Joss Whedon is coming back to TV with a new science fiction series.
For the handful of readers who do not know who this man is, he is the creator of dark fantasy television classics, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel as well as the cult space opera Firefly (and he was the writer/director of the spin-off movie, Serenity).
The new show is called Dollhouse and it is scheduled to air on the FOX network starting in winter of 2009.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the show has received a seven-episode commitment from Fox, which is authorizing Whedon to spend between $1.5 million-$2 million per episode.
The series will star Eliza Dushku (“Faith” in Buffy, and the title character in Tru Calling). She will play a character called “Echo,” a member of a group of young men and women who are imprinted with different personalities for different assignments.
WARNING: The following trailer has minor spoilers.
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Whedon ironically returns to TV at the FOX network, the same place that treated his last series, Firefly with such sloppy hands that the neo-mogul swore off episodic television altogether – instead setting his sites on a career as a writer/director in film. But a three-year failed stint working and re-working with Warner Brothers on a concept of bringing Wonder Woman to the big screen and a will-he-be-able-to-make-it original film called Goners, had him re-evaluating his professional life.
According the a May article in the Los Angeles Times, Whedon explained that the muse for Dollhouse was the result of a lunch meeting with former employee Dushku:
Eliza had made the deal at Fox and we got together to talk about her ambition, her management, her opportunities, because I’ve always felt that she’s a huge star. Plus, she’s a friend.
But I was trying to get a movie off the ground, “Goners.” “Wonder Woman” had already crashed and burned. “Goners” they had already lost control of the instruments, but who knows? So things were not that auspicious, but I was working it. Not shunning television but not intending to come back. But as we discussed Eliza’s predicament, I started giving her some ideas about what I thought she would need: a genre show so she could be political without being partisan; an ensemble show so she didn’t have to be in every scene. And I thought about it for a bit and then literally went, oh, curse word, I just came up with the show and the title. And it was the title that I knew I was doomed. Because if you have the title, you know it’s right. And that’s just bad.
When we really discussed the whole thing, she said, “You’re talking about my life. In my life, everybody tells me who they want me to be while I try and figure out who I am.” And that spoke to me. I agreed that I’ll write and maybe oversee the pilot. So I went home and said, “Honey, I’m sorry, I accidentally agreed to a Fox show at lunch.”
And in a little more than a week, Dushku and Whedon had sold the concept to FOX. Gary Newman, Chair of 20th Century Fox Television told the Times, “There’s an extemporaneous nature to it, which keeps you kind of riveted. You have to listen really carefully because the wicked and clever asides are nonstop.”
Dollhouse is scheduled to debut on the FOX network in January 2009, Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT as the lead-in to FOX’s hit series 24. (As usual, the time and day are subject to change at network executive whim.)
CAST
Eliza Dushku as Echo
Amy Acker (“Fred” on Angel) as Dr. Claire Saunders
Enver Gjokaj as Victor
Fran Kranz as Topher Brink
Dichen Lachman as Sierra
Harry J. Lennix (ER, 24) as Boyd Langton
Tahmoh Penikett (“Helo” on Battlestar Galactica) as Paul Smith
Olivia Williams (The Sixth Sense) as Adelle DeWitt
Miracle Laurie as November
