Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

S E R E N I T Y

nagromme said:
The ONLY disappointment is that the movie didn't miraculously draw the same blockbuster crowds that it would have if it had name-brand star power. That would have been cool, but was never likely. A lot of people choose movies by the cast and are afraid of new actors.
Click to expand...

All of them are talented enough to become stars eventually. I am surprised that they have not been given opportunities based upon what they have already done.

There wasn't a weak member in the cast.
 
I agree--but the known-star thing is what limited it at the box office I think. (That, and Universal's ads picked really obscure reviewers to quote... making it seem like they had to dig for good ones. When in fact big names were lining up with good reviews too! Weird.)

I did see the villain Chiwetel Ejtofor, (sorry, I know it's spelled wrong, I didn't look it up) in Dirty Pretty Things (which I liked). Other than that, Serenity/Firefly had nobody I recognized outside of half a dozen Buffy/Angel villains.

And that's good... most of the star names I know, I know because I avoid them 😀
 
nagromme said:
I did see the villain Chiwetel Ejtofor, (sorry, I know it's spelled wrong, I didn't look it up) in Dirty Pretty Things (which I liked). Other than that, Serenity/Firefly had nobody I recognized outside of half a dozen Buffy/Angel villains.

And that's good... most of the star names I know, I know because I avoid them 😀
Click to expand...

What about "Steve The Pirate - Gar!" from DodgeBall, Detective Ron Harris from Barney Miller or Ricky Linderman from My Bodyguard? 😛

D
 
Not a bad sign: Serenity (the widescreen version alone, not counting the 4:3 version) is Amazon's #1 top selling DVD, and has been for a while.

And Firefly has been bouncing around the top 5, currently #3. Not bad for a years-old single-season under-promoted sci-fi show!

And the new Galactica's at #13. (Season 2.)
 
Don't forget rentals too, not just sales--apparently Serenity has started out really strong in rentals. (Netflix has a long waitlist to get it.)

More Serenity/Firefly current numbers, thanks to sela at whedonesque.com:

Amazon: Serenity #1, Firefly #3
Overstock.com: Firefly at #1, Serenity is #2
DVDPacific: Serenity #3
Barnes&Noble: Serenity #3, Firefly #10
CDUniverse: Serenity #1
DVD-Empire: Serenity #1
3deers.com: Serenity #1
Rogers Video: Serenity #7

Against ALL the other movies out there, old and new, those are good sales and rental figures. Let's hope they continue.
 
Fyi

According to whedonesque.com, another all-day Sci Fi channel Firefly marathon is coming up on Friday: I think it starts with the THIRD (why not FIRST?) episode of Firefly, and goes through all the rest of the episodes in one long day! 12 hours.

I'd probably skip it if you haven't seen the first couple episodes already (the 2-hr pilot and The Train Job--not that the show isn't good out of order, but it's better IN order!). But if you have seen the early eps already, the marathon starts with "Bushwhacked" and you can see the rest. Still, renting the 4 DVDs is better: Sci Fi puts in ads--and they censor the episodes some!

Anyway, apparently it starts this Fri. Jan 6th, at 8AM Eastern / 5AM Pacific (?!).

http://whedonesque.com/comments/9100
 
Badradio said:
Hmmm.... this doesn't bode well. Doesn't rule out a return to tv though, and I can't admit to being too unhappy if that's the case; the tv show just has more depth.
Click to expand...

One of the people in that article actually made some good points. If they made a new series, they could easily fund it if they offered it for download on places like iTunes. Then they wouldn't have to bother about a network airing it (although once they saw how popular the series is, they probably would).

The problem is no one has the forsight to set up something like this. 😡
 
I agree--return to TV would be better! Not on Fox, of course--who I think Whedon said recently he wouldn't work with again. Something like that.

Anyway, that leaves the current status:

* DVD sales still coming in, no decision yet on movie sequels, no decision expected any time soon.

* But Whedon now thinks movie sequels are unlikely.

* But he wants to continue the story in another way if the chance arises.

* Time will tell. Expect no news soon. A TV mini-series, full TV series, or DVD premiere seem like good options. Whedon has a history of getting his vision out despite the odds being against him. And he still has his sense of humor:

Some people also said that you can't call an action movie 'Serenity' but I think that's still okay. What was I going to call it? 'Big Smash Bang With Boobies'? Which was, of course my second choice."

