Everything you wanted to know about Joss Whedon -- and more -- in new bio
By C.A. Bridges
For the casual fan of the writer-director, "Joss Whedon -- The Biography" by Amy Pascale may be overkill. Sure, you liked "The Avengers," but do you really need to know what pen Whedon prefers?
Enlarge
For the fans who happily follow him from project to project because they've seen their lives changed because of something he wrote, the answer may be yes, absolutely.
But even casual readers will enjoy Pascale's look at the life of the man behind "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel," "Firefly," "Dollhouse," "Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," "The Avengers," "Cabin in the Woods," "Much Ado About Nothing" and more, and his gift for taking cliched genre formats and subverting them to tell meaningful stories about love, death, family, and redemption with humor and chilling drama, often in the same scene.
Whedon's father was a second-generation TV writer who wrote for "The Dick Cavett Show" and "The Electric Company" and his mother was a performer and teacher who created feminist course studies and held Shakespeare readings in the home. Humor and artistic expression were baked into him at an early age. Yet as Pascale explains, the driving force behind everything he did was loneliness and a hatred for bullying.
"If Joss Whedon had had one good day in high school," according to Buffy executive producer and Angel co-creator David Greenwalt, "we wouldn't be here."
From exhaustive research and multiple interviews with Whedon, his wife Kai, and their friends and coworkers, Pascale provides a thorough look at Whedon's life from his ancestry and childhood to his time in boarding school in England and his influences in the film department of Wesleyan University, to his early struggles in writing for the screen. Whedon experienced failures and disappointments aplenty starting out. He landed his dream job, writing for "Roseanne," but the behind-the-scenes madness ultimately led to his departure. He watched a director turn his script for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" into a campy movie played solely for laughs, with star Donald Sutherland changing lines on a whim, and he left the production. He rewrote virtually all of the dialogue and changed the tone that arguably made "Speed" a smash hit but didn't get screen credit. His work on "Waterworld" and "Aliens: Resurrection" was wasted or mangled.
But his work on "Toy Story" helped Pixar refine its now-famous style and brought Whedon an Oscar nomination. When he was offered "Buffy" as a TV show he got to do it the way he wanted this time and he saw his version become a beloved TV icon and cult favorite that ran for seven years and birthed a spinoff, "Angel." Making a story meaningful was the key, and every story had to be about something real, even if it was told through the metaphors of vampires and demons and students who become invisible. That was the key to avoiding monster-of-the-week episodes and making his shows touch people, he thought.
"I'd rather make a show a hundred people need to see than a show a thousand people want to see," Whedon said, and he's done it time and time again. "Buffy" and "Angel" and "Firefly," even the less-well-received "Dollhouse" has devoted fans talking about the episodes and dressing up like the characters and writing their own fanfiction.
While his science-fiction western "Firefly" was mishandled by the network and canceled early, Joss' continuing interest in it led to a "Serenity" movie. When that fell short at the box office he worked on more movies and then award-winning comics such as "The Astonishing X-Men," "Fray," "Runaways" and a new, official "Buffy" comic. When the writers' strike interrupted his plans to write a horror movie with Drew Goddard ("Cabin in the Woods") it gave him the push to develop his own work outside of the studios, which led to the Emmy-winning "Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog."
And then Marvel Studios came calling.
While Pascale drifts into Whedon-worship at times, she doesn't shy away from his darker sides and missteps. She talks to Charisma Carpenter about the ignominious way the actress was let go from "Angel," for example, and the stresses that arose when Whedon was running "Buffy," "Angel" and "Firefly" at the same time.
But mostly this is a lengthy and entertaining exploration and celebration of a brilliant, prolific man with just the right balance of humor, insight, humility and arrogance to create art that will go on affecting people for generations.
With Pilot Rzor Point pens.
"Joss Whedon -- The Biography" by Amy Pascale. 448 pages, Chicago Review Press. Hardcover $29.95. Ebook $11.99.
