Dr.
Horrible Conjures Up Internet Buzz
At
the start of the recent strike by the Writers Guild of America, Entertainment
Weekly speculated on a potential scenario regarding the central
issue of compensation for Internet video content. “It'll be interesting
to see what 12,000 unemployed screenwriters can do on the Internet,”
the magazine wrote on November 8, 2007. “In fact, that could be
the ironic twist ending we’ve been looking for: Hollywood writers
figure out a way to make so much money from the Internet, the studios
and networks end up asking them for a piece of the action.” Although
it has yet to be determined if any financial bounty will come from such
endeavors, EW proved prophetic nonetheless as television producer
Joss Whedon used the strike-induced hiatus to create a three episode
webseries, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
“During
the strike I started writing a musical intended as a limited internet
series, three episodes of approximately ten minutes each,” Whedon
posted on the fan-based whedonesque
weblog in mid-March. “Writing with me was my brother Jed, his
fiancée Maurissa, and my other brother Zack. To my shock and
surprise, we finished it. To my greater shock and surprise, we managed
(with the help of many people I’ll be praising at length soon)
to drag it into preproduction. And today, after a grueling week of writing
everything ever while trying to be a producer, I got to start shooting.”
This is
not the first time that Whedon, who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
Angel and Firefly, has turned his writing talents
to the musical realm. One of the most critically acclaimed episodes
of Buffy, “Once More With Feeling,” featured a
dancing demon who cast a spell over the town of Sunnydale that caused
residents to break into song. The Season Six episode was even shown
in theaters across the country in a Rocky Horror interactive
fashion, with fans in attendance singing along. Unfortunately, such
showings have recently ended due to legal considerations.
Whedon
still maintains a cult-like status on the Internet, however, and although
no premier date has been set for Dr. Horrible, a fansite
for the project has already popped up on the World Wide Web. “When
I heard that Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion would be working together
again my reaction was immediate,” the site’s creator explains.
“I knew a lot of people would be exited about the project and
that meant there were going to be a lot of people looking for information.
A quick search showed there wasn’t yet an official site and the
best way to spread information when there’s no official site is
through a fan site.”
Fillion,
who worked with Whedon on Firefly as well as its big-screen
adaptation, Serenity, is cast in Dr. Horrible as Captain
Hammer. The webseries—which Whedon describes as “the story
of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and
the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to”—also
includes Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible and Felicia Day (who portrayed
potential slayer Vi in Buffy) as Penny. Day is no stranger
to the world of the webseries, as she produces, writes and stars in
The
Guild, an Internet series about a
group of gamers that recently won Best Series in both the 2008 Yahoo!
Video Awards as well as the 2007 YouTube Awards.
“To
be involved in this project is a dream come true,” she recently
told Dynamic
Forces in regards to Dr. Horrible.
“I am so privileged to be working with actors of the caliber of
Neil and Nathan, they are inspiring and intimidating and hilarious all
at once! And the story runs the gamut of emotions: It is a true epic.”
Day’s excitement goes beyond simply working with Whedon again,
however, as she likewise believes the television producer will bring
attention and legitimacy to the webseries medium. “I’m excited
because, as a scripted web creator, we haven’t gotten any mainstream
respect for our work, and having Joss do his thing on the internet will
legitimize the media format,” she said.
In some
ways, the project has already drawn attention to that format. “To
be honest, before Dr. Horrible was announced, I’d always
intended to check some (webseries) out but never got around to it,”
the Dr. Horrible fansite creator revealed. “I have since
watched, and very much enjoyed The Guild.” Whedon’s
project has also given them a new appreciation for Internet video. “I
think it’s the way of the future,” they added. “I
don’t think anything will hold it back and I won’t be surprised
if in five years time we’re all watching regular TV on the Internet.
There’s so much more ability to provide for those whose tastes
aren’t met through traditional media, for those who want something
more intelligent than the ‘reality’ TV that’s being
forced on us more and more frequently.”
Although
Dr. Horrible is still somewhat shrouded in secrecy, various
online blogs have given clues to the project’s scope. Norma Jean,
an actress cast in the webseries, recently posted
about filming a scene at a Homeless Shelter Soup Kitchen: “The
songs and lyrics are incredible. The electricity of the actors unmatched
and certainly, no one does a story like Joss Whedon. His directorship
was superb! Someone pinch me, I'm a small town girl who just made some
Hollywood history.” And blogger Jonathan apparently had his apartment
used as the lair of the titular Dr. Horrible.
“It
was a great day,” he wrote
of the experience. “My house was full of this creative organized
chaos that is the synthesis of thirty-five really creative, handy people
all coming together to accomplish a goal. It was fantastic. It was tiring.
I actually enjoyed watching them do the same scene ten times and watching
Joss direct and seeing (Neil Patrick Harris) act. It was a completely
new experience for me and I really appreciated seeing the process.”
In many
ways, Whedon has always been a trendsetter. Although neither Buffy
nor Angel were ratings juggernauts, they left an impact on
the television industry nonetheless. He has recently officially continued
the storyline of both those shows in comic book format, and Buffy
Season Eight continually ranks in the upper tier of monthly comic
book sales. The short-lived Firefly—which was cancelled
by FOX after only eleven episodes—has sold over a half-million
copies on DVD, which in no small part led to Universal financing the
big-screen Serenity adaptation. Despite Firefly’s
low ratings, FOX green lit a new Whedon series, Dollhouse,
a few weeks before the writer’s strike commenced based solely
on a pitch-session with the Buffy mastermind.
It is on
the Internet, however, where Whedon achieves “Rock Star Status,”
and where his millions of loyal fans most demonstrate an ability to
“flex their muscles.” When the writers strike first erupted,
for instance, it took a scant five hours and fifteen minutes for Whedon
fans to organize in support of the WGA by sending pizzas to the picket
lines. The Firefly community, meanwhile, has held annual charity
screenings of Serenity under the tagline “Can’t
Stop the Serenity,” raising $65,000 for Equality Now in 2006 and
an additional $106,000 in 2007. With this kind of a rabid online fanbase,
Whedon’s entry into the realm of the webseries could legitimately
have positive ramifications on the medium.
“I
think that there’s something about Joss’ work that is meeting
the needs of a large part of the community that isn’t necessarily
met anywhere else,” the creator of the Dr. Horrible fansite
says of Whedon. “There’s a level of intelligence about Joss
Whedon’s work that I think attracts people who are looking for
something that can be both thought provoking and funny without feeling
preachy, and people are thankful for that. I know that in getting to
know other fans of Firefly, over time we’ve noticed that
we have more and more in common with each other than we first realized
and that draws us together as a community. With shows being cancelled
people united in a common purpose, and while that purpose is still important,
the community that developed has grown beyond that. To be honest, I
also think that the cast of shows like Firefly has a lot to
do with it. Everyone knows that they’re a great group of people,
not just great actors, and fans want to give them something back for
what they gave to us.”
From the
small screen to the large, from comic books to an extraordinary Internet
fanbase presence, Joss Whedon has always been at the forefront of the
cutting-edge. And although only time will truly tell, odds are that
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog will place Whedon at the
forefront of the webseries revolution as well.
April 14,
2008
