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Joss Hill Whedon (born Joseph Hill Whedon[3] on June 23, 1964 in New York) is an American writer, director, executive producer, and creator of the well-known television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. He has also written several film scripts and several comic book series. After finishing at Winchester College in England, he went on to to receive a film degree from Wesleyan University in 1987.
Television work
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. His brother, Zack Whedon, worked as a scriptwriter on HBO's Deadwood. Buffy the Vampire SlayerYears 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. The series was much closer to what Whedon had envisioned the film to be. Buffy the Vampire Slayer went on to become a critical and cult hit, with the episode "Hush" (written by Whedon) receiving an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding writing in a drama series in 2000. Whedon also wrote and directed the musical episode "Once More, With Feeling", which featured the show's cast in singing and dancing roles. The show ran for five seasons on The WB Network before transferring to UPN for its final two seasons. It was the first series in television history to change networks between seasons as the result of a bidding war, as opposed to being cancelled and then picked up by a different network. Though it premiered on Mondays at 9pm, Buffy ran from the middle of the second season on Tuesdays at 8pm. (In the aforementioned musical episode, Buffy makes the Brechtian comment, "So, Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday.") Angel
FireflyIn 2002, Firefly, which Whedon produced with Tim Minear, was canceled by Fox after only 11 episodes had been aired, out of intended sequence, from a total of only 14 produced (including the original two-hour pilot, which was the last episode to be aired on Fox). Contractual restrictions with Fox prevented the series from being picked up and continued by another network. 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, went into wide release in the United States on September 30, 2005 to widespread critical and fan acclaim, but mediocre results at the box office. As of February 2006 Serenity's worldwide earnings were about $200,000 short of the film's $39 million budget, but it is expected to make a profit with DVD sales[citation needed]. The treatment that Firefly received at the hands of Fox executives has caused Whedon to state that he refuses to work with Fox again, under any circumstances.[5] On the Serenity DVD it is stated that after Fox canceled Firefly and chose not to renew Angel after 5 seasons, Whedon's fans were "ready to break down the doors to [Fox's] office". Similar to the response fans made over the cancellation of Angel, there were numerous grassroots campaigns developed to save the series. The forefront of these was a group of fans called the "Browncoats," after the nickname of the anti-Alliance rebels. The Browncoats arranged several events in order to keep the franchise afloat, notably "Serenity Day" on June 23, 2006, during which fans were encouraged to buy copies of Firefly and Serenity DVDs. Feature filmsWhedon has written and 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 rewrites of Speed, Waterworld, Twister and X-Men, although, with the exception of Speed, little of Whedon's work remained in the final drafts of any of these screenplays. In interviews, Whedon has disowned some of these films. He has said that he had a good script for Alien: Resurrection, which he felt was spoiled by its director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. His Waterworld script was thrown out, and only two of his lines were kept in the final script of X-Men.[6] Even the Buffy movie bore little resemblance to his original screenplay.[7] According to Graham Yost, the credited writer of Speed, Whedon wrote most of its dialogue (see examples of credit conflicts in the WGA credit system). He wrote and directed 2005's Serenity, based on his television series Firefly. Serenity won the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. As of May, 2006, Whedon had two film projects under development. He had been signed to write and direct Warner Bros.' adaptation of Wonder Woman but on February 3 2007, Whedon announced that he would no longer be involved with the project in a post on Whedonesque.com "We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work. Non-sympatico. It happens all the time."[8] The other project is called Goners which he also wrote and will likely be his next directing project. One aspect of the storyline of the recent film X-Men: The Last Stand bears a strong similarity to a plotline in Whedon's comic book Astonishing X-Men: the notion of a cure for mutation. The scientist who discovers the cure in the movie is named Dr. Kavita Rao, as is the scientist in the comic book storyline, though the characters are quite different. Whedon's story in turn bears a striking resemblance to a 1993 episode of the X-Men animated series, entitled "The Cure", written by Mark Edward Edens.[1]. In both Whedon's and Edens' stories, the scientist who claims to have discovered the cure is secretly working with a superpowered enemy of the team (Apocalypse on the TV show, Ord in the comic book), a plot device that doesn't occur in the film script. According to Simon Kinberg, a studio executive who had read Whedon's comics asked him and Zak Penn to incorporate some version of the mutant cure idea into their script.[9] In an interview with Empire Online, Whedon expressed an interest in directing a Harry Potter movie. However, he has not seen any of the current movies out and has decided not to do so until J K Rowling finishes writing the series.[10] Comic booksWhedon, 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 years to finish, it was a great success. Whedon has mentioned returning to Fray at some point when there is time in his schedule. Like many other authors from the Buffy TV show, he also contributed to the show's comic book version: he wrote three stories in the anthology Tales of the Slayers (including one featuring Melaka Fray from Fray) and also the main storyline of the five-issue miniseries Tales of the Vampires. The three-issue miniseries Serenity: Those Left Behind, 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, the first issue featured covers drawn by John Cassaday, J.G. Jones, and Bryan Hitch, as well as other artists for the second and third issues. The first two issues sold out and went to a second printing. The trade paperback featured a new cover by acclaimed painter Adam Hughes. Whedon has mentioned that more Serenity comics are planned for the near future, and will be based in the Firefly continuation of the series. Likewise, Whedon and other former BtVS writers have released a new ongoing Buffy which takes place after the series finale "Chosen", which he officially recognizes as the canonical "Season 8". The first issue was released on March 14, 2007 by Dark Horse Comics. Following the success of issue one of Buffy season eight, IDW Publishing have approached Whedon about similarly producing a canonical Angel "Season 6".