Fred Is Coming to Toronto! – Whedon Fest Update!

Woot!

Whedon Fest has updated their guest list for their inaugural convention, October 1st – 3rd at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel!

The beautiful and talented Amy Acker, aka Fred/Illyria from Angel, and Dr. Saunders/Whiskey from Dollhouse and lately Rachel Conroy of Happy Town will be making her first visit to Canada and will be joining fellow guest Nicholas Brendon.

I’m chuffed. Can you tell?

In other Whedon Fest News, they have updated their schedule of events to add Geek Off Tournaments,

We will be running a number of Geek-Off trivia contests over the weekend to test your knowledge of Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible. After preliminary rounds there will be our Ultimate Geek-Off with finalists. We have a ton of cool prizes to give away and the title of “Ultimate Whedon Geek.” If you’re interested in participating in this contest (and aren’t afraid of being up on stage!) you will be able to register your name on Friday when you pick up your badges. Contestants will be selected randomly from these entries.

a Dessert Party,

We will be holding a special meet and greet dessert party on Friday night, featuring a chocolate fountain, truffles, pastries and more! A perfect way to indulge and chat up our special guests!

and a live charity auction in support of the SickKids Foundation:

On Saturday October 2, 2010 a live auction will be held at WhedonFest in support of SickKids Foundation. The funds from our auction will support research, education and care at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and will help many children around the world. There will be a ton of great items, so please keep checking back as we update with what’s up for auction and how you can help SickKids Foundation.

among other events. Get more information on the Whedon Fest website.

This is really shaping up to be a great con. I’m really looking forward to attending. Still no word as to volunteer opportunities as of yet, but Evelina of Starry Nights Events told me that they will be needing stewards to help with the main room and people for the autograph/photograph lines and will be looking to fill these roles closer to the event. So, if you are interested in volunteering, contact Starry Nights using the Contact form on the website.

More updates to come!

When Lost Met Battlestar Galactica and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

James Marsters, Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim all in the same show. My little geeky heart is quivering!

Something else I’m going to have to watch this fall.

I Think I’ll Whip Myself Up a Batch

Joss Whedon is a super generous guy.

In honour of Entertainment Weekly’s 20th anniversary celebration, Joss has given them his super secret recipe for making Buffy.

“There’s a whole recipe for how to make a Buffy,” he explains. “Take one cup Sarah Connor from the first Terminator movie; one cup Ripley [from Alien]; three tablespoons of the younger sister in [the 1984 postapocalyptic comedy] Night of the Comet; a few sprigs of A Little Princess — the book, not the movies; and a pinch of Jimmy Stewart for pain, because nobody does better pain. Bake those up. Once it’s cool, add a little Rosalind Russell from His Girl Friday. All of this must be in a P.J.-Soles-in-Halloween crust. That’s very important.”

Isn’t that nice.

I wonder if she’s any good served with ice cream.

Uuuummmm….. don’t answer that!

Time After Time

One of my favorite character pairings from Buffy was Anya and Halfrek, Emma Caulfield and Kali Rocha bubbled whenever they were on screen together. They always looked like they were having so much fun.

Well, they’re together again, pairing up in Emma’s new film, a sci-fi rom-com called TiMER:

TiMER – Clip.

And here’s the trailer:

This sounds like it could be a fun, fluffy movie.

What Is With The Surprise?

Iron Man 2 - Chick Flick?

Lisa Schwartzbaum of Entertainment Weekly wrote an excellent article about the studio’s surprise that Iron Man 2 is playing so well to female audiences. According to Indie Wire, the report upon which Schwartzbaum’s article is based:

“What you’ll see on Sunday is people taking their moms to see Iron Man,” says Paramount distribution executive vp Don Harris. “You can’t make a statistic like that up.” In tracking, the female figures for Iron Man 2 were so high, adds Harris, “you would expect such numbers from a film like Sex and the City 2.”

Why? Why is it, that in this day and age that it’s surprising for women to enjoy science fiction/comic books/action movies?

There has always been a strong fan base among women for the nerdy and the geeky. How many little girls grew up playing Princess Leia or Wonder Woman or Jamie Summers? Take a look at Science Fiction literature; some of the greatest authors of the genre are women. Mary Shelley, Andre Norton, Ursula K. LeGuin, Sheri Tepper have all created iconic tales of speculative fiction. As a mater of fact, the concept of the secret identity was originated by a woman, Baroness Emma Orczy, author of the Scarlet Pimpernel published in 1903.

