Und los:

• Hier gibt es ein wahrlich süßes Joss-Video-Interview zur Comic Con, das voll ist mir lustigen Quotes.
• Tim Minear hat Folge 2x02 geschrieben, und sie ist "bananas".
• Heute und morgen großer Dollhouse-Rewatch. Ich freu mich.

Ach ja, die eigentlichen News des Tages: Ab heute sind sie raus. DVD und Blu-Ray, in der US-Version (Region 1).

Die konkreten Inhaltsangaben und Extras gibt's hier.

Die Links hören nicht auf derzeit:

• Die Limited Edition DVD/BD hatte ja einen Brief von Joss beigelegt: Hier ist er. Und er ist so schön/dunkel/weird wie man es sich erwartet.
• Michael Ausiello redet hier mit Felicia Day über The Guild, Dr. Horrible und ihre Rolle in Dollhouse.
• Michael Ausiello redet auch mit Joss und Eliza. Sie besprechen Season 2 spoiler-free, nur das Setting von "Epitaph One" wird kurz angedeutet.
• Auch in diesem Interview reden Joss und Eliza spoiler-free über Season 2. Der Text drunter erwähnt jedoch, in welcher Konstellation Jamie Bamber in "Vows" auftauchen wird, doch etwas spoilend.
• Ach ja, Jamie Bamber spielt in "Vows" mit.
• Fox macht irgendeinen (blöden) Blödsinn mit Virtual Echo.
• Miracle Laurie macht irgendeinen (lustigen) Blödsinn mit Nichelle Nichols und den Cabonauts.
• Und Fran Kranz macht einen (absurden) Blödsinn mit MegaBot.

They are having too much fun.

Kleiner Linkdrop gefällig?

• Folge 2x02 hat einen Casting Call, aber leider keinen Titel.
• Amazon hat eine Joss-introduction mit köstlichstem Britisch und einem Behind-The-Scene Clip vom Shoulder-To-The-Wheel-Moment am Ende von "The Target".
• Und der So Fox, So Fresh Fotoshoot für die kommende Season inkludiert diesmal unsere Beauties Dichen, Fran, Tahmoh und Enver.

Um die Comic Con herum sind alle so gesprächig. Vier Telefon-Interviews habe ich anzubieten:

• Das vielleicht großartigste Dollhouse-wise is dieses hier mit Jed Whedon. Es wurde aufgenommen am 22. Juli (Drehbeginn für Season 2, zwei Tage vor der Comic Con), und ist aber völlig spoiler-free was Season 2 anbelangt. Einzig Setting und Cast von "Epitaph One" wird verraten. Der Rest sind großartige Einblicke in seinen süßen Verstand, nette Backgroundinfos (zum Retooling der Show und Dr. Horrible z.B.) und auch eine Ankündigung für ein baldiges "Soloalbum mit Freunden". Die erste Hälfte von "Remains" gibt's auch. Super unterhaltsam.
• Echo Alert dürfte wohl der okayeste Dollhouse-Podcast im englischsprachigen Raum sein, und sie haben sich die wunderbare Mircale Laurie für ein Exklusivinterview geschnappt. Bezaubernd, rad und exciting. Sie geht auf viele Details des Schauspielprozesses ein, ihre Schlüsselszene in "Man on the Street" wird lang und breit erläutert, die anderen SchauspielerInnen nett ausgerichtet und auch ihr Ukulele-Spiel schildert sie uns als eine feine Gutenachtgeschichte.
• Nochmal Miracle, nur diesmal drüben bei The SciFi Diner Podcast und fader.
• Und nicht Dollhouse-, aber wohl Joss-related ist hier ein Interview mit Scott Allie, Chef von Dark Horse. And der Joss-Front kündigt er hier das kommende Willow-Oneshot (das Willow und Saga Vasuki prä-Season 8 zeigt) die kommende Sugarshock-Veröffentlichung (Yay!), das kommende Dr. Horrible-Prequel-Oneshot von Zack Whedon (endlich volle 24 Seiten!), das (wohl nach dem Film) kommende Cabin in The Woods-Prequel, und die Struktur der kommenden Season 8 Hefte (Jane Espenson bis 8x30, Joss schreibt surprisingly 31, Brad Meltzer 32-35 und den Rest vermutlich Joss) an.

