14 DAY TRIAL // Talk of a remake to the highly successful TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” has been around for long, but, so far, nothing concrete came out of it. Similarly, speculation on whether creator Joss Whedon would be involved in a new feature film also made the rounds before, but this is actually the first time a reliable source – Collider – states that the possibility for this to happen is actually very small.
Collider says, based on a The Hollywood Reporter piece, that Whedon is not necessarily wanted for a new “Buffy” movie. Although he is the one credited with making the character into what it is now (and helping it span several successful seasons, a comic book and a couple of video games as well), Collider points out that Whedon does not own the rights to the story, thus he has no say as to the direction it will take, should a movie be in the works.
Fran Rubel Kuzui (director of the 1992 film, from which the TV series is miles apart) and husband Kaz Kuzui are the people who get to call the shots on the future of “Buffy,” the same source explains. What’s more, the Kuzuis are already busy on sorting out the details for the film and, while they would love to have Whedon involved in it one way or another, they have not approached him yet, which means he’s not regarded as necessarily indispensable.
Moreover, the Kuzuis are reportedly looking to bring Buffy back to her silver screen origins, which would make a future film different from the series – to the point that there would be no Xander, no Willow and no many other characters fans have come to love throughout the years. “Kuzui makes the point that the premise allows for more than one slayer and one is born into every generation. While the show did away with that mythology and expanded into something far more interesting with an army of potentials becoming slayers, I don’t have a problem with them starting back at square one. My problem rests with a relaunch that’s in a ‘new generation’ but the slayer is still named Buffy (whose last name is presumably ‘Summers’ and if I had to bet, I’m saying that she’s an attractive blonde).” Collider writes, arguing that the Kuzuis are actually trying to build a franchise that would stand apart from the TV series so as to have higher chances of success.
This would be the only explanation for wanting to go back to the original story, the same e-zine argues. While “Buffy” the TV series was highly popular with the fanbase, it never really managed to cross over into mainstream, despite the many things working for it. And this is precisely what the Kuzuis are aiming to do, and it can only be achieved by avoiding all comparisons with the original show, Collider concludes.
The “Buffy” remake does not have a writer or a studio at the moment, which means fans have to wait a while longer for this to happen. Still, make sure to keep an eye on this space for when new details are made public.