If women write the stuff, it would follow that women would read it, right?

The simple fact of the matter is that comic books and Spec-Fic is rife with themes that interest women and draw them in. It may not be the same things that interest men, but they are there just the same. For example, the Xmen comic deals with lots of masculine themes, but there are also the relationships that interest  women readers – Kitty Pryde and Wolverine, Jean and Scott, Storm and T’Challa all have a strong appeal to female readers. We may not care so much about the bang bang shoot’em ups, but the outcomes and the consequences are far more rewarding for a woman reader than for a man.

This obviously translates to the big screen and television. Buffy, Ripley, Trinity and most recently Avatar’s Neytiri have all drawn in female audiences. These are our role models. We don’t see many iconic female characters outside of Science Fiction/Fantasy movies that as girls we look up to. So of course we’re going to go see films in these genres to find more of the same. And we’re going to bring our daughters with us, growing the audience.

It just makes sense.

A few years ago, Hollywood was hot for female action movies. They were going to revolutionize the genre. What did we get? Catwoman and Elektra, two of the worst superhero movies ever made. The suits didn’t understand it at the time. There was a huge demand for women in more heroic roles, why did these films fail? Why didn’t they get the audience that they expected?

Probably because the writing was crap. All there was to these movies were women in skimpy clothes prancing around. There was no human interactions, no relationships that women could be invest in. The stories were practically non-existent, the acting was wooden and the premise was ridiculous. As a result Hollywood has pretty much turned it’s back on the prospect. The Wonder Woman movie has been sitting in pre-production hell for 3 years because the studios can’t wrap their head around the fact that what women want are great characters, strong stories and compelling relationships. Having a female centric film is icing on the cake.

It was my mother who sat down and watched Wonder Woman and Doctor Who with me. She’s the one who introduced Sprout to Star Trek – another show with some amazingly strong women characters. Women have always been interested in Science Fiction and related works. The reason why Iron Man 2 works with women is because the main character is charming, his struggles are compelling and relationships are believable. Yes, we do enjoy the special effects and the explosions just as much as the guys, being a FX-geek I can say that. But they aren’t what brings us in. If the studios can keep making movies of Iron Man’s caliber, women audiences are going to keep coming and the numbers are going to grow.

Maybe this is the start of Hollywood actually getting it and start handing off these fantastic properties with strong women characters to great writers and directors. It’s in their best interest, but we fangirls have to demand it.

Via: Entertainment Weekly, Indie Wire.

Calling all Toronto Browncoats, Dollhouse, Angel, Buffy and Dr. Horrible Fans!

Whedon Fest is coming to Toronto!

The con will take place on October 1st through the 3rd at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Centre!  Starry Night Events, the company who is organizing the Whedon Fest describes the event as

…a 3 day unofficial convention to celebrate all that is Whedon. The convention will feature guests and events from Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dr. Horrible and Dollhouse. We will be celebrating the Joss ‘verse. The unofficial convention will comprise of guest talks, autograph and photograph sessions, charity auction, contests, a Saturday night dance, and more!

Their first guest announcement was made today and it’s a doozy: Nicholas Brendon, aka Xander Harris, will be attending the con. There’s no word as of  yet as to which events he’ll be taking part in.

This is the first event Starry Night will be putting on, so I hope it goes well for them. No word yet as to whether they’ll need volunteers and they are still updating their events list but I’m going to keep an eye on the event and keep you updated.

Anyone else interested in attending?

Now There’s an Unlikely Image…

Imagine cute, fuzzy, little koala bears doing time behind bars and going on a road trip through Hell? Seem impossible?

