A Buffy Movie Without Joss Whedon?

These days, anything related to vampires is a potential hot property, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there’s been talk about another Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. In fact, Vertigo Entertainment is in talks with rights holder Fran Rubel Kuzi and hubby Kaz Kuzui to reboot the 1992 film. But will Joss Whedon, writer of the original film and creator of the popular Buffy television series (as well as it’s spin-off, Angel) be involved?

If the initial reports are to be believed, Whedon will not be involved. According to Vertigo rep Roy Lee, “As a producer, I’m just trying to find a movie the studios want to make. It seems the core concept is the way to go.” That means we’re not looking at a prequel or a sequel, but rather a reboot of the entire Buffy story. This will undoubtedly not sit well with the Buffy faithful, and I even visited a Buffy forum to confirm my suspicions. Here are a selection of quotes on the proposed Whedon-less reboot:

“Fail! =( If it is ever made but has no connection to the TV series…I will vomit on it.”

“Ummm, NO! I say we start organizing a boycott now. This is bullshit!”

“If Luke Perry, David Arquette and Paul Rubens arn’t in it I’m not interested.”

“Wow relaunching Buffy right now is just wrong. Relaunching Buffy without its core charecters is just stupid. Is nothing sacred?”

“This is the biggest fail in the history of failure! The Kuzuis were a huge part of why the 1992 film sucked epically.”

In case you’re wondering about who has the rights to what, here’s how it all breaks down: An unknown Joss Whedon wrote a film script for Buffy which was discovered by Fran Kuzui. The film was made, and Kuzui retained the rights to the Buffy name. She then brought back Whedon to make the TV series, and he created a number of characters which he owns the rights to (such as the Scooby Gang). As of this writing, Whedon is still keeping the franchise alive with a series of comics from Dark Horse (entitled Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight), but Kuzui has ultimate control over who gets to use the Buffy name and likeness.

While hardcore fans are certainly pissed, a case could be made that Whedon might not have ever made Buffy, Angel, Firefly or anything else had the Kazuis not given him a chance. If nothing else, you’ve gotta give them credit for recognizing talent when they see it. As for Whedon, I’m sure he’s going to be just fine, although I can’t necessarily say the same for the Buffyverse.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Movie News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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