THE SERENITY OF JOSS WHEDON

Joss Whedon, flying high

Executive producer and creator Joss Whedon presented his entire Serenity cast at the Sunday afternoon panel including the first preview of the film. Joining Joss on stage were, Ron Glass (Shepherd Book), Sean Maher (Dr. Simon Tam), Summer Glau (River Tam), Morena Baccarin (Inara Serra), Jewel Staite (Kaylee Frye), Nathan Fillion (Capt. Malcolm Reynolds), Adam Baldwin (Jayne Cobb), Alan Tudyk (Jerry Lee "Wash" Warren), and Gina Torres (Zoë Warren). The 4,500 capacity banquet room was filled to a standing-room-only crowd who got to their feet and gave Joss a standing ovation for 45-seconds nearing bringing the man to tears as he paced back and forth upon the stage. With his wits barely refocused he stated, "I was afraid you'd forgotten me. I really don't think I've ever seen so many people in my life. This year I really, really should have thought of something to say. But I'm not going to waste a lot of time, because we don't have a lot of time, I have something to show you." The preview, although not as long as fans would have wanted, showed a much edgier version of the series. The cuts were quick and the special effects impressive but you still got a sense of the characters and the humor Joss has established, as when a vault is opened to reveal a vast amount of money and Zoe says, 'At last we can retire and give up this life of crime,' bringing a few laughs from the audience as with Jayne and Mal's banter, respectively, 'You got a plan?' 'I need a plan?' But the excitement certainly mounted at the end of the clip with the camera held on a very frightened River as the word, 'Reevers...' escapes her lips.

After the preview Joss said, "That was put together by the Universal publicity people out of what we've been shooting so far just for this Con, because I very much wanted to show you guys how much fun we're having. And I have one other thing to show you, or rather I have nine!" And the applause and ovations began again. After the much-expected praise from various fans preceding their questions, Joss turned to his panel of actors and commented, "I think you actors should take note that I'm really important." Joss was asked if, with the success of Serenity, would it be returning to television, "You know, I look at these guys on the big screen, it's kind of hard for me to imagine them getting any smaller again; it's quite something to see when they're up there." Then an adventurous fan asked if Joss would you tell the crowd something about the plot of the movie, to which Joss narrowed his eyes to see the fan in question and grinned, "Have you met me!? I can't tell you much; it has these guys in it. It has the Alliance in it, personified in one particularly antagonistic individual played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who's one of the best actors around. And yes, it has Reevers." Everyone in the audience would agree that the original comic series created by have been incredible, in particularly Fray. So the possibility of seeing the Serenity cast of characters in comic form was brought up and Joss eagerly replied, "We have every intention of putting out a comic book of Serenity as well. We're talking to Dark Horse right now of doing Serenity comics, because of Fray and all that we've done with that."

A mass question was asked of all the panel regarding what they would be working on in the immediate future and each of them responded accordingly with humor and sometimes more serious answers:

Gina: "I plan on finishing the movie Serenity. I plan on taking a very long nap. I just signed on to work with my husband Laurence Fishburne and I have Beauty Shop coming out in the Fall."
Alan: "I'm going to finish Serenity too, and then I'm going to go do a Western which actually I couldn't have gotten if it wasn't for Serenity because I hadn't learned my lines really well for the audition and so I had to start adlibbing, but because we've been speaking in "Firefly", it bares a resemblance to the frontier that is in this Western. So I was able to BS really well and they gave me the job. It's going to be a mini-series on TNT."
Adam: "This is my 25th year doing this stuff and I'm at a point where I'll never work again because by the end of the movie it's like, 'Ahh, I'll never do this again,' It's just the way I feel. My only problem is I prepare my auditions too well, I should take a tip from Alan."
Nathan: "That's good stinky. I'm going to do a little spin-off movie I'm planning called, Mal's Browncoat Renegades. And then Mal, the Early Years, before the war kind of theme, romantic, ranch style movie. Right now I have no future plans, right now I just have my heart in this movie and my fingers crossed for a huge success and the trilogy of course."
Jewel: "I don't have any plans either; I haven't been hired to do anything else yet. I would like to work at home, I'm from Vancouver and I get home sick constantly when I'm not there so I would like to do something locally for a change but any work is a good thing."
Morena: "I think Jewel and I are going to be doing that together. I'm going to look for every Help Wanted signs I can find. I have an independent movie coming out in the Fall so look out for that."
Summer: "I'm gonna beg for an audition off of Nathan's movie."
Nathan: "And audition she will."
Summer: "Right now I'm just focusing on the movie, I can't even see past that right now."
Sean: "I hope to be in Nathan's movie as well, other than that I don't know. Summer and I were talking about maybe going on the road doing a circus act called The Flying Tams. I plan to finish the movie and hope for great success so that Part 2 comes sooner than later."
Ron: "Just last week I had the opportunity to sign on as the National Chairman for the capitol campaign for the African American Museum in Evansville, Indiana."

