(remember?)
Trained by the Watcher, one Slayer dies...and the next is chosen"
But turning a bad movie into a great TV show? Our Slayer may be the only character who has done that successfully...but it may have cost her respect and recognition that she so richly deserves.
The movie may be the reason why. Maybe it was a good idea that just wasn't executed as well as it should have.
Several actresses were up for the part, including Drew Barrymore, Allysa Milano and Alicia Silverstone (who was too young).
It was supposed to make Kristy Swanson, who played Buffy, a star. It was supposed to be Luke Perry's breakout role after several years as the male lead in Beverly Hills, 90210. Somehow, it didn't turn out that way.
On the other hand, it did have a well-known actor (Donald Sutherland as Merrick, the Watcher), two future Oscar winners (Hillary Swank and Ben Affleck), and a comeback role for Paul Reubens, alias Pee-Wee Herman..who was coming off a sex scandal that destroyed his career as a kids' TV host.
Not only that, it had David Arquette, who went on to fame in the Scream movies and telephone commercials, and wound up marrying Courtney Cox (and was a pro wrestling champion for a while).
The movie wasn't the sleeper hit 20th Century Fox had hoped. The major newsmagazines panned it. Time blamed the director for not having confidence in the script, while Newsweek blamed the script for not being able to merge the scary and funny bits as well as (and I swear to God this is true) Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
But the director, Fran Rubel Kazui, says the movie just wasn't marketed well, and didn't find its audience until it was released on video. The budget was seven million, but earned nearly 16 point seven million in the theaters. However, some criticized her for her hands-off style of directing. Joss Whedon, who wrote the movie, even admitted the movie didn't meet his vision. He talked about it in an interview with The Onion ...
I had major involvement. I was there almost all the way through shooting. I pretty much eventually threw up my hands because I could not be around Donald Sutherland any longer. It didn't turn out to be the movie that I had written. They never do, but that was my first lesson in that. Not that the movie is without merit, but I just watched a lot of stupid wannabe-star behavior and a director with a different vision than mine--which was her right, it was her movie--but it was still frustrating. Eventually, I was like, "I need to be away from here."
Fox executives also wanted the movie to be less funny and more scary, but Kuzui ignored those suggestions. He did have some nice things to say about Paul Reubens as Count Pee Wee, and that Rutger Hauer wasn't as bad in the movie as people thought. The movie was supposed to end with Buffy setting the gym on fire (probably after she burns Lothos' head). The closest thing to his original script is in the three-part comic series, "Origin".
There's not much connection between the movie and the TV show. In "Becoming, part one," the first meeting between Buffy and Merrick was MUCH different than in the movie: she met him in the TV show outside her high school, and he didn't look anything like Sutherland (more like Wilford Brimley). In the movie, of course, Merrick meets Buffy at the gym, and tells her about her "birthright." Also, there's no mention of a "Pike" in Buffy's past in the TV show, although there is in a Buffy novel. I suspect that there never really was a Pike, and they just added him for effect.
While the movie didn't make an impression in theaters, at least two of the producers, Gail Berman and Sandy Gallin,
decided that Buffy would make a great TV show. If not for that, Buffy the Vampire Slayer would have been nothing more than fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000 (whose first supervising producer was Gallin!)
In fact, I have this dream that the Satellite of Love lands mysteriously in Los Angeles. Buffy and her Slayerettes investigate, and then are surprised to meet Mike, Servo and Crow. Then, they find this movie about a cheerleader who fights vampires, and Buffy says, "Guys, we have got to riff on this!"
And who could blame them?
Today, there are people wondering if the Buffy movie can be rebooted for a new generation...and they do it without Joss Whedon or Sarah Michelle Gellar. More people are wondering why anyone should try. After all, more people look for the TV show, not the movie.
If Fran Kuzui wants t omake a new Slayer movie, one word of advice: any name except Buffy.
That way, if a new Slayer movie is done right, the real thing can show up, and give her blessing, whcih would also be Joss Whedon's.
For we all know, he is the one true parent of Buffy Anne Summers.
Not only that, a blog called The Exploding Kinetoscope did a very detailed essay on the movie. It makes my essay look quite lacking. It compares the original Buffy movie to lots of other movies, and praises Sutherland's performance. Well, I had my angle and this blogger has his. Click here, and see for yourself.