Joss Whedon

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Joss Whedon at Comic-Con 2012

Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon (born June 23, 1964 in New York ) is an American screenwriter , producer , director and comic book writer .

He is the creator of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), Angel (1999-2004), Firefly (2002-2003) and Dollhouse (2009-2010). He is the screenwriter of the fourth part of the Alien - tetralogy Alien - The rebirth (original title: Alien: Resurrection ) (1997), from The Avengers (2012) and its sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), where he also directed , from Toy Story (1995) and from The Cabin in the Woods (2012). He is also the author of various comics, some of which are based on the television series he has created.

Career

Private life

Both Whedon's father, Tom Whedon, and his grandfather, John Whedon , worked as writers for television.

Whedon, who grew up in Manhattan, New York , first attended Riverdale School before he went to England for his final year at school, where he graduated from Winchester College . This is known as an all-boys school with high academic standards.

After graduation, he returned to the United States to study film major at Wesleyan University , Connecticut, graduating in 1987.

Joss Whedon was married until 2016. The couple has a son (* 2002) and a daughter (* 2005).

Working life

After graduating from college Whedon began so-called spec scripts to write - screenplay drafts , create the authors at your own risk and try to production companies to sell. Although he did not manage to sell his works, he found a job as a writer on the television series Roseanne in 1988 . During this time he also worked on the script for Buffy - The Vampire Killer (original Buffy the Vampire Slayer ). He was able to sell this to Sandollar Productions , but it took several years to turn it into a movie.

In the meantime Whedon left Roseanne and worked briefly as a writer and co-producer on the series … Eltern sein very or Eine Wahnsinnsfamilie (different German titles given) (original Parenthood ).

In 1991 the film adaptation of Buffy, the vampire killer by the director Fran Rubel Kuzui followed . Whedon was not satisfied with this implementation of his idea, it did not go down well with the audience and now has B-movie status.

Whedon then succeeded for the first time in selling a script (called Suspension ), but in the end it did not come to the production of a film.

However, Whedon had now earned a good, professional reputation, so that from now on he worked more often as a so-called Script Doctor .

Whedon first worked on the script for Speed ​​in 1993/94 , after whose success he was also involved in the Waterworld project - in which, however, he had little influence on the end product.

In 1994 he managed to sell one of his spec scripts again, but Afterlife was not produced either.

His next job as a script doctor was the Disney Enterprises film Toy Story , in which Whedon was also named as a co-writer and which earned him an Oscar nomination . This positive publicity earned him another engagement - with the film Twister .

In 1996 the production studio 20th Century Fox developed the plan to try a conversion of Buffy the Vampire Killer as a television series for the US television station The WB - Buffy - The Vampire Slayer . Whedon and the other rights holders were contacted and Whedon - who was still very concerned about the project - took on developing the series himself. In this context, Whedon founded the production company Mutant Enemy . After the series was able to assert itself with viewers, a development contract was signed between Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox, which should bind Whedon to the studio for a longer period of time.

As part of Buffy Whedon was given the opportunity at a television production first director to lead, as he did in all his following series.

In the autumn of 1997 Whedon was commissioned to write the script for the fourth part of the Alien film series: Alien - The Rebirth (original Alien: Resurrection ). Ironically, his work here has been adapted to the producers' expectations by several script doctors .

After Buffy's several years of success , the next major project from the aforementioned development contract was the spin-off series Angel - Hunters of Darkness (original: Angel ), to which Whedon devoted his main focus from 1999. This series was developed in collaboration with David Greenwalt . The main character is Angel , known from Buffy , a vampire with a soul who fights for humanity in Los Angeles .

Finally, Whedon developed another project together with Tim Minear from 2002 : the series Firefly - Der Aufbruch der Serenity , which was finally broadcast on the US television channel Fox . In Firefly , it was a science fiction -setting, the classic in the many elements of Western were incorporated. However, there were artistic differences with those responsible for the studio and broadcasters right from the start. When the series finally did not meet the audience expectations , it was canceled at the beginning of 2003 after half a season. In 2003, Buffy also ran out after seven years . A large number of other spin-off series were developed, but ultimately not implemented. In 2004 it finally became clear that The WB Angel would be phasing out after five seasons.

At the end of the same year, Whedon terminated the 1997 development contract - one year before it expired. This left the production company Mutant Enemy Inc. with no current income for the production of new series - this meant a de facto withdrawal from the television business. Both the removal of Firefly and the phasing out of Angel were mainly about financial and (broadcasting) political considerations, less about creative ones. In the year of his cancellation , Angel was the second-highest rated series on the broadcasting station and the audience had successfully accepted a recent reorientation of the series.

Joss Whedon at the 2005 premiere of Serenity

After the DVD release of Firefly was very successful in 2003 , Whedon managed to sell a script for a movie based on this series called Serenity - Escape into New Worlds . Whedon also directed this film. In the USA, the film opened in cinemas on September 30, 2005; the German release date was November 24, 2005.

