Buffy Reboot Gets Staked Through the Heart, Fans Rejoice!
It was way back last year when we heard the horrifying news that Warner Bros. was going back to Sunnydale for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer remake. The unpopular ‘92 film was set to be rebooted into what everyone assumed would be yet another cringe-worthy film, because Warner Bros. decided not to involve Joss Whedon or anyone else who took that horrible first movie and turned it into a wondrous and legendary TV show. Instead, the studio handed the writing duties to a relatively inexperienced screenwriter, Whit Anderson, who has reportedly turned in a draft of the screenplay that the studio hates so much they rejected it. Actually, they hated it so much they not only rejected the screenplay, but fired Anderson as well. Bad news for her, but excellent news for the Buffy fanboys and girls!
But there is more good news for us remake haters! The Buffy reboot just might be cancelled!
The script was rejected, forcing the production folks involved to re-assess the project and figure out what to do next. There is always the option of finding another writer, but people are saying that excitement for the project is fading and the studio will probably send the film back to Hellmouth… for good.
Right now there are a lot of rumors, and no one knows for sure what the studio plans to do. Either way, the film is put on hold since the writer has been canned. So we can either expect a longer wait for the Buffy reboot, or no reboot at all. I’m hoping for the latter.
What are your thoughts? Are you happy that the blasphemous remake may be cancelled? I’m expecting a lot of thrilled Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans! There were very few people behind this project. Let me know in a comment below what you think.
- Moonlight
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Ya see, I love Joss Whedon but can’t go so far as to call this project “blasphemous.” That really seems over-the-top to me. Reminds me too much of the foam-at-the-mouth furor over my favorite vampire film of 2010, the Matt Reeves written and directed LET ME IN.
Oh, and Whit Anderson is a woman. I’m just saying.
For me, I’m all for a reboot if done well. If not, then like anything else I say “Please don’t.” Like (for example) a new version of CARMILLA directed by Stephan Sommers starring Paris Hilton and one of the Kardashians. Please. Don’t.
I’m a huge Buffy fan. I loved Let the Right One In. I was a big Fright Night fan. I admit when I heard Colin Farrell was the vampire, I thought it’d turn out horrible. I liked it, and feel he did a good job with the role! I’m certain I’ll probably enjoy it whenever it’s a reality. Not just the anti-remake fans, but the anti-book-to-film fans can tend to get carried away. In my opinion, it can’t or at least doesn’t ruin the original for me. The original still exists. I didn’t like the Willy Wonka remake as much as I adored the original. It’s always there for me to enjoy again, and isn’t harmed in any way by the remake. I don’t see the harm in it myself. If someone is opposed to it, they don’t have to watch it or read it. We’ll never know if it could have even turned out to be superior if it’s never tried.
About that original letter, I’m pretty sure that whole Joss Whedon letter was mostly tongue-in-cheek and he was joking about being upset that a reboot was conceptualized. Either way, I don’t begrudge fans who are happy about this latest news.
Remakes and book adaptations usually never ever bother me. But the idea of Buffy being remade by anyone other than Joss fills me with crazy. I’m definitely a fangirl
Exactly Moonlight. The buffyverse is Joss Whedon’s creation. He was the one that made Buffy popular. Having someone else write a buffy screenplay almost guarantees it won’t be as good. The original movie is evidence of this. Re-makes can be good or bad. If it’s bad it does damage to the buffy name that a new generation will never understand. On the other hand; however, if it’s good, it gets an entirely new generation on the buffyverse bandwagon. I was totally against this project ever since I read in your article that Joss wouldn’t be a part of it. I actually yelled out in joy when I saw the title.
I am not a member of the anti-remake brigade in general. However, remakes are almost always inferior, with Let Me In and Body Snatchers (Ferrara) being among the rare exceptions. (Unlike most, I think the original The Fly is better than Cronenberg’s.)
Buffy is an unusual situation, since its signature Whedonesque characteristics – especially the self-aware snark and quirky, elaborate mythos – are intrinsic to the appeal of the series. So much so that the movie that came five years earlier is viewed as at best off-model Buffy (personally I don’t think it’s so bad) and at worst a perversion best forgotten, since the filmmakers misinterpreted Whedon’s snarky dialogue as camp.
Buffy is also tied to a particular moment in cultural history – just before the era of cinematic female superheroes like Lara Croft, Selene, River Tam (another Whedon character), and RE’s Alice. Hit Girl and Hanna are their little sisters. Buffy was Whedon’s rejoinder to the 70s-80s’ trope of hapless female victims of slashers and monsters, which he admitted was influenced by the perky cheerleader-meets-I Am Legend scenario of the 1984 movie Night of the Comet.
It’s difficult to imagine a reboot/remake/reimagining of Buffy that would be relevant or even especially interesting. Here’s one idea:
Buffy (or a thinly disguised homage/parody) is an ordinary middle-aged soccer mom, with a strange memory gap in her teens and early twenties, who is having troubling dreams of fighting a vampire conspiracy that she eventually realizes are repressed memories (in the vein of, say, Hook). This fortysomething Buffy assembles an all-new Scooby Gang of edgy, fantasy-prone youths and starts slaying vampires, starting with her husband Angelo.
The twist: Buffy is in fact insane; the ‘vampires’ she murdered are ordinary people. She had gone on a brief psychotic ‘vampire’-killing spree in her teens (distorted in her dreams as a long series of adventures with a complex backstory) but those memories were lost to her conscious mind after court-ordered drug therapy.
Come to think of it, this twist is a lot like that of a movie that came out in the last decade that I won’t name so as not to spoil it. It’s also – in one interpretation at least – similar to a 2000s novel. There really is nothing new under the sun.
Oops, kind of already done with the episode Normal Again. I haven’t seen that one, but I probably got the idea from the similar Smallville episode ‘Labyrinth’ as well as Return To Oz.
You know, when I first Heard about it, I thought it would be a cool idea. I mean, I was happy with the way they ended the show…but I still missed it. And it really pissed me off when they canceled Angel! So I thought a new Buffy movie might have been a good idea. I remember hearing a year ago or so that they were gonna have Megan Fox be the new Buffy….WHICH WOULD BE HORRIBLE. Fortunatley, that turned out not to be true And what about the other characters? I mean really..who could replace Allison Hannigan and James Marsters as Willow and Spike?
Maybe you are right. Maybe it shouldn’t be done if it doesn’t involve Joss Whedon. I don’t know. I think if its done in a good way then maybe it’ll wash all this Twilight crap away…LOL…sorry, just had to throw that in there because I am such an Anti.
You know on the other hand, how cool would it be to have an R-rated Buffy movie? Well if they do go ahead and do it, heres hoping they don’t mess it up.
Buffy was unique, and can’t be successfully re-imaged. I hope this project dies on the stake. There’s plenty of new ideas out there for Hollywood to develop.