PS, Sci Fi reports that Firefly's effects directly inspired the look of the new Battlestar Galactica:
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=34061
(I'm not reading the full article because supposedly it has spoilers... and I'm WAY behind in my viewing of BSG!)
 
I'll tell ya who Whedon should hook up with:

TNT.

TNT came to the rescue of Babylon 5 back when PTEN (Prime Time Entertainment Network, a division of Warner Brothers) was gonna pull the plug on B5 after their 4th season. TNT re-ran all of the older episodes and paid for the 5th and final season. And then they also ran JMS' Crusade, a B5-spinoff that unfortunately didn't make it past 13 episodes.

TNT runs a lot of their own shows (Wanted, The Closer, etc.), so I bet they could be persuaded to pick up the show.

And if not TNT, then SciFi Channel... they've done wonders with the Stargate shows and Battlestar Galactica, AND SciFi Channel is owned by NBC-Universal... who already own the movie rights to Firefly/Serenity.
 
Sci-fi channel seems the obvious candidate... and with them running Firefly marathons from time to time, it seems they realize how popular the show is and are able to get advertiser support for it.

Perhaps they're doing the marathons just to see how many viewers it attracts? To see if a series would be viable...?
 
Given some of the other things on Sci-Fi - Firefly would do fine - and they package it on the Friday night run they'd have a great viewing.

But the key would be to stagger the new shows with the others, so that the new episodes of Firefly would be shown when all the others are doing the season reruns. I wasn't watching much Sci-Fi when there weren't new episode of BSG and STSG1.

D
 
atari1356 said:
Sci-fi channel seems the obvious candidate...
Click to expand...
You'd think so, but they turned the option down the first time when Fox cancelled it. I know things are different now that the show has a proven fan base, but I'm not banking on anything.
I think I'm more philosophical about it now that the movie has come and gone. When the show was just half a series, it felt wrong on every level, but the movie offered closure (in spectacular fashion) and I'm not so bothered by the idea of more series. If it happens, great: I'd be first in the queue for the dvds. But I'm a big believer in stories having a natural ending, and maybe Serenity wrapped things up well enough. I can't be alone in wishing The Matrix had stayed at the one movie..?
 
Badradio said:
I'm a big believer in stories having a natural ending, and maybe Serenity wrapped things up well enough. I can't be alone in wishing The Matrix had stayed at the one movie..?
Click to expand...

True... and I wish that Star Wars had remained at three... but that's only because the writing and general storyline of those sequels weren't very good.

I think Joss Whedon and crew could do better than that based on what I've seen so far. 🙂
 
Even better (for them), Mr. Anderson, they could do a double staggering... Say, SG-1 and Galactica, then Atlantis and Firefly.

'Cause I'm a devoted Galactica and Firefly fan, and I don't mind Stargate, but I'd never tune in just for it... But if they stagger like that they'll get two hours of my time every friday night.

Of course, that all hinges on it getting picked back up again, and honestly I don't think the prospects are too good 🙁

But hey, we've got what's there. I just bought the DVD yesterday, (second copy, already bought one for a friend) and my DVD set is constantly being used ^_^
 
clayj said:
I'll tell ya who Whedon should hook up with:

TNT.
Click to expand...

Gack, that would certainly kill the show pretty dead. The Babylon 5 rescue was admirable, but it went downhill bigtime after that. Crusade had a brief run precisely because of TNT, who just wanted sex and violence and were unhappy about getting relatively low-key episodes that had, you know, character stuff in them instead of aliens and zap guns. They screwed with the order of the episodes, didn't like the original pilot because it wasn't action-oriented enough (is this sounding horribly, horribly familiar?) and generally were not in tune with the show at all. Unless their attitude has done an about-face (well, it has been a long time, after all), TNT would be as bad as Fox.

--Eric
 
Eric5h5 said:
Gack, that would certainly kill the show pretty dead. The Babylon 5 rescue was admirable, but it went downhill bigtime after that. Crusade had a brief run precisely because of TNT, who just wanted sex and violence and were unhappy about getting relatively low-key episodes that had, you know, character stuff in them instead of aliens and zap guns. They screwed with the order of the episodes, didn't like the original pilot because it wasn't action-oriented enough (is this sounding horribly, horribly familiar?) and generally were not in tune with the show at all. Unless their attitude has done an about-face (well, it has been a long time, after all), TNT would be as bad as Fox.

