Five Joss Whedon Projects You Never Got to See

[Lyri]

Now that Joss Whedon is something of an unofficial "showrunner" for the Marvel cinematic universe, reportedly wielding some degree of influence over all the studio's scripts following the game-changing success of The Avengers, it's hard to remember that there was a time he literally couldn't get a movie off the ground.

But Whedon's had a number of projects that haven't panned out over the years, and while there's nothing uncommon about that in itself, his devoted fan base has meant that his mooted ventures are more widely publicised than most.

To mark Whedon's 50th birthday today (June 23), Digital Spy lists five of his most promising projects that never saw the light of day.

1. Wonder Woman

Still the best known of Whedon's close-but-no-cigar projects is his long, long, long brewing Wonder Woman adaptation, which was officially announced by Warner Bros in 2005. Whedon was set to write and direct, but only got to the outline stage on a script which was slated as an origin story.

"She was very powerful and very naà¯ve about people," Whedon has said of his version of Princess Diana of Themyscira. "The fact that she was a goddess was how I eventually found my in to her humanity and vulnerability, because she would look at us and the way we kill each other and the way we let people starve and the way the world is run and she'd be like, 'None of this makes sense to me'."

In other words, this sounds like a compelling, emotionally complex take right in Whedon's wheelhouse. But the studio disagreed, and Whedon officially departed the project in 2007, citing the age-old "creative differences" chestnut in an open letter on fan site Whedonesque.

Whedon has more recently admitted that the lack of female superheroes "pisses him off", and yet Marvel are still dragging their heels about a Black Widow movie. Wonder Woman is reportedly likely to happen, now that Warner Bros are officially introducing the character in 2016's Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice - but with Whedon now contracted to Marvel, don't expect to see him at the helm.


2. Ripper

Of all the many, many proposed Buffy spinoffs after the success of Angel, the one that came the closest to fruition was the Giles-centric Ripper.

First mooted way back in 2001, the proposed BBC series references the nickname given to Anthony Stewart Head's buttoned-down mentor Giles in his tearaway youth. Set in present-day England, the show would see Giles fighting the paranormal in modern-day ghost stories, whilst also wrestling with his own more figurative demons.

While we're just assuming at this point that Ripper is dead in the water, Whedon has hinted that the door will never be entirely closed. With the Sherlock model of doing three 90-minute episodes now well established at the BBC, it's not entirely unfeasible that a big enough window could be opened in Whedon's schedule for this to happen. If Cumberbatch and Freeman managed it, anything is possible.

3. Batman


Back when Joel Schumacher's double-whammy had all but killed the Batman franchise dead, Whedon was one of the directors who pitched a reboot to Warner Bros before Christopher Nolan took the gig. Like Nolan's Batman Begins, it would have been an origin story, but centred on a younger Bruce Wayne navigating the trauma of his parents' death.

Whedon shared the details of his favourite scene from that proposed screenplay in an interview with GQ two years ago. "[Bruce Wayne] is this tiny 12-year-old who's about to get the shit kicked out of him. And then it cuts to Wayne Manor, and Alfred is running like something terrible has happened, and he finds Bruce, and he's back from the fight, and he's completely fine.

"And Bruce is like, 'I stopped them. I can stop them.' That was the moment for me. When he goes 'Oh, wait a minute; I can actually do something about this.' The moment he gets that purpose, instead of just sort of being overwhelmed by grief."

Sounds kind of great, doesn't it? Unfortunately, that meeting did not go well. "The executive was looking at me like I was Agent Smith made of numbers, he wasn't seeing me at all," Whedon recalled. He has said as recently as last year that he still wants to tackle Batman, suggesting (somewhat controversially) that the caped crusader is "a Marvel character in the DC universe", so don't count this one out entirely.

4. Faith the Vampire Slayer

When Buffy was drawing to its close in 2003, Tim Minear (a key writer on Angel's early seasons) and Whedon were in talks with Eliza Dushku about a spinoff centring on Faith, the formerly rogue, newly reformed Slayer who had become a fan favourite. Mumblings at the time suggested that Spike could be brought in as a second lead on her show "“ hence the bonding moments between Faith and Spike when she initially returned to Buffy.

