Whedon's New Show - Dollhouse

Holy Moly Macaroni! That is gigantic news. Joss, Eliza, and Tim Minear together.

I'm going to quote the article, and move it to Latest News and Announcements for more attention.

Best News Ever! Joss Whedon Spills Exclusive Deets on His New Series


Hear that? It's the sound of Joss Whedon fans around the world freaking the frak out. (And I am one of them!)

I'm thrilled to tell you that just this afternoon, Joss Whedon rang me up to break the news that after a long, Whedonless TV drought, we Buffy fans are finally getting another TV series created by Mr. Whedon himself. Hell. Yeah.

While you scream, hyperventilate and then (hopefully) recover, I will tell you this: The news gets even better.

Whedon's new Fox series, called Dollhouse, stars Miss Eliza Dushku, best known as Faith to you Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans. And this show isn't just a pilot. It's already been given a seven-episode commitment by Fox. Woo!

Here's how Fox describes the series:

Echo (Eliza Dushku) [is] a young woman who is literally everybody's fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo's burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.

So, how did Dollhouse come about? When will it start, given the impending strike? And what are the chances a few Buffy alums might make it onto the show? To find out, read on for my exclusive one-on-one Q&As with creator and executive producer Joss Whedon and star and producer Eliza Dushku. (Pinch me.) You honestly won't believe how fast this all happened, or where the idea first began!

Oh, and P.S. to all you fans of writer/producer Tim Minear (Angel, Wonderfalls, Firefly, Drive). He tells us: "Joss has pathetically begged me to be involved. And I hate to see a slightly younger man weep like a girl. So I said, 'm'kay.' I'll be playing with dolls one way or t'other."

This might be too much goodness to bear, no?!
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Watch with Kristin - Best News Ever! Joss Whedon Spills Exclusive Deets on His New Series
 
(This in no way will prevent me from watching or enjoying the show but) makes me think of Dark Angel

Edit:

PS We have a time frame on it yet?
 
Kind of a Time Frame. Depends on whether, or not there's a writer's strike. Joss and Eliza have been sitting on this for a month while they hammer a deal out with Fox. She's getting a producer credit.

Whedon has already hammered out the basic outline for all seven segs. Barring a strike, Fox hopes to have the show in production by spring, giving the net an opportunity to be so far ahead of schedule by fall that it could potentially air a full season uninterrupted by breaks. Long lead time also gives Whedon, as well as the net and studio, plenty of time to evolve the show if need be.
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Joss Whedon preps Fox series - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety
 
This is really awesome! Thanks for posting this, lifted the end of my day. 😀
 
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!! I am SOOOOOO excited I think I may actually die from excitement!!! I can't actually type lol! My brain has gone into overload!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Sounds like a blast. Sounds very comic book...like Fantasy Island and Alias on steroids. And it's taking full advantage of Eliza's talent. Damn.

If the suits at FOX screw this show I'm gonna hurt someone.
 
Wow... can't wait. I'm with goldenboy on this one. Commitment-shmitment! If Fox wanna axe something they just do it... I just hope they don't. No doubts about the quality of the show though... I'm sure it's gonna rock socks.
 
*falls off chair*

this is the best news i could have possibly had today...well, realistically, anyway! lol

this is fantastic, Joss and Eliza working together, plus Minear. CAN'T. WAIT.
 
I wonder how FOX is gonna play this. This actually sounds like a much easier sell to the general public than Firefly. Just flash Eliza's mug on the screen in the promos, for one thing.

They could pair it up with Bones maybe. Or Sarah Connor, if that's still around and on in the Fall. I cannot fathom them shoving this off to Fridays or something (even FOX couldn't be that brain dead. Well, actually...).
 
There's a whole lot of YAYs and a couple of NAYs about this news. Mostly, there's questions though.

Of course, Joss, Tim, Eliza all on one show, that's a lot of YAY right there! The plot sounds intriguing enough. Question though: are we talking Chuck or Alias?

Then of course there's the concern that this is FOX we're talking about. I can't help but feel that this is one of those shows that gonna get the axe pretty quickly, considering the premise. Don't get me wrong, I think Joss'll turn it into one of the greatest series ever, BUT will it lure in the right audience for FOX?

My biggest concern by far is that Joss' plate is pretty full right now and I'm afraid that maybe he's gonna bite off of more than he can chew. He's executive producing After the Fall and Buffy Season Eight, and he will be writing for it. There were some talks about another volume of Fray and there's that new Serenity comic coming up... or has he already finished writing that? Then there's Runaways. Luckily, he's wrapping up on Astonishing X-Men. Oh, and wasn't there supposed to be a horror-movie to end all horror-movies "Cabin in the Woods"? Ripper is already on shaky grounds. I wonder how much other projects are gonna have to make sacrifices to allow him to do Dollhouse.

