Judy in January

January 2009 was a good month for the blog-with the most posts of any month so far and the most visits! Thanks for spreading the love. I think this year is off to a good start.

On this last day of January, I am pleased to give you Travel Correspondent, Judy Grimes, once again.



I want to be able to do that.

Knowing: With Good Intent

Mediocre, high profile studio flicks with actors that I really don't care for become a whole lot more interesting when you see and read all the behind-the-scenes stuff. There are actually "ideas," "inspiration", "art" and "thought" that go behind making even the most generic looking disaster-of-the-week movies. Who knew? Such is the case for Alex Proyas' newest film-a project originally attached to Donnie Darko director, Richard Kelly-Knowing...with Nicolas Cage.

The National Treasure movies were fairly bland at best-although I enjoyed the second slightly more than the first. Ghost Rider was one of the more painful viewing experiences I have had to endure in recent years-and in the theatre to boot. (I can't believe the studio just greenlit a second installment). Is Moonstruck really the only good film Nicolas Cage has done in...ever? Proyas has stated that Knowing is the "polar opposite of National Treasure" so maybe there is a reason to be looking forward to the movie on some level.

In any case, I found this article on io9 to be an eye-opening look into the production of Knowing and it admittedly pushed me slightly forward in the direction of wanting to see it-if only to get a sense of the artistic intent and a different look at apocalypse narratives-and even then, perhaps only on DVD.

Knowing comes out on March 20, 2009.

Teddies of the Vampyre Variety

Issue 22 of Buffy Season 8 goes on sale next Wednesday. Kennedy is sent to evaluate Satsu's performance on the field and Buffy is pursued by adorable-scratch that-ferocious little fuzzballs. Steven S. DeKnight-writer of such Whedon-dom as Buffy's "Blood Ties" and Angel's "The Girl in Question" plus Dollhouse-is penning this issue.


Great cover. They're all like miniature, Dracula-themed Build-a-Bears, but evil.

Final Watchmen Poster

Here is the final poster for Watchmen, which is being released on March 6th of this year. I'm happy the legal battles between Fox and Warner Brothers is over and there is likely to be no tangible aftermath for the fans-Warner Brothers, on the other hand, will have to fork out a heavy amount of cash as Fox technically still held the rights to the film-for 20 some odd years.


Below is a mock-up of a photograph taken of Dr. Manhattan as he aids in the American forces in Vietnam on the first day of Operation Wrath of God (June 15 1970) during the alternate history depicted in Watchmen.


I was able to read Watchmen over the holidays between long plane rides and hours of waiting at airports. It really is a phenomenal piece of literature. The characters are full of enormous depth and there text itself transcends both the typical novel and graphic novel forms with a novel within a novel and historical documents and articles from the period that do wonders to add to the "authenticity" of the work. It reads very much like exploits from a thrilling part of our own history-even one that didn't actually happen-because the writing, timeline and cultural references are so poignant. On my part, I found it immensely fascinating that the main events of Watchmen, take place over the week of my birth in an alternate 1985-I had no idea before I picked it up. Alan Moore also writes his superheros with souls-something that has been tried so many times since the book was written in 1985 in comics and films, but rarely achieved. The "Watchmen"-though they are never pinned with that name in the book-are grounded in their own personalities, motivations and environments. There's a reason this book is on TIME magazine's list of the top 100 novels.

I would do my best to find a copy of it before you see the film. I expect to refer to Watchmen again and again in my personal reading and writing in addition to future academic efforts.

Read it. Love it. And come see it with me on March 6th!

A Different House

Dollhouse, unsurprisingly, isn't the only project in the works from Whedon. You've got to figure that a mind like that is practically drowning in brilliance.

Having built a dollhouse-a rather large one-on one side of town, he's building something else in the form of a feature film project called The Cabin in the Woods. It will be co-written and produced by Joss while other writing and directorial duties will go to Drew Goddard, already a name known to fans of Buffy and Angel, but also one tied to Cloverfield, Alias and Lost. All we really know-besides the recent casting of Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) and Bradley Whitford (The West Wing)-is that it is a horror movie and according to Whedon, "it's the horror movie to end all horror movies...literally." Thanks, Joss. Perhaps a little genre-deconstruction for good measure? When I think of a cabin in the woods, my mind immediately goes to the house in the Evil Dead movies and I would suspect the title is meant to evoke that being a horror movie. Oh, and there are teenagers in the film too. That, we do know.

A few days ago, a blog compiled the information and misinformation that has been revealed thus far from various sources in article format, although the results far from conclusive-which, to be honest is a little exciting. I like thinking that of all people, Whedon can keep a good secret, especially after reading the smirk-inducing quote of his below about The Cabin in the Woods.