But having played Faith for almost five years, Dushku was concerned about typecasting, and also by the fact that Whedon was unable to commit to a full-time role on the spinoff. She ultimately turned down the series in order to star in Tru Calling, a decision which made sense at the time if not in retrospect.

"Thing is, even Joss was part of helping me make that decision," Dushku has said. "He said: 'I think you have to follow your gut, which is trying something different, and we'll stay friends so this isn't goodbye, this is until next time'."

5. The Servant Girl

Announced at Comic-Con 2007, this now long-defunct film project was a ballet-based musical that would have marked the first post-Serenity collaboration between Whedon and Summer Glau.

Whedon clearly had something of a dance muse in Glau, who became an actress only after an injury ended her professional ballet career. It was her role as a prima ballerina in Angel's season four episode 'Waiting in the Wings' that inspired Whedon to cast her as Firefly's unstable River, and even in that role, her aptitude as a dancer was ultimately put to use in Serenity's breathtakingly choreographed fight sequences.

Details on The Servant Girl are now almost non-existent, but last year's Much Ado About Nothing demonstrated that Whedon still has a fascination with the ways music and dance can be used as storytelling, rather than a distraction from it.

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[Blaze]

"Thing is, even Joss was part of helping me make that decision," Dushku has said. "He said: 'I think you have to follow your gut, which is trying something different, and we'll stay friends so this isn't goodbye, this is until next time'."

If only that could have meant us getting the spin off after Tru Calling's cancellation.

 

[thetopher]

'Ripper' is still possible, ASH is willing and able...

Oh, but I really wanted to see 'Faith The Vampire Slayer', 🙁 .
But I get why ED didn't want to be cast a another 'bad girl', even though Faithis a lot more than that- some people judge surface.

I remember Christopher Eccleston doing I season of Dr. Who for the exact same reason- typecasting- and he was great in the role.

*Sigh* Maybe we could still get a movie or a mini-series of (Ripper or Faith)...or maybe a team-up! Set it during Season 8, or whenever, and have it be a self-contained storyline- Man, I would love that.

 

[Taake]

Oh, but I really wanted to see 'Faith The Vampire Slayer', 🙁 .
But I get why ED didn't want to be cast a another 'bad girl', even though Faithis a lot more than that- some people judge surface.

I know, right. I get why ED said no but at the same time I'm like - dang, that would have been so cool! A Faith spinoff would have been so rich with possibilities.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Using the Sherlock model for Ripper would be a great idea. It's a lot easier on the actors' schedules and leads to much more focused storytelling.

I always pictured Ripper as being handled sort of like The Godfather, Part 2... cutting back and forth between Giles in the present day and the bad-attitude youthful Giles of the 1970's. You'd need somebody great to play young Giles, though.

The same model could work for a Faith series, too. If Eliza is looking to focus on going back to school and lightening up her acting load for a while, this would be a good, low-commitment way to keep her in the spotlight.

Everything I hear about Joss' misadventures trying to make DC Comics movies makes me think they are utterly clueless.

As much as I loved The Avengers, I hope Joss will pass on directing the third one and will use all his newfound industry cred to make something that's 100% his baby, but with a decent budget for once.

 

[Blaze]

The sad thing about all of this is that 10 years later, we know that Tony Head is willing to do the Ripper, and ED hasn't been doing too much acting lately so if she's willing she'd be free to do a FtVS (although she just moved back to Boston so she might want to take a break from her career). But the issue is Joss, I don't see him revisiting either of those ideas. Sometimes, I almost wish he was slightly less famous now so he could treat us to more Buffy material.

And man, I love Tru Calling, but I'll always be bitter that it got cancel. I would have rather had FtVS knowing it would have been a guaranteed hit that could have lasted longer than TC did. Plus, in my opinion, Faith's acting was at it's absolute best when she was playing Faith. Even as Buffy she did and amazing job. Not sure what happened in Dollhouse (she was good, but now as good as the ED we saw in Who Are You).