Joss Whedon Discusses Why He Won't Kickstart FIREFLY

This was a great week for Veronica Mars fans! Creator Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell managed to raise over $2 million to get the film project greenlit, and a movie is coming! This got a lot of people thinking, and it's safe to say that we're going to start seeing more and more fan funded film projects get kickstarted like this. Unfortunately Joss Whedon's Firefly won't be one of them. When asked in a recent interview with BuzzFeed what this means for Firefly the director responded,

That's what everybody wants to know about. Uh, yeah. My fourth feeling when I read about [the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign] was a kind of dread. Because I realized the only thing that would be on everybody's mind right now. I've said repeatedly that I would love to make another movie with these guys, and that remains the case. It also remains the case that I'm booked up by Marvel for the next three years, and that I haven't even been able to get Dr. Horrible 2 off the ground because of that. So I don't even entertain the notion of entertaining the notion of doing this, and won't. Couple years from now, when Nathan [Fillion]'s no longer [on] Castle and I'm no longer the Tom Hagen of the Marvel Universe and making a giant movie, we might look and see where the market is then. But right now, it's a complete non-Kickstarter for me.

This makes sense. Whedon would need a much bigger budget than what Veronica Mars needs, and Joss Whedon has become a much more successful and establihed filmmaker. When he gets around to wanting to make his new Firefly movie, I bet he could get the studio backing to do it. When asked about the budget he explained,

Yes. We come to Veronica Mars to hear her talk and hear her father talk. But Firefly/Serenity, it's kind of a different animal — and then there's also the question of what kind of animal it is. Because some people are talking about Firefly episodes. Some people are talking about [a new] Serenity. I think anything we could get off the ground would be appreciated by the fans. But what form it would take is I think under some debate.

For me, [Kickstarter] doesn't just open the floodgates. God knows, things are cheaper now than when we made even Serenity. Good effects can be done in a different manner. Nor is that universe all about spectacle either. But it is a tad more expensive — and a little all-consuming! And of course, there's the other fear: What if it's not that good? I can do something that's not that good — that's fine. But if I do that and it's not that good, I'm going to feel really stupid.

Because I'm too busy to deal with it, I did have a moment of just, "Oh my god! I'm in trouble now." I've always said, "Yes, I'd love to do another one," and it's still true. But I sort of got slapped in the face with it. Or probably will.

I hope that one day we do see the return of Firefly, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime we just have to be patient and keep our hope alive that it will eventually happen.