The funniest thing about these group answers was watching the expression on Jewel's face whenever Nathan gave his response. It is obvious that his mischievous nature is an ongoing tradition for these cast mates because she would inevitably shake her head and roll her eyes knowing what was coming; just when you think Nathan is going to give you a straight and serious answer, he doesn't.

Joss:"I love these guys. I want to know from each of them what your favorite thing about your character is? And secondly, what your least favorite thing about Jewel is?
Gina: "I like that my pants have spandex in them."
Alan: "My favorite thing about Wash is it's a very violent future we're living in and I think it's just the Preacher and I who pretty much come up to say, 'Can we just put the guns down for a second. We're here to protect you.'"
Adam: "One of my favorite lines that Joss wrote was in Objects in Space, it wasn't my line but I try to hold that in keeping with my character and it's, 'What's life without work,' and I think Jayne is a practical guy, it's all about the bottom line. Speak the truth, get it done. Cut the bullshit."
Nathan: "What I like about Malcolm Reynolds is it doesn't matter what's happening, it doesn't matter what's going on and how deadly, dangerous or despondent anything might be, you can always look to him as the captain and just tell that he's got the legs of a dancer."
Jewel: "I think that my favorite part about Kaylee is her warmth and how she doesn't have a beef with anybody on the ship, everybody likes her. I love her relationship with the captain, I think that Mal really trusts her and listens to what she has to say. And I think she's one of the few that can really give him shit and not get into too much trouble for it. I think they have a really special relationship, my favorite scenes are with Nathan; we have fun."
Morena: "I'm totally jealous. Well, thank God Inara is smart. That's my favorite part, is there anything that Inara can't do? I discover this every single day it amazes me, she's so much smarter than I am."
Summer: "My favorite thing about River is that she gets to be barefoot so much of the time. I don't like shoes very much. The more things I mention the more things she ends up doing, I remember in the first episode I was thinking, 'I really think River needs a gun,' and them by episode 10 she got one. I'm working my way up to captain."
Sean: "Unlike Zoe, Simon doesn't have any Spandex in his pants. My least favorite thing about Simon is his pants."
Gina: "He's always about it."
Alan: "They're very tight."
Sean: "I think my favorite thing about Simon would be his love for his sister. His dedication and commitment to her."
Ron: "There are three things I especially like about Book; I like his humor, I like his conviction and I like his unpredictability. And the thing I like the least about Jewel is her frequent absence."

Questions regarding "Angel" were brought to the floor and Joss was happy to respond to all of them. Regarding the recent WB comments that they may have jumped the gun in canceling "Angel" several fans condemned the network but Joss reminded them, "First off the WB aired "Buffy" for five years when nobody else would. I'm not thrilled with their recent decisions, but ultimately they were a big help to us and we have talked with them about doing movies based on different characters in the "Buffy" universe. Recently they just changed their administration, I'm not sure what's going on so everything kind of in limbo. I would definitely like to see the Buffy-verse back on its feet in one form or another; I would definitely like to see "Firefly" continuing in every form." Whether Angel's continuing future on possibly another Network was also mentioned fueled by the openness of the finale ending. "I don't consider the finale to be quite as open as some people have said," Joss confessed. "Let's see, Gunn definitely dies, and many things are possible. I don't intend to continue the series, I think that the series is over but like I said we're talking about TV movies, we're talking about different venues. I would like to see what happens to those characters in some format we just haven't had a go on what that happens to be yet. But trying to bring back the series I think that it's sort of beyond that now."

The focus returned to the Serenity panel and one fervent fan of the character Jayne brought attention to Adam and his ability to play a 'stupid' character. "Of course it's far more difficult for a stupid person to play smart," answered Adam, who then looked at Morena - she jokingly got up and walked off stage, when she returned Adam continued, "I think he's subtle." Joss intervened with, "I never thought of Jayne as stupid. Not large with the book learning, he's just the kind of nuts and bolts guy. We didn't tell Adam when he started but he's basically the Cordelia of the bunch." Then, Adam asked, "Who's Cordelia?" Nathan mimicked a female body with his hands, then the crazy sign to his head bringing about from laughter from the audience. It was mentioned that recently a writer/producer had stated that it's impossibly to maintain quality when you're doing 22 episodes of TV a year. Joss slyly replied, "In the words of Malcolm Reynolds, 'We have done the impossible and that makes us mighty.' I did it on 2 1/2 shows in one year and it takes everything out of your life. But you have no choice, you have to do it, you have to try." Ever the workaholic, Joss may be finally admitting that maybe multi-tasking is getting the better of him as his comic project of the Astonishing X-Men is the only other fire burning. "The movie is a real interesting beast, it's my first. I've seen some of my scripts be ruined but this time I ruined one myself. It's a really interesting, fascination, draining process and it only leaves me time for the one comic book," he admitted. In closing Joss looked once again upon the gathered masses and said, "I just have to say, 'Thank you guys', I've never seen a turnout like this, this is nuts. I have one last question for you guys; do you want to see it again? Thank you guys very much!" If you remember nothing from this panel, remember one thing… Reevers! Coming in 2005.