This past Saturday Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. The film was acquired for distribution by Lionsgate, so we will hopefully all get a chance to see it! In an interview with the NY Times given while at the festival, Whedon discusses his new film as well as S.H.I.E.L.D. and the much anticipated sequel to Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Here are some excerpts from the interview. The full article can be found here.
What kind of mood did you want to strike with your version of “Much Ado?”
I wanted to give a little bit of that house party feel. The movie is kind of a party to which you’re invited. And at some points, you’re like, we should all go to bed and stop drinking! This party is going very badly! But the feeling we had when we made it was a happy one. We were so into it, so focused and yet giddy. And you want that energy to show up on film.
How did this idea to make a Shakespeare film in your house come together?
We used to do Shakespeare readings a lot at the house. It’s something my mom used to do sometimes when I was a kid. And I decided, since I have a bunch of friends who are writers and actors, what if we all got together and just tried to read a play? And we had such a blast that we just kept doing it. Eventually we did “Much Ado” with Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof reading Beatrice and Benedick. And there was a thought of, if I was ever going to shoot one of these, that’s the one.
How did you make the adjustment from directing something as large-scaled as “The Avengers” to shooting this small movie quickly in your house and the limitations that presents?
They’re more similar than you think. Having come from TV, I’m very run and gun and aware of the clock. That was the case on “The Avengers.” It’s not like you ever have enough time. The difference really is that filming in your house is better. It’s really relaxing. It was like a homecoming party for me. Because I had been gone for the better part of a year. It was cake every day and I unwound so magnificently during that.
So how is the ”S.H.I.E.L.D.” pilot going?
That’s trucking right along. I’m writing it with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, my brother and sister-in-law who worked on “Dollhouse” with me. And we’re planning to shoot it just as soon as we can get it up and running. It’s an ensemble show, so we’ve gotta find the right cast. We found a way to structure it so that what we’re dealing with are agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. who are the humans in a superhero world and how they deal with that and how it makes them vulnerable.
And what’s the word on the sequel to “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog?”
We’re still working on the script and we all keep getting jobs, very thoughtlessly. But we’re hoping that within the year, we will have finally shot it. [Neil Patrick Harris is] on board and we’re just trying to figure out everybody’s schedule. But we have a bunch of songs written and a bunch of stuff in place.
How do you manage to juggle so many projects at once?
You know, the first year of “Firefly” was the last year of “Buffy” was the fourth year of ["Angel"] was the year my son was born. After that year, nothing can kill me.
