Serenity

Another break from politics for a movie recommend:

Serenity (aka "Firefly" the movie) takes off this Friday at a theatre near you. I haven't seen the film yet (10:20pm on Friday!!!), but I have become addicted to the 14 episodes that Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel) shot for Fox in 2001. Fox, in their infinite wisdom, gave Joss Whedon a budget of $2 million an episode (a lot for a weekly sci-fi show), and let him shoot half a season. They then proceeded to show the episodes out of order and continually preempted the show and changed it's time slot, before cancelling it. After I'd spent $26 million on a project, I might, well, promote it, instead of killing it after 1/2 a season. But that's just me.

The happy re-beginning came after sales of Firefly's DVD set went through the roof, and Universal, thinking they had something here, bought the movie rights from Fox. The movie "Serenity" (the name of the space ship in Firefly), was made for $40 million, cheap by sci-fi standards, and the cast is signed on for two more sequels if Serenity can pull in the crowds (most analysts think it would have to make $70-$80 million worldwide to warrant a sequel.)

So, go see it already! If you haven't seen the DVDs of the series--beg, borrow, or steal them. Everyone describes Firefly as a "space western"--which is fair, given the costumes, props, and well, cattle, that inhabit this world. I think a more elegant way of describing it is as a group of misfits trying to survive on a frontier (the outer planets) while escaping a totalitarian government. It's the ultimate libertarian fairy tale. And it's damn funny too. Even if you don't like Sci-fi, give Serenity a try. If you doubt me, rent the DVDs from the TV series.