Re: ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Reboot Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar Nears Hulu Pilot Order With Chloé Zhao Directing By Nellie Andreeva February 3, 2025 12:30pm

anim8rfsk wrote:

Robin Miller <robin.miller@invalid.invalid> wrote:

anim8rfsk wrote:

Robin Miller <robin.miller@invalid.invalid> wrote:

anim8rfsk wrote:

Robin Miller <robin.miller@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 2/3/25 6:15 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
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Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/3/25 5:49 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
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https://deadline.com/2025/02/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-reboot-sarah-michelle-gellar-hulu-pilot-chloe-zhao-1236273767/
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‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Reboot Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar
Nears Hulu
Pilot Order With Chloé Zhao Directing
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By Nellie Andreeva
February 3, 2025 12:30pm
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More than two decades after Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended its
seven-season
run, the beloved supernatural drama is eyeing a revival with a new
chapter
in the franchise. A followup series is nearing a pilot order from Hulu,
with Sarah Michelle Gellar expected to star, reprising her signature
role
as Buffy Summers, sources said. Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, a
self-professed
lifelong Buffy fan, is set to direct the pilot, written by Nora and
Lilla
Zuckerman (Poker Face).
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The reboot hails from Buffy the Vampire Slayer studio 20th
Television and
Disney sibling Searchlight TV where Zhao has been under a first-look
deal.
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Beyond the pilot order, I hear the reboot is starting a writers room
soon,
a sign that Hulu and the studios have high expectations for the project
going to series. It is unclear yet whether other original Buffy cast
members would return; that is considered likely.
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Described as the next chapter in the Buffyverse,

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Mostly by people who hadn’t read the authorized comic books
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the new incarnation is
executive produced by Gellar, Zhao, Nora and Lilla Zuckerman as well
as the
original series’ executive producers Gail Berman of the Jackal Group
and
Fran Kuzui & Kaz Kuzui via Suite B.

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Those dirty leeches will bleed this property till the end of time.
Thanks,
Directors union.
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Also executive producing the pilot is
Dolly Parton whose company Sandollar was producer on the original.

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Yikes!
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Buffy creator Joss Whedon, who also wrote the 1992 movie the series was
based on, has no involvement in the reboot. He has not worked in
Hollywood
in any official capacity since facing a slew of misconduct
allegations in
2021.

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Duh.

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Oh, the top of the link has a click about how they finally charged Neil
Gayman with some really ugly stuff.

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Yep. Heard about thiat.
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Well, this is better than Whedon's previous idea for a reboot.

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I don’t know about that?

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It is.
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But I'm
skeptical about the whole thing until somebody proves to me otherwise.
(Like, a good start, would be ignoring the last 4 seasons of the
original series and all of "Angel"!!  ;p  )

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I don’t see how it can possibly be a reboot if Geller is playing Buffy.

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"Reboot" is the wrong word. (Entertainment reporters are consistently
mentally deficient, not knowing the basic meaning of the terms they use!)
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If Gellar is playing "older Buffy" (and esp. if other "Buffy" cast
members return), this would be a "revival" not a "reboot".
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Ian  (One we know won't be returning is Amber Benson. I would put heavy
odds against either Eliza Dushku or Michelle Trachtenberg returning
either.)
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Why wouldn't Amber Benson return? Did she have a falling out with
someone? I know she's barely acting anymore, in any event.
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https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0072435/
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She was in this Buffy podcast in 2023, along with several others of the
original cast:
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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29118106/
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--Robin
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And perhaps more importantly, she played dub dub in THE MIDDLEMAN!
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(Well? I am waiting?)
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Middleman!
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But two questions:
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You know that Natalie Morales played Dub Dub. So who are you referring to?
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Back before Adam made Natalie hate me. I got all sorts of special project
stuff and extras from her. One of them was a crossover done as a table
read/radio play between the middleman comic book and the middleman TV show!
Amber Benson happens to look like the comic book dub dub, so they brought
her in and had both dub dubs in the video. Also, I believe there was a
comic book version of it.
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What a great story! I had no idea there was a Middleman comic book.
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 Oh, yeah, it was an unfilmed TV pilot turned into a comic book before it
was TV and then it was a comic book based on TV. The first episode of the
show the dialogue is almost verbatim from the comic.
 History of the comic
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Middleman?wprov=sfti1
 History of the TV show
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Middleman_(TV_series)?wprov=sfti1#
 Volume one of the collected comic when dub dub still looked like Amber
 https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-agLSDI4L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg
 Volume three
 https://s3.amazonaws.com/comicgeeks/comics/covers/large-6126332.jpg?1695517005
 The senses shattering series finale with both dub dubs together again for
the first time!
 https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/819BlFcEQJL._AC_UL600_SR600,600_.jpg
 

--Robin
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This is great stuff, thanks! I knew nothing about the comic.
What a shame about the show--why didn't people watch it? And it's a shame that Matt Keeslar left acting. He acted for 16 years and Middleman was the only regular role he ever had, and it was just 12 episodes. I don't remember his guest spot in other shows, but he was in several shows that I watched, so I must have seen him.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0444832/
Acting is a tough business. There are so many actors. Every day in stories on Deadline I see (lots of) names I've never heard of before.
--Robin