Quote:

---

You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn't seen at least one of Joss Whedon's creations. He is, after all, the guy who has had three television series on the air in the past seven years, has written and rewritten countless movies, and who was even nominated for an Academy Award for the first Toy Story. And now, as Angel comes to a close, Joss has managed to find time to write an entire year of Marvel's new Astonishing X-Men comic.

Of course, genre and even non-genre fans realize that he can handle it. He has publicly acknowledged that Kitty Pryde was a big influence on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and a uncredited writing credit on the first X-Men movie gives him just a bit of credibility.

Even though Angel recently aired its final episode, it's still going to be a banner year for Whedon fans. Not only is he shooting the highly anticipated Firefly movie -- entitled Serenity -- but the X-Men comics are being written by two masters: Whedon and John Cassaday.

UGO: Who contacted you to work on Astonishing X-Men in the first place?

JOSS WHEDON: [Marvel Editor-In-Chief] Joe Quesada cornered me at the San Diego Comic-Con. He had done it before, but this time he broke me down.

UGO: Did you say to him, "Joe it would take all my shows being cancelled before I would ever work on X-Men?"

JOSS: [laughs] I didn't say that, but it does work out timing-wise.

UGO: How much editorial input have you been getting? Had you written many comics before?

JOSS: I wrote a series called Fray for Dark Horse and a couple of other things. This is my first Marvel work. So far they've been very hands-off, but they do have guidelines. I pitch my stuff at them and if they say go with that, I do, and if they say don't, then I don't. If they do have a problem, it would probably be something contradicting the universe because there is so much going on, but I will probably do that anyway.

UGO: Did they send over a big book of guidelines?

JOSS: What I have is my editor who is an expert on all things. If I have a question about a character, he has all the info. I just e-mail him.

UGO: Are you going to pull a Ben Edlund and put out twelve issues in five years, or go at a faster pace like Kevin Smith?

JOSS: [laughs] Fray was in the Edlund/Smith mode of storytelling. I don't have a choice this time. I signed a contract to meet deadlines. I know how Marvel works and I take it seriously. I'm not running three shows, so to me this is my TV show this year. It's going to air, so I better get to making it.

UGO: If I had to guess, I would imagine you are not doing this for the money. You are a fan of the X-Men. But what made you want to do a series that was in continuity instead of a miniseries?

JOSS: Originally, I was asked if I wanted to take over New X-Men from Grant [Morrison]. I was reading New X-Men and loving it. The other part of the equation was [working with] John Cassaday. I had been talking about doing something with John for years. Then, once I signed on, I was told it wasn't New X-Men but Astonishing X-Men. I was like "What?" But I took the same premise and cast that Grant established and worked from there because I was caught up in that book.

UGO: Did anything that you wrote make it into the first X-Men movie?

JOSS: "You're a dick" [the exchange between Wolverine and Cyclops when Cyclops isn't aware that "Wolverine" is an imposter.]

UGO: So is anything from your X-Men screenplay that's going to go into this Astonishing run?

JOSS: No. It's different characters that are at a different time in a different medium. I'm not going to recycle old screenplay stuff to tell this new story. You come to the X-Men, that's a grave responsibility where I come from. That's the real deal. I grew up reading this book, and I'm not there to rehash old ideas just to have a fun sideline while I shoot my movie. It's a very serious job where I am pushing myself to do something new. If I phone it in or cull it from something, the readers are going to know and I think that makes me a lameass. I'm not going to do that.

UGO: Are you going to write it the same way you write everything, or will you be doing it Marvel-style?

JOSS: I'm pretty much going to be doing the same way I write everything. I will probably leave much of the panel description to John Cassaday because we are so much on the same wave-length. It's almost scary. I find that I have to do less work. It's like directing an actor, but he's so spot-on that I don't have to give him notes.

UGO: How do the two of you connect so well?

JOSS: We met at a con a couple of years ago. He was a fan of mine and I'm a fan of his, so that helps. He is just so perfect for this gig because he toes the line between very real and personal people and great epic science-fiction. He can do both at once, and that's what I like to write.

UGO: Is there going to be a lot of in-jokes? Will there be a Buffy reference that non-fans won't get?

JOSS: In-jokes and pop culture references have their place. The fact that my reputation seems to include being Mr. Pop Culture reference saddens me a little. It's one of the reasons I made Firefly, because 500 years in the future I couldn't make any pop culture references. It's really never the heart of the piece. I'm not there to amuse myself, but to reach as wide of an audience as possible. Obviously when you get caught up in the mythology of something, it brings with it its own in-jokes because everybody knows these characters so well. In the case of Buffy, that happened after a few years. With the X-Men, these characters have been alive about as long as I have, but they look better; they're very well preserved.

UGO: Astonishing X-Men is the first time in a while that you have done something work-for-hire. Did you ever think that you shouldn't do it because you have no real stake in it?

JOSS: You hit it before. It's not like I ran home and said, "Honey I'm going to be making those big comic book dollars." If I did a comic, my first instinct would be to do something that I created because I have things to say. Most of the things I have done have been owned by 90 different people. A comic book is something you can't make your own, but the bottom line is that it's the X-Men. That was Joe's trump card. I love that team, I loved what Grant was doing with them, and I grew up with them as much as I can I say I've grown up. The idea that I was going to spend a year telling them what to say and do made me just about as happy as any geek has ever been. I did it for the happiness.

