Joss Whedon knew his interest in super heroes, horror
stories and other twisted tales was out of the ordinary. "It was
deeper, more consuming than [with] other children," he said.
"While they were outside playing, I was indoors, fascinated by
a large stack of comic books." Now, at age 32, Whedon has an
impressive list of writing credits that include the upcoming
"Alien 4: The Resurrection," the Academy Award-nominated
"Speed," and such other well-received films as "Toy Story" and
the 1992 film "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
Whedon studied film at Wesleyan in Connecticut, where he graduated
"broke and without a job prospect... I wanted to write for TV,
so I wrote a sickening number of TV specs, most of which
were returned to me." After a year of sending his work around,
he found success with a script he wrote for "Roseanne," then
quit the show a year later after selling a movie script.
As for moving from film back to the small screen, Whedon says
he is excited about the prospect of returning to TV. "You get
to control it more... it�s like doing a string of independent
movies with each episode something different as opposed to
the movies, which takes a year or more to create just one product."
Whedon said what he is not interested in doing on TV is camp or
a spoof of horror shows. "We take our horror genre seriously. This
is not �Clueless� or �Party Girl.�" he said. "The description I
like best is �My So-Called Life� meets �The X-Files.�
Basically, �Buffy� has all the classic, very cool monsters: vampires,
werewolves, mummies. She is a good role model for not just
girls but for everybody, because she has to use her wits
and her physical strength to win. Yet, she still has to get
high marks in all her courses at school."
Whedon said his storyline inspiration for "Buffy" involves not
only his own experiences in school, but the universal woes of
others. "When I get together with my writing team, I ask
them, �What was your favorite horror movie? What is the most
embarrassing thing that ever happened to you? Now, how can we
combine the two?�" Whedon said the one-hour show should
not disappoint those who liked the movie, even though the
differences will be apparent. "The show is scary, and less
about spectacle and more about people," he said. As for
Buffy�s appeal, "I think there is a little bit of her in all of
us," Whedon said. "She struggles with many of the things we had
to face, issues of popularity and fitting in. thing. With 12
one-hour episodes of "Buffy" filmed so far, Whedon said he still
has many more story ideas he�d like to incorporate onto
the show, which premieres March 10. "I�m not nearly finished
with Buffy yet," he said.
