Fox macht tatsächlich Action-Figuren als Merchandise. Nach den paper dolls nun eine offenbar etwas unidentifzierbare Echo-Doll, zum spielen:



In today's installment of Swag Photography, Fox has sent out review copies and promo packages for the debut season of Dollhouse and the return of 24. Both with action figures!

At left, a more conceptual doll of Echo, the "active," which—I assume reflecting the conceit that actives are clean slates—sadly looks much more like a crash-test dummy than Eliza Dushku. At right, a Jack Bauer action figure which looks, well, considerably more like Kiefer Sutherland. If you look closely, hanging from his shoulder, you'll see his very macho messenger bag.

Ah, the fun a child could have engaging in imaginative play with these toys!

JACK: [draws gun] Who are you working for?!

ECHO: Um, I work for the Fox Broadcasting publicity department. Same as you.

JACK: Oh. [Pause] Well. Want to go beat up the Indiana Jones doll?

ECHO: Let's do it!

Naja, naja. Ich schätze mal sowas war wohl unausweichlich. Bin aber immer noch froh, dass sie überhaupt Promotion schon angeworfen haben.

Das damals angekündigte Interview ist nun endlich da. Zwar ist davor ziemlich viel uninteressantes Zeug (ein Interview mit was-weiß-ich-wem, etwas Heroes-, Terminator- und Battlestar Galactica-Talk), aber ab Minute 35 geht's dann los mit Jane Espenson. Zwar großteils BSG-zentriert, aber trotzdem cool sie wieder mal reden zu hören. Unterwegs erzählt sie irrsinnig sympathisch ihre Geschichte (inklusive Star Trek-Pitches und Buffy...) und am Ende (ab Minute 65) geht's um Dollhouse. Und es klingt großartig.

Nach Dollhouse 1x11, stürzt sie sich gleich auf Buffy 8x26-30. Es ist wohl ein gutes Jahr für Espenson-Fans.

SPOILER (mark it to read it)

"I'm doing this five-issue Oz arc," Espenson said in an exclusive interview. "I am planning on doing a lot of writing on that over the Christmas break. The next thing I'm going to do is finish this Dollhouse script, then we get into that Oz comic and really, really knock that out." (...)

As for the arc's storyline? "Oh, that is top secret, my friend, but it's super cool," Espenson said, adding: "You'll see a wolf or two. There might be a wolf."

Will Oz have a new love interest? "I don't think wolves mate for life," Espenson said slyly. "I think there could be a new mate. We'll see."


Heute sollte übrigens Buffy 8x20 auch bei uns ankommen, und uns zeigen, wie die nie zustandegekommene Buffy-Zeichentrickserie wohl ausgesehen hätte. Espensons 8x21 folgt dann in drei Wochen.

20th Century Fox TV kürzt das Budget einiger Serien, darunter auch Dollhouse:

All 20th producers have been told to reduce their budgets by 2%, a spokesman for the studio confirmed Tuesday. The move affects both existing hits such as “24” and “Family Guy” as well as newer shows such as “Life on Mars” and “Dollhouse.”

"In these challenging economic times, we've asked all of our showrunners to trim their production budgets by 2%, an assignment which they have all embraced,” a 20th spokesman said. “Everyone understands that revenues are down and these steps are necessary to protect our business."

Na, wenn ihr meint.

Der ist wohl derzeit in aller Munde. Hier noch ein Interview mit Dollhouse-Bezug:

And I’m on DOLLHOUSE. I play a wonderful character named Tanaka who interacts with Tahmoh Penikett character. (...)

iF: Do you have a recurring on DOLLHOUSE?

SHEPPARD: I’m actually doing my second episode as we speak. (...)

iF: How did DOLLHOUSE happen?

SHEPPARD: Joss wrote a role into DOLLHOUSE, and it sort of ended up in my lap, and I was “absolutely,” I would love the opportunity to come and play with him again.

Oh, he's such a cutie!

When Amazon asked me to review this movie, I was hesitant, as I'm not too familiar with the genre, and also I made it. But I found Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog quite rewarding, which is to say, if you buy it, I will be rewarded with a small sum of money. But what's in it for you? A few surprises, I won't lie. THE SECRET OF ETERNAL YOUTH. The Dark Knight doesn't have that, does it? A CONTROLLING INTEREST IN EUROPE. Not available with Mama Mia! BEES. Deadly, hideous bees are contained in certain shipments, sorry. We're trying to control that. But already, a pretty extraordinary disc.

The film itself I didn't really get. Apparently young people today think it's okay to make fun of supervillains. In my day we treated them with respect and fear, especially when they were singing. I did like the jokes, except when one man mentioned his secret love appendage to another, which I find crass. But the tunes are very hummable, and many of them ran through my head as I fell asleep before the ending, which I'll bet was a humdinger. In fact, the whole movie humdinged. I give it forty eight billion stars.

