Joss Whedon - Biography

Last Editor: OceanDream				Joss Whedon Biography -   Name : Joss Whedon Profession : Director/ Producer/Writer Birth Details : born June 23, 1964 Birth name : Joseph Hill Whedon Personal quotes : [when asked how he designed each unstoppable season villain to be unique and threatening:] "We got into a problem with that. We kept saying, “ Spouse : Kai Cole (? - present) 1 child Trade mark : Directs any episode of Buffy he writes.

Joss Whedon Trivia -

Attended and graduated from Wesleyan University in 1987. Joss Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997) episode "Hush" was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2000 for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series. "Hush" featured 28 minutes without dialogue, as a group of fairy-tale demons called the Gentlemen arrived in Sunnydale to steal voices, and then hearts (literally). Son of Tom Whedon Grandson of John Whedon Whedon is married and resides in Los Angeles. Writing is clearly in his blood, since he could arguably be the world's first third-generation television writer. His grandfather was a successful sitcom writer n the 50s and 60s on "The Donna Reed Show" (1958) and "Leave It to Beaver" (1957), and his father wrote for the likes of "The Dick Cavett Show" (1969), "Alice" (1976) and "Benson" (1979). After receiving a degree in film studies from Wesleyan University, Whedon moved to Los Angeles and landed his first writing job on the staff of "Roseanne", working as a story editor and writing several episodes of the top-rated series. He later pulled double duty on the NBC series "Parenthood", co-producing and writing a number of episodes. Appeared on-screen in the Jossverse for the first-time in the _"Angel" (1999/I)_ episode "Through the Looking Glass" as Numfar of the Deathwok Clan. A relative of the Host, he is routinely ordered by Lorne's mother to dance. Has said that he created Buffy (of the vampire slaying fame) to be an "alternative feminist icon". Was asked to revise the script for X-Men (2000), and reportedly decided the whole script needed to be totally rewritten, when he handed the studio this draft, they apparently threw it out, they only really wanted him to add a couple jokes here and there. Lived in the UK for 3 years, from 1980-2, attending Winchester College in Hampshire, where he took his A levels. The character of Rupert Giles is mistakenly thought to be based on a history teacher there, Dr. Peter Cramer. Dr. Cramer's arrival at the College post-dates Whedon's departure. The character was named in tribute to his House Matron: Barbara Giles. Whedon and Cole can be heard doing a demo track for the wildly popular episode "Once More With Feeling" on the episode soundtrack. It was recorded in the front hall of their home. His wife, Kai Cole, gave birth to their son Arden on December 18, 2002. Has cited the X-Men character Kitty Pryde (AKA Shadowcat) as a major influence for the character of Buffy. Brother of Zack Whedon, assistant to Mr. David Milch. Created two "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" comic book spin-offs about a vampire slayer named Melaka Fray from 200 years of the future of New York City called "Fray" with artist Karl Moline and various vampire comic book stories "Tales of the Vampires" with Buffy star Amber Benson along with other Buffy tv and comic scribe writers. Currently writing "The Astonishing X-Men" comic book series for Marvel Comics. Took him two years to finish writing Buffy comic book spin-off mini-series "Fray" with artist Karl Moline, due to his schedule with his three shows (Buffy/Angel/ Firefly) and the artist's new job at CrossGen Comics. Wrote Angel's comic book tie-in mini-series with comic book writer Brett Matthews called "Angel: Long Night's Journey." Just as Buffy comic book spin- off FRAY, this comic book mini-series had series of delays because of Joss's committments to Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Fray. Wrote three vignettes for Buffy's "Tale of the Slayers" graphic novel, along with Buffy cast Amber Benson, "Smallville" (2001) consulting producer Jeph Leob, and other Buffy TV and comic writers: In the book, Joss wrote about the origin of The First Slayer, the death of a slayer from the medieval period, and his futuristic slayer Melaka Fray's discovery of an abandoned New York branch of the Watcher Council Headquarter. Wrote an introduction for Jim Krugeer and Alex Ross's Marvel Comics's award- winning graphic novel "Earth X." His last television project was a show called "Firefly," which offered his unique view of the future. He recently finished production for "Serenity," a movie continuation of the discontinued show, "Firefly." His favorite movie is The Matrix (1999). Considers Mad Max 2 (1981) to be a perfect movie.