Of course, I hope that Dollshouse is gonna kick ass and I hope that it'll be a success, but I also hope that it's not gonna detract him from his work on Buffy-related ventures.
 
^ Exactly. What he said.
And I'd feel a lot better if this project didn't involve FOX (remove the letter "O" and insert a "U" for a more accurate network monicker).
I wouldn't want the good Mr. Whedon's possible sacrificing of current and future projects to be for naught.
I am with Goldenboy in that violence shall be perpetrated if JossGod gets the shaft again. There will be blood...oh yes....there WILL be blood.
Let us all hope for the very best here.

And well done sk8rj04 for bringing this news to light. :: tu ::
 
Cohen
Cohen
Thank you. This is one BIG reason why I visit Watch With Kristin. Another is, it's Kristin. And another, the only other gossip person is a gay dude that hates my favorite show [OTH]. [nothing against gays btw, just that one.]
S
StuckinTraffic
I'm with you on the bloodletting. Just tell me where to be and I'm THERE, buddy!
...a hefty license fee between $1.5 million and $2 million per ep...
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"We call it a suspense-drama-mythology-comedy-action-horror musical," Whedon half-jokes of the show, which will bend and blend genres in typical Joss fashion. "The main thrust is the thruline of Echo as a sort of newly born character who goes, 'Wait a minute — I exist. Wow. So who would I be? And how dangerous is it for me to let anybody know that I know that I exist?' Not unlike the Frankenstein myth, it's, 'Who made me, who am I, and why am I?'"

Sounds like Dushku has already bonded with her alter ego. "She's fierce and she's hot, but she's also so complex, and she's going to be so tripped out because she's in this world, which I can identify with, where there are people who can click a button and succeed in making you be what they want you to be. It's this whole mindtrip of objectification," she says. "It's going to have sex and heartbreak and violence and hilarity. That, to me, is a hot show."
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Joss Whedon taps Eliza Dushku for new Fox series | TV Biz | Hollywood Insider | EW.com
 
I can't believe I'm going to do this, but I am so much in denial mode to any negativity on this I'm going to defend Fox.

Yes Fox was quick on the trigger finger with Wonderfalls, and Firefly, should've shown more patience with Tru Calling and Dark Angel, screwed the screening order up on Firefly and The Inside, banished Firefly and Dark Angel to it's personal death zone of Friday nights, flipped Tru Calling about to hidden time periods without promotion, has shown a recent tendency to attack the fan movement, and failed to promote a lot of shows properly, but Fox is also the network that takes chances on novel stuff, brought back Family Guy, and stuck by Arrested Development when other networks would have dumped it.

I'm encouraged by the story of what happened when Eliza brought Joss through the door at Fox studio to pitch the pilot. Fox says they've been trying to seduce Joss to do something for some time, and were just big smiles freaked when Eliza presented him. You've got to remember Eliza just signed a production deal with Fox for new shows into the future. They have an investment. Joss says he always had good relations with the production end of Fox, and the network guys aren't the same ones who screwed the pooch with Firefly. Fox didn't just sign on for the pilot. They signed for seven shows. I don't know if that's unprecedented, but if that kind of thing happens it's never made it as far as my personal ears . Joss and Eliza are optimistic as to Fox being on their side with this one, and if there's two people who have the right to be cautious regarding Fox those are them.

Concerning the critique of Joss being over-committed to other projects, I think people are missing a key element of this deal. He's bringing in Tim Minear. This isn't Marti Noxon who took over Buffy seasons 6 and 7 and did Point Pleasant. This is Tim frickin Minear of Angel, Firefly and Wonderfalls. TM can showrun with the best of them. Dollhouse is precisely Tim's kind of show. This is the guy who cut his writing teeth on X Files. X Files is the well from which all this kind of stuff springs.
 
S
StuckinTraffic
You rock. That is all.
It all does sound encouraging. Here's to hoping FOX had a reflective moment or two, promotes the hell out of this thing, and doesn't turn into a Nervous Nellie if times get tough.

How involved will Minear be, I wonder. What happens to Miracleman?

Also...I'm really curious about "Echo". I haven't seen Eliza portray much besides streetwise tough girls. She did a good Buffy impersonation in "Who Are You". Tru Davies was written pretty blandly, IMO. Trying to imagine her portray a wide-eyed innocent "child". Ewan McGregor actually did a pretty hilarous take on this same basic character type in The Island.
 
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