In order to protect the story from spoilerization, we've been sending out our OWN misinformation, including fake sides for the actors, fake summaries, different names... So there's gonna be a lot of 'information' leaked that will lead to excited speculation about things you will not see. Sorry. But here's some stuff you CAN look forward to, my word on it: 1) A person will have an emotion. 2) Two people speaking, or "dialogue", may occur. 3) A bunch of different people will play the part of Bob Dylan. Hope that clears everything up. More updates soon!

Clever, clever.

The movie has a release of February 5th, 2010, although in just over a year, anything can change. But then again it's only a year away!

Whedon Makes Headlines

A well deserved nomination for Buffy Season 8 has been announced for the 20th Annual GLAAD-Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation-Media Awards. The event will be held on May 9, 2009 in San Francisco.

The nominations for Outstanding Comic Book alongside Buffy are:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Drew Goddard, Jeph Loeb and Joss Whedon (Dark Horse Comics)
The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames (Vertigo/DC Comics)
Final Crisis: Revelations by Greg Rucka (DC Comics)
Secret Six by Gail Simone (DC Comics)
Young Avengers Presents by Ed Brubaker, Brian Reed, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Paul Cornell, Kevin Grevioux and Matt Fraction (Marvel Comics)

Of course, the nomination is undoubtedly for the portrayal of Buffy's "experimenting" in issue 12 of Buffy Season 8-the plot-point-that-must-not-be-discussed (at least it was in June during Slayage). When it came out, the New York Times even wrote about the "episode" and interviewed Whedon regarding the encounter and other issues of cultural resonance. That article here.

If Buffy didn't always get the broad recognition it deserved while it was on television, audiences and critics seem to be warming to its influence and cultural significance, even if some of them are approximately half a decade late. Thankfully, Buffy's back in the comics and in the media in general as Dollhouse marketing does its thing, always accompanied in promos with the inter-title "From Joss Whedon, Creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer."

The question that many people are asking is "will Dollhouse be good?" when really they should ask themselves, "when has Whedon not been good?" I would say the positives far outweigh the negatives-including the so-bad-it's-good, "I Robot...You, Jane." A Toronto Correspondent for A'n'E Vibe suggests that "Perhaps Whedon’s problem is that he’s too ahead of the cultural time," and that "His ideas are too vast, too wide-reaching, and too complex for the normal hour-long slots allotted to him." Are general audiences that resistant to the kind of content he provides or is it just an example of not enough good programming and people settling for "simpler" content?

When I was picking up the latest issue of Angel: After The Fall at the comic book shop the other day, the storekeeper asked me if I was excited about Dollhouse. I paused at first because no one had really asked me that just yet and my experience with Buffy, Angel and Firefly have almost exclusively been post-airing. I said, "yes" followed by "I hope it is good!" Then she asked, "Well, when has he ever let us down?" and I completely agree.

There's so much riding on the intitial reactions for Dollhouse and it's a lot to live up to. It's like the anticipation leading up to the Obama administration-ushering in a "New Era" for the United States of America. There is an expectation that this is the new "Whedon Era" while audiences and studios seem to possess shorter attention spans than ever before. Pressure, much? Whedon and FOX assure their viewers that putting Dollhouse in a Friday night time slot paired with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles-of which Whedon says he is a devoted fan-allows Dollhouse the appropriate environment in which to germinate. I absolutely want Dollhouse to be great. And it is certainly not my faith in Whedon that is shaken, but my faith in how the modern entertainment landscape is one filled with those quick to judge and eager for the "next great thing." Whedon can take all the time he needs with my shows and really, when has that actually taken so long anyway?

My friend Kj made a great point about the evolution of Buffy saying:

i just re-watched the first two buffy episodes on Hulu while spell checking and am surprised to see how it actually feels like the same show. in my mind the first two seasons were so different from what it eventually became.

How true-we liked Buffy in the beginning and we liked Buffy at the end-but it was no doubt different to some extent. Whedon's shows always build and expound upon themselves, if given the time and freedom, and the joy in watching them is how plot and ideas are revealed, not to mention the masterful character arcs. Whedon has a way of fine-tuning all the elements of a "good" television show and making them work well and together.

Whedon's in control of Dollhouse-and he is perhaps more in control in this show than in any previous television series he has been involved with. The exception to that may be Dr. Horrible, but that's somewhat of a different ball game. It's not hard to trust Whedon after the multitude of relevant narratives he has helped create, whether they have been recognized on a large scale like the Emmys, GLAAD Awards or not.

Come February 13th and every Friday after that, I will be watching what I expect to be an example of fantastic television artistry, Dollhouse.

Pretty Picture of Dolls

There are some cool pictures floating out there from the first episode of Dollhouse, "Ghost." Some of them show more of Amy Acker's character, Dr. Claire Saunders, and her appearance which has been the subject of much speculation.


Check out more at SpoilerTV.