Last week Warner Bros. announced their Buffy the Vampire Slayer remake had been greenlit and the fans of the original series have expressed feelings of vitriole to ambivalence. Buffy creator and guiding spirit Joss Whedon seemed to take the news in as much stride as he could.
“I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death. But, you know, AFTER. I don't love the idea of my creation in other hands, but I'm also well aware that many more hands than mine went into making that show what it was. And there is no legal grounds for doing anything other than sighing audibly.”
Whedon is respected like nobody’s business by the comic book/sci-fi communities, but I question whether or not Warner Bros. is going after Whedon or Buffy’s rabid fan base. I’m guessing that the characters and setting will be there, but suspect that the new Buffy will be repackaged as something else.
Spoiler alert: vampires are big business right now. The Twilight series has been a literary (insert your own air quotes) and cinematic (repeat air quotes) phenomenon. So what can be expected from a Buffy reboot? A romantic gothic adventure with Buffy and her demonic love Angel gazing sadly into the camera. Perhaps Angel is looking down. Either way, the new Buffy is going to play up their love to the nth degree. Dark horse plot point: Spike acting as a spoiler to their relationship, causing a triangle of the damned.
The Harry Potter series’s end is near and Warners is looking for new franchises with a fantasy bent. We’ve got Green Lantern coming out next summer, with Batman and Superman films following in 2012. I would guess that the studio doesn’t want all of their eggs in one basket and rely solely on comic book films to bring home some bacon. Plus, these films are expensive to produce. A vampire-related romance film can rely more on its name recognition and genre than splashy special effects and high flying action.
It will be interesting to see what writer Whit Stillman’s take on the Buffy lore was that got Warner Bros. excited to bring the character back in a new form.
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