Jose Molina - a former “Dark Angel” scribe who’s now on staff at “Dark Angel’s” de facto Fox network replacement, “Firefly” – wrote us Wednesday:
Hey there, Herc --
I've been a constant troller of AICN for the last few years, and I just wanted to say hey. I've come over to Firefly from the defunct Dark Angel, and figured I'd drop you a line.
There's obviously a lot going on over here at Camp Mutant Enemy -- Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Buffy Animated -- and I thought your faithful readers might dig hearing what's going on from the horse's mouth.
“We'd be foooooools not to pursue your contributions!” Herc eagerly replied. “You want to start by spilling the first seven ‘Firefly’ episodes' titles, writers and TV Guide loglines?”
Some of the first few episodes are still in a bit of flux, but here's what I can give you:
Episode 1, "The Train Job", written by Joss Whedon & Tim Minear, directed by Joss Whedon
Episode 2, "Bushwhacked", written and directed by Tim Minear.
Episode 3, written by Jane Espenson.
Episode 4, written by Drew Z. Greenberg.
Episode 5, written by Joss Whedon.
What's being reshot for the already-brilliant two-hour ‘Firefly’ pilot? They're not cutting it down to an hour - are they??
Here's the deal with the two hour pilot. Fox was concerned that it was too slow and not quite the fun show that they had in mind, so we are temporarily shelving it. Joss has written some awesome new scenes that will be shot in the next few days; they will be added to the 2-hour to make it into a fuller version that hews close to his original vision but includes a bit more of what Fox wanted.
Is the premium-grade space-hooker hanging around the Serentity because she secretly loves its captain? [One of the more legitimate things the good ship Serenity does is ferry about a fabulous professional ‘companion’ who frankly looks out of place amidst the Serenity’s blue-collar crew.] And at what point in the season will we learn what the Alliance was really doing to River, the doctor’s supergenius sister? [All we know from the two-hour pilot is that River got word to her brother, in code, that the Alliance was “hurting us” and that she really wanted to get very far away from the Alliance Academy For Gifted Teens.]
As for your other questions, I don't really have a good answer for you. We will find out what the deal is with River at some point, but it might not be for a while. And we're playing with a lot of the romantical relationships, trying to keep things interesting and unpredictable -- the way Buffy and Angel do when they're at their best. I know I'm giving you some crappy, abstract answers there, but we're just getting started over here!
Hope all is well -- and good to talk to you!
Jose
Like there’s something wrong with crappy, abstract answers!
Word is that Fox is contemplating airing “Firefly” in full-screen, even though the two-hour pilot and “Train Job” were shot in glorious letterbox. Does Fox know something NBC, UPN and the WB do not?
