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Date Posted: 14:47:08 04/22/09 Wed
Author: rlb
Author Host/IP: 98.234.80.116
Subject: Re: Buffy Movie Possibly in the works !
In reply to: BUFFanatic 's message, "Buffy Movie Possibly in the works !" on 11:57:36 04/10/09 Fri

I dunno, if we're talking five years from now a entirely new cast with a cameo by SMG would probably fly.

Until her pregnancy I was certain SMG could be enticed back, but she doesn't strike me as the Angelina Jolie type who would relish getting into hardbody mode after cxhildbirth just to show she can.

I am resigned to Buffy coming back but with a higher wattage screen star in the role. I love SMG but her big screen presence is just about nil.

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[> [> Think Wrath of Khan -- silveragent, 23:33:29 04/24/09 Fri [1] (63.199.111.92)

It remains to be seen how well the Metrosexual Star Trek does, with the villain from Heroes as the new Spock.

Probably not very well.

MOST remakes are miserable failures, a number of screenwriters have analyzed why: GET SMART, STARSKY AND HUTCH, MIAMI VICE and other sequels were failures.

What audiences want is both the same things they loved in the original TV series, and organic growth of the characters through time that accentuate those original qualities as the characters age.

That's why the STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE movie failed, and WRATH OF KHAN was a hit.

Because the latter took the essence of Captain Kirk, played by Shatner, and added time to heighten his contradictions: a driven captain and notorious womanizer has no meaning absent his ship, crew, and mission. Suddenly facing a forgotten enemy, Captain Kirk has to save his ship, his crew, and the son he never knew.

There, that's it in a nutshell.

Let's face it, a rehash of Buffy screwing another bad boy vamp is Twilight Lite with half the calories and twice as derivative.

Buffy, with an ordinary son, a single mom, aging out of eternally youthful vampiric bad boys and unable to have a relationship with a decent, supportive guy, is interesting. Particularly if she has to protect said son from say vampiric and other threats, and her character is further defined as smart, adult, grown-up, and heroic-decisive by the actions she takes to protect her ordinary, non-prophecy, no superpowers little boy. The adult decisions she's willing to make and the pain willing to endure to save her son. That sounds like something interesting to me.

You'd WANT the cast older, because it accentuates Buffy's struggle as no longer a pretty teen girl but an adult woman dealing with the consequences of stupid and bad choices about men and real responsibility to a boy who is utterly ordinary and her son. Willow, for example, could deal with people worshipping her as a goddess (for all the wrong reasons) and try to recapture her simple humanity. Giles could deal with approaching mortality, loneliness, and lack of purpose. Dawn a role-reversal of being Buffy's caretaker and "puller-out-of-trouble" as the accomplished professional with a "Doc Holliday" streak of ruthlessness towards perceived threats to friends and family. Xander, an arc of forgiveness towards a casual insult by Buffy that stung, and dealing with his own growth of "Thomas Edison" like power-fame that eclipses Buffy's.

These themes could work well, particularly if Buffy faced off against a younger, stronger, FASTER opponent she can't beat by herself (she needs her friends special abilities) or in a straight up fight.

ANY Buffy Movie IMHO will have to account for the fact that it's not 1997 anymore, and simply repeating the stuff Buffy did with Angel and Spike will be about as successful as supersizing an original Star Trek episode into a movie.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is a good actress. So too are Alyson Hanningan, Michelle Trachtenberg. Tony Head, Nicholas Brendon, have a lot of good will and are very skilled. None of the actors is likely to be very expensive. With a script like Nicholas Meyer's for WRATH OF KHAN (note, Roddenberry did NOT write it) you could make a tidy profit on the movie, probably a whole series out of it.

But trying to be a copy of Twilight or redoing JUST what was done first and best in the 1990's is a recipe for failure. Organic growth that's true to the characters is what's needed.

I don't think Whedon can or should write the script. An outsider like Meyer is needed, one not emotionally invested in the original vision who can isolate the basics that made Buffy work and like Meyer in KHAN add time-growth to all the characters. Roddenberry's Next Generation and STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE were both sodden messes mostly because he tried to xerox his original vision and exact copies don't work.

Gellar has done well in horror movies, her HBO comedic turn is likely to generate waves of good will and attention. Most actresses are not pulls. Kidman makes mostly duds, Jolie is box office poison, Garner no impact on box office whatsoever.


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[> [> [> Re: Think Wrath of Khan -- rlb, 23:48:14 04/26/09 Sun [1] (98.234.80.116)

>Sarah Michelle Gellar is a good actress.

SMG is a professional actress, serious about her craft, and dependable, she has however close to zero charisma on the 60ft screen.

She was born to play Buffy and did so brilliantly on the series and she could probably pull out a great performance in a Buffy movie out of shear experience with the character. But I just don't believe she's irreplaceable in the role, not after more than half a decade off the air.

As for Star Trek, every single review of the upcoming movie has rated it near perfect, a guaranteed super smash, that is as good as or better than TWOK. From someone who watched the very first NBC broadcast wayyy back in the day everything I've seen has me salivating for the first midnight show.

This is actually is a good thing because any future BtVS with SMG will require a great director, JJ Abrams good, and not some hack to get a big screen performance out of her.


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