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Fans of the cult favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer series are unhappily whittling wooden stakes over news from Warner Bros. Pictures and Atlas Entertainment that a new Buffy movie will be produced for 2011 or 2012. You would think that new adventures for the epic Slayer would be cause for celebration, but the effect is the opposite because the new movie will be made without the participation of Buffy's beloved creator Joss Whedon.
I am horrified.
How can there be "Buffy" without Joss Whedon? No, really: how can there be a "Buffy" without Whedon?!
Joss Whedon's legions of devoted fans will attest that his wit and point of view are intrinsic to the camp and other defining features of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It doesn't make sense. As Buffy herself famously said, "I think I speak for everyone here when I say, "huh?"
According to producer Charles Roven, actress Whit Anderson is taking on the script:
There is an active fan base eagerly awaiting this character’s return …While this is not your high-school Buffy, she’ll be just as witty, tough and sexy as we all remember her to be.
Whedon is handling the situation like a grownup artist, which is entirely admirably. He responded by saying he has "strong, mixed emotions about something like this" but also deflected drama with humor while simultaneously slaying with his wit, calling attention to the fact that the screenwriter is unknown.
But I don't care that Whedon is handling it well. THIS IS ABOUT ME, a fan who doesn't want the kickass Buffy legacy torn up, dumbed down or de-Whedoned. It's BUFFY we are taking about here! The SLAYER! And ME! As Cordelia said: "Like this time I sort of ran over this girl on her bike. It was the most traumatizing event of my life, and she's trying to make it about her leg. Like my pain meant nothing."
The "active fan base" that the producers are counting on are not only fans of the character of Buffy, they are fans of the brilliance of Whedon's vision that is infused throughout all aspects of the legacy. Whedon might accept this fate, but I'm thinking fans are going to put up a fight. Because in a world where creatives are beloved as much as the works they create, draining the creations of an artist for your own benefit is vampiric. And we all know what must happen to vampires.
Come on, we fight monsters, this is what we do. They show up, they scare us, I beat them up, and they go away. -- Buffy
That's what I'm screaming. Are you with me or are you against all that is good and right in the world?
Contributing Editor Deb Rox blogs at Deb on the Rocks and slays evil forces primarily from Twitter. Because that totally counts.
