Update on Buffy Reboot (NOT a Remake!) & How to Make TV

[shadowkat]

Hmmm, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's new Show-runner addresses Reboot Backlash. -- Hint? It's not a Remake. Apparently the show-runner defines reboot the same way as various people on my Dreamwidth subscriber list do?

In a statement posted to her verified Twitter account, Owusu-Breen writes “it could be time to meet a new Slayer.”

“For some genre writers it’s Star Wars. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my Star Wars. Before I became a writer, I was a fan,” Owusu-Breen wrote. “For seven seasons, I watched Buffy Summers grow up, find love, kill that love. I watched her fight, and struggle and slay,” she wrote. “There is only one Buffy. One Xander, one Willow, Giles, Cordelia, Oz, Tara, Kendra, Faith, Spike, Angel … They can’t be replaced. Joss Whedon’s brilliant and beautiful series can’t be replicated. I wouldn’t try to. But here we are, 20 years later … and the world seems a lot scarier. So maybe, it could be time to meet a new Slayer … And that’s all I can say.”

A reboot of the supernatural drama is in development at Fox 21 TV Studios, the cable/streaming division of 20th Century Fox TV, the studios behind the original series, which ran for seven seasons, first on the WB and then on UPN. Original series’ creator and showrunner Joss Whedon will executive produce alongside original series’ exec producers Gail Berman, Fran Kazui and Kaz Kazui as well as Joe Earley from Berman’s Jackal Group.

The new version, which will be pitched to streaming and cable networks this summer, will be contemporary, building on the mythology of the original. Per the producers: “Like our world, it will be richly diverse, and like the original, some aspects of the series could be seen as metaphors for issues facing us all today.”

Sounds like STNG or Force Awakens more than say BattleStar Galatica 2.0 or Dynasty 2.0 or Charmed 2.0 or Magnum PI 2.0.

Which makes more sense, since Whedon created a world with Buffy that existed past the characters.
I wonder what they'll call it though? Slayer? Buffy's Legacy? Buffy's Decendants? Buffy Take 2?

Still don't get too excited...the process is an arduous one. We're just at the Pitchening Stage, we have Nine Stages to go. See: The Whole Crazy Process of Creating a TV Show.

Also look, someone created a nifty video on how a thirteen episode television series gets made:

Watch on YouTube

I'm very happy that I don't do this for a living.

Comments

[cactuswatcher]

For some weird reason as soon as I heard about this last week, the first thing I thought was what will they call the new Buffy character? And I immediately thought it would be Buffy Winters. Too predictable, maybe.

The name of the show? Well for silliness how about: Buffy 2020; The B-team; Slayer Sex in the City; Have Stake, Will Travel; Andrew the Watcher; Baywatch Vampires; My Mother, the Werewolf (with scripts adapted from My Mother, the Car); or Enemies (a reboot of Friends and Buffy! Set in a really creepy coffee shop.).

[shadowkat]

Have Stake, Will Travel

Works for me. Although sounds more like Faith than Buffy. But I could go with that.

The other titles are a bit sketchy, since the lead is supposed to be a black actress playing a vampire slayer. The problem is, how will they clue the audience in that it is a Buffy reboot?

That said, I did find the idea of The B-Team, And "Enemies" sort of fun.

I think they've already done My Mother, the Werewolf...and Buffy 2020 was sort of Fray.

[dlgood]

You can do "Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2020"

Our hero is Buffy Jordan. Her mom was a student at Sunndydale HS in 1998, and named her kid after Buffy Summers.

That is, if you want to skip the "1 in the world" and "my parents are in the dark"

[shadowkat]

That could work. Or it could be her middle name...

Not sure they have to use the same name though.

[cjlasky7]

I like it. I had the same idea, in fact. It perfectly aligns with Breen's motivations for taking on the series: drawing inspiration from Buffy 1.0 and applying those lessons to a new generation.

Maybe nu-Buffy's mom would give her daughter a speech like this:

"Baby, I didn't name you Buffy because it was a joke or because I was being cute. There are monsters in this world. You've seen them. And most people, when they see monsters, they go back into their houses, they lock the doors, and hope the monsters go away. They don't.

"But where I grew up, there was one girl who didn't run, who stood up to the monsters. She was our protector. Her name was Buffy. So I gave you that name, hoping that you would be strong.

"And you are, baby. You are strong."

[wendelah1]

That's a great video on television production.

I'll read the link later. Thank you for this.

[shadowkat]

You're welcome!