Want to know what’s next for Joss Whedon? Here is the other half of the Chicago Tribune interview with Joss Whedon.
Q: You said something on Whedonesque recently, “Soon you shall know my next project.” Is that a specific show or specific company or endeavor?
Whedon: There are irons that are in the fire and when it’s time to pull one out and brand myself with it, I will, but there are a couple of different things. I’m still sort of trying to figure out which one is going to get the nod, but first I have to finish reading the script for [Dollhouse Episode 13] and make all the episodes.
Q: I certainly can understand that cable is not necessarily the land of enchantment where everything goes your way, but to me it seems like there might possibly be something for Joss Whedon there. I watch a lot of TV and I think the kind of stories that you want to tell — well, it seems to me that some cable networks are looking for boldness. Maybe I’m being naive.
Whedon: No, I think it’s absolutely… I think amazing work is being done right now. While I talk about Rome burning, I like Rome. It looks really pretty right now. “To be in Rome because it’s warm all the time…” The stuff that is going on in cable is really interesting and I absolutely think I would be interested in finding a home there. I still love the medium, but first, I need to sort of scale back for a little bit, also because I went from the show to the movies to the show without a break and I got tired. I need to shore up for a few months and chill so that I can come back hard because I’m pretty beat down.
And I’m not interested in boldness, FYI. I just want to do nudity because it’s all about the nudies.
Interviewer: Of course. “They get to be naked!”
Whedon: “They’re cops, but they’re nude.”
Q: “And they’re singing!”
Whedon: No, no. I haven’t gone that crazy.
Q: Well I have to say, if you’re feeling beat down, the perfect pick-me-up would be a “Dr. Horrible” sequel.
Whedon: Well, I’m sure I don’t have any interest in doing that.
Q: No. Why would you? Well, Jed said before and you have said that you want to shoot it next year. Do you have a more specific time frame worked out for when you would shoot it?
Whedon: What we need to do is get enough time to really solidify what we’ve got, really get the thing in shape and then it all becomes about Neil [Patrick Harris] and his availability. We’ve been basically telling him, “Do whatever you want,” which he clearly took to mean, “Do everything there is.” [laughs] But we were like, until we have a script, we can’t really think of a schedule or a venue or how we’re going to do this and what size it will be, if we’re going to get any kind of any kind of backing from a studio or an independent. None of those questions could be answered until we were holding a draft in our hands.
Q: And can I tell the world that it’s titled “Dr. Horrible 2: Electric Boogaloo”?
Whedon: Well, yes. That or “Live Free Or Day Out with Dr. Horrible.”
Q: So you don’t really have a title yet, I take it.
Whedon: We do. In fact, the project originated with me telling the other guys, “Here is the title” and them going, “Yep, that’s it.” But we’re not telling anybody. It’s kind of funky.
Interviewer: Damn you.
Whedon: All the sudden I’ve gotten kind of coy.
Q: Well, I look greatly forward to finding out the title and laughing and crying and cursing you if you make me sad. But regardless, it’s going to be Neil and all the rest of the folks who were in the first one?
Whedon: That would be the plan. Obviously things change, but the plan would be to get the old gang back together.
Q: Plus Sue Sylvester. That would be my ideal villain for next time. Just briefly, can I ask you about directing “Glee” — when does that occur?
Whedon: That will happen let’s see, late February I’ll start prepping. I’ll shoot it in March.
Q: Do you have any say in picking songs?
Whedon: No, no. And you know what? I shouldn’t, because every time a song comes on I go, “Man, I would have never thought of that.” I haven’t spent much time around popular music. I tend to listen to the things I listen to. I grew up listening to show tunes and Neil Young and some other stuff. I think those guys are kind of genius at it and you know, this is not “Joss Whedon’s Glee.” I’m just a shot monkey.
I fantasize about it about it. Don’t you? Don’t you ever think “Oh, you know what? I’d love this character to sing that song.”
Q: Of course, yeah. Would you have any influence on casting?
Whedon: Again, these guys seem to know what they’re doing.
Q: Right, even as a shot monkey though you would get a say, right?
Whedon: Well, the director sits in on the casting sessions, yes. But the show is not huge with guest casts. [They get] somebody like Kristin Chenoweth, but you know, it’s not like you’re going to have people reading for the part of Kristin Chenoweth.
Q: So reviving the “Terminator” franchise, how is that going?
Whedon: We’re still negotiating. They’re playing it cool. They haven’t contacted me in any way yet, but you know, I think that’s just an opening gambit. You know, they want me to come back [with a higher bid for the franchise] and I’m probably going to go up to $12,000.
Interviewer: Wow.
Whedon: Yeah, you know, there is give and take.
Q: And you have to spend money to make money.
Whedon: Exactly. I just think that I could do a really good “Terminator” movie, kind of on a smaller scale while somebody else actually makes the big ones. After I give them the $12,000, I’m not going to have as much left to make the movie as I’d hope.
Q: So you’ll have, like, $800 to make the movie.
Whedon: Yeah, but it will all be on the screen. I can really make it look like $850.
Q: Last question. Is there part of you that’s going to be glad to move onto new opportunities and new things?
Whedon: You know, the thing that I do to waste time is think of things I want to make. That’s how my mind is employed. So I’m going to get to make at least a couple of them next year and that’s very exciting for me. I have more things to say.
Actually, I don’t have more things to say, but I have more stories to tell in which I say the same old things again.
Watch the final episodes of Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” on FOX with its double episode airing tonight.
[Source] Chicago Tribune
