Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill " Joss " Whedon ( born June 23, 1964 in New York) is an American screenwriter, producer, director and comic book writer.
He is the inventor of the television series Buffy - the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), Angel - Hunters of Darkness (1999-2004), Firefly - The Rise Of Serenity (2002-2003) and Dollhouse ( 2009-2010 ). He is the writer of the fourth part of the Alien tetralogy Alien - Resurrection ( Original title: Alien: Resurrection ) (1997 ) and The Avengers (2012), and co-author of Toy Story (1995) and The Cabin in the Woods ( 2009). He is also the author of several books, some of which are based on the television series created by him.
Career
Youth and Education
Whedon, who grew up in Manhattan (New York), first visited the Riverdale School before he went for his last year at school in England, where his degree at Winchester College. This is known as an all-boys school with high academic standards.
After graduating, he returned to the United States to begin at Wesleyan College, Connecticut, a study with a major in film and 1987 to successfully complete.
Professional life
After graduating from college Whedon, so-called spec scripts began to Post - script drafts, the authors create at your own risk and try to sell them to production companies. Although he failed to sell his works, but he found a job in 1988 as a writer for the television series Roseanne. During this time he also worked on the script for Buffy - The Vampire Killer (original Buffy the Vampire Slayer ). This he could sell to Sandollar Productions, however, took the reaction to a movie several years.
Meanwhile left Whedon Roseanne and worked briefly as a writer and co-producer on the show ... parents be against or very Parenthood (various German title given ) (original Parenthood ).
In 1991 he was the film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by the director Fran Rubel Kuzui. With this realization of his idea Whedon was not satisfied, they also came with the audience not and today has B-movie status.
Then succeeded Whedon for the first time, a script ( called suspension ) for sale, but it was not ultimately for the production of a film.
However, Whedon had meanwhile gained a good professional reputation, so that he often worked from now on as the so-called Script Doctor. So called authors revise the screenplays for already far advanced film projects. Although this work is not often acknowledged in the film credits, but often has a great influence on the final (financial) success of the production. However, sometimes several scripts Doctors are successively worn in a project, to the development is the favor of the producers.
Whedon worked in 1993/94, first on the screenplay for speed, after its success, he was also involved in the project Waterworld - but in which he had little influence on the final product.
His next job as a script doctor was the movie Toy Story Disney Enterprises, was named in the Whedon also co-wrote and which won him an Oscar nomination. This positive publicity brought him another commitment - the movie Twister - a.
1996, it was developed in the production studio 20th Century Fox 's plan, an implementation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to try as a television series for the U.S. television network The WB - Buffy - The Vampire Slayer. Whedon and the other rights holders have been asked and Whedon - the still dear to the project at heart - took it upon themselves to develop the series. In this frame Whedon founded the production company Mutant Enemy. After the series was able to prevail among the spectators, a development agreement was concluded between Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox, Whedon should long-term loyalty to the studio.
In the context of Buffy Whedon was given the opportunity to lead director at a television production, as he did in all his following series for the first time.
In the fall of 1997, Whedon was given the task to the script for the fourth installment of the Alien series of films to write: Alien - Resurrection ( original Alien: Resurrection ). Ironically, his work here was adapted by several script doctors to the expectations of the producers.
After several years of success of Buffy the next major project was mentioned in the Development Agreement, the spin -off series Angel - Hunters of Darkness ( original: Angel), the Whedon from 1999 his main focus was dedicated. This series was developed in collaboration with David Greenwalt. Main character is known from Buffy Angel, a vampire with a soul who fights in Los Angeles for humanity.
Finally Whedon developed from 2002 along with Tim Minear another project: the series Firefly - The departure of Serenity, which was eventually aired on the U.S. television network Fox. In Firefly, it was a science fiction setting, in which many elements of classic westerns were incorporated. However, there were from the beginning to creative differences with the studio and transmitter responsible. When the series finally, the expectations are not fulfilled in the ratings, it was sold at the beginning of 2003 after a half season. 2003 ran after seven years of Buffy also. A variety of additional spin-off series has been developed, but ultimately not realized. 2004 finally became clear that The WB Angel would be phased out after five seasons.