In addition to his preoccupation with the medium of film, Whedon has since worked as a comic book author . An avowed fan of this art form himself , he designed the mini-series Fray , published by Dark Horse Comics , which is set in the future of the Buffy universe.

Like other writers on the television series Buffy , Whedon contributed to the comic version of this series: he wrote the main story arc of the five-part mini-series Tales of the Vampires and three stories in the anthology Tales of the Slayer .

Whedon is currently engaged in comics with the 12-part Astonishing X-Men sub-series in Marvel Comics' X-Men series .

At Dark Horse Comics , Whedon placed a three-part mini-series called Serenity in 2005 , which tells a story from the time between the television series Firefly and the movie Serenity . The booklets experienced several editions. In early 2006 the story was reissued in an anthology. Brett Mathews was co-authored and Will Conrad wrote the drawings .

Whedon had signed a preliminary contract, according to which he should be responsible for the production and direction of a feature film based on the comic series Wonder Woman . After a long period of preparation, however, he left the project due to differing creative ideas. Another project (on Universal Pictures), a fantasy thriller called Goners , tells the story of a girl named Mia who mystically lives underground in the city and society. Work was interrupted by his dedicated participation in the 2007 scriptwriters strike.

His next television project was Dollhouse . This series was about a group of secret agents whose personalities are manipulated, including Eliza Dushku as Echo, who also took on the second part of the production work. The US broadcaster Fox aired the first episode on February 13, 2009, the last on January 29, 2010.

In 2008 Joss Whedon produced a three-part musical called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog , which could be viewed for free on the Internet for a few days. It is now available to download for a fee from the US and Canadian iTunes stores . Neil Patrick Harris , Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day played the main roles in the approximately ten-minute episodes . He co-wrote the script for The Cabin in the Woods with Drew Goddard in 2009 and worked on the film as executive producer. Goddard took on the direction of this project.

In 2011, Joss Whedon directed the movie Marvel's The Avengers . Titan Books will publish the audio biography Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion in the USA at the end of May 2012 . Directly after Marvel's The Avengers , Whedon shot the black and white film Much Ado About Nothing in his private home , for which he and his wife founded the film studio Bellwether Pictures . The film, which was shot within a few weeks, practically only involved actors whom Whedon knows from his various other film and television projects.

In 2012 Whedon was involved in the development of the television series Marvel's Agents of SHIELD , which - like Marvel's The Avengers - takes place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe . The series is about the everyday life of the agents of the secret organization SHIELD

In 2014, Whedon directed the sequel to Marvel's The Avengers . Filming took place from March to August 2014 at Shepperton Studios . The film, entitled Avengers: Age of Ultron , was released in Germany on April 23, 2015.

In 2017 he was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which awards the Oscars every year, for his achievements as a screenwriter .

Also in 2017, Whedon took over the re-shooting of the DC Extended Universe film Justice League .

Remarks

  • Whedon reportedly succeeded in building special personal relationships with the cast of each of his three series; so z. B. repeatedly reported of private Shakespeare readings in the house in Whedon.
  • Critics and his fellow authors cite Whedon's strength as an author to enhance dialogue through innovative word games and dry humor.
  • In individual episodes, Whedon's main focus is often on fish-out-of-water situations (meaning “fish out of water”), which means that the focus is on characters who have to find their way outside their actual social environment.
  • Whedon has contributed audio commentary to various episodes of his series for the DVD release, giving an insight into the various aspects of his artistic work.
  • Joss Whedon made a guest appearance on Veronica Mars as Douglas in episode 6 of season 2.

Filmography (selection)

as a screenwriter

as a director

Awards

  • 2005: Nebula Award in the "Best Script" category for Serenity - Escape into New Worlds
  • 2013: British Fantasy Award in the category "Best Screenplay (Best Screenplay)" for The Cabin in the Woods (together with Drew Goddard )

swell

  1. ↑ Joss Whedon: SATIN TIGHTS NO LONGER. whedonesque.com, February 3, 2007, accessed August 29, 2010 .
  2. ↑ Mariano Glas: Dollhouse: Eliza Dushku in a new series by Joss Whedon. serienjunkies.de, November 1, 2007, accessed on August 29, 2010 .
  3. ^ Joss Whedon: Entry in Whedonesque. whedonesque.com, March 16, 2008, accessed August 29, 2010 .
  4. ^ Doctor Gash: SXSW 2012: Catch a Live Chat With Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard of Cabin in the Woods. Dread Central, March 7, 2012, accessed March 7, 2012 .
  5. ↑ Marvel's The Avengers Begins Production at Marvel.com.Retrieved July 3, 2011
  6. ↑ Michael Granado: Read an Exclusive Excerpt from Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion. Dread Central, May 10, 2012, accessed May 10, 2012 .
  7. ↑ "Class of 2017". Accessed June 30, 2017. http://www.app.oscars.org/class2017/ .
  8. ^ 'Justice League' Extensive Reshoots Causing Headaches for Star Schedules on variety.com, accessed July 25, 2017

Web links

Commons : Joss Whedon  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Whedon, Joss
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Whedon, Joss Hill (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American screenwriter, producer, director, and comic book writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City