[11] 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 2006 and was nominated for several Eisner Awards including Best Serialized Story, Best Continuing Series, Best New Series and Best Writer, winning the Best Continuing Series award in 2006. One storyline from this comic, the notion of a cure for mutation being found, was also an element in the third X-Men film, X-Men: The Last Stand. Whedon will become the new writer of the critic & fan-favorite Marvel comic Runaways when series creator Brian K. Vaughan completes his run.[12] Whedon is actually a fan of the series, and had a letter published in the first volume, which was included in the Volume 1 hardcover. Whedon's other comic-related work includes writing the introduction to Identity Crisis (to date his only published work for DC Comics), writing short pieces for Marvel's Stan Lee Meets Spider-Man and Giant-Size X-Men #3 and also being the subject of an issue of Marvel Spotlight (alongside artist Michael Lark). Common themes and motifs in Whedon's writingSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
FeminismWhedon 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 given Whedon's work both positive and negative assessments[citation needed]. For his part, Whedon credits his mother, Lee Stearns, 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."[13] The character Kitty Pryde from the X-Men comic was an early model for Whedon's strong teenage girl characters: "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."[14] 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. In a coincidental twist, a dance performed by Buffy in the series was used as a basis for animation for a dance done by Kitty in X-Men: Evolution. HomosexualityWhedon is interested in the gay community and champions gay rights. In his cinematographic works, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, he includes gay characters among both the major and the minor dramatic personae. In early episodes of Buffy, he deliberately included scenes that suggested that either Xander Harris or Willow Rosenberg might be gay or bisexual. At the time, he was uncertain as to which character he wanted to come out. Ultimately, he decided that Willow would embrace lesbianism with another young woman, fellow college student Tara Maclay. Later she developed a romantic relationship with Kennedy. Two more minor characters in the series, Larry Blaisdell and Scott Hope, were also gay. Recurring characters Clem and Andrew Wells were also hinted to be gay on several occasions. The Angel episode "Power Play" implied a homosexual encounter between Spike and Angel. DialogueThe 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 nouns into adjectives by adding a "y" at the end of the word ("listy"). According to one of the Buffy writers, "It's just the way that Joss actually talks."[15] Beyond the suffix -y (topicy, pointy (as opposed to pointless), listy), Whedon also heavily favors the suffix -age (Linkage, Lurkage, Poofage, Postage, Scrollage). Also, phrasal verbs usually ending with "out" are changed into direct verbs, for example "freak" rather than "freak out", "bail" rather than "bail out", or "hang" rather than "hang out". Whedon also tends to change adjectives into nouns such as "happy" (orgasm), "bad" (mistake), "funny" (mistake). So many of Whedon's altered usages, new words, and heavily popularized words have entered the common usage that PBS in their article series "Do You Speak American" included an entire section on Slayer Slang.[16] DeathMany characters die in Whedon's shows, especially the long-running Buffy. Extras and minor characters die as expected in action-based shows and movies, but Whedon also kills off main characters. He usually encourages the audience to care about the character before their death as part of "doing [his] job". On the Serenity DVD commentary, Whedon says that he'd rather have fans say "Why'd they kill (that guy)? I liked him!" than "Oh. He's dead. Turn the page". Whedon frequently kills off fan-favorite characters right after something very good happens to them. RelationshipsAs seen in Buffy, Firefly, and Angel, nearly all of the romantic relationships Whedon portrays end badly, usually in a traumatic fashion. One member in the relationship will usually end up dying or turning evil, or the break-up will end up being horribly painful. However, there is also a strong theme of redemption attached to these deaths, and the possibility of return. FamilyThere is a strong theme that one's true family is the group of people that you live your life with, rather than the blood relatives that raise you as a child. This is a major theme for the main characters in all of his television series, particularly explicit examples include BtVS season 5 episode "Family" and the "family meal" scenes (and homey set decoration) in Firefly. FatherhoodWhedon sometimes portrays fathers in a negative light. Buffy's distant father was neutrally portrayed until later in the series. Most of them are never seen. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce's father was mentioned on several occasions to be abusive. It is notable that while mothers often play a large role in his works, characters (with the exception of Connor) rarely mention or seem to be ever influenced by their fathers, aside from carrying grudges against them for either their perception of them being abusive, or of having not been previously involved with their lives. In lieu of a biological father, Whedon's characters often find an alternate father figure that takes the biological father's place. A minor example is how Angel evolves as the protective father of the baby Connor in season three of Angel to his estranged father in season four to finally his friend in season five. The most notable example is how Giles evolves from a timid Watcher in the beginning of season one of Buffy, to the patriarch type person he became in the later seasons. Spiritual and philosophical beliefsWhedon has identified himself as an atheist on multiple occasions. When interviewed by The Onion AV Club on October 9, 2002, Whedon answered the question "Is there a God?" with one word: "No." The interviewer followed up with: "That's it, end of story, no?" Whedon answered: "Absolutely not. That's a very important and necessary thing to learn."[17] In one of the Buffy DVD commentaries, Whedon comments that "I don't believe in the 'sky bully'", referring to God.[18] In addition, on the Serenity DVD, during a Q & A session with fans of the Firefly series at Fox Studios in Sydney, he identifies himself as an atheist and absurdist. Whedon also frequently identifies himself as an existentialist. On the Firefly DVD set, Whedon explains in detail how he came to be an existentialist, and describes how this existentialism is shown in the episode Objects in Space.[19] Whedon, while at Wesleyan, studied under the famous academian Richard Slotkin. ReferencesFootnotes
Additional references
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