China Mieville explains theology, magic, and why JJ Abrams hates you

And so he does:

I've never met [JJ Abrams]. I am not a member of his fan club or anti-fan club. I disliked Cloverfield a very great deal. I disliked Star Trek intensely. I thought it was terrible. And I think part of my problem is that I feel like the relationship between JJ Abrams' projects and geek culture is one of relatively unloving repackaging - sort of cynical. I taste contempt in the air. Now I'm not a child - I know that all big scifi projects are suffused with the contempt of big money for its own target audience. But there's something about [JJ's projects] that makes me particularly uncomfortable. As compared to somebody like Joss Whedon, who - even when there are misfires - I feel likes me and loves me and is on some cultural level my brother and comrade. And I don't feel that way about JJ Abrams.

He also "abjure[s] the comparison between leftist groups and cults" which is good enough for me.

Dr. Horrible's End

It's pretty amazing that in the span of just three 15 minute episodes, Joss Whedon was able to simultaneously raise our expectations and dash our hopes over characters we didn't even know. As for me, I thought for sure Penny was either a fellow applicant for the Evil League of Evil, or Bad Horse herself (very cleverly disguised).

Shows what I know.

Except for the fact that Captain Hammer's song in Act III was sort of long and boring and left Nathan Fillion flailing about in a near-empty room trying to sell it. If he'd had a comical sidekick to work against it would have been a much better Gaston-style show-stopper.

Still, pretty genius for a glorified YouTube. And, FTR, Acts I and II are awesome.

Trailer Moment

A great interview with Joss Whedon at the A.V. Club. Here, Joss describes how he develops ideas by thinking of what would look good in the trailer:

I'll have an idea, and then I'll start to think about what's behind that, and what would be the big emotional moment, what would be the catch, what would be the thing I'd love to see. It's usually easier in a situation with a known quantity. For example, Wonder Woman. Like, how do you introduce Wonder Woman? "Oh, that's cool." I did Aliens 4. When I first wrote it, it was a 30-page treatment that was completely different from what they shot. It didn't have Ripley in it. Somebody just said, "We're interested. Would you write a treatment on spec?" I was like, "It's Alien. Are you kidding? I'll carve one on my forehead." That hurt, so I stopped and used paper. [Laughs.] Paper has worked out great for me since, really. But, I thought to myself, "Okay, I've seen three Alien movies. Alien is one of the most important franchises in my mythic history. What haven't I seen? What are the moments that I go, 'Okay, that's new, that's worse, that's good, give me that'?"

It's easy doing that with a script for a TV show. You can feel the characters, you can get to the emotional moment. With a new thing, it's still part of the process. The most obvious example, and I've used it before, is Buffy in the alley. I really thought about it: [Trailer narration voice.] "It's a bad town to be in, especially at night." There's the girl in the alley. "Especially if you're alone." And then the monster attacks her and she kills it. "And especially if you're a vampire." It was that turnaround, which I hadn't seen, and which has obviously been seen a million times now, but this was 20 years ago. I wrote that, and it's in the actual movie. They didn't use it for the trailer, and the scene isn't shot exactly how I imagined it. But when I'm thinking of a trailer moment, I'm not just thinking of how I can grab people. That's my whole philosophy. My entire career is in that trailer moment: The emotional highs of the movie, and the thing you haven't seen, and the thing you're longing for. They should all be connected.

Good stories are always pitched at that level: emotions, surprises, and wish-fulfillment.

Serenity Now

Chris Orr reviews Apocalypto, a movie I could not care less about and will only see some day on cable by accident. But I love his movie shout outs at the end, including:

Serenity (2005). The directorial debut of pop genius Joss Whedon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel"), this big-screen adaptation of his "Firefly" series is the best space opera since the first two Star Wars movies and one of the most criminally neglected entertainments of the last decade. Had it been cursed with a gluttonous budget, a raft of "stars," and the requisite McDonalds tie-ins, it would have made a quarter-billion dollars. Instead, it made about a tenth as much--but is a much better movie for it.

Could not agree more. If Serenity is the best space opera since the first two Star Wars movies, what would Joss do with my Vader Lied scenario?