Joss Whedon Biography

Summary

"Joss Hill Whedon" (born "Joseph Hill Whedon" on June 23, 1964 in New York) is an Academy Award-nominated American writer, director, executive producer, and creator/Head Writer of the well-known television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Angel", and "Firefly". He has also written several film scripts and several comic book series. After finishing at Winchester College in England, he went on to receive a film degree from Wesleyan University in 1987.

Career

Television work

After moving to Los Angeles, Whedon secured his first writing job on the television series "Roseanne". After several years as a script doctor, he went back to TV, where he created three TV shows. In addition to writing and directing, Joss has had cameo appearances in his shows "Buffy", "Angel", and "Firefly", along with a guest role in an episode of "Veronica Mars". He directed the 2007 episodes of "The Office" entitled 'Business School' and 'Branch Wars'.

Whedon has been described as the world's first third-generation TV writer. He is the son of Tom Whedon, a successful screenwriter for "The Electric Company" in the 1970s and "The Golden Girls" in the 1980s, and the grandson of John Whedon, a writer for "The Donna Reed Show" in the 1950s. His brother, Zack Whedon, worked as a scriptwriter on HBO's "Deadwood" and "John from Cincinnati".

Years after having his script for the movie "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" filmed (the interpretation by director Fran Rubel Kuzui having been poorly received by critics and audiences), Whedon revived the concept as a television series of the same name. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" went on to become a critical and cult hit, with the episode 'Hush' (written by Whedon) receiving an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding writing in a drama series in 2000.

The show ran for five seasons on The WB Network before transferring to UPN for its final two seasons. Though it premiered on Mondays at 9pm, "Buffy" ran from the middle of the second season on Tuesdays at 8pm.

"Angel" was a spin-off of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", featuring Buffy's vampire-with-a-soul boyfriend as the title character. It was created by Whedon in conjunction with David Greenwalt. Tim Minear also contributed at essential key junctures. Debuting in September 1999 on the WB, the show was broadcast after "Buffy" on Tuesday evenings; but when "Buffy" switched networks in 2001, "Angel" aired in a number of different time slots, and occasionally managed to attain the ratings of its predecessor, though the series finale pulled in more viewers than the "Buffy" finale. Joss Whedon made a cameo appearance as the character 'Numfar' near the middle of its run. The WB cancelled the show in May 2004 while it was in its fifth season. While Whedon had no intention of ending "Angel," the WB felt that a reality show would bring in more viewers, forcing Whedon to change the arc and ending of both the final season and the series. This forced cancellation triggered numerous 'Save Angel' campaigns and other similar "Angel" support groups. Thousands raised money to support the cause of Angel returning for another season and even raised money for a movie starring Spike. WB president David Janollari said there might be such a film, but no such project has been announced.

In 2002, "Firefly", which Whedon produced with Tim Minear, was canceled by Fox after only 11 episodes had been aired, out of intended sequence, from a total of only 14 produced (including the original two-hour pilot, which was the last episode to be aired on Fox). Contractual restrictions with Fox prevented the series from being picked up and continued by another network. Whedon had been writing a movie script based on the TV series for Universal Studios for about a year when the "Firefly" series was released on DVD. The excellent sales of the DVD set ensured the movie would be produced, and in early 2004 Whedon announced that his proposal for a "Firefly" movie had been greenlighted by Universal. Shooting started in July 2004, and the film, "Serenity", went into wide release in the United States on September 30, 2005. The treatment that "Firefly" received at the hands of Fox executives has caused Whedon to state that he would not work with Fox again. As of November 2007 he appears to have changed his mind, with new show "Dollhouse" being developed at Fox. Whedon has defended this volte-face by saying that he will be working with 'a completely new bunch of people' who are 'intelligent and supportive' .

Numerous grassroots campaigns developed to save the series. The forefront of these was a group of fans called the 'Browncoats,' after the nickname of the anti-Alliance rebels. The Browncoats arranged several events in order to keep the franchise afloat, notably 'Serenity Day' on June 23, 2006, during which fans were encouraged to buy copies of "Firefly" and "Serenity" DVDs.

"Ripper" is a supposed BBC Television movie about Rupert Giles that was announced to be in development at the San Diego Comic-Con 2007. The development process is set to begin in 2008 and "Ripper" is to be shown in the summer of that year.

Joss has created a new television show for FOX called "Dollhouse", which is to star Eliza Dushku. Tim Minear is also on board.

Feature films

Whedon has written and co-written several films, including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Toy Story", "Alien: Resurrection" and "Titan A.E.". He was nominated (along with three other writers) for an Academy Award for "Toy Story"s screenplay.

He also wrote uncredited drafts or rewrites of "Speed", "Waterworld", "Twister" and "X-Men"—although, with the exception of "Speed", little of Whedon's work remained in the final drafts of any of these screenplays. In interviews, Whedon has disowned the latter three films. He claims that he had a good script for "Alien: Resurrection", which he felt was spoiled by its director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. His "Waterworld" script was thrown out, and only two of his lines were kept in the final script of "X-Men". Even the "Buffy" movie bore little resemblance to his original screenplay. According to Graham Yost, the credited writer of "Speed", Whedon wrote most of its dialogue (see examples of credit conflicts in the WGA credit system).