UGO: I read that you're a big fan of Chris Claremont's work on X-Men. His run is broken up by the artists he worked with like Paul Smith, John Romita, Jr., and so on. Which era did you jump on with?

JOSS: There were two. The Dave Cockrum/then John Byrne run, which I count as one era, and then the Paul Smith run brought me back to the comics. I happened to pick up the book the very issue he took over. He and John Byrne do get a little shout-out in the first issue of Astonishing I wrote.

UGO: What comics do you read?

JOSS: I read everything that Brian Michael Bendis writes, which is actually quite a chore because he doesn't really stop to breathe.

UGO: He's sort of the Joss Whedon of comics.

JOSS: More like the Stephen King of comics. His pen runneth over. I actually was at the store today and I can't remember what books I bought.

UGO: When you can't remember what books you bought an hour later, that means you are a real fanboy.

JOSS: I like Catwoman, Mark Millar's books. I like what Garth Ennis is doing, but I'm tired of The Punisher even though I did like what he did with [Richard] Corben. I also like Runaways and Y: The Last Man, Brian Vaughan's stuff. If another NYX comes out I'll read that.

UGO: What are you doing while the last Angel airs?

JOSS: Weeping and rending my clothes.

No, if I get a little time I just might watch it. I hear it's good.

UGO: Did you watch the uncut version of Alien: Resurrection that recently hit DVD?

JOSS: There's more? I got to tell you I don't venture there very often. My doctor says it's not good for me.

UGO: How soon are you going to start shooting the Firefly movie, Serenity?

JOSS: Two weeks.

UGO: I saw you are going to be working with Clint Eastwood's cinematographer, Jack Green. What made you go for him?

JOSS: I'm really excited about that. I read about Jack probably the first time I ever bought an issue of American Cinematographer. It was about Tightrope [released in 1984], but I try not to think about that because I get intimidated. I'm working with Jack because he has the same spirit that the DP on the show had, which is light it fast, keep the momentum going, and make it pretty, but don't kill a day's work to get a stream of light. If the actors are good give them time to do the job. He has great enthusiasm. I don't want this movie to look too studied. Jack speaks the language perfectly and is never pretentious about it. Once I got over being a fan geek around him, I realized he was exactly the kind of guy I want to be around anyway.

UGO: I think one of my favorite moments from the Firefly TV show was in an earlier episode where someone gets thrown through the bar window, but it's not made of glass but is a force-field instead. Will you have time for little details and moments like that?

JOSS: That bar window moment was a little hokey though. You don't have time for that, you never do. The movie has to have a momentum that a series doesn't have. I'm trying to embrace realism while still making the point that the future is a lot of stuff from the past all mixed up. That's how it's created...a blender. I'll definitely have all kinds of moments like that for texture. I have to let the movie breathe too because I'm not making a rollercoaster ride. But at the same time, you definitely don't have time to explore every small moment between every person like you do on a TV show.

UGO: I read that you are making a movie that is going to appeal to everyone, and not just fans of the series. When you were in the writing process for Serenity, did you ever not do something because you knew only fans of the series would get it?

JOSS: You have to make it for the broadest possible audience. Universal doesn't want a movie that is the next episode of the TV series nor do I want to make that. However, I am strict about trying to respect the fans of the show because they have so much to do with why we got this movie made in the first place. I was really serving two masters, and it made the writing process difficult. I was determined to find a story that would not repeat or contradict in any major way what has gone before on the show, yet to fresh eyes it would seem just the right place to start telling this story. That's a tricky thing to do, but I feel good about the way I did it.

UGO: Now that Angel, is over what is Ben Edlund going to be doing?

JOSS: I'm not sure. I think he's going to create something. No one is ever sure what he's going to do. He's Ben. He's reserved, not needy, and he makes other writers nervous because he's not needy.

UGO: Even you?

JOSS: Oh yes, I'm pathetic. I'm like every other writer, [in Jerry Lewis voice] "Look at me. Hey lady, I'm funny."

Ben Edlund is like a James Bond that can draw, write, play guitar, sing, and do everything.

UGO: What superpower would you like to have?

JOSS: At the end of the day, I'm going to go with Cypher. I realize he got killed, but if you're talking about living in the real world the ability to speak every language there is perfectly, would be both useful and cool.

UGO: Including computer language.

JOSS: That would probably be useful because I can barely get my e-mail.

UGO: Which is your favorite movie franchise out of The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, and Star Wars?

JOSS: The Lord of the Rings is my favorite miniseries. Star Wars was my favorite movie with a sequel. The first Matrix is my favorite movie ever. It was between The Bad and the Beautiful and Once Upon a Time in the West, and then The Matrix took the top spot.

---

Quote:

---

UGO: I read that you are making a movie that is going to appeal to everyone, and not just fans of the series. When you were in the writing process for Serenity, did you ever not do something because you knew only fans of the series would get it?

JOSS: You have to make it for the broadest possible audience. Universal doesn't want a movie that is the next episode of the TV series nor do I want to make that. However, I am strict about trying to respect the fans of the show because they have so much to do with why we got this movie made in the first place. I was really serving two masters, and it made the writing process difficult. I was determined to find a story that would not repeat or contradict in any major way what has gone before on the show, yet to fresh eyes it would seem just the right place to start telling this story. That's a tricky thing to do, but I feel good about the way I did it.

---