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Whit Anderson, actress turned scripter, has been interviewed by the LA Times about why she’s the writer to reimagine Buffy … look, give the girl a chance! (Or sneer, it’s up to you.)
“I didn’t really watch much television at all, but I always watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer ,” she says of her schooldays in a Delaware small town, where she was too busy with sports and her academic work. “That was the one show I would watch when I got home. I just loved this character. I was the same age as Buffy , and it was so rare to have a female lead character on TV in those days who was strong and capable and smart but also allowed to be feminine.”
According to the LA Times , Anderson is well aware that without Whedon most devoted fans of the old series will be keeping a skeptical eye on this nascent revival. She says she will take the touchstones of the Whedon world but frame them in “a new story” that is very much of the moment. She cites Christopher Nolan’s revival of Batman as a supreme example of how a familiar character and revered mythology can be brought to the big screen with a vital new vision.
“The thing that was so wonderful about Buffy is what made it special was so timeless,” says Anderson. “The deep struggle she had with duty and destiny, that tug between what you’re supposed to be doing and what you want to be doing. The fate of the world is on her shoulders, but some days she wakes up, and she just doesn’t want to do it. And are we doomed and destined to love someone? That conflict was very interesting to me. Those are the things I loved about her and her world. She also represents — like all the heroes — something empowering for us. She reminds us of what we could be if we were in our top form, the best of us if we were at our very best, and even then we still see the vulnerability and doubts she has inside. That’s where we all connect.”
Look, she’s saying a lot of positive things, and she might have a great new vision for the franchise, but you’ve still got to wonder why nobody on the new film seems to think Joss should have any input. It just seems downright insulting. Look what happened to the Thunderbirds movie when the producers said thanks but no thanks to Gerry Anderson having any involvement. To his credit, when they finally did remember him and expected him to come on their side to promote the film if they flung enough money his way, he told them where they could stick his money. The result – lots of damaging press.
