For Dylan and other fellow Firefly / Joss Whedon fans,

Looks like Serenity, not due for release until this fall, will be sneaked in its current uncompleted state in several U.S. cities next week -- nearby Austin being one of them -- but all tickets are already sold out!

http://www.cantstopthesignal.com/

Thanks to http://www.robogeek.com/ for the heads-up on this advance sreening, and thanks to Mike Curtis of HD for Indies (http://www.hdforindies.com/), with whom I had lunch at Shady Grove yesterday in Austin, for the heads-up about the RoboGeek site.

But here's a two-minute trailer for Serenity anyway:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/serenity/

Can't wait!

Thanks to Mike Curtis of HD for Indies, with whom I had lunch at Shady Grove yesterday in Austin

Damn, next time you're around let me know Chris!
I was talking to Mike earlier this week about having lunch on friday...but my week got too stacked up.

Next time you come into Austin, drop me a line or give me a call.
I'll probably be getting together with Mike sometime soon (next week?)...
And there is always room at the table for you...

Chris,

I'm definitely a fan of Joss and Firefly. I have to say the Serenity trailer worries me a little bit though. The lighting of the internal scenes looks very televisioneque - a bit deliberate and overly stylized for what should be the inside of a spaceship or bar.... The acting didn't seem quite as natural as it did in the series either....

What did you think of the trailer?

Next week? Yikes!

I caught the trailer a little while ago.
Can't wait.

They have the new trailer up. Looks great.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/serenity/trailer_2/

Thanks Barry! I'll be catching this one on opening night, hopefully.

just saw it. it was totally awesome. definitely the best movie of this year so far!

alas, [admin edit -- spoiler removed] i was so sad when it happened. i wanted to find out about one of them so bad. the back stories, etc.

I second that. Serenity was awesome. I can't believe it lived up to it's hype for me, considering I was a big fan of the show. I can't wait to see it again. Hope everyone sees it and appreciates how good Joss Whedon is at writing humour into action sequences, adding tension, etc.

KW

The wife and I saw it tonight, loved every minute of it. Hats off to Joss, he's a genius.

Don't post spoilers without announcing that you're posting spoilers!

I just saw Serenity and thought it was a decent movie. However, it seemed more episodic - as in one of a number or series - than cinematic - as in stand alone.

I also thought it was very Television like and not really able it distinguish itself from the tv series; not sure if that was deliberate or not, but if I want to see TV I don't need to pay $8 to do so.

There were moments that were funny, but in a cliched way - some dry humor at times but I was not really laughing like I did when I saw the 40 year old virgin for example.

I think that overall Serenity was entertaining, but I can see why it did not fly before: lack of effective storytelling and dangling plot elements!! Don't want to upset any fans but the human weapon / psychic / we gotta save this girl character had absolutely no real role in the movie aside from giving cryptic remarks, providing a distraction from the lack of serious motivation for a story, and jumping into psychotic violence / psuedo martial arts at times. I guess she couldn't use her powers to change any of the events shown in the movie? The emotional payoff at the end was also sadly lacking, again more TV'ish than cinematic.

Just my opinion. To ameoliorate what I've said, a couple of my friends thought it was good, but only because they like mindless violence :-)

alas, [admin edit -- spoiler removed] i was so sad when it happened.

I know what you are talking about, and agree. I don't see the point of it. It didn't further the story any, and left me walking out on a down note when I was enthralled all the way through. That's all I can say without spoilling anything.

Serenity was Number Two at the box office this weekend! Woohoo, go Joss!

but only @10mil. even flightplan was higher@15mil.

i dunno if it bodes well. that's the thing about these little known projects. there aren't always a lot of marketing for it. i was just watching desperate housewives, no ads for serenity. there should've been. out of all the films this year, at least this one deserves it the most.

Why does Serenity deserve marketing more than any other movie this year?

I'm sure you are a fan, but why?

Yes, unless it gets better next weekend, Joss may be in trouble. Rumoured budget is $40mill, so $10mill first weekend is not very good. Let's hope word of mouth gets some more people out to the theaters next weekend!

KW

Yeah, I thought the marketing was very poor for this. They did a lot to reach the hardcore fanbase, which is great, but I think they wrote it off for the mass market when they didn't need to. Hopefully it will grow legs...

They should certainly recoup the $40M, especially with DVD sales, but everyone was hoping for a bigger number there.

I'll ask again, why should Serenity have gotten more PR/Marketing? I saw the movie, it was ok, but definitely gearded towards those who saw the "TV Series"; fans basically.

I'm not sure the movie is good enought to have warranted a huge investment in PR/Marketing. I'm not one of those who thought the TV Series was that good honestly, sorry for you fans out there :-(

have you seen it krystian? i think you'll understand if you did. it's solid on almost every level... except emotional maybe. it's emotion-lite.

they should'e marketed towards casual movie-goers. it's like paramount marketing to trekkies star trek stuff. i mean it's so redundant. trekkies will go no matter how bad. just look at the last 4 movies. trekkies made it some big $!

Yeah, I saw it - see my post above.

I really didn't see much to compell anyone to go see it, sorry :-(

It just looked too much like television to me. I do think it was decent, and had some good moments, but not enough to sell it for me.