Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Where you at?
Yesterday Jes and I made trip plans for December - exciting stuff! Here is how my December is shaping up. I will go to New York in earlyish December and fly out to Vancouver from there (this is a way nicer and cheaper option... did you know that tickets to Vancouver from Toronto are like 500 bucks, while a ticket from New York was only around 300?) We arrive in Van on December 19th, staying until the night of the 26th when we fly to Chicago for MLA. We are in Chicago till the 30th after that back to NYC for New Years and stuff. I will be back in Toronto around the 6th. From then I will be in NYC probably every other week to take a class at CUNY.
Oh yes, I am going to be fucking exhausted!
For now, off to home and The Wire and marking... no wine tonight, I drank enough last night to last me at least until tomorrow.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
He's Back!
Joss Whedon taps Eliza Dushku for new Fox series
Oct 31, 2007, 10:23 PM | by Dan Snierson
Categories: TV Biz
Cult TV fans, set your emotions to thrilled: Joss Whedon is finally returning to the tube. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer mastermind has just signed a deal with Fox to create a drama series called Dollhouse. Better yet, he's chosen a very familiar face to inhabit it: she of Faith fame, Eliza Dushku.
The show, which boasts a seven-episode commitment for 2008 and a hefty license fee between $1.5 million and $2 million per ep, will chronicle the exploits of a group of individuals who are "imprinted with personality packages" — meaning that they can assume a variety of indentities (language skills, physical talents, memories, etc.) to be used for all types of tasks. When these missions are over, the individuals have their memories erased and reside in a guarded laboratory known as the Dollhouse; Dushku's Echo, however, is slowly coming of consciousness. "We call it a suspense-drama-mythology-comedy-action-horror musical," Whedon half-jokes of the show, which will bend and blend genres in typical Joss fashion. "The main thrust is the thruline of Echo as a sort of newly born character who goes, 'Wait a minute — I exist. Wow. So who would I be? And how dangerous is it for me to let anybody know that I know that I exist?' Not unlike the Frankenstein myth, it's, 'Who made me, who am I, and why am I?'"
Sounds like Dushku has already bonded with her alter ego. "She's fierce and she's hot, but she's also so complex, and she's going to be so tripped out because she's in this world, which I can identify with, where there are people who can click a button and succeed in making you be what they want you to be. It's this whole mindtrip of objectification," she says. "It's going to have sex and heartbreak and violence and hilarity. That, to me, is a hot show."
So when did construction on Dollhouse begin? The two were having a friendly meal last month — Dushku was seeking some project guidance after signing a deal with Fox — when inspiration hit the pair. "In the middle of the lunch, I said, 'Oh, s---, I made up a show, and I have a title,'" recalls Whedon. "And that's when you know you're dead, when there's a title." Dushku, who'll also serve as a producer on this 20th Century Fox TV series, was more than thrilled to reteam with her mentor. "I've always said from the Buffy days, 'I'll follow that guy anywhere,'" she notes. "I just had to find him and pluck him out of his supposed retirement from television."
The timing of this project is somewhat fortuitous for Whedon. (Except, of course, for that whole impending strike mess.) The latest rewrite of his supernatural triller Goners for Universal "was not incredibly well-received," he says. "Nothing's happening with it right now. It's not good news, but one door closes, and then there's a draft, and another one opens."
link to article