--Eric
Click to expand...

Bear in mind that the lackluster performance of B5 season 5 had a lot to do with the fact that they tried to cram Shadow war into season 4 when it looked like the series would be done after season 4 (the show had a 5 season story arc). Had it been rescued early enough some of what happened in the end of season 4 would have been pushed into season 5 which could have made it a much better season.

SciFi channel seems the most likely choice for resurrecting Firefly. Give it time, I find it promising that they are still running the FireFly episodes and haven't resorted to running Tripping the Rift or some cheesy show based on a bad Kevin Bacon movie....
 
For all you Firefly/Serenity fans, I bring news of hope. OH, I can only hope this comes to pass in some way shape or form!!! I am so excited about this prospect that I can hardly keep from crying!

http://www.fireflyseason2.com/index.asp

Oh, please, oh, please, oh, PLEASE... Spread the word, my friends! They HAVE to bring this back!! 😀 😀 😀 😀
 
Sounds like some interesting ideas.

I think it may well come back in some form (network, cable, DVD premiere, movies, even paid downloads). BUT a few words of warning:

* That link is NOT an official site in any way. Just something created for (and probably by) fans like us.

* No word should be expected any time soon. Joss Whedon has repeatedly said that any return of these characters is something he'll be keeping in mind long-term, not something that's likely any time soon. (He's got other projects going too, of course.)

* Whedonesque.org has warned several times against taking these EXTERNAL projects too seriously. In fact, some (I'm NOT pointing fingers at that link in particular) may simply be playing off of a fan market for profit (be it click-throughs or actually collecting donations).

I'm not saying these project(s) aren't worth supporting--but I'm saying it's likely to be so unofficial and remote from any actual control over what happens that we should take it for what it is... but not taken TOO seriously.

Now, that said... cool site, and thanks for the link! 🙂 I went ahead and answered their survey (anonymously and safe from any spam fear). Keeping up Firefly activity of different kinds is good--especially if it leads to more people discovering and enjoying (and renting and buying) Serenity and Firefly.

(And don't forget to keep tuning in to the various FF/Serenity podcasts on iTunes, like The Signal and Firefly Talk. I've only caught a few, but they were fun.)

PS, Supposedly the movie has already become profitable from DVD sales/rentals. If so, that seems to be well ahead of other movies that have gotten sequels. And the DVD reviews are rolling out, just as glowing across the board as the movie reviews were.
 
And the dvd is out in the UK this month, which should further add to the final figures. I've just introduced another 2 people to the show - the word is still spreading. Those DVD sales on the series and the movie have to be attractive to a potential buyer for the show, and those sales were from a standing start (a terrible start at that). Season 2 would be like a licence to print money.
BTW - anyone who missed the comics, they're now out in a collected book called "Those Left Behind". And interesting little tale that joins the series to the film with a couple of surprises.
 
I'm not a comic reader, but just to "fill in the story" I'll check it out some time.

There has to be some story about Book and Haven... and probably something about getting a fancy new Mule! And someone did say the comics have the "hands of blue" in them, so I'm curious about that too. Maybe even something about Blue Sun? (But I'm not seeking spoilers, I'll check out the stories some time.)

I thought Dr. Matthias in the movie should have worn blue gloves... but if I read the comic I'd probably realize that wouldn't make sense. They did dress River in blue, though...
 
nagromme said:
I'm not a comic reader, but just to "fill in the story" I'll check it out some time.

There has to be some story about Book and Haven... and probably something about getting a fancy new Mule! And someone did say the comics have the "hands of blue" in them, so I'm curious about that too. Maybe even something about Blue Sun? (But I'm not seeking spoilers, I'll check out the stories some time.)

I thought Dr. Matthias in the movie should have worn blue gloves... but if I read the comic I'd probably realize that wouldn't make sense. They did dress River in blue, though...
Click to expand...

No Blue Sun refereces (that I noticed), but they do deal with the HoB guys.

Did you notice that there are three bluesun logos over the course of the movie? One in the cargo bay of the ship near the beginning, one playing on a screen in Mr Universes place, and one on the blue bottle that Jayne slides to Simon during Mal's Churchill speech.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back