Not anymore thanks to Nicholas Brendan (aka BtVS’ Xander Harris). Brendan, Steve Loter (The Ren And Stimpy Show, Kevin Smith’s Clerks The Animated Series, Kim Possible) and Rafael Santiago (Veronica Mars, Friggin Fabulous Radio) are launching Very Bad Koalas, a web comic about the trials and misadventures of two koalas, Avery and Irving who wind up in jail for a crime they didn’t commit:

The koalas, Avery and Irving, are as far from criminals as they could possibly be. Wrongly accused, they break out of prison together and form an unlikely co-dependent friendship. Their bizarre adventures will take them to exotic and scary places along the highway in the “out there.” Unintentionally misguided by a hipster shaman gorilla, our heroes will encounter Amazon women elephants, Fleshies (furry animals who wear human costumes), a religious cult of highway-flattened animals, vampire turtles and a large variety of bizarre characters, each more twisted than the last. They will evade detectives, bounty hunters and their newfound fame as criminal media celebrities. They will unknowingly buy the Devil’s used “GPS system,” which will take them to different layers of hell. They’ll unintentionally start a rampage of criminal copycats in the name of Avery and Irving. They will wonder if prison is better than what destiny has planned for them.

The concept is so ludicrous it has no choice but to be fun.

A preview of  Avery and Irving has been posted on Nick Brendan’s blog, but they’ve asked that the art work not be re-posted on any other sites, so I can’t show it to you. You’ll just have to visit. (Damn lawyers!)

Very Bad Koalas launches in September. I’m definitely going to have to add this to my daily webcomic roster.

Exposition Time!

Dark Horse Comics has posted the preview for Twilight, The Final Chapter.

Synopsis: Brad Meltzer concludes his blockbuster run on Buffy Season Eight! After last issue’s climactic encounter between Buffy and the unmasked Twilight, the Slayer army’s entire mission has been altered and the true nature of the threat they face has been revealed.

Everyone is in place to confront the Big Bad once and for all as Buffy‘s most epic season races toward the final arc, written by Joss Whedon!

Yay! At last we can find out what is really going on. I’ve loved this series and it’s been great to see Buffy play against a larger canvas, but I’ve really felt it dragged in the middle.  The season was launched back in 2007, so we’ve been waiting on the conclusion for a while. We’ve seen Buffy struggle with the loneliness that comes from being a leader, suffer betrayals, question her sexuality, re-build her relationship with her sister, lose her mentor; it has been a wild ride. Now comes the conclusion and I have to wonder what will the ultimate result be? Will the Slayer Army continue? Will Buffy come out of this stronger or more damaged than before?

It should be good.

BTW, love the cover!  What an amazing tribute to an amazing Uncanny X-men issue.  It’s perfect, even down to the lettering at the top.

It really adds to the speculation that Buffy might leave the group and try to find her own life. She deserves it. She needs some time on her own to figure out where she goes from here. She couldn’t possibly be more isolated than she has been through Season 8.

As an added bonus, Brad Meltzer will be answering questions on his Twitter feed today only. Don’t miss out!

Twilight the Final Chapter is out today.

The fright of his life

Well, looks like the vampire craze isn’t about to slow down.

Dreamworks has announced that Anton Yelchin will be playing the role of Charlie Brewster in their remake of Fright Night.

I’m really excited about this remake.  I loved the 1985 original starring Roddy McDowell and Chris Sarandon, and you’d think after seeing the hash that’s been made out of Clash of the Titans, another favorite, I’d be feeling cynical about this one.

Truth is, I’m not.  Marti Noxon, who wrote some of the best BtVS episodes has written the script, and that alone gives this project a heck of a lot of cred. With the addition of Yelchin, a really solid young actor, I can tell that the studio is serious about making this not only a good movie, but a great one.  The next hurdle is the casting of the vampire Jerry Dandridge and vampire hunter Peter Vincent.  I’ve seen Lance Hendrickson or Robin Williams names bandied about as Peter Vincent, but my pick would be Ian McShane or Bill Nighy. As Jerry, I like Patrick Watson, but if I had my way, I’d like to cast either Clive Owen or Christian Bale, just to see those two play against type.

Besides, it would be nice to see Bale play something a little less somber for a change.  He’s about to develop perma-scowl soon. Imagine him doing this scene:

Who are your picks?

Buffylicious Preview

Oooh, lookie here! The preview for Buffy issue #34 is up at News-a-rama!

It’s spoilerific (if you’ve been living in a hole for the past 2 months).

So, what’s going to happen now that the gang knows Twilight’s identity.   What forces *are* at work in all this? What will Buffy do when faced with this latest betrayal?

Personally, I think it’s going to get messy.

Enjoy!