Source: News Journal Online
By C.A. Bridges
For the casual fan of the writer-director, "Joss Whedon -- The Biography" by Amy Pascale may be overkill. Sure, you liked "The Avengers," but do you really need to know what pen Whedon prefers?
Enlarge
For the fans who happily follow him from project to project because they've seen their lives changed because of something he wrote, the answer may be yes, absolutely.
But even casual readers will enjoy Pascale's look at the life of the man behind "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel," "Firefly," "Dollhouse," "Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," "The Avengers," "Cabin in the Woods," "Much Ado About Nothing" and more, and his gift for taking cliched genre formats and subverting them to tell meaningful stories about love, death, family, and redemption with humor and chilling drama, often in the same scene.
Whedon's father was a second-generation TV writer who wrote for "The Dick Cavett Show" and "The Electric Company" and his mother was a performer and teacher who created feminist course studies and held Shakespeare readings in the home. Humor and artistic expression were baked into him at an early age. Yet as Pascale explains, the driving force behind everything he did was loneliness and a hatred for bullying.
"If Joss Whedon had had one good day in high school," according to Buffy executive producer and Angel co-creator David Greenwalt, "we wouldn't be here."
From exhaustive research and multiple interviews with Whedon, his wife Kai, and their friends and coworkers, Pascale provides a thorough look at Whedon's life from his ancestry and childhood to his time in boarding school in England and his influences in the film department of Wesleyan University, to his early struggles in writing for the screen. Whedon experienced failures and disappointments aplenty starting out. He landed his dream job, writing for "Roseanne," but the behind-the-scenes madness ultimately led to his departure. He watched a director turn his script for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" into a campy movie played solely for laughs, with star Donald Sutherland changing lines on a whim, and he left the production. He rewrote virtually all of the dialogue and changed the tone that arguably made "Speed" a smash hit but didn't get screen credit. His work on "Waterworld" and "Aliens: Resurrection" was wasted or mangled.
But his work on "Toy Story" helped Pixar refine its now-famous style and brought Whedon an Oscar nomination. When he was offered "Buffy" as a TV show he got to do it the way he wanted this time and he saw his version become a beloved TV icon and cult favorite that ran for seven years and birthed a spinoff, "Angel." Making a story meaningful was the key, and every story had to be about something real, even if it was told through the metaphors of vampires and demons and students who become invisible. That was the key to avoiding monster-of-the-week episodes and making his shows touch people, he thought.
"I'd rather make a show a hundred people need to see than a show a thousand people want to see," Whedon said, and he's done it time and time again. "Buffy" and "Angel" and "Firefly," even the less-well-received "Dollhouse" has devoted fans talking about the episodes and dressing up like the characters and writing their own fanfiction.
While his science-fiction western "Firefly" was mishandled by the network and canceled early, Joss' continuing interest in it led to a "Serenity" movie. When that fell short at the box office he worked on more movies and then award-winning comics such as "The Astonishing X-Men," "Fray," "Runaways" and a new, official "Buffy" comic. When the writers' strike interrupted his plans to write a horror movie with Drew Goddard ("Cabin in the Woods") it gave him the push to develop his own work outside of the studios, which led to the Emmy-winning "Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog."
And then Marvel Studios came calling.
While Pascale drifts into Whedon-worship at times, she doesn't shy away from his darker sides and missteps. She talks to Charisma Carpenter about the ignominious way the actress was let go from "Angel," for example, and the stresses that arose when Whedon was running "Buffy," "Angel" and "Firefly" at the same time.
But mostly this is a lengthy and entertaining exploration and celebration of a brilliant, prolific man with just the right balance of humor, insight, humility and arrogance to create art that will go on affecting people for generations.
With Pilot Rzor Point pens.
"Joss Whedon -- The Biography" by Amy Pascale. 448 pages, Chicago Review Press. Hardcover $29.95. Ebook $11.99.
Source: News Journal Online
