The cast made the show, to be sure, but they did so on top of Whedon's words, and Whedon did the casting. He's proven over and over again that he can put together a compelling, poignant show (or comic book) no matter the premise.
I've scoffed at every single show he's ever put out:
- Re: Buffy; Who's gonna watch a remake of that movie? It's gonna suck.
- Re: Angel; Spinoff? Really? Vampire in sunny LA? Dumb.
- Re: Firefly; A space western? What? Stupid.
- Re: Dollhouse; Wow, that's abstract, even for Joss Whedon. How are we supposed to care about characters that have no character?
Every time I've ended up happily eating my words, and while I still consider Firefly to be the best science fiction TV show of all time (personal opinion), I have no qualms about somebody trying to resurrect it, so long as that somebody is Joss Whedon.
It would depend on who is involved. The last time Fillion and Whedon were idle (read: writers strike), they made some pretty good content for the web with a pretty small budget. http://drhorrible.com/
This is exactly what incorporations were initially built for.
5 local businessmen want to build a ferry across the river. Nobody can afford it, or the risk. They all think it will benefit their community, their businesses, and maybe bring in a few bucks.
So they buy "shares", sharing the costs and the benefits.
I'd consider putting some cash towards a Whedon-backed production company, and then buy the DVD (though being an Aussie, I'm not sure if I can buy US shares). He might gain or lose money, I don't really care - it would be worth the risk just to see what he does.
unfortunately, some of the suggestions are coming dangerously close to what US securities laws were initially built for.
the kickstarter route, where fillion owns the property seems fine, but once you're talking about offering shares of a company to fans that would own the franchise, that's hard to see how that wouldn't be a violation of securities laws as an unregistered public offering.
"Legend of the Galactic Heroes" was produced in a similar fashion as a sprawling 110 episode animated series adapted from a series of novels. People in Japan paid money as a subscription, then got a videocassette in the mail. For a sufficiently rabid fanbase, it is indeed possible.
$40? As long as Joss and the original cast are on board I'll happily pay $100, maybe even $200, even if it's only another half season. Just promise not to start this project before Castle has stopped being good, since I love Nathan in that as well.
I wonder if there is a germ of an idea here. Crowdfunded TV shows (or movies). Somebody proposes an idea for a TV show, gets some talent on board who sign up if it gets X amount of cash, people vote with cash donations (maybe with signed merchandise and other goodies).
Maybe Kickstarter could do it, if not might be a startup in there.
Already happening. The Guild[1] (a sitcom about the screwed up real lives of a MMORPG fantasy guild) is the most successful example that I'm aware of --- four seasons to date --- but there are others that may be worth following. (Pioneer One[2], about government agents investigating the weird, is just getting started, but looks good so far.)
It helps to have talent with pro chops, of course; The Guild was created by Felicia Day, who's also one of the acting leads; Wil Wheaton is a repeating guest star.
Any script in a world with a significant existing fan base could pre-sell dvd copies of movies before production, to generate capital and provide proof-of-support-of-concept. Why don't franchises like Marvel or Star Trek do this? Or do they already?
In a sense, Star Trek did - it was a franchise rescued from obscurity after being cancelled by its huge fanbase, and went on to make the series of movies, TNG and so on.
There may be earlier examples, but it's the first case I'm aware of where the fanbase had a direct influence on the resuscitation of a show.
Main issue is that the amount of capitol needed for a movie is insane. $10 million is a drop in the bucket, and that would require pre-selling 500k DVDs or so.
Given that Nathan Fillion doesn't even know the site exists and the actual people behind it refuse to reveal their identities, I wouldn't trust this site as far as I could throw it.
The simple fact of the matter: If Joss wanted to do this, he would do it, and have a much easier time promoting it than these people will (did anybody see the profits from "Dr. Horrible"?). And Firefly with Nathan Fillion the only returning cast or crew member isn't what the fans want. But right now, Nathan is doing other things and Joss is doing other things, and that's their choice. If this isn't a scam, it's a poorly thought-out plan.
Quoth Nathan Fillion in the interview: "Yes. Yes. I would examine very closely Fox’s reasoning — I’m a little gun-shy. If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet."
Note that he's still committed to doing Castle, and the only definite thing giving Fillion the rights would get is free Firely for all. That's a good thing, but it's not new Firefly. What Fillion did not say is "I wish I had $300 million so I could make new Firefly episodes." Of course, Firefly isn't Firefly without Joss Whedon, and he has said nothing.
Regardless of his intentions however, the point of this website and the project behind it is to convince them both to do new episodes. It's a long shot, sure, but that is precisely what they intend. See the FAQ.
