Extensive Joss quotage

[sff_corgi_lj]

Link courtesy of Overdue Media blog.

The budget for “Serenity” is maybe a quarter the size of the one “Batman Begins” employed, yet four times the size of the two-hour “Firefly” pilot, which itself employed big sci-fi sets, big special effects, location shooting and horses. What does that $40 million “Serenity” movie budget buy you?

It definitely buys you a giant space battle. And a lot of very carefully shot, worked-out action, and a lot of bigger stunts. It buys you more scale. Some of what it buys you you wouldn’t notice because you basically have to make things denser and cooler and the visual effects have to be higher-resolution. Sets have to be more visibly thick material, because everything’s being turned up so big. So, to an extent, you get more bang for your buck on the small screen. So you have to compensate for that in a movie budget.
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Given that you’ve described your experience on “Alien: Resurrection” as something of a personal Vietnam, is there irony to the fact that your feature directorial debut also centers on a crew of in-over-their-heads space-criminals?

Somebody pointed that out to me, the similarity between Serenity and the Betty [“Alien Resurrection’s” spaceship], and it just stopped me in my tracks. I was like, “Yes, my pony did its trick again!” I really never thought of it until somebody pointed it out to me. But the irony goes further than I could have imagined because we shot it on the same stages at Fox where they shot “Alien: Resurrection.” In fact, Serenity was built over the pit that they dug for “Alien: Resurrection” for the underwater sequence.
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The way I work, I’m like a vulture. I circle and circle and then I dive. I usually don’t actually write anything until I know exactly how it’s going to turn out. I don’t “let the computer take me away.” I’m an absolute Nazi about structure. I make outlines. I make charts and graphs with colors.

You’ve done that for “Wonder Woman”?

Not for “Wonder Woman,” because I’m still working out the plot. But I’m finding the moments that matter; I’m finding the things that make the story really resonate; the things that I just can’t wait to film. I have great big questions to answer, but I’m in that beautiful, free-form poetical place where you just get to think up moments and see if they fit in your movie. And that’s almost more fun than anything. And that work, which is a vital part of what got me interested in doing the job in the first place, is being done.

But I do have to see “Serenity” through. I’ll be finished with the movie within a month but I have to make sure it gets taken care of all the way through release. I have, in the past, found that I was able to do more than one thing at a time.
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As you go about casting Diana, do you set a height requirement? How important is it that the Amazon princess be tall?

It’s important. I’m looking for somebody statuesque, regal, beautiful, who can really act and do a lot of stunts with no elbow or knee pads. I’m asking a lot. So if I happen to find all those qualities in somebody who does not quite meet my height requirement, I will be casting some really short love interest. The height is definitely a part of the package. But the most important part? No. And the fact of the matter is, a woman stands as tall as she makes you think she is. For example, I always thought [“Buffy” writer-producer] Marti Noxon was four inches taller than she actually was. I just found that out last week.

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The X-Men are all born of pain, and pain is where I hang my hat.

I must stop before I quote most of the article. *wink*

(Remember my Serenity movie ticket offer!)