Joss Whedon is brilliant.

If you have watched any of Whedon's projects in the past you probably know the above statement to be true. From co-writing (and winning an Academy Award) for Toy Story to creating Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, Dollhouse, & Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, or his work on other's creations such as Marvel's Astonishing X-Men and Runaways, Whedon is always at the top of his game.

He's also the master of taking a failure in one medium and creating a cult classic in another. Witness the life of Buffy, it started out as a failed movie, was turned into a long running, cult classic television series that was a hit with critics, and now it's a several year long Comic book.

Now 2 of Whedon's projects are heading to your home. On October 12 Dollhouse Season 2 hits shelves on DVD and Blu-ray and on January 4th the 8th Season of Buffy does the same.
Dollhouse is Joss Whedon’s take on the ultimate identity theft and follows a cast of Actives, or Dolls, who serve as agents of Dollhouse, an illegal underground organization providing elite clientele with programmable human beings. Personality imprints allow Actives to temporarily become anyone or anything—the perfect burglar, lover, spy or assassin. When the mission is completed, memories are wiped clean. The all-star Dollhouse cast is led by Eliza Dushku as Echo (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Tru Calling, Angel) and Tahmoh Penikett as Paul Ballard (Battlestar Galactica).

The second season comes with several special features including a retrospective with Joss Whedon and cast roundtable about the series. A gag reel and deleted scenes from top episodes. But probably the coolest, and most anticipated extra is the 28 page exclusive limited edition comic book by Dark Horse Comics.

In the comic, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, joined by longtime Buffy the Vampire Slayer artist Cliff Richards, take us on an intricate trip through the precise moment when the Active technology went global, and how the protagonists from Epitaph One and Two narrowly avoided death, and worse. Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen wrote the Epitaph episodes of Dollhouse Seasons One and Two, and currently write for the Starz series Spartacus. This is their first work in comics. Artist Cliff Richards has drawn more Joss Whedon-related comics than any other artist, including issues of Buffy Season Eight.If you don't follow comics, you might be wondering what Buffy season 8 is, as the television series ended with Season 7. Well for the past several years Buffy, as mentioned above, has lived on in comic book form. This 8th season picks up after the destruction of the Hellmouth in the explosive finale of the television series, Buffy and her trusted friend Xander have relocated to a citadel in Scotland to oversee the thousands of newly activated slayers from across the globe. Using their new home as command-central in their fight against evil, Buffy and her allies lead these new slayers as they take on vamps, zombies and now the U.S. government who declare, in the wake of Sunnydale’s destruction, that slayers are nothing more than international terrorists.

Those comics have been turned into Motion Comics, in which the frames from the comic are animated and voice actors read the lines, instead of their being text bubbles. The very first episode of the motion comic series is available now on the iTunes Store (www.iTunes.com), with new episodes available every week from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. iTunes episodes are available for $.99/$1.99 HD each, or with a season pass for $14.99/$29.99 HD and can be found at www.iTunes.com/Buffy. All 19 episodes will make their official debut on DVD January 4, 2011 which will include limited edition Jo Chen packaging and a collectible reprint of Dark Horse Comic’s first book in the series.

And if that's not enough Jones Soda has created 6 custom themed “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” Motion Comic labels which can be purchased on their website. You can see them below:

As a big fan of Whedon I can honestly say I'm eagerly awaiting these releases.

Labels: AWESOMENESS, Buffy, Dollhouse, Joss Whedon

Today brings good news for fans of Joss Whedon as not one but two veterans of the "Whedonverse" have signed up for new series.

Firefly's Alan "Wash" Tudyk (recently of 3:10 to Yuma & Death at a Funeral) has been cast in the as yet untitled Kohan/Mutchnick pilot for ABC. The series is about two lifelong best friends and business partners. The two men--one straight, the other gay--have their relationship tested when they both get significant others. Tudyk will reportedly play the gay half of the duo.

