Archive for Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon’s Doing Shakespeare Behind Our Backs

Surprise, Buffy/Firefly/Avengers/Dollhouse/Dr. Horrible fans! Joss Whedon has been cheating on you. OK, not really, but he was really sneaky and for some reason wrote and directed an entire movie, somehow based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, in secret. That’s according to a website that popped up on Sunday night, which simply announced the “completion of principle photography” and featured the above pic and a cast list that includes Angel/Dollhouse alums Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof, Firefly/Serenity’s Nathan Fillion and Sean Maher, and other Whedonverse and non-Whedonverse actors. “A film by Joss Whedon based on a play,” it says at the bottom of the page.

Whedonites are probably scratching their heads about all this secrecy — is it a rejection of the hype that usually accompanies Joss projects?
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Neil Patrick Harris Gets His Star On The Hollywood Walk Of Fame!

About frickin’ time, we say! One of our favorite stars ever, Neil Patrick Harris was awarded a Hollywood Walk of Fame star yesterday. It’s right in front of the Pantages Theatre across from the legen—wait for it —dary (we had to throw in some Barney Stinson) dive bar, the Frolic Room. Of which Neil said in his acceptance speech, “This won’t be the first time I’ve been plastered on the sidewalk in front of the Frolic Room.”

Fiance David Burtka, Joss Whedon and his How I Met Your Mother co-star Jason Segel, the latter of whom introduced Harris to the waiting crowd. He joked, saying, “Neil has been entertaining us in television, stage, the Internet and film for over 60 years.” Cue a Doogie Howser flashback! Neil tweeted a photograph of his star as well, modestly writing, “Things I dig”. Congratulations! It’s well deserved!

[Photo: Getty Images]

Robert Downey Jr. Surprised By Avengers Quality: “It’s Gonna Be Great”

Let’s admit it: The Avengers has a lot to live up to. Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America and Thor—all characters who have earned their own movie—crammed into one summer blockbuster with a handful of other heroes, and directed by Buffy creator Joss Whedon, far better known for nuanced TV character work than special effects extravaganzas? If you thought this sounds less than certain to work, Robert Downey Jr. would have agreed with you. “I tend to look at a scene and say ‘This is absolutely impossible, we can’t shoot this, it’s horrible. I can tell you ten other movies its been in. I refuse,’” said the actor behind Iron Man at the Hero Complex Film Festival this weekend. “I usually start off the morning by refusing to do what I’ve signed on to do. So I brought that attitude, happily. Anyway, I just thought how are you going to put all us clowns together? He’s wearing a suit. He’s all jacked up. He’s so and so. And poor Mark Ruffalo, what he’s gonna out do us?”

That was the wind up…and here’s the serve. “We’re about six weeks in and I have to say Whedon is nailing it. He’s so smart and so good. It’s going to be great. I can’t believe I just said it, I never could’ve believed it but it’s gonna be great.” While his confidence should be taken with a grain of salt, it is a relief to hear the eternally frank RDJ going to bat for the project like this—even if he practically admits he did it for the money. Will Marvel’s gamble pay off? Only one year until we find out for ourselves!

[Photo: WENN]

Whedon Says Angel Would Kick Edward’s Butt

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We admit that, while some of our friends and colleagues are rabid Twilight and True Blood fans, we will always be, first and foremost, Buffy and Angel devotees (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, natch). We love a good vampire tale, but more than that we love the worlds Joss Whedon created, and we’ve been wondering what Whedon’s take on the whole Twilight thing is. Well, now we know what he really thinks, thanks to a recent interview in which Whedon claimed that if Angel (neé evil altar ego Angelus, neé Liam) and Edward Cullen ever got in a row, Angel would beat Edward’s ass. (Team. . .Angel?)

Says Whedon, “I think Robert Pattinson‘s really cool, [but] Angel would kick the sh*t out of him. Okay, he’s Angelus. There’s no Edward Cullenus, okay. He just gets shiny in the sun… [Angel star David] Boreanaz would have him down in a heartbeat. No offense, ’cause he’s hot.”

Whedon doesn’t totally hate on the Twilight series though – just like the ill-fated love affair between Buffy and Angel, Whedon thinks there’s something special about Edward and Bella’s chaste romance. “There’s something primal about that story,” he says. “You can’t get away from it, and it just works like gangbusters. I love it.” [Photos: GettyImages]

Whedon Fans Mourn Lorne

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It’s a truly sad time in the Whedonverse – beloved Angel actor Andy Hallett died of heart failure on March 29 in L.A. He was just 33.

Hallett played the friendly crooner-demon Lorne for four years on the Joss Whedon show Angel but shortly after the show ended he was diagnosed with congestive heart disease, which limited his acting and performing abilities. Lorne, a.k.a. “The Host,” was a demon who could read people when they sang karaoke and was one of the most beloved characters on the show — who could forget the trip the gang took to the demon dimension Pylea to visit Lorne’s family? (We kind of love Angel, and Lorne and the Deathwok Clan were some of our favorite parts of the show.) Hallett’s passing, sadly, is not the first death within the cast of the series — during the first season, actor Glenn Quinn died of a drug overdose.

Hallett died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in L.A. and will be buried in Cape Cod, MA.