He wrote and directed 2005's "Serenity", based on his television series "Firefly". "Serenity" won the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.

Whedon had been signed to write and direct Warner Bros.' adaptation of "Wonder Woman" but on February 3 2007, Whedon announced that he would no longer be involved with the project in a post on Whedonesque.com 'We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work. Non-sympatico. It happens all the time.'

He is currently working on "Goners", a supernatural horror thriller which has gone through several script rewrites, and has not currently been greenlit for production by Universal Pictures, which bought the script from Whedon around the time Serenity came out. In late June 2007, Whedon told a New Zealand radio station that 'It's a supernatural thriller that I'm trying to get the studio to make. I'm rewriting it again. And it's a slow process, and after working in TV for a while, slow processes are a little frustrating. I'm working on some other stuff, but it's all too embryonic to talk about at this point. But hopefully within the year I'll be doing something other than turning in drafts of scripts, which after 18 months of Wonder Woman is getting a little old.'

One aspect of the storyline of the film "X-Men: The Last Stand" bears a strong similarity to a plotline in Whedon's comic book "Astonishing X-Men": the notion of a cure for mutation. The scientist who discovers the cure in the movie is named Dr. Kavita Rao, as is the scientist in the comic book storyline, though the characters are quite different. Whedon's story in turn bears a striking resemblance to a 1993 episode of the "X-Men" animated series, entitled 'The Cure', written by Mark Edward Edens.. In both Whedon's and Edens' stories, the scientist who claims to have discovered the cure is secretly working with a superpowered enemy of the team (Apocalypse on the TV show, Ord in the comic book), a plot device that doesn't occur in the film script. According to Simon Kinberg, a studio executive who had read Whedon's comics asked him and Zak Penn to incorporate some version of the mutant cure idea into their script.

In an interview with Empire Online, Whedon expressed an interest in directing a Harry Potter movie. However, he has not seen any of the current movies out and has decided not to do so until J. K. Rowling finishes writing the series.

Joss Whedon has written a horror film titled 'Cabin in the Woods' with Drew Goddard which he might direct. He called it 'The horror movie to end all horror movies... literally.'

Comic books

Whedon, a lifelong comic book fan, is the author of the Dark Horse Comics miniseries "Fray" which takes place in the far future of the Buffyverse. Although the miniseries took years to finish, it was a great success. Whedon has mentioned returning to "Fray" at some point when there is time in his schedule.

Like many other authors from the "Buffy" TV show, he also contributed to the show's comic book version: he wrote three stories in the anthology "Tales of the Slayers" (including one featuring Melaka Fray from "Fray") and also the main storyline of the five-issue miniseries "Tales of the Vampires".

The three-issue miniseries "Serenity: Those Left Behind", based on the "Firefly" series and leading up to the film "Serenity", was released June through August 2005. Co-written with Brett Matthews and pencilled by Will Conrad, the first issue featured covers drawn by John Cassaday, J.G. Jones, and Bryan Hitch, as well as other artists for the second and third issues. The first two issues went to a second printing. The trade paperback featured a new cover by acclaimed painter Adam Hughes.

Whedon has mentioned that more "Serenity" comics are planned for the near future, and will be based in the "Firefly" continuation of the series. Likewise, Whedon and other former Buffy writers have released a new ongoing "Buffy" which takes place after the series finale 'Chosen', which he officially recognizes as the canonical 'Season 8'. The first issue was released on March 14, 2007 by Dark Horse Comics. Following the success of issue one of "Buffy" season eight, IDW Publishing have approached Whedon about similarly producing a canonical "Angel" Season 6. This project has been confirmed. Although Whedon will not have the time to write the twelve issue maxi-series, Angel: After the Fall, he will be executive producer for the series. Instead Brian Lynch will write season 6, starting in November.

Whedon is currently writing "Astonishing X-Men" in Marvel Comics' popular line of comics about the X-Men but will finish after the current story arc passing the reins to Warren Ellis. The title, recreated specifically for Whedon, has been one of Marvel's best-selling comics as of 2006 and was nominated for several Eisner Awards including Best Serialized Story, Best Continuing Series, Best New Series and Best Writer, winning the Best Continuing Series award in 2006. One storyline from this comic, the notion of a cure for mutation being found, was also an element in the third X-Men film, "X-Men: The Last Stand". Whedon also introduced a number of new characters in to the Marvel Universe such as Ord and Armor.

Whedon is the second writer of the critically acclaimed and fan-favorite Marvel comic "Runaways", taking over after series creator Brian K. Vaughan completed his run. Whedon had been a fan of the series for some time, and had a letter published in the first volume, which was included in the Volume 1 hardcover.

Whedon's other comic-related work includes writing the introduction to "Identity Crisis" trade paperback and a contribution to the 'jam issue' "Superman/Batman #26" (to date his only published work for DC Comics), writing short pieces for Marvel's "Stan Lee Meets Spider-Man" and "Giant-Size X-Men" #3 and also being the subject of an issue of "Marvel Spotlight" (alongside artist Michael Lark").