A propos: Habe ich hier eigentlich schon erwähnt, dass Patton fucking Oswalt ein Serenity-Oneshot über Wash schreiben wird?! Und Shepherd Book's Backstory kriegen wir nun auch bald erzählt. Good times, good times.

Wirklich nur dieselben Kleinigkeiten, die sie auch beim Panel gesagt haben.


(Direktlink)

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

(Direktlink)

Okay, sie ist geschafft. Joss hat nicht nur "Epitaph One" erstmals von tausenden Leuten bejubeln lassen, er hat auch einige großartige Sachen über die Show selbst, Season 2 und den kreativen Prozess im allgemeinen gesagt. Hier mal ein kleiner Recap, den ich mit dem verdammt großartigsten Joss-Zitat zu dieser Show eröffnen möchte, das ich je gelesen hab:

I think with this show, I want to say to the people who have, you know, felt a connection with me, that maybe you want to back away and avoid eye contact, that maybe there’s something horribly wrong with me, and this is my very poetical way of expressing that. I think of it as a work that actually frightens me at times in a way that my shows seldom got to. At the same time I have that sort of jolly love of everything that’s going on and have to be reminded that what I’m doing is reprehensible. So it’s a mature work in the sense that I grew up and went insane.

Über das allgemeine Thema der zweiten Staffel heißt es dort:

Yet I would say in terms of the second season, the abuse of power and the different kinds of forms it can take is going to become broader and more, in fact, political, and we’re going to see the Dollhouse in the world a bit more.

Re: Renewal:

I’d say it came extraordinarily close to being canceled, I’d say it was probably pronounced on the table and we went, “Nooo!” (feigns CPR) and the camera pulled back and it went (gasps) and the music came up and we all cried. It came down to some very simple numbers that people worked in a very complicated fashion to fudge laughs and ultimately the fact that my shows have never gone that big, you know they’re marathon runners, they’re not sprinters. This is the studio where I did those shows, even when they weren’t on that network. And they know that, so they fought hard to make it as easy for the network as possible. So it was really the hardcore fan base, the people who are here, to tip the scale. And that scale was tippy.

Und über ein Dollhouse-Comic:

I don’t see it happening. I don’t care how good an artist is, they’re not gonna make an Eliza. Ultimately you know she doesn’t fly, she doesn’t shoot firebolts, except in that one episode — it’s gonna be awesome. So I think this belongs exactly where it is: on television… and in fanfic.

A propos Spoiler. Casting-News für Season 2 gab's auch: Amy Acker (wie gesagt) nur in 3 Folgen, Summer Glau womöglich dabei, und Alexis Denisof fix für ein paar Folgen. Und in "Vows" spielt Felicia Day (et al. aus "Epitaph One") mit, es gibt also eine Form von Anschluss.

In Bezug auf was Season 2 falsch machen könnte, meinte Joss hilariously:

As long as we don't send anyone to feudal Japan, we should be fine.

Joss hat übrigens nie Lost gesehen (keine Zeit, muss ja selber TV machen). Über die allgemeine soziale Problematik, die die Serie und die Technologie, aufwirft:

As you can see from this lost episode, everything turns out fine.

(Was für eine Frage! Und das direkt nach dem "Epitaph One"-Screening!)

Noch mehr zur Philosophie der Show gefällig?

Someone wanted to know if Joss had a thing against giant corporations and Joss said, "Have you been in America? I like to consider myself a great documentarian. The entire structure is designed to mess with your minds, to combine selling you things with entertaining you to keep you in line to make you think that you need the things they want you to need and to stay away from the things that they want you to stay away from, to keep them in power, to share none of it. This is all happening. There are lights in the darkness. The art that we get to create because of our powerful patrons let us is one of them, but sometimes, yeah, it's like running the daycare on the Death Star. The truth is there is power and manipulation that is controlling almost all of our every thought, and that is why I love this show so much."