The extras (Eternal life, Europe, Bees) were mostly exciting. There is a whole second musical, called "Commentary!", which harkens back to the days of Radio and of writing things really poorly. I can't recommend it enough. (That should read "I can't recommend it. Enough!" Sorry.) Seriousfully, it's not so much a commentary as chance for the cast and writers to make fun of each other in every musical style possible. I give it forty eight billion stars.

The extra extras are all solid fun, especially the many applications to the Evil League of Evil, sent by people who know how to show a supervillain the proper respect. I was promised eggs, but did not find any eggs, only horrible, stinging bees, but I am told the eggs are good. That is my review. I think you should buy the DVD every day forever, and I am totally unbiased. Happy Holidays! --Joss Whedon

Link

Ach und wo wir grad dabei sind... gestaunt haben wir alle hier als das neue Time Magazine in Haus geflattert kam.

Hier drüben, sehr nett:

"It's great, being in Dollhouse with Tahmoh," he said, thinking of the great camaraderie that exists on Joss Whedon shoots. "Just walking onto a set and him being there, Joss being there of course… A lot of fun for me."

He continues: "I play a character called Tanaka. It's pretty obvious from the character's name that I probably wasn't the first choice for the role! But I think Joss had wanted to include me and he asked me if I wanted to fill this particular spot - I think they've evolved this spot around the fact that they've now got me. But as I arrived and I'm waiting outside the stage and Joss is there I said, 'Can I keep the name!' He laughed and said, 'I knew you were going to say that.' So I think it's going to be one of those things where there's an interesting burden that shapes Tanaka!"

Sonderlich ergiebig ist die Diskussion zwar nicht, aber folgendes scheint in Hollywood üblich zu sein: Wenn eine Serie anläuft im Fernsehen, sollte sie noch in Produktion sein. Weil es angeblich Sinn macht die Produktion am laufenden zu halten, bis eine Entscheidung gefällt wurde, ob es eine weitere Staffel geben wird. Ich schätze mal das läuft auf Ressource-Management (Sets, Gehalt,...) und so hinaus.

Nun soll Folge 13 von Dollhouse Januar fertig sein, Wochen bevor die erste überhaupt ausgestrahlt wird. Manche (u.a. gossi) meinten dementsprechend, Fox würde bald weitere Skripts ordern, um die Produktion zumindest bis Februar/März laufen zu lassen. Und wenn sie das nicht tun, könnte das heißen, dass Dollhouse "effektiv" gecancellt wird, bevor es anläuft, weil die Sets abgebaut werden, und alles ultra-mühsam wird. Ich hab diese Argumentation nie verstanden, aber ich kenn auch niemanden in Hollywood. Für mich war immer klar: Staffel eins hat 13 Folgen. Und sollte die vor dem 13. Februar fertig sein, so what.

b!x wollte es genau wissen, und hat Antwort erhalten:

So here’s what Fox is telling me: “New series that debut mid-season usually receive a 13 episode order and this is the case with Dollhouse.” For all intents and purposes, since Dollhouse premieres mid-season, it’s in essence being treated as a mid-season replacement series.

“With its mid-Feb. premiere date,” the network’s spokesperson continued, “the 13 episode order would bring would have the season finale in May. We would not need additional episodes for the current season.” More directly: “Dollhouse has a 13 episode order for this current season. A decision would not have to be made on if the show is picked up for a second season until late spring.”

Gut, wäre also die (für mich eh nicht ganz nachvollziehbare) "confusion" geklärt. Late spring, wir warten. Was mit dem Set in der Zwischenzeit passiert, wird sich wohl erst heraustsellen.

Die Espisode hat einen Namen, einen Regisseur und folgenden Charakter:


This episode starts filming on 12th January 2009.

Writer: Jane Espenson
Director: Dwight Little
Exec Producer: Joss Whedon

[SUSAN]
FEMALE, 11 years old. She is a deeply troubled girl. GUEST STAR. PLEASE SUBMIT ALL ETHNICITIES.

Alles wie immer via Spoiler TV.

Die kommende Ausgabe vom SFX-Magazin:




Sehr gut, sehr gut.

Edit: whedonesque hat natürlich wie immer die besten Hintergründe:

And in time honoured fashion Eliza's head is blocking the lower part of the 'F' in the SFX logo.

Edit 2: Blöd, dass Fox nicht viel besser ist.

Irgendwer dieser vielen unbekannten Leute war am Set, und sie quatschen über Dollhouse. Unterwegs leider auch mit so manchem objectifying Sexismus-Shit. Bei Minute 7:40 geht's los:


(Direktlink)

Hier fragt sich jemand, ob Dollhouse jene distinktive Humor-Drama-Mischung haben wird, die die ersten Buffy-Staffeln so besonders gemacht hat:

One reason I’m looking forward to the premiere of Dollhouse, in spite of all the gloomy stories about its production and time slot (and therefore its potential for lasting much longer than Firefly) is that Joss Whedon is the king of a particular type of TV that I love, and that hasn’t been seen much on television lately: the show that is funny and serious at the same time.

