Help Nathan buy Firefly!

soulsinging

the dude abides
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Don't know if anyone has heard of this, but in an off the cuff comment during an interview Fillion said Mal was his fav role and if he won the lottery the first thing he'd do is buy the rights to Firefly and put new episodes up online. The fans took the ball and ran with it and are now waging a rather remarkably savvy campaign to raise the $, much to Nathan's chagrin.

Anyone heard of this? I joined the facebook group and while I don't think he was serious, this has certainly lit a fire under the fanbase and it's attracting a lot of attention. Internet momentum is what got the Serenity movie made in the first place... anyone think it's possible this might make fox wonder if they're not sitting on a big moneymaker?
 
Haha, cool. You know, there's probably a lot of pretty well-off sci-fi authors and such that are big Firefly fans. This could be the start of something shiny!
 
When you read things about fans banding together to try and buy the rights to something like Firefly, you sort of think how great it is, but wonder just how far it could go; but suddenly you see an author of the level of Rothfuss getting involved, and you wonder if more joined in could something actually happen?

Certainly stranger things have.
 
It's a great idea, but all they can show is support. What's the budget for one of these shows - a couple of million dollars EACH episode? I don't want to be a damp squib but there's no way a group of fans can raise that.
 
I suppose it depends on what we are expecting from webisodes, and what they are hoping to give us.

There are plenty of fan based 'shows' out there that don't look too bad, so it all comes down to just what they are prepared to do...

And if Nathan did buy them would Joss be involved (putting aside with his being busy with the Avengers at the moment)

I also guess it would be best to do it in stages, there is no point in thinking ahead if you can't get the rights...
 
Haha, cool. You know, there's probably a lot of pretty well-off sci-fi authors and such that are big Firefly fans. This could be the start of something shiny!

As someone mentioned above, Rothfuss is on board. In addition, once Fillion's comments went public, two of the show's former writers (who have also been involved in some huge sci-fi projects like Battlestar Galactica) said they would drop everything they were doing to return to the show. Jewel Staite (sp?) who played Kaylee responded to questions of whether she'd be willing to return with "is the pope Catholic?" Simon is apparently in as well.

I think the whole idea of buying the rights is a non-starter, and I don't think Nathan really seriously thought about it, let alone counted on this kind of response. In fact, he has since twittered to people not to put up money for this, partly to avoid inadvertently ripping people off and partly because I doubt he has time to work on it right now with Castle doing so well.

Nonetheless, the facebook page is close to 100,000 members now, the DVDs and blurays sell very well, and the story is all over CNN and various other major publications. If this can get enough momentum, the more likely outcome is that Fox might consider bringing the show back, given it has a built in loyal fanbase, free press and hype in the media, and a huge star for leading man (he was relatively unknown then but he might be able to pull Castle viewers to give it a chance). They really botched the initial airing, so if the rebroadcast (in order for the first time) is successful and this campaign continues to make waves, they might give it another chance.
 
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If they did give it another chance, (to me unlikely, but then stranger things and all that... and I would love to see it back) how would it work really? Fillion is contracted to Castle for the foreseeable future, so would we have to wait until the end of that?

Or would they recast, and how would we, the fans react to seeing some of the main characters being played by different actors?

And just to really play devils advocate to the full, and a bit of speculative fun - who else would be cast as Mal? (As sacrilegious as that might seem)
 
Joss - assuming he'd still be in charge - doesn't seem like the type of guy to replace cast members. I think he'd probably write them out instead if they weren't available (I remember hearing about a few things he wanted to do on Buffy - like bring Tara back - but the actors were unavailable).

But as for who else could play Mal...Harrison Ford :p
 
I think everybody's forgetting the most important question. Will Wash be back?!
 
No, but there is Brush Up, Wash's identical twin brother.

I know we have spoken about this before, but why not make new episodes straight to DVD, and have fans pay a deposit for them in advance with the remainder when it is made? If I could trust that it would actually get made, I'd be prepared to pay the whole amount in advance.

I think it would need to have a little higher production values than a fan-made homage. Those 'Star Trek New Voyages' were reasonable but not quite the same as the real thing.
 
I like the idea Dave ;)

Looking past the improbability factor of the show being remade in any real form, if something did happen, getting the cast together is going to be problematic.

Alan Tudyk is aleays busy somewhere, Nathan Fillion is successful on Castle, Adam Baldwin is a regular on Chuck, with Morena Baccarin is on V and Summer Glau is a regular on The Cape... (Now some of these shows are up for cancellation but it makes you wonder what would happen if the show did miraculously return, a complete (ish) recast?)
 
I think everybody's forgetting the most important question. Will Wash be back?!

I think I've read interviews where Joss has said if the show came back he would only do it with the original cast, and that would include both Wash and Book. How he would accomplish that, I have no idea.

But the logistics are certainly a concern. I don't know how long Nathan is committed to Castle or what their production schedule is like. Inara has been involved with V and Jayne with the show Chuck. So clearly, it would take some work to align schedules, if it's possible at all.

It will be interesting to watch regardless. Fan momentum got Family Guy back on the air, but that's an animated show which seems easier to produce without concern over schedules and expensive sets and the like.
 
Didn't fans get the Farscape mini-series going too? I hope it happens, but doubt it.
 
If they brought back Firefly, I would weep with joy (or at least be very happy). Although having just half a series does make it that extra, extra special (even beyond the limited two series set by The Office and Fawlty Towers -- ah, but these are much shorter UK series, I suppose). Coupla new series -- or even just finally a full one -- would be nice, to get the characters nicely developed. I mean, River, for a damn start.
 

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