Alan Sepinwall wiedrum hat kurz mit Jed & Maurissa über das Problem gesprochen, wie Seaosn 2 damit umgehen wird, dass die Hälfte der Leute "Epitaph One" gesehen haben, und andere nicht:

I talked briefly with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen after the panel, and they said there will likely be some repetition of information from "Epitaph One" to explain things to the viewers who didn't see it, but I can't imagine that explanation being nearly as powerful as simply watching "Epitaph One" itself. Joss also said that those of us who watched "Epitaph" shouldn't automatically take all the flashbacks as gospel, as they're presented as memories, and memories aren't always what actually happened.

Joss hat über seinen Schreiber, sein kreatives Umfeld und den kreativen Prozess auch tolles zu sagen:

I haven’t had a thought in years! The staff are really there as stenographers! This is without a doubt the best first year staff I’ve ever worked with. A room full of brains… floating brains in jars. I really feel like this, more than any other show is a real roundtable. Everyone has made a contribution that I wish I thought of and was grateful not to have to. Sometimes the people you work with actually help inspire. I can’t stress this enough. The way I talk about the writer’s room, being a round table, being a circle, this is how my creative life exists — because of a community. Everything I see from them informs everything I do. The show was created because I knew Eliza [Dusku] can be sophisticated, funny, vulnerable, blind. All these things she’s not going to get to play unless I get to play with her. At the same time, it was Felicia [Day] singing in her little Christmas episode of THE GUILD that made me want her to play penny in DR. HORRIBLE and the idea that had me use her in “Epitaph One” was when Sarah Fain [DOLLHOUSE Executive Producer] brought her up after considering her for a role in WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB. I was so embarrassed we hadn’t thought of it. Apart from the stealing from friends, writers, artists and William Shakespeare. For a guy who notices very little I see everything. It all filters in. I have these weird genre filters in me and everything comes at me and I can’t stop. I can’t stop thinking of things that I want to say and different ways to say them. They don’t always work, are often re-written and not produced, but they keep coming and thank God they do. I don’t think of it as a creative process, it’s like blinking. It’s just the way I am. I’m not very good with actual people because I’m usually too busy with the little avatar world I live in.

Über das Umbringen von beliebten Charakteren:

As a storyteller… I hate people… I want them to suffer and die! I kill people for (1) either the story or (2) because contractually I have to. I try to have as much integrity as a storyteller that I can but when somebody is going to disappear sometimes you have to think up something so that you cry when they do.

Und bei Dollhouse? Season 2 spoiler sagt: "No one can be trusted. Actually, there is one person who can be trusted, but I’m going to kill them."

Season 2 wird übrigens visuell sehr an "Epitaph One" angelegt sein und auf Video statt auf Film gedreht werden. Director of Photography wird eine neue Person, die an "Epitaph One" mitgewirkt hat.

Auf der "Epiatph One"-Review-Front ist vor allem die tolle Mo Ryan hervorzuheben, die liebvoll wie immer die Folge und die Implikationen für Season 2 zerpflückt. Nur IGN sind lahme Miesepeter wieder einmal.

Alles in allem, ein super News-Roundup. Season 2 wird groß, keine Frage.

TV Guide redet lang und breit mit Joss über Season 2, und ja, es klingt großartig, und ja, es wird ein klein wenig gespoilt. Hier ein paar nicht-spoilery Bits:

Congratulations on Dollhouse’s renewal. Did Fox ask you to change the show in any significant way in an effort to get bigger ratings?

No, they really didn’t actually. The show as it came to be at the end of last season, pleased them very much. They pretty much just said, “Can you make it for less?”

So did you have to fire half your cast?

No, we didn’t have to do that, amazing enough. They cut the budget nominally. I respond very well to that kind of challenge. In fact, it’s made our stories bigger instead of smaller, now that we don’t have to spend our time thinking about little things like, ‘What’s this show?” “What’s it about?” and all those things that I was given last year. We can just concentrate on getting this done and getting it done right.

(..)

What’s your answer to those who are queasy with the idea that the Actives are basically prostitutes since they have no power over who they sleep with?

I never thought of that! No, I did. I think it’s a little more complicated than that. But there is that element of they have sex with people sometimes. We always deal with what it does to them psychologically. What good can come of it and what terrible can come of it and how are the people who are manipulating them feeling about what they’re doing. You get into the area of sex at all in America and it’s a touchy subject. Our response is to come at it head on and so we’ll see a lot of the consequences of what’s been going on with the Dolls over the next 13 episodes.