Meanwhile Angel's Amy "Fred/Illyria" Acker has joined a trio of actors who will round out the cast for Whedon's Dollhouse. Along with Acker, Miracle Laurie (Medical Investigation), and 24's Harry Lennix will fill out an already fantastic cast. Whedon himself spilled the beans about the new ladies joining the cast over at Whedonesque.com. Dollhouse finds Eliza Dushku playing Echo, a member of a group of people known as "Actives" or "Dolls" who have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas, including memory, muscle memory, skills, and language, for different assignments. They're then hired out for particular jobs, crimes, fantasies, and occasional good deeds. In between tasks, they are mind-wiped into a child-like state and live in a futuristic dormitory/laboratory, a hidden facility nicknamed "The Dollhouse". The story follows Echo, who begins, in her mind-wiped state, to become self-aware.

Acker has been cast as Dr. Claire Saunders, the dollhouse's medical specialist who cares for the physical well-being of the Dolls. Laurie has been cast as November, another of the Dolls who does not appear in the pilot but has a recurring role throughout the series. And Lennix will play Boyd Langton, Echo's handler and former copWithin the confines of Dollhouse, Boyd seems to offer a (gruff) voice of reason, feeling morally at odds with the treatment of the Actives (or Dolls, as they're sometimes known) yet willing to lay down his own life to protect them.

As if Whedon's Dollhouse wasn't exciting enough now it's got Fred! I can't wait! Fox will begin airing the series in the fall.

Labels: Casting, Dollhouse, Joss Whedon

Eliza Dushku has gained some new playmates in Joss Whedon's new Fox series Dollhouse, and surprisingly none of them are Buffy Alum. But don't fret, there's still four of the eight main roles up for grabs, so we may get some Buffy Alum yet.

According to The Hollywood Reporter four main characters have been cast so far with Battlestar Galactica's Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Fran Kranz ("Welcome to the Captain"), Australian Dichen Lachman, and Enver Gjokaj tackling the roles.

The series follows a group of young men and women, called "Dolls," who are imprinted with different personalities for different assignments. They have no memories of their previous lives, until Echo (Dushku) begins to try to find out who she was. The dollhouse is the memory-erasing lab where the "dolls" spend their time between missions.

Penikett takes on the role of Paul Smith, "an FBI field agent obsessed with the urban myth of Dollhouse and a twisted romantic foil for Echo."
Kranz will be playing Topher Brink, "a twentysomething genius programer responsible for imprinting the dolls."

Lachman will become Sierra, "a doll like Echo and her friend, who has every personality in the world but her own."
And Gjokaj will play Victor, another doll and "a friend of Echo's, who is childlike when he's inactive, and everything from Errol Flynn to young DeNiro when he's active."

The other four characters remaining to be cast are:
Adelle Dewitt: The fortyish iceberg who runs the Dollhouse where the human Etch-a-Sketches reside.
Boyd Langton: Echo's handler and father figure.
November: The Tracy Turnblad of the Dolls.
Dr. Claire Sanders: The beautiful older woman with whom Topher is smitten.

Can't wait to see who Whedon gets to fill these roles, and I'm still hoping to see some familiar faces.

Labels: Dollhouse, Joss Whedon

It seems like Joss Whedon may have changed his mind. Originally the Mastermind behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, & Firefly had not planned to inhabit his new series, Dollhouse, with members of the "Whedonverse." Last fall when the series was announced Whedon had told TVGuide that his "first instinct is to probably [cast] new people because I'm already reuniting with Eliza and I don't want it to seem like a house party."

But last Thursday before the Paley Fest's Buffy tribute Whedon told TVGuide's Michael Ausiello that "I've read a couple of people [from the Buffyverse], but I'm not going to say who." He continued that this didn't contradict his earlier statements because "It's not a hard and fast rule, I just want to make sure I get the right people. And I don't want to give the impression that it's just me and my friends having a party. Some [Buffyverse alums] might work out fine. But I'm not going to just seek out people that I already know are great. That would be lazy."

Personally after being at the Paley event I'd love to see as many of the Buffyverse Alum in the same show as possible. I'd especially like to see Anthony Stewart Head, Seth Green, or Nicholas Brendan join the cast. Which Alum would you like to see?

Labels: Dollhouse, Joss Whedon