Whedon's a 'Goner' for U
Universal pacts with 'Buffy' man for spec script.

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Universal Pictures has paid seven figures for "Goners," a fantasy thriller spec script Joss Whedon wrote and will direct.

Film will be produced by Mary Parent and Scott Stuber. The studio premiered Whedon's directorial debut, "Serenity," on Thursday night at Universal City Walk. Pic opens Sept. 30.

Whedon was cryptic in describing the project, but the title conveys that it will tread on supernatural turf comparable to his series creations "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the bloodsucker spinoff "Angel."

"It's the story of a young woman's journey that involves a great deal of horror and some heroics," he said. "It's certainly darker than 'Serenity,' and there are a lot of left turns along the way. It is something I had in mind for a while, and it just poured out of me when I finished my film."

Timing isn't clear, since Whedon is writing to direct "Wonder Woman," the Warner Bros. film based on the DC Comics heroine. That may take some time, as Whedon started his script from scratch.

"I was given license to purely make it my own and yet she is already an iconic Amazon princess," Whedon said. " 'Goners' has some similarities, but the heroines could not be more different, and the story is a bit more intimate and less complicated than 'Wonder Woman.' "

Whedon, who began his career writing features "Speed" and "Toy Story," shuttered his TV operation this year to focus on features. He will continue to spend the majority of his time with bigscreen fare but acknowledged he has been toying with a TV project that would continue the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" universe, focusing on Spike, the punk-haired vampire played by James Marsters.

Whedon's challenge is to figure a way to do it and be able to keep directing movies.

"Directing a film was as exciting and daunting as it was supposed to be," said the CAA-repped Whedon. "I learned a lot on 'Serenity' and hope I hid that from the audience."

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"It's Like Buffy, But Scary"
Exclusive: Whedon update on Goners

Post Serenity, Joss Whedon is a very busy man. Not only is he currently up to his eyes in the screenplay for Wonder Woman, but he's sold his script for Goners along the way. The problem is, while everybody knows the story of the hotpant-sporting superheroine, no one seems to know owt about Whedon's other project.

"I'm keeping it all pretty close to my chest at the moment," Whedon told Empire. "I'm something of a blabbermouth. What I will say is that it ventures more into the horrific than I normally tend to. I love horror movies but I looked back on Buffy and I was like 'Oh, we forgot to make it scary.' It was occasionally scary but I got so wrapped up in the emotions and people and things that I missed the horror aspect. Goners comes back to that a little bit."

Plot-wise, all Whedon will divulge is that it's about a young woman, and involves heroics. Not a million miles from Buffy, Serenity or even Wonder Woman. So what's with the archetype appeal?

"You know, I don't really know. It's the kind of story I like to tell and I'm going to keep telling it until somebody tells me to stop. I'm not sure what aspect of its appeals to me, it's just something that's in me it's just something I identify with, something I idealise. It's Something that I don't see enough, that I find fascinating and uplifting. Anything that's uplifting and sexy I feel is a good thing."

Wonder Woman is tentatively scheduled for 2007, with Goners slated for later this year but as for which will actually hit our screens first, it's all down to the suits in Hollywood at this point. "I've sold one script and I'm working on the other at the moment. I don't know which will come first, it's really which studio is the most interested in making one of them."

Source

I’m doing a rewrite of the script, which for a long time eluded me mostly because I was working on “Wonder Woman”, but perhaps not coincidentally, as things began to go south with it, corners began to unfold and what I needed to do became very clear, so I’m working on that right now. I’m working on a draft I feel will be ready to give to the studio for, hopefully, a light of greenishness.