Later that year, Whedon sparked the development contract in 1997 - one year before it expires - on. Thus, the production company Mutant Enemy Inc. had no operating revenues for the production of new series - this meant a de facto retreat from the television business. Both the deposition of Firefly, as well as at the expiry of Angel dealt mainly with financial and (sender ) policy considerations, to less creative. So Angel was in his removal from the series with the second highest rates in the radiating transmitter and the audience had successfully adopted a reorientation recent series.
After starting in 2003 was the DVD release of Firefly very successful, succeeded Whedon, a script for a series based on this movie called Serenity - Escape to new worlds to sell. With this film, Whedon has also directed the film. In the U.S., the film opened on 30 September 2005 in the cinemas, German start date was 24 November 2005.
Through its involvement with the film medium addition, Whedon operated in the meantime as a comic book author. Even an avowed fan of the art form, he designed the published by Dark Horse Comics miniseries Fray which takes place in the future of the Buffy universe.
Like other writers of the television series Buffy Whedon also had a contribution to the implementation of this comic series he wrote the main story arc of the five part mini - series Tales of the Vampires, and three stories of the anthology Tales of the Slayer.
Whedon is currently addressing in the comic area with the designed 12 parts Astonishing X -Men sub- series in the X -Men series from Marvel Comics.
In Dark Horse Comics Whedon placed in 2005, a three-part mini- series called Serenity, which tells a story of the time between the television series Firefly and the movie Serenity. The booklets experienced several editions. In early 2006, the story is republished again in an anthology. Co - author Brett Mathews, the drawings are by Will Conrad.
Whedon had completed a preliminary agreement, according to which he should be responsible for producing and directing a movie based on the comic series Wonder Woman. After a long preparation time he left however, due to different creative ideas from the project. Another project ( Universal Pictures ), a fantasy thriller titled Goners, tells of a girl named Mia, who lives in a mystical way in the underground of the city and society. The work was interrupted by his dedicated participation in the strike by the Writers in 2007.
His last television project was Dollhouse, the series is about a group of secret agents whose personality is manipulated, including Eliza Dushku as Echo, which takes over the second part of the producers work. The U.S. broadcaster Fox exuded the first episode on 13 February 2009 and the last on January 29, 2010.
2008 Joss Whedon produced a three-part musical called Dr. Horrible 's Sing - Along Blog, which was seen a few days free of charge on the Internet. It is now to download for a fee in the U.S. and Canadian iTunes Store. The main roles in approx ten minute episodes have Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. He wrote in 2009 together with Drew Goddard, the script for The Cabin in the Woods and working on the film as executive producer. Goddard was the director for this project.
In April 2011, Marvel announced that Joss Whedon takes over the director in the film The Avengers. Titan Books published in late May 2012, the Audio Biography Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion in the USA.
Comments
- Whedon is sometimes referred to as the " first television author of the third generation" because both his father, Tom Whedon ( The Electric Company, Golden Girls ) and his grandfather, John Whedon ( The Donna Reed Show ) have worked as writers for television.
- Joss Whedon is married. The couple has a son ( * 2002) and a daughter (* 2005) and lives in Los Angeles.
- Whedon succeeded reportedly, the cast each of its three series also build special personal relationships; so is repeatedly reported eg by private Shakespeare readings in the house of Whedon.
- As Whedon's strength as a writer is called by critics and authors of his colleagues sides its ability to enhance dialogues through innovative puns and dry humor.
- In each episode Whedon's main focus is often on Fish -out-of -water situations ( literally " fish out of water " ), which means that characters are at the center, which must find their way outside of their actual social environment.
- Whedon has audio commentary for the DVD release introduced to various episodes of his series, which give an insight into the various aspects of his artistic career.
- Joss Whedon made a guest appearance in the series Veronica Mars as Douglas resulted in 6 of Season 2.
Filmography (selection)
As Writer
As a director
Awards
2005: Nebula Award in the category "Best Script ( Best Screenplay ) " for Serenity - Escape to new worlds