Dollhouse wirkt für mich deutlich ernster, ehrlich gesagt, als alles was Buffy in den frühen Staffeln thematisiert hat. Ich schätze es wird weniger "an sich grundsympathische" Charaktere geben, wie z.B. bei Firefly. Die moralische Grauzone wird schätze ich mal etwas erdrücken, was dann die lustigen Momente ausgesprochen lustig wirkend wird lassen. In etwa wie The Dark Knight. Oder die sechste Buffy-Staffel. Glaub ich.

Und es ist... wie nicht anders erwartet, fantastisch. Sie betont, dass alles super läuft, dass die Leute den bad buzz overblown, dass die Show - indeed - grandios ist und... meine Lieben, haltet euch fest... dass sie tatsächlich schon bei Staffel 1 ein Script beisteuern wird. All das und mehr:

Writer/producer Jane Espenson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) defended Joss Whedon's upcoming Fox SF series Dollhouse--on which she is a consulting producer--against negative buzz and rumors, saying that it's shaping up just fine, thank you.

"It's really good," Espenson said in an exclusive interview with SCI FI Wire. "I think it could very well appeal to not just Whedonites, but a much broader audience. I think it's extremely good, and the concept just blows me away: It's fantastic, this notion of people who have been erased and are now imprintable with whatever you want them to be. ... It's sci-fi of the most human kind. It's sci-fi about people, as opposed to, you know, phenomena. And I really love that."

Espenson also downplayed reports of production interruptions, a bad timeslot and network meddling, calling them "overblown."

"We are now rolling along glitch-free," Espenson said. "I think people are very confident now that everyone is on the same page with what the show is, how amazing it can be, and I think that a lot of this has been overblown. I mean, very, very often on Buffy we were sort of, 'Oh, we don't quite have that script ready.' That's sort of just how TV goes. It's just when it happens at the beginning like this that it gets a lot of attention, and I think that people were concerned that the Firefly scenario would play out again. But, you know, I think that we're very confident of what the show is, and yeah, it's moving along so smoothly now."

Espenson said that she is currently writing a first draft of her first solo script for Dollhouse, the 11th episode of the first 13 ordered by Fox.

How is Whedon holding up? "He seems happy and comfortable and delightfully amusing as always," Espenson said. "You can't get through a few minutes with him without laughing."

Espenson said that viewers will be pleasantly surprised by star Eliza Dushku's performance in the series. "I think people are going to be really, really impressed with Eliza's performance," she said. "In fact, this cast all the way through. We have this incredibly versatile cast that's just perfect for this kind of show, where people are playing, ... as they're being imprinted with different personalities, they're playing different characters. And and so part of the genuine fun and joy of the show is just watching, 'Oh, my God, look at who they are now.'"

Gesang? Schon so früh?

Eliza Dushku revealed a few of the personas her character will take on in Fox's upcoming SF drama Dollhouse, including one in which she'll do a bit of singing.

"I had to sing a few episodes ago, yeah," Dushku said on the red carpet for the Video Game Awards on Dec. 14. "And I had to lay down a track, so we'll see how it turns out [laughs]. We'll see if a musical is a good idea after that episode airs."

The last time I spoke to Dushku, she said that she'd love to be in a Joss Whedon musical, a la Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

In her Dollhouse ep, she said she sang "a capella." "I was auditioning to be a backup singer for a big pop star in one episode," she said. "So it was like a gospel song I did."

Dushku's character, Echo, is a person whose mind is wiped and programmed with a different persona by a top-secret underground agency, which then sends her on various missions.

Dushku said her favorite persona so far was a killer. "I like the assassin chick that I just did," she said. "She has a lot of layers. Hyper-intelligent, and I also got to beat up a big 6-foot, 5-inch stunt guy."

What was the hardest? "A serious, professional woman with an up-do," Dushku said. "That's hard for me. Joss is like, 'I know you by now. Your comfort zone lies in your hair. I can throw you off a building or hit you with a car or make you fight seven guys, but you get uncomfortable if I put your hair in an up-do.' That's kind of insane and kind of hilarious."

Link

Das, wofür wir damals Fragen gesammelt haben, ist nun fertig, ein 5-minütiges Video, das etwas Dollhouse, und großteils Joss und Eliza im Interview zeigt. Wieder einmal etwas zur Prozedural-vs.-Mythologie-Frage und zur Kompliziertheit der Prämisse, alles sehr nett. Gehe hier.

Leider sind die damals angekündigten Webisodes bei all dem Retooling wohl auch aus dem Rennen gefallen:

Recently, there was some small Twitter buzz around whether or not this was still the plan. With the scrapping of the original series pilot in order to re-craft the approach to the show in a way that satisfies both Whedon and the network, would the plans change to concentrate attention on the show proper?

FOX Publicity tells me that indeed the focus will be on “[j]ust the actual show for the first season”, and that they “do not believe that there will be supplementary webisodes”.

So, unless this is case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing, the rollout of Dollhouse appears to be focusing on the thirteen-episode order for television, with any webisode plans deferred until prospective later seasons.

Link