Fans launch 'Help Nathan Fillion Buy Firefly

Fans launch 'Help Nathan Fillion Buy Firefly' movement

Of course, this will likely amount to absolutely nothing, but there is a facebook page and maybe if enough people 'like' it, it will get 20th Century Fox's attention.

Firefly fans have launched a Web site and Facebook page trying to rally support to help Nathan Fillion buy the rights to the canceled Fox series.

Earlier this week, Fillion told EW he’d be willing to reprise his Firefly role as Captain Mal again. Then he added: “If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.”

Well, be careful what you wish for, because Firefly fans think that’s a great idea! And they’re not the only ones…

Jose Molina, a producer on Syfy’s Haven, former Castle producer and author of two Firefly episodes tweeted Friday regarding Fillion’s comment: “For what it’s worth, I’ve told him I’d drop what I was doing and follow.”

Then Jane Espenson, writer of a Firefly episode, a producer on Battlestar Galactica and co-creator of Warehouse 13, replied to Molina: “I’m there, if needed.”

Now, there’s a couple different sentiments going on here so let’s look at each separately.

Buying the rights: $300 million wouldn’t be necessary. Terminator rights sold for about $30 million (and, as much as we love Firefly, let’s face it, Serenity was hardly T2 at the box office). Still, we’re talking a shiny chunk of change. Then the show still needs to be produced (= more money).

The only problem (well, not the only problem, but a significant one) is Firefly studio 20th Century Fox probably isn’t willing to sell the rights. The Terminator owners were bankrupt, while 20th is doing just fine and holds its properties as long-term investments (remember George Lucas talking 20th Century Fox out of the Star Wars sequel rights back in the 1970s? Yeah, they don’t fall for that anymore). One insider said he couldn’t think of a case of 20th outright selling the rights to a property.

The fan site is not accepting actual donations, just pledges (wisely), waiting to see if it can drum up enough support. Still, Fillion’s Lotto quote is probably being taken too literally. It’s one thing for the actor to say, you know, answering a reporter’s hypothetical question between takes on Castle, “if I won the lottery,” it’s another to be faced with the prospect of fans passing around the hat.

In other words: Even if fans miraculously raised millions, the studio is not likely to part with the rights to Firefly — if anything, such an act would prove to them the rights are worth keeping. However: Like all studios, 20th is generally open to new opportunities to make more money from its existing properties if given an assured path to profitability. Which brings us to…

Rebooting Firefly: This sentiment, one suspects, is more likely what the Firefly writers and most fans are responding to. And there’s few things more durable and renewable in media than a beloved sci fi brand. If all everybody who bought the Firefly DVD set during its first year of release (500,000 strong, according to one report) declared they were willing to shell out $40 in hopes of resurrecting the franchise as, say, a two-hour TV movie+DVD or something, well, you’d certainly get the studio’s attention. But that’s if the show’s very busy creator Joss Whedon and Fillion, etc. would be willing and contractually available in the first place, and that’s if the studio were on board — and those are real Ifs.

BTW: Firefly ratings back in 2002? About a 2.0 in the adult demo. Which nowadays is considered survivable even on broadcast. Not that the space-western would likely get the same numbers if on the air today when there’s so much more competition from cable, but it’s interesting to think about.

I'd worry it would suffer from nostalgia backlash, where anything they put out would be deemed "crap, compared to the original".

Yep, similar to Star Wars, Star Trek and so on. In fact, most series with a more or less hardcore fanbase end up that way.

Except that the newer Star War movies really were crap.

I wouldn't care who they replaced in the crew as long as Nathan was on board Serenity. The other actors were great, but Nathan and the setting made that show.

I'd love them to revisit this setting.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Yep, similar to Star Wars, Star Trek and so on. In fact, most series with a more or less hardcore fanbase end up that way.

If we got 5 series and 10 movies out of of the Firefly universe, I think I'd be a pretty happy camper.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
I wouldn't care who they replaced in the crew as long as Nathan was on board Serenity. The other actors were great, but Nathan and the setting made that show.

