Whedon’s ‘Dollhouse’ Hits Another Snag
The latest project by fandom fave Joss Whedon, “Dollhouse”, has halted production for a second time.
Fox Television execs told TelevisionWeek that the show, which stopped production last Thursday, will resume production on Sept. 25. The official reason given for the work stoppage was that Whedon simply wants the show to be better and that he was so preoccupied with directing two of the first three shows that he wasn’t able to focus on scripts. They also insist that the show won’t miss its scheduled January premiere date.
“We have tremendous confidence in Joss and his team, and we wholeheartedly supported his desire to take some time to focus on upcoming scripts before resuming filming,” said a spokesperson for 20th Century Fox TV.
However, behind-the-scenes sources told TVWeek that studio execs have serious concerns about the fundamental plot of the show. For instance, questions have been raised about how much viewers will or won’t root for Eliza Dushku’s character, since she reportedly has no free will of her own.
Whedon reportedly had similar concerns of his own when he decided to rewrite and reshoot the show’s pilot in July. However, some connected with the show are said to believe that those concerns haven’t been completely dealt with in the revised pilot.
“We believe in Joss, and we support the show,” a Fox spokesman said to TVWeek, dismissing reports that Fox Entertainment heads Peter Liguori and Kevin Reilly are amongst the doubters. “It will be on the air midseason.”
If “Dollhouse” is indeed not in the good graces of Fox programmers and remains in that state, Whedon would undoubtedly get a sense of deja vu. His previous show “Firefly” only lived for a season amongst fan complaints that it never got a fair chance to grow an audience due to frequent preemptions by Fox, and Whedon reportedly said at the time that he’d never work with the network again (he got over that long enough to make the film “Serenity” with the “Firefly” cast.) His biggest hit, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer“, ended up switching networks from the WB to UPN after the former network decided it would make more money and get more viewers with reality programming.
Tags: buffy the vampire slayer, dollhouse, Eliza Dushku, firefly, fox, joss whedonRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Producers, Projects, Show Status
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