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Even before filming began, all agreed that it was mandatory to involve the eager Firefly fans in every step of the process. In July 2004—only one month after principal filming began—Whedon and the cast appeared at the annual Comic-Con fan convention in San Diego, where they (and very early film footage) received a thunderous reception from the 5,000-plus people in attendance.
In December 2004, merely months after filming wrapped, Universal Pictures executives were unprepared for what they encountered at a blind-recruited audience sneak preview. Somehow, the word got out to the Browncoats that there would be a showing of Serenity, and they packed the theater. Experiencing the film with 300 wildly enthusiastic fans, who—despite the fact that the print was extremely rough—laughed, cheered and applauded every beat prompted the studio to rethink their release plans for the film. Browncoat Denise Gribe, a 40-year-old from Silverlake, California, summed up the feelings of the audience when she noted, “I feel like the fans made this possible. Cowboys in space with guns…speaking Chinese. It’s our little show on the big screen!”
The opening date was moved from Spring to Fall 2005 to allow more time for both post-production and further innovative marketing of the film. The release was now slated for September 30, 2005. To offset any disappointment the fans might feel at having to wait another six months for the film, the filmmakers and studio execs devised a thorough outreach plan to reward the Browncoats for their loyalty and tenacity…and keep them invested in the campaign.
First, Whedon and the cast appeared at the Wonder-Con and Wizard-Con fan conventions in early 2005, where they treated the audiences to early sneak peaks at unfinished extended sequences from the film. Then in late April, Whedon posted an online invitation for Browncoats to attend a special paid-preview screening of the work-in-progress—scheduled for Thursday, May 6th in 10 cities nationwide. He directed fans to web sites where they could purchase advance seats. In the trademark Whedon way, he wrote to the fans, “When I whined on about pushing the date and everyone here was posting about ‘what do we do till September?’ the studio agreed to let me sneak it out.”
These screenings sold out in a matter of hours. Some Browncoats traveled from out of state, and a fraternity even chartered a bus for its members to travel for the showing. Tickets were being sold on eBay for $300 each. Some people showed up a day early and spent the night camping out on the sidewalk in front of the theaters, though they already had tickets in hand. Whedon and the cast made live appearances in five of the cities, and the writer-director taped a special direct-to-audience message introducing the film at the screenings, transcribed below:
Hi I’m Joss Whedon. Before we begin this special screening, I have a little story I want to tell you. It’s about a TV show called Firefly. Firefly went on the air a few years ago and was instantly hailed by critics as one of the most cancelled shows of the year. It was ignored and abandoned, and the story should end there. But it doesn’t, because the people who made the show and the people who saw the show—which is roughly the same number of people—fell in love with it a little bit too much to let it go, too much to lay down arms when the battle looked pretty much lost.
In Hollywood, people like that are called unrealistic, quixotic, obsessive. In my world, they’re called Browncoats. Now whether you watched the show on TV or saw the DVDs—or whether you never set foot in the Firefly universe before tonight—the fact that you’re here means that you’re part of something, something that is a little bit remarkable. This movie should not exist. Failed TV shows don’t get made into major motion pictures—unless the creator, the cast and the fans believe beyond reason. That’s what I have felt, and that’s what I have seen in the DVD sales, the booths at the cons run by fans, the web sites and the fundraisers—all the work the fans have done helped make this movie.
It is, in an unprecedented sense, your movie. Which means…if it sucks, it’s your fault. You blew it. You let us down. But let’s not dwell on your failures, because the work is not done. I have to finish making it. This is not quite a final cut, and you’ll notice some placeholders in music and FX. But we are very close, and once we are finished…you have to get people to see it.
Now obviously the studio will do its thing. There will be ads and trailers and all that joy, but this movie does not have stars. It doesn’t have a giant mega budget. It doesn’t even have a simple saleable premise. What it has is us—the people who believed unreasonably. If this movie matters to you, let somebody know. Let everybody know. Make yourselves heard.
If you don’t like the movie…this is a time for quiet, for months of silent contemplation. But when the unfinished credits roll—if you still call yourself a Browncoat—remember the millions of people who don’t…who might. I want us to do this together. The cast will be appearing wherever they can. I will be blogging and stumping and whatever I can think of. We have CantStoptheSignal.com up and running.
I’m fairly certain we’re all doing everything we can to make this the event it should be. Because
remember: they tried to kill us. They did kill us, and here we are. We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty. Thank you for helping getting this movie as far as it has gotten. Welcome to Serenity.
Due to the overwhelming response, Whedon and the studio added a second wave of these paid-previews for the unfinished film three weeks later on Thursday, May 26th. This time, Serenity was shown in 20 cities—the original 10 plus 10 more. Once again, every seat was gone only a few hours after Whedon posted an online message. A good percentage of attendees were seeing the movie for the second time. Thrilled fans demanded more screenings and promptly swamped filmmakers with emails, phone calls and web postings. The third time proved just as successful when, four weeks later, on Thursday, June 23rd, the still-unfinished film was previewed to sell-out audiences in 35 cities—the previous 20 plus 15 new ones. Browncoat Clayton Dilts, 28, from southern California proudly requested of Whedon, “Fight tooth and nail and give me more!”
In addition to the die-hard fans, the second and third wave screenings found new recruits and those curious about the phenomenon filling the seats. These grassroots events started generating press coverage in local market papers and quickly garnered national publicity in publications such as Entertainment Weekly, Wired and The Hollywood Reporter.
When they returned to Comic-Con this past July, Whedon and the Serenity cast received a standing ovation from the 6,500 fans. The entire convention buzzed with excitement and anticipation about the world premiere of the finished film. Two hundred Browncoats were given the opportunity to attend the screening, with Whedon personally introducing the film and then answering questions and signing autographs afterwards. Finishing touches included composer David Newman’s haunting score. The San Diego crowd was simply thrilled at the film’s viewing. Newman’s choices prompted chills from audience members and Joss to share, “He gave me my space western, my multi-cultural mishmash. I may have designed Serenity, but it’s David Newman that made her soar.”
On August 22, 2005 Serenity made her maiden voyage at the worldwide premiere in Scotland at the Edinburgh Film Festival. The capacity crowd leapt to its feet when Joss and crew came on stage. With gushing reviews in the festival trades, extremely high audience ratings and industry insiders full of praise, there seemed to be no stopping her flight.
The attendees at Comic-Con and in Edinburgh, fans of Firefly, newcomers through the DVD experience and those coming to the film fresh had one thing in common. They felt they were seeing characters they cared about in a compelling, entertaining story—something they hadn’t seen in a science-fiction film for a long time. Not only was the core Serenity community celebrating, but the new fans were joining in to watch her fly. |
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