Joss Whedon brings the Web something 'Horrible'

By C.A BRIDGES
Staff Writer

If the Internet seems particularly slow today, don't try to adjust your computer. It's just Joss Whedon trying something new.

Today marks the debut of "Dr Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog." a Web-only three-part musical miniseries writteb by Whedon, his brothers Zack and Jed, and Jed's fiance, Maurissa Tancharoen. Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel," "Firefly" and the upcoming FOX show "Dollhouse," is starting a new franchise as both an experiment in producing revenue-generating content for the Internet and as something fun to do with all of his very talented friends.

In this hilariously cheesy series Dr. Horrible, a not-very-super villain played by Neil Patrick Harris ("Doogie Howser," "How I Met Your Mother") strives to overcome his low-rent statys and join the Evil League of Evil, somehow thwart his constant and annoying arch-nemesis (the bombastically heroic Captain Hammer, played by Nathan Fillion of "Firefly," "Waitress" and "Desperate Housewives"), and work up the nerve to talk to the cute girl at the Laundromat (played by Felicia Day of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "The Guild"). And much of it happens through song.

The first 14-minute act of "Dr. Horribe" began streaming at www.drhorrible.com just after midnight this morning. The next act will be posted Thursday, and the third and final act will pop up Saturday. All three acts will remain available and free until Sunday night at midnight, when they will be pulled from the site and offered through iTunes. It's an experiment to see if producing content directly for the Internet can be a viable economic option, somthing Whedon started planning months ago during the writers' strike.

"I've been interested in doing things that were smaller, lower budget, more filled with my friends, and sillier than I'm allowed to do in the normal course of Hollywood," he said in a phone interview Friday. "So I decided I'd just find a little something myself. It kind of ballooned, in terms of the amount of talent that we were able to attract, but it's been true to its tiny roots of 'Let's just put on a show.'"

And they did, shot in six days with the eager help of many top industry professionals Whedon has pulled into his orbit over the years. Revenue to cover the costs of production, estimated to be just under six figures, will be made from iTunes sales after the free streaming versions are removed and from the eventual DVD, which will include "the finest and bravest extras in all the land," including a scripted musical commentary (called "Commentary!") Plans for a soundtrack and sequels are in the works.

Fan interest in the show is high, but that's hardly new for Whedon's productions. His TV shows and his recent forays into comics writing with "The Astonishing X-Men" and "Runaways" have all generated a growing audience of devoted, enthusiastic, somewhat obsessive fans. And that's just what Whedon wants.

"That's what I am, that's what I grew up as. The things I love, I love very hard," he said. "When people enter any world that's not our own they're working in a different way than if it's just a straight drama, no matter how great. It could be the 'West Wing,' it's great but there's a different level when you add an element of fantasy. Prticularly when you add song. It allows people to lose themselves, and 'find themselves.' Yes, I am a new-age calendar. But I'm not wrong."

His fans are also the ones most likely to know how to copy his videos before they're available for sale, but he knows that already.

"They got the teaser before we were ready for it," he said, chuckling. "The inevitability of some piracy is something we're piracy."

His hope is that true fans will buy it regardless since "the buying of it is part of being in the (fan) community because it supports the people who have created it.

"I mean, we're giving this thing up for free on the Internet for a week because we want to give the fans something that they can just have," he said. "But we want to make it an event that goes away, so that it feels more special."

Whedon waxed lyrical once before when he wrote the popular "Buffy" musical episode "Once More, With Feeling". For that he already had existing actors and ongoing story arcs to write for, but with "Dr. Horrible" he didn't have to look very far for his new people.

"Who wouldn't cast Nathan Fillion in absolutely everything," he said. "I mean, he can play the hero, he can play the idiot, he can play the ingenue, he can play the ficus and be the most interesting thing in the room. He's amazing."

Whedon had seen Neil Patrick Harris peforming in the 2004 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins" and decided to call him up. "I wasn't as sure Neil would be interested in it and he said yes faster than I had the question out," he said. "He still brought more to it than I ever imagined he could."

The there's Felicia Day, a friend since her days on "Buffy" as a poential slayer. "Her (online) show 'The Guild' has been kind of an inspiration for this," Whedon said, "and I suspected she had some singing pipes as well and she also blew me away. The first time she and Neil sang together, I may have cried a little."

Early reviews have been positive. So has the response from the studios, despite the fact that Whedon is selling directly to his fans. Partnership deals are underway for the distribution of the DVD and Whedon is confident that by pointing the way for people to make money from the Internet, studios will also benefit by seeing how it can be done.

"This isn't a zero-sum equation. Everybody can win here, you know," he said.

"Nobody's cranky about this. That I know of. Maybe the Grinch, who doesn't love Christmas at all, is up on a hill going, 'Oh, the noise noise noise noise,' but I don't know him."

Promotions for Dr. Horrible are underway. Facebook and MySpace pages are humming. T-shirts are forthcoming. A Dr. Horrible spin-off comic ("Captain Hammer: Be Like Me"), written by Zack Whedon, is available for free at www.myspace.com/darkhorsepresents. And the cast and Whedon will be at the San Diego Comic-Con later this month to show "Dr. Horrible" in its entirety for the first time.

What would Whedon hope to see as a result of this massively silly experiment?

"I would like to be a gagillionaire," he said promptly.

"I'd like to see more people sort of stepping up between the home-made and the studio-made and putting things on the Internet that are truly strange and personal and yet accessible to as many people as possible. I'd like the Internet to be a viable economic framework for a sort of, a world of 'B' pictures. A new, strange, surreal 'B' studio, the kind they don't have anymore. That's what I'd like to see.

"And," he said, "I'd like to run it."

You can read a full transcript of this interview at the writer's blog, http://cabridges.com/ and you can also listen to the audio interview at www.news-journalonline.com.