I'd love them to revisit this setting.

Au contrair, I think without Adam Baldwin and Jewel Staite the show would take a big hit. Morena Baccarin would be nice too (mainly because I am in love with her) though I never though her character added much to the show.

I'll give you Jewel Staite. She was awesome and perfect in that role, but didn't care that much for Adam. Replace him with any other merc and it'd be ok with me.

Morena needs to get her hair back. She's still beautiful, but what they did to her hair for V is just sad.

Edit: My mom just had about a cow with my comment about Adam, so I have to revise my statement. He was good, but if they did actually somehow bring back this show I'd still love it if they only had Nathan on board. It might be a little hard to get most of the cast and crew back (especially after they KILLED OFF one of my favorite characters, Alan Tudyk!!!)

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
I'll give you Jewel Staite. She was awesome and perfect in that role, but didn't care that much for Adam. Replace him with any other merc and it'd be ok with me.

I liked the comedy he brought to the show.

Morena needs to get her hair back. She's still beautiful, but what they did to her hair for V is just sad.

+infinity!!!! I love V, but I nearly cry every time I see her.

Edit: My mom just had about a cow with my comment about Adam, so I have to revise my statement. He was good, but if they did actually somehow bring back this show I'd still love it if they only had Nathan on board. It might be a little hard to get most of the cast and crew back (especially after they KILLED OFF one of my favorite characters, Alan Tudyk!!!)

I think a lot of the cast would be available. IIRC, Baldwin is only on Chuck occasionally, and Stait hasn't had anything regular since SG:Atlantis got canceled. It seems like only Morena has a full time gig.

I didn't really care for Tudyk's character. He mainly seemed like an emasculated whiner to me.

For most of the cast, you could probably put another actor into the "slot" and move forward reasonably well. I'd say Nathan and Jewel would be the exceptions because those actors went beyond just "filling the slot". Not that the rest of the cast was bad, just that their functions in the narrative could probably be done equally well by others (for example, plug Bill Paxton from his Aliens role in for Adam Baldwin's slot and you don't disrupt the narrative or group chemistry that terribly much other than needing to give Paxton's character more spine).

Clearly, I need to go back and refresh my memory of the movie, though. I actually saw the movie first without knowing anything about the series, so I lost out on so much context.

Originally Posted by dteowner
I'd worry it would suffer from nostalgia backlash, where anything they put out would be deemed "crap, compared to the original".

Which is exactly what happened with Futurama, twice. I have a theory that fear is a great motivator for innovation and creativity.

Just like the Diamond company invented shotgun modems when they were near bankruptcy, Firefly and Futurama both put out terrific episodes because cancellation was constantly looming over their heads.

The same thing happened in ST Voyager and DS9 to characters who were about to get fired. The best episodes of the series involved the last years of Kes and Keiko O'Brien because the writers were in a rush to tell them before they were gone.

If the series were to be brought back it would have to be a new series with a new actors and new focus. The "what's the story behind crazy River" is done. There's no more to go with that. There'd need to be something more compelling.

(incidentally, anyone wanting to know more about the "hands of blue, two by two" guys can take a look at the comic).

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
Which is exactly what happened with Futurama, twice.

What exactly do you mean? I'm a huge Futurama fan. I thought the direct to DVD movies were a mixed batch. Bender's Game was borderline bad. But the new episodes have seemed pretty good.

Originally Posted by blatantninja
What exactly do you mean? I'm a huge Futurama fan. I thought the direct to DVD movies were a mixed batch. Bender's Game was borderline bad. But the new episodes have seemed pretty good.

they were a mixed bag (Bender's Game was the best of them IMO), and the series moreso if that's possible. And that's why. The original series was consistently very, very good. The return to a half hour format didn't help.

This is what I would fear with a new Firefly. Josh Whedon's best ideas and enthusiasm for this are probably behind him. It would need a reboot the way that ST did just did after the failure that was Enterprise.

They'd *have* to bring back Adam Baldwin as well… god I loved that character! What was that one episode with the town worshiping him? …I was in hysterics!