Joss Whedon Detailed Biography -

Joss Hill Whedon (born June 23, 1964) is a writer, director, executive producer, and creator of several television series, most famously Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. He has also written several film scripts and several comic book series. He attended high school at Winchester College in England and received a film degree from Wesleyan University in 1987. After moving to Los Angeles, Whedon secured his first writing job on the television series Roseanne. After several years as a script doctor, he went back to TV, where he created three cult TV shows. In addition to writing and directing, Joss has had a couple of cameos in his shows Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, and had a guest role in an episode of Veronica Mars. Whedon has been described as the world's first third-generation TV writer. He is the son of Tom Whedon, a successful screenwriter for The Electric Company in the 1970s and The Golden Girls in the 1980s, and the grandson of John Whedon, a writer for The Donna Reed Show in the 1950s. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Joss Whedon interviewed on a Buffy The Vampire Slayer DVD featurette Years after having his script for the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer filmed (the interpretation by director Fran Rubel Kuzui having been poorly received by critics and audiences), Whedon revived the concept as a television series of the same name. Buffy the Vampire Slayer went on to become a critical and cult hit, with the episode "Hush" receiving an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding writing in a drama series in 2000. Whedon wrote and directed the musical episode "Once More, with Feeling", which featured the show's cast in singing and dancing roles and also received an Emmy Award nomination. The show ran for five seasons on The WB Network before transferring to UPN for its final two seasons. Though it premiered on Mondays at 9pm, Buffy ran since the middle of the second season on Tuesdays at 8pm. (In the aforementioned musical episode, Buffy makes the Brechtian comment, "Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday.") According to an interview with Marti Noxon, the writing team for Buffy gave Joss the affectionate nickname Our Fearful Leader. Angel Angel was a spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, featuring her vampire-with-a-soul boyfriend as the title character. It was created by Whedon in conjunction with David Greenwalt. Debuting in September 1999 on the WB, the show was broadcast after Buffy on Tuesday evenings; but when Buffy switched networks in 2001, Angel aired in a number of different time slots, and rarely attained the ratings of its predecessor. The WB cancelled the show in May 2004 while it was in its fifth season. Firefly In 2002, Firefly, which Whedon produced with Tim Minear, was canceled by Fox after only 11 episodes had been aired, out of intended sequence, from a total of only 14 produced (including the original two-hour pilot, which was the last episode to be aired on Fox). Whedon had been writing a movie script based on the TV series for Universal Studios for about a year when the Firefly series was released on DVD. The excellent sales of the DVD set ensured the movie would be produced, and in early 2004 Whedon announced that his proposal for a Firefly movie had been greenlighted by Universal. Shooting started in July 2004, and the film, Serenity, went into wide release in the United States on September 30, 2005 to widespread critical and fan acclaim, but mediocre results at the box office. As of February 2006 Serenity's worldwide earnings were about $0.2 million short of the film's $39 million budget, but it is expected to make a profit with DVD sales. Whedon has written or co-written several movies including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Toy Story, Alien: Resurrection, Titan A.E. and Ray Gun. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Toy Story's screenplay. He also wrote uncredited drafts or rewrites of Speed, Waterworld, Twister and X-Men, although, with the exception of Speed, little of Whedon's work remained in the final drafts of any of these screenplays. In interviews, Whedon has disowned some of these films. He has said that he had a good script for Alien: Resurrection, which was later spoiled by the director. His Waterworld script was thrown out, and only two of his lines were kept in the final script of X-Men. Even the Buffy movie bore little resemblance to his original screenplay. According to Graham Yost, the credited writer of Speed, Whedon wrote most of its dialogue (see examples of credit conflicts in the WGA credit system). Most recently he wrote and directed Serenity, based on his television series Firefly, and has been signed to write and direct Warner Bros.' 2007 adaptation of Wonder Woman. A week before the release of Serenity, Variety announced that Universal Pictures had greenlighted a spec script by Whedon titled Goners which he will also direct.