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Originally posted by RahlMaclaren:
Hopefully, Joss's next show (He'll come back around to TV. He always does.) will have more care for the details and story quality (Dedicated viewers tend to pick up on that stuff).

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Originally posted by two:
Mark Zuckerberg offered Joss $100 million for 22 TV episodes, direct to DVD, each a standard 45 minutes long, on whatever subject. That whatever really interested Joss, who responded with, "Now I know what I'll be doing after Avengers." Joss made a counteroffer, "I'll give you 44 episodes, and throw in two made-for-TV movies, for double the money." So the deal was made for two seasons of Whatever, the next Whedon TV/Internet project.

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Originally posted by two:
Mark Zuckerberg offered Joss $100 million for 22 TV episodes, direct to DVD, each a standard 45 minutes long, on whatever subject. That whatever really interested Joss, who responded with, "Now I know what I'll be doing after Avengers." Joss made a counteroffer, "I'll give you 44 episodes, and throw in two made-for-TV movies, for double the money." So the deal was made for two seasons of Whatever, the next Whedon TV/Internet project.

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Originally posted by Storymark:

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Originally posted by two:
Mark Zuckerberg offered Joss $100 million for 22 TV episodes, direct to DVD, each a standard 45 minutes long, on whatever subject. That whatever really interested Joss, who responded with, "Now I know what I'll be doing after Avengers." Joss made a counteroffer, "I'll give you 44 episodes, and throw in two made-for-TV movies, for double the money." So the deal was made for two seasons of Whatever, the next Whedon TV/Internet project.

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Can you cite this? I can't find anything that mentions it, and that seems like it'd kinda make the news somewhere.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Originally posted by two:

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Originally posted by Storymark:

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Originally posted by two:
Mark Zuckerberg offered Joss $100 million for 22 TV episodes, direct to DVD, each a standard 45 minutes long, on whatever subject. That whatever really interested Joss, who responded with, "Now I know what I'll be doing after Avengers." Joss made a counteroffer, "I'll give you 44 episodes, and throw in two made-for-TV movies, for double the money." So the deal was made for two seasons of Whatever, the next Whedon TV/Internet project.

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Can you cite this? I can't find anything that mentions it, and that seems like it'd kinda make the news somewhere.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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The story about Joss' Whatever TV deal is just as silly as Mark Zuckerberg's guest appearance on The Simpsons last week. . . But we can dream, can't we?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg

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Originally posted by Storymark:
I thought it sounded like BS (from math alone, no single season costs THAT much). Just thought I'd get confirmation.

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Originally posted by Storymark:
I thought it sounded like BS (from math alone, no single season costs THAT much).

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Originally posted by GWEK:

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Originally posted by Storymark:
I thought it sounded like BS (from math alone, no single season costs THAT much).

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Depends on your cast. If you've got Hugh Laurie and Charlie Sheen...

Seriously, though, 100 million for a season--especially a direct-to-DVD series, with no apparent support from outside vendors--isn't unreasonable.

That comes to just over 4.5 million per episode. The FIREFLY pilot, which was actually two episodes, cost 10 million (or 5 million per episode). While this was the most expensive episode of the season, I don't imagine costs have gotten significantly cheaper since 2001/2002.

Ultimately, though, the pricetag of 4.5 million per episode would be erroneous, because the 100 million total would also have to cover start-up and development (which would drain a significant portion of the cash away), marketing (without a network to support it, any television spots would be pricey), development and maintenance of ancillary materials (eg, official web site and forums, as well as any related products), and design and production of the actual DVD set.

Honestly, I think 100 million might be right about on the nose for the overall cost of a well-produced first season. Sure, it would likely make back a significant portion in DVD sales and rentals, but since a TV series makes a significant amount of its profit via commercials, I don't think there would be tons of cash to devote to next season.

All theoretical, of course, but kinda interesting nonetheless.


www.stillflying.net: "Here's how it might have been..."

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Originally posted by GWEK:


As I noted in my intial post, you're looking at the 100 million as just the cost of the episodes, averaged out, which fails to take into account marketing and ancillary work. Presumably, for the initial post, that covers EVERYTHING.

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Originally posted by Storymark:
And a series done at that price, with only a DVD release planned (and thus zero ad buys/revenue) would have to be a massive success to make any money back.

So, sure, a number like that is theoretically possible - but it would be really stupid from a business perspective. Especially for an untried business model. Something like that would be lucky to get a start-up budget of half that number.

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Originally posted by two:
There is no business model. This is pure philanthropy by Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive and a founder of Facebook.

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Originally posted by Storymark:

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Originally posted by two:
There is no business model. This is pure philanthropy by Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive and a founder of Facebook.

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There is no model, because this is imaginary.

One quick tip though - billionaires don't tend to become billionaires by spending money foolishly.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and $#@! him."

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Originally posted by two:
Joss Whedon needs a multi-billionaire philanthropist.

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Originally posted by Zeek:

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Originally posted by two:
Joss Whedon needs a multi-billionaire philanthropist.

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I still think that would make a fun campaign. Firefly for Firefighters was a good cause. Time for Firefly for Billionaires. Get a list of Billionaires and their addresses. Have fans pick up a copy of the DVD set and send it off to a billionaire and report back so we don't send duplicates. Surely some billionaire will fall in love and fund a return. Simple as pie. I'm too lazy to make pie though. So, you plan it, k? Thanks!

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Originally posted by two:
I've already done that. Mark Zuckerberg's secretary was afraid that I was the Unabomber. The unopened Firefly box set was thrown directly into the trash. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Kaczynski

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