Monday, June 30, 2008

Coming Soon: Dr. Horrible!!



I was out of town on the weekend, so I missed the big unveiling of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, but it is not too late to help spread the word! This is Joss Whedon's latest project, a three-part Web movie. As the Facebook profile states, it is "The story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to." The super-villain is Neil Patrick Harris from How I Met Your Mother, the guy who beats him up is Nathan Fillion (WOO!) and the girl he's too shy to talk to is Felicia Day, best known in the Whedonverse as Vi, that British Potential with the jaunty hat.

The first episode will appear on July 15th, the second on July 17th, and the third on July 19th, and they will all appear here, on the official site for the show. The catch? They will all be taken down at midnight on July 20th, and thereafter will be available for download for a nominal fee before appearing on DVD.

The Man Himself posted on Whedonesque to tout the event, and here is his post (check out the link to see the other comments):

Dear Friends,

At last the time has come to reveal to you our Master Plan. BEWARE! Those with weak hearts should log off lest they be terrified by the twisted genius of our schemes! Also pregnant women and the elderly should consider reading only certain sentences. Do not mix with other blogs. Do not operate heavy machinery while reading this blog. You must be this tall to read. ‘Kay?

It is time for us to change the face of Show Business as we know it. You know the old adage, “It’s Show Business – not Show Friends”? Well now it’s Show Friends. We did that. To Show Business. To show Show Business we mean business. (Also, there are now other businesses like it.)

ONE WEEK ONLY! AN INTERNET MINISERIES EVENT!

"Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog" will be streamed, LIVE (that part’s not true), FREE (sadly, that part is) right on Drhorrible.com, in mid-July. Specifically:

ACT ONE (Wheee!) will go up Tuesday July 15th.

ACT TWO (OMG!) will go up Thursday July 17th.

ACT THREE (Denouement!) will go up Saturday July 19th.

All acts will stay up until midnight Sunday July 20th. Then they will vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom – that’s still playing. Like, everywhere.)

And now to answers a few Frequently (soon to be) Asked Questions:

1) Why, Joss? Why? Why now, why free, why us?

Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system.

Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.

The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.

2) What happens when it goes away? Does it go to a happy farm for always like Fluffy did when mommy was crying and the neighbor kept washing his fender?

No, Dr horrible will live on. We intend to make it available for download soon after it’s published. This would be for a nominal fee, which we’re hoping people will embrace instead of getting all piratey. We have big dreams, people, and one of them is paying our crew.

And somewhat later, we will put the complete short epic out on DVD – with the finest and bravest extras in all the land. We’ll go into greater detail about that at Comiccon, but we’re changing the face of Show Friendliness a second time with that crazy DVD.

3) Joss, you are so kind, and generous, and your forehead is like, huge, like SCARY, like I think I can see Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint hanging off it… what can WE do to help this musical extravanganza?

What you always do, peeps! What you’re already doing. Spread the word. Rock some banners, widgets, diggs… let people know who wouldn’t ordinarily know. It wouldn’t hurt if this really was an event. Good for the business, good for the community – communitIES: Hollywood, internet, artists around the world, comic-book fans, musical fans (and even the rather vocal community of people who hate both but will still dig on this). Proving we can turn Dr Horrible into a viable economic proposition as well as an awesome goof will only inspire more people to lay themselves out in the same way. It’s time for the dissemination of the artistic process. Create more for less. You are the ones that can make that happen.

Wow. I had no idea how important you guys were. I’m a little afraid of you.

4) Joss, do you ever answer a question simply or coherently?

Shledzguohn?

There’ll be more questions, and more long, long answers, but for now I’m just excited that we’re actually making this happen. We (and a lot of other people -- gushing to commence soon) worked very hard on the show and we hope/think you guys will be pleased. Until July 15th , I remain, yours truly, -j, of the firm j, j, m & z.


Still not convinced? Check out the trailer:



Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

The week of the show shall be Dr. Horrible Week on Nik at Nite, where we can discuss the show at length... let's drum up support for this, and get as many people over to the site that week as we can.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very Excited, can't wait!
This just looks like a lot of fun. I've been watching Angel again and I forgot just how good it was. I think I took it for granted when it was originally on. Anyway, I'm sure Joss will deliver again.
Later

Anonymous said...

Joss is such a funny guy.

Looking forward to Dr. Horrible Week, Nikki!

Anonymous said...

Now, one day I'll wake up and not have to say 'Joss, you are my god'. Until that day - Joss *genuflecting and kissing beads* you are my god.

My password won't work. Matthew here. Very excited.

Wow.

Ryan said...

How did I not know about this? I'm so uninformed!

This looks very interesting - I'll definitely be tuning in.

Anonymous said...

Vi wasn't British.

I'm reserving my judgment on this until I see it. I hate the name.

But I'll probably love it.

Nikki Stafford said...

redeem: Frak, you're right. I think Molly was British. But I'm pretty sure Vi had the hats? I remember little hats... and for some reason that took me to "British," I have no idea why.

I blame Dick Van Dyke in "Mary Poppins."

Anonymous said...

Cute hats. Shy smile.

Ian said...

Totally was *just* going to make a post about Dr. Horrible and you beat me to it. ;)

I loved Joss's bit about the show too!