Boosting Sarah Michelle Gellar to superstardom and forever instating Joss Whedon in the hearts of vampire-loving geeks everywhere, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s” seven season run breathed new life into the 17-year-old campy original film.
So when Kuzui Enterprises, the company that holds the rights to the “Buffyverse” and produced both the original film and subsequent TV series, decided to ditch Whedon’s vision entirely for a revamp of the (six years gone) story, fans “" and “Entertainment Weekly’s” Michael Ausiello, who crowns this “the worst idea in the history of civilization” “" were up in arms.
About two thirds of the fans who responded to an “Entertainment Weekly” online poll asking what they thought of a Buffy movie without Whedon picked “When and where is the riot happening?” with an additional third responding “They can make it, but it will never exist to me.” Two percent said “Great! Can’t wait to see it.”
Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo Entertainment, the company that is teaming up with Kuzui, are behind the change in pace for “Buffy.”
“It was Roy’s interest in taking Buffy into a new place that grabbed us,” Fran Rubel Kuzui told magazine “Parade”.
What Kuzui seems to fail to realize is that it was the Whedon-Gellar “Buffy” that garnered the fan-base, not the 1992 Kristy Swanson version.
“Everything has its moment. Every movie takes on a life at some point, and this seems like the moment to do this,” said Kuzui to “Parade.”
Somehow, I doubt even “Twilight” fans will be enough to save this film from box office ruin.
What do you think, Blast readers? Would you go see a “Buffy” movie that doesn’t involve Whedon or his crew?