Webcomics

In 2007, Whedon launched a free online webcomic, titled Sugarshock! It is hosted on Dark Horse comic's Myspace. (... more)

Common themes and motifs in Whedon's works

Feminism

Whedon identifies himself as a feminist, and feminist themes are common in his work. For his part, Whedon credits his mother, Lee Stearns, as the inspiration for his feminist worldview. When Roseanne Barr asked him how he could write so well for women, he replied, 'If you met my mom, you wouldn't ask.'

The character Kitty Pryde from the "X-Men" comic was an early model for Whedon's strong teenage girl characters: 'If there's a bigger influence on Buffy than Kitty, I don't know what it was. She was an adolescent girl finding out she has great power and dealing with it.'

Homosexuality

Whedon is interested in the gay community and champions gay rights. In his cinematographic works, including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", he includes gay characters among both the major and the minor dramatic personae. In early episodes of "Buffy", he deliberately included scenes that suggested that either Xander Harris or Willow Rosenberg might be gay or bisexual. At the time, he was uncertain as to which character he wanted to come out. Ultimately, he decided that Willow would begin a relationship with another young woman, fellow college student Tara Maclay. Later, after Tara's murder, she developed a romantic relationship with Kennedy. Two minor characters in the series, Larry Blaisdell and Scott Hope, were also gay. The "Angel" episode 'Power Play' implied a homosexual encounter between Spike and Angel.

Dialogue

The dialogue in Joss Whedon's shows and movies usually involves pop culture references both notable and obscure, and the turning of nouns into adjectives by adding a 'y' at the end of the word ('listy'). According to one of the "Buffy" writers, 'It's just the way that Joss actually talks.'

Whedon also heavily favors the suffix -age (Linkage, Lurkage, Poofage, Postage, Scrollage, Slayage). Also, phrasal verbs usually ending with 'out' are changed into direct verbs, for example 'freak' rather than 'freak out', 'bail' rather than 'bail out', or 'hang' rather than 'hang out'. Whedon also tends to change adjectives into nouns such as 'happy' (orgasm), 'bad' (mistake), 'funny' (joke). So many of Whedon's altered usages, new words, and heavily popularized words have entered the common usage that PBS in their article series 'Do You Speak American' included an entire section on 'Slayer Slang'.

Opinions on character deaths

Many characters die in Whedon's shows, especially the long-running "Buffy". Extras and minor characters die as expected in action-based shows and movies, but Whedon also kills off main characters. On the "Serenity" DVD commentary, Whedon says that he'd rather have fans say 'Why'd they kill (that guy)? I liked him!' than 'Oh. He's dead? Turn the page!'. However, there is also a strong theme of redemption attached to these deaths, and the possibility of return.

Relationships

As seen in "Buffy", "Firefly", and "Angel", nearly all of the romantic relationships Whedon portrays end badly, usually in a traumatic fashion. One member in the relationship will usually end up dying or turning evil, or the break-up will end up being horribly painful. Whedon has been cited as saying 'Happy people make for boring television.'

Family

There is a strong theme that one's true family is the group of people that you live your life with rather than the blood relatives who raise you as a child. This is a major theme for the main characters in all of his television series, particularly explicit examples including the BtVS season 5 episode 'Family' and the 'family meal' scenes (and homey set decoration) in "Firefly" as well as Buffy and Giles' father-daughter relationship.

Fatherhood

Whedon sometimes portrays fathers in a negative light. Buffy's distant father was neutrally portrayed until later in the series, and most of his characters' fathers are never seen. Wesley's father was mentioned on several occasions to be abusive, and the episode Family showed Tara's father to be controlling and manipulative. Xander's father was portrayed as alcoholic and disrespectful of his wife and the fear of becoming like him is in large part what prompted him to cancel his wedding with Anya.

In lieu of a biological father, Whedon's characters often find an alternate father figure who takes the biological father's place. The most notable example is Rupert Giles' evolution from a timid Watcher in the beginning of season one of "Buffy" to the father figure he became in the later seasons.

Spiritual and philosophical beliefs

Whedon has identified himself as an atheist on multiple occasions. When interviewed by "The Onion AV Club" on October 9, 2002, Whedon answered the question 'Is there a God?' with one word: 'No.' The interviewer followed up with: 'That's it, end of story, no?' Whedon answered: 'Absolutely not. That's a very important and necessary thing to learn.' In one of the "Buffy" DVD commentaries, Whedon comments that 'I don't believe in the 'sky bully", referring to God. In addition, on the "Serenity" DVD, during a Q & A session with fans of the "Firefly" series at Fox Studios in Sydney, he identifies himself as an atheist and absurdist.

Whedon also frequently identifies himself as an existentialist believing that objective reality itself has no meaning and that it is up to the individual to create their own meaning in it. On the "Firefly" DVD set, Whedon explains in detail how he came to be an existentialist and describes how this existentialism is shown in the episode "Objects in Space".