Dollhouse Really Did Almost Fall Apart, Joss Says

Joss Whedon ’s fresh show Dollhouse may be the most thought-provoking work he ’s ever created . It ’s about a woman ( Eliza Dushku ) whose mind has been erase to make her the consummate malleable fellow traveller , plaything or tool for the wealthy . It sounded too weird for any meshing , but especially for the notoriously raring Fox . And for months , everyone connected with the show has been downplaying reports of trouble , including the shooting of a new pilot and a abbreviated hiatus in production . Nothing to see here , no worries , we ’ve been severalize . Until now — when Whedon himself pop up on his fansite Whedonesque to say that the show really had just gone through a terrible crisis . Which is now over . We think . The fact that Whedon is now being so open about accommodate that Dollhouse was in terrible trouble recently may , contrariwise , be a augury that the worst is over . write Whedon :

Yes , it ’s been gruelling and I ’ve been depressing to be around for awhile . fundamentally , the connection and I had different ideas about what the spirit of the show would be . They bought something somewhat different than what I was selling them , which is not that uncommon in this business . Their desires were not surprising : up the stakes , make the episode more digest - alone , stop talking about relationships and cut to the Salmon Portland Chase . Oh , and add a chase . That you’re able to cut to . Nothing I had n’t heard before on my other shows ( apparently my learning breaking ball has no bendy part ) but frustrating as Inferno give our circumstances – a pilot shot , hand written , everybody exhibit together / gainfully apply … and then a closing . beaming I was for the respiration elbow room , but it ’s hardly auspicious .

The most startling part of Whedon ’s update : it turns out that everything we were told about the original cowcatcher was wrong . We ’ve been tell , over and over , that Dollhouse ’s original archetype would still publicise , as its second sequence . The new pilot light would be more of a standalone episode , introducing the show ’s assumption in a fairly easy - to - digest direction . And then the original pilot program , which bring in a lot of long - run subplots and mysteries , would air the second week , to pull people in .

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But now , it vocalize as though the original buffer is just gone . Whedon say he even reshot most of that episode to try and salvage it , but it could n’t be relieve :

The original pilot was in fact bedevil out . Again , at my behest . Once it became clear what prototype the internet was spud for , it just did n’t fit at all , even after I ’d reshot more than one-half of it ( see above re : despair ) . To get a good sense of how completely ferment around I was during this process , you should screw there was a scene with Eliza and the astonishing Ashley Johnson that I indite and shot whole differently three different time , with different characters in different places ( in reality I wrote it closer to eight time ) , and none of it will ever see air . Which is as it should be ( though I ’m determined to get Ms. Johnson back in the hereafter ) . The scene just did n’t belong any longer . likewise , the character of November has fall out of the mix , because the show simply moves too fast now for me to do what I wanted with her .

November ( played by Miracle Laurie ) was one of the “ Actives , ” or programmable mind - wiped puppets , in the Dollhouse . She wasdescribedas “ the Tracy Turnblad of the Dolls . ” Her character may pop up in Dollhouse season three , Joss jokes , but meanwhile , Laurie has a new role , as an FBI prole who pine after Tahmoh Penikett ’s factor Paul Ballard .

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Other changes : plot development that Joss had originally intended to hold back for a while are now fall out too soon . And some plot elements that he had wanted to introduce decently away are being hold back . Steven DeKnight , who compose and directed an episode that helped redefine and save the show , is n’t detain on . But Jane Espenson ( Battlestar Galactica , Firefly ) is link the staff . In any case , fear not — Joss says that he and the rest of the stave are re - energized by the novel focussing , and after feel despondent and suffer a month ago , they ’re now full of excitement again . Joss was so thrilled , he was able to write a Modern episode in record metre — partly because he had to , but also because the words stream out of him . He says the connection was n’t awry to require the show to be “ exciting and approachable , ” and the retool interlingual rendition sounds like it ’ll be more upbeat . ( And therefore , possibly , less likely to die quickly . ) Joss adds :

Nothing essential has changed about the universe . The ideas and relationships that intrigued me from the scratch line are all there ( though some have shift , more on that ) , and the progress of the first thirteen eps has me massively excited . The sequence we ’re shooting now I wrote as tight as anything I have before , not because I had to ( although , funny side - government note : I had to ) but because I could n’t stop the words from arrive . Because I can feel the show talking to me ; delighting , scaring and occasionally even offending me . It ’s alive . live ! Which is a far call from how I feel a month ago . It ’s been hilarious trying to keep up with what ’s in , what ’s out , who ’s meet whom and when – we ’ve shot all of the first seven episodes out of airing rescript – but it ’s descend together in a pretty thrilling way .

There ’s much more , including Joss praising Eliza Dushku and riff a lot , at the link . [ Whedonesque ] ( Dollhouse Trailer Screencaps fromAll About Tahmoh )

Lesdilley