Over a year ago, news circulated about a Joss Whedon-loss Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie (read more here). At the time, it was reported that first-time screen writer Whit Anderson was penning a new script and that the showrunner of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, Joss Whedon, would not be involved.
Naturally, a lot of Buffy fans went positively bananas. The truth is that Buffy is not a literary character like Mr. Darcy or a historical figure like Abraham Lincoln. You can't just have anyone step into her shoes and expect the fans to embrace it. If there's going to be a Buffy movie, the fans want to see Sarah Michelle Gellar in the role with Joss Whedon involved in the project. After all, it's these two people (along with a talented cast and writing staff) who turned that original cheesy movie into the television phenomenon that it became.
After the initial uproar, we didn't really hear anything more about the project. Now Geoff Bucheor from the LA Times has tweeted that the project is dead, at least for now.
He said: "Remember the stir about the first-time screenwriter hired for "Buffy" reboot? She's been fired & project is in limbo."
And followed up with: "I don't have details about the back and forth but I know 100% (and from two sources) that script was rejected as unworkable."
Now, of course, I'm never happy that someone got fired, but I can't help but breathe a sigh of relief. I have no idea what Ms. Anderson's script was like, but I kind of hope this shows the Buffy the Vampire Slayer rightsholders there's a level of quality involved in a franchise like this that must be maintained in order to get such a project off the ground.
You know how you maintain that level of quality? You bring back the people who made it great.
Just saying.
And the internet rejoiced over this happy holiday miracle!