Wesleyan University in 1987.
Television work
After moving to Los Angeles, Whedon secured his first writing job on the television series Roseanne.
Whedon has been described as the world's first third-generation TV writer. He is the son of Tom Whedon, a successful screenwriter for The Electric Company in the 1970s and The Golden Girls in the 1980s, and the grandson of John Whedon, a writer for The Donna Reed Show in the 1950s.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Years after having his script for the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer filmed (the interpretation by director Fran Rubel Kuzui having been poorly received by critics and audiences), Whedon revived the concept as a television series of the same name. Buffy the Vampire Slayer went on to become a critical and cult hit, with the episode "Hush" receiving an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding writing in a drama series in 2000. Whedon wrote and directed the musical episode "Once More, with Feeling", which featured the show's cast in singing and dancing roles and also recieved an Emmy Award nomination. The show ran for five seasons on The WB Network before transferring to UPN for its final two seasons. Though it premiered on Mondays at 9pm, Buffy ran since the middle of the second season on Tuesdays at 8pm. (In the aforementioned musical episode, Buffy makes the Brechtian comment, "Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday.")
Angel
Angel was a spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, featuring her vampire-with-a-soul boyfriend as the title character. It was created by Whedon in conjunction with David Greenwalt. Debuting in September 1999 on the WB, the show was broadcast after Buffy on Tuesday evenings; but when Buffy switched networks in 2001, Angel aired in a number of different time slots, and rarely attained the ratings of its predecessor. The WB cancelled the show in May 2004, but network executives have hinted that it might be brought back in some fashion.
Firefly
In 2002, Firefly, which Whedon produced with Tim Minear, was canceled by Fox after only 11 episodes had been shown, out of a total of 14 that had been made. Whedon had been writing a movie script based on the TV series for Universal Studios for about a year when the Firefly series was released on DVD. The excellent sales of the DVD set ensured the movie would be produced, and in early 2004 Whedon announced that his proposal for a Firefly movie had been greenlighted by Universal. Shooting started in July 2004, and the film, Serenity, was released on September 30, 2005 to widespread critical and fan acclaim, but mediocre results at the box office. As of November 2005 Serenity's worldwide earnings were about $2.7 million short of the film's $39 million budget, but it is expected to make a profit with DVD sales.
Movies
Whedon has written or co-written several movies including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Toy Story, Alien: Resurrection and Titan A.E.. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Toy Story's screenplay.
He also wrote uncredited drafts or re-writes of Speed, Mortal Kombat, Waterworld, Twister and X-Men, although little of Whedon's work remained in the final drafts of any of these screenplays (his script for Mortal Kombat originally included Goro as a main character). In interviews Whedon has refused responsibility for some of these films. He has said that he had a good script for Alien: Resurrection, which was later spoiled by the director. His Waterworld script was thrown out, and only two of his lines were kept in the final script of X-Men. Even the Buffy movie had not been in keeping with his intentions [1]. According to Graham Yost, the credited writer of Speed, Whedon wrote most of its dialog (see examples of credit conflicts in the WGA credit system).
Most recently he wrote and directed Serenity, based on his television series Firefly, and has been signed to write and direct Warner Brothers' 2007 adaptation of Wonder Woman.
A week before the release of Serenity, Variety announced that Universal Pictures had greenlighted a spec script by Whedon titled Goners which he will also direct. [2]
Comic books
Whedon, a lifelong comic book fan, is the author of the Dark Horse Comics miniseries Fray which takes place in the far future of the Buffyverse. Although the miniseries took literally years to finish, it was a great success. Whedon has mentioned returning to Fray at some point when there is time in his busy schedule.
Like many other authors from the Buffy TV show, he also contributed to the show's comic book version: He wrote the main storyline of the five issue mini series Tales of the Vampires and three stories in the anthology Tales of the Slayers, including one featuring Melaka Fray from Fray.
Whedon is currently writing Astonishing X-Men in Marvel Comics' popular line of comics about the X-Men. The title, recreated specifically for Whedon, has been one of Marvel's best-selling comics as of 2005 and was nominated for several Eisner Awards including Best Serialized Story, Best Continuing Story, Best New Series, and Best Writer.
The three-issue miniseries Serenity, based on the Firefly series and leading up to the film Serenity, was released June through August 2005. Co-written with Brett Matthews and pencilled by Will Conrad, it features covers drawn by John Cassaday, J. G. Jones, and Bryan Hitch, as well as other artists for the remaining 2 issues. The first two issues sold out and went to a second print.
Common themes and motifs in Whedon's writing
Feminism
Whedon identifies himself as a feminist, and feminist themes are common in his work. The most obvious example is the apparently weak teenage girl who is actually extremely strong and powerful, seen in Buffy, Firefly, and Serenity. Feminist scholars have examined Whedon's work, with both positive and negative assessments: see Buffy the Vampire Slayer and social issues. For his part, Whedon credits his mother as the inspiration for his feminist worldview. When Roseanne Barr asked him how he could write so well for women, he replied, "If you met my mom, you wouldn't ask." [3]
One early model for Whedon's strong teenage girl characters was Kitty Pryde, one of the X-Men. "If there's a bigger influence on Buffy than Kitty, I don’t know what it was. She was an adolescent girl finding out she has great power and dealing with it." [4] Many of Whedon's young female characters make similar discoveries. Whedon has now come full circle, writing the character of Kitty Pryde in the Astonishing X-Men comic.
Dialogue
The dialogue in Joss Whedon's shows and movies usually involves rapid-fire wit, pop culture references both notable and obscure, and (especially in Buffy) the turning of of nouns into adjectives by adding a "y" at the end of the word ("listy"). Other writers have often tried to copy or replicate this style, arguably not always succesfully. Some viewers and critics thought that the writers of Buffy went to a high school to study the ways the students talk, but, according to one of the Buffy writers, "It's just the way that Joss actually talks."
Death
Template:Spoiler In all of Whedon's shows (especially the long-running Buffy) characters die a lot. This frequently includes extras and minor characters, as might be expected in action-based shows and movies, but Whedon will also kill off main characters. When he does, he usually deliberately tries to make the audience care about the character before his or her death, which he describes as "doing [his] job". Whedon frequently kills off fan-favorite characters right after something very good happens to them. Some of of the most hurtful and memorable deaths were Joyce and Tara of Buffy, Doyle Wesley and [[Fred]] of Angel, and Book and Wash of Firefly. Whedon's fans often respond strongly to these character deaths.
Quotes
- "It insults me that people take my work seriously. I just wanted to meet chicks."
- "Remember, always be yourself. Unless you suck."
- "I definitely think that a woman kicking ass is extraordinarily sexy. If I wasn't compelled on a very base level by that archetype, I wouldn't have created that character. I mean, yes, I have a feminist agenda, but it's not like I made a chart." (Rolling Stone, April 2000)
- "Very occasionally, if you really pay attention, life doesn’t suck!"
See also
References
- "Suicide Girls: Joss Whedon interview". October 7.
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