New Buffy the Vampire Slayer film director: "I didn't really watch much television at all"

November 24, 2010

I wasn’t moved all that much one way or the other when I first heard that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is being remade as a movie (after first debuting as a so so movie and then transforming into the legendary and groundbreaking television show).

Things get remade all the time, I half-figured as my mind was blitzed with 700,000 other things during my webby day. Is it really all that big a deal in comparison to the U.S. unemployment rate or the creepily depressing events going down on the Korean peninsula, I asked. Although I didn’t really ask, of course, until just now as I’m writing the words.

But then when I did take a quick second out to dig into the details a little bit, I started to get pissed.

Here’s why: the screenwriter of the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie is not going to be Joss Whedon. I knew that going in, but take a minute to consider. You’re the screenwriter that has to come in and replace Joss Freaking Whedon. Talk about stepping into the footprints of a giant. And who does Warner Bros. decide to slate for the challenging and unenviable task? Kevin Smith, or maybe a wildcard like a Tim Burton or Quentin Tarantino?

Uh, that would be a no:

Warner Bros. has announced a scriptwriter will pen a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer film without the involvement of show creator Joss Whedon.

Whit Anderson, a little-known actress with no previous profile as a screenwriter, has been signed to author the script.

Okay, an unknown. Fine. But this is what really destroys me:

"I didn't really watch much television at all, but I always watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer," she told the Los Angeles Times.

So, it’s great that Whit grew up enjoying Buffy, but it may help a little bit to realize that one of the reasons that Buffy was so bold and innovative is that it played defiantly and playfully and artfully against every television show convention imaginable. Whedon proved to be an absolute master at taking the audience places that they didn’t expect to go, all while painting a deliriously entertaining canvass that’s absolutely drenched in pop cultural references… including television. Perhaps Whit is a filmologist wunderkind of some kind and will do the same thing for a revamped Buffy franchise in the cinema realm, but I will remain deeply skeptical until further notice.
In essence, it’s very hard to disagree with Whedon himself when he says: “"This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths — just because they can't think of an original idea of their own,"

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