Normally I post my own writing on this blog. However, after the announcement of a possible Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot movie, I found that I couldn't really think of anything to say that my friend Victor Infante didn't say in a recent entry in his own personal blog. So, with permission from the original author, I bring you the following from the editor-in-chief of the online literary magazine The November 3rd Club, copy editor for the Worcester Telegram, author of City of Insomnia, which is available from Write Bloody Press, and a man of many other accolades, Victor Infante:
I'm pretty sure I've never seen word of a movie get such a sudden and sharp denunciation from its potential audience as the proposed reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer1. Really. It's been staggering2. The news was originally broken by The Hollywood Reporter, who also reported that:
The new "Buffy" film, however, would have no connection to the TV series, nor would it use popular supporting characters like Angel, Willow, Xander or Spike. Vertigo and Kuzui are looking to restart the story line without trampling on the beloved existing universe created by [Joss] Whedon, putting the parties in a similar situation faced by Paramount, J.J. Abrams and his crew when relaunching "Star Trek."3
Which, really, it's not the same situation at all. Buffy has been off the air for less than a decade, and still does a brisk business in DVDs and has an ostensibly canonical continuation in comics. Star Trek was a dying franchise of which the principle image in most young viewers minds was either an aging, overweight William Shatner at his hammiest, or worse, the barely interesting TV show Enterprise. It was time to start again. And that time will come for Buffy, too, but this probably isn't it. Or at least, this is probably not the way to do it.
There's two hard realities butting heads here -- one legal and financial, and the other cultural. On the legal side, the movie rights to Buffy are owned by original director Fran Rabel Kuzui along with her husband Ka. According to Newsarama, "Kuzui and Kuzui Enterprises has held on to the rights since Kuzui, 'discovered the "Buffy” script from then-unknown Whedon. She developed the script while her husband put together the financing to make the 1992 movie, which was released by Fox.'"4
Characters such as as Willow, Giles, Angel and Spike are all owned by Fox, and it's unlikely Fox would release them. And while Whedon still retains some ownership over the franchise, it likely only extends to royalties, not to actual control. Once the movie rights were sold, that's all she wrote. So if they want to make the movie in the face of an outraged and noisy fandom, that's their prerogative.
However, one thing's become clear to me in this process, though: Buffy's an iconic character, and as such, eventually will pass out of Joss' hands. Probably even while he's still alive, although doubtfully while he's still interested. The character has embedded itself in the cultural matrix, and her story will get retold umpteen million different ways. That's how it goes for the icons. But the key to the success of Buffy's next iteration will be the identification of the fundamental elements of the story.
So what are the fundamental elements of the Buffy story? Well, Buffy Summers, obviously. "One girl in all the world with the strength and skill to fight the vampires, blah, blah, blah." But while the movie was first, it's clear that the TV show is the ruling canon, and the characters introduced there have become part of the meta story. At this point, a Buffy without Willow and Giles is a bit like Superman without Lois Lane or Jimmy Olson, and even Smallville made use of Lex Luthor when it started up, along with Superman characters Lana Lang and Pete Ross. The fan reaction is one thing, but stories -- big stories, anyway, and Buffy's earned its place as a big story -- they work a certain way. And oddly, that way has little to do with faithful retelling, and secondary characters ... they have their place in a mythos.
It's like this: there's a certain power in stories that get retold and reinterpreted. Take Batman for example. The Batman in the comics now (err ... before he died) is not the Batman Bob Kane created, nor the one Frank Miller reinvigorated, nor is he the one in the cartoons or the one Christian Bale plays in the movies. But they're all faithful renditions of the story, even if the details are different: You have the boy who watches his wealthy parents get murdered in Gotham City who returns to fight criminals. You have the Batmobile, you have Jim Gordon and his faithful butler Alfred. In most, you have Robin. Some of these details were added along the way, but once they're locked into the mythos, they're there to stay. I'd argue that Giles, Willow & Xander, Angel and Sunnydale itself have locked themselves into that mythos.
So what happens if the new movie goes a completely different direction, and jettisons the existing mythos? Well, then you have a situation like, say, the Halle Barre Catwoman movie, which had nothing to do with the spirit of the mythos save its name. The reaction to the misstep becomes visceral, because some stories have a weight of their own, and not honoring that shows. For what it's worth, I think J.J. Abrams outdid himself with the new Star Trek, and that you could completely see how Christopher Pine and Zachary Quinto could grow into the more familiar older Kirk and Spock. The spirit was there. Is it too much to suspect already that Buffy's spirit is lacking in the proposed movie? It's way too soon to say that, but there's a bad feeling in my gut about it.
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