(...)

What’s your frank opinion of the first season, since it was a pretty difficult season for you?

I feel like we were trying to get to the show we wanted to make and while we were trying to figure it out we made a bunch of episodes that were diverting but not ultimately fulfilling for me. And then about halfway through, I felt that we found our footing and it felt like the network felt the same way and we all got on the same page. After that the show started to really excite me and we all started to have fun. You could feel it in the episodes. So that’s where we are now. The writers’ room has never been happier.

What do you think about being on Friday night?

We don’t have the burden of being a hit. We’re not being overly scrutinized. There’s no fear that our numbers will go down because they physically can’t. This is where I like to make TV. I like to be off the radar. So we’re all very comfortable with that time.

Link

Amy Acker kehrt leider nur für 3 Folgen zurück. :(

Heute dürften die Dreharbeiten zur zweiten Staffel Dollhouse begonnen haben. Merkwürdig daran ist nur, dass die Comic Con dieses Wochenende stattfindet, und sehr viele Leute (inklusive Joss und Eliza) dort sein werden, die eigentlich drehen sollten. Aber wird schon hinhauen, schätze ich mal.

ETA: Maurissa bestätigt.

Sie redet über "The Plan", Caprica und auch Dollhouse:

CU: After a bit of a slow start, Dollhouse has turned out to be a very good show and I’m glad its coming back. Can you tell us about some of the changes that were made during the season to improve the show or take it in a different direction?

JE: My impression — and this really is just my impression — was that the show got closer and closer to Joss’s original vision for the show. As the show progressed, Joss was able to get deeper into the mythology and meaning of the show, which was all the stuff that fascinated me so much. I love the show and loved working there.

CU: Will you be writing more episodes of Dollhouse next season or taking a more active producing role on the show?

JE: I wish I could. Caprica has me too busy to take on anything outside of that.

CU: What do you think the reduced budget will do to the show next season? Will it have an impact of the kids of stories that can be told?

JE: Budgets are smaller all over. This limits the number of sets you can have, the number of speaking roles and extras, number of special effects, and it can cut the number of shooting days which can lead to fewer locations used in each episode. This will favor stories that take place on the standing sets, using only the regular characters.

It moves the action off-screen (you’ll tend to hear about the big riot rather than seeing it). There’s a lot of elasticity in story-telling and you can do a lot of this without it showing too badly — sometimes you even are forced into creative solutions. But you can only go so far and then it’s a show about sock puppets. Budgets are getting awfully small.

CU: Was it always the plan to have Echo realize she was a Doll or, at the very least, that something was “wrong” during the first season?

JE: My understanding was yes, that was the plan.

CU: Was Ballard always supposed to be a main character on Dollhouse and discover its secrets? It seemed his role was amplified during the first few episodes to become more of a main character?

JE: I certainly believed that he was always intended as a main character.

Link

Hier also die offizielle Bestätigung, dass sie in Season 2 nicht dabei sein wird.

Ken Levine (Comedy-writer) hat einen Pool. Und der Pool, der wäre fast in Dollhouse gewesen, damals, als die Show Locations für "Echo" gesucht hat. Lest selbst, was für eine tolle Geschichte Ken zu erzählen hat, bezüglich der Gründe, warum sein Pool nicht der Dollhouse-Pool geworden ist:

One day last year we get a knock on our front door. My wife answers to find the location manager for a new pilot called DOLLHOUSE. It was a Joss Whedon production. She was aware of the name. He was my marching buddy one day on the strike line. Anyway, they were interested in using our pool for the pilot. They had been scanning GoogleMaps and from 300,000 feet our pool seemed to be the right shape and color.

He took pictures, said ours was one of a number they were considering, and gave her his number if we had any questions.

I came home that night and was not enthused. The thought of a film crew – sixty guys named Dave – trampling through my house and yard did not excite me. They always say they’ll leave the house exactly as they found it but do they really? What if they break my priceless bowling trophy? Plus, it’s just an invasion of privacy. I don’t want to be sunbathing nude while Dave, Dave, Dave, and Dave drag cables across the patio.

Link