Joss a Theory

[sdelmonte]

So I guess many of you have heard that somehow Joss Whedon was able to run off to Santa Monica and film a black and white indie version of Much Ado About Nothing with such Whedonian stalwarts as Nathan Filion and Amy Acker. But the interesting thing to me is that the cast also includes Clark Gregg, aka Agent Coulson of SHIELD, who is also an accomplished stage actor.

I have a theory. After making The Avengers, Joss missed being Joss. Missed being the guy who works with smaller budgets and stars will lower profiles and characters actors. And that after coping with big name Hollywood people, he walked away from RDJ and Samuel L. Jackson and thought, "boy, it would be nice to do some Shakespeare with Clark Gregg."

In other words, maybe Joss didn't really like his first big time work-for-hire gig, and was more impressed with the actor with the cult following than with the stars.

So if The Avengers turns out to be a little disappointing, this is the reason why (though I hope I am wrong). And if we don't see Joss taking another assignment like Avengers again, this is also why.

Personally, despite not being sure that Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker will be a great Benedick and Beatrice, I think I would rather see Joss doing a low budget reimagining of the Bard anyway. He seems to do better with low budget. (Though rumor suggests he also had one on Avengers.) I just hope that his take on Much Ado finds a distributor.

Comments

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

I've seen the "Denisof and Acker are wrong" comment before, and I'm not sure I agree. I mean, the way I heard the argument going, Denisof is a straight-man-comedian type, unsure and insecure, and that's wrong for Benedick, and similarly Acker is a fragile/broken character type, wrong for Beatrice.

Denisof, though, clearly volunteers for those; he's the one who suggested that Wesley should fall flat on his ass in the third-season Buffy finale. And for that matter, Benedick can have a bit of insecurity--I remember seeing Jimmy Smits in the role and doing a lot of both near-slapstick comedy and insecurity in the "eavesdropping" scene.

Similarly, I think Acker--who can do the better-confidence thing, see Dollhouse--can accomplish the Beatrice dynamic of being very...well, feisty, frankly, but still melting sufficiently for "Peace! I shall stop your tongue."

[canadabear.livejournal.com]

He's also filming "Cabin in the Woods", which is very Joss. I've read the script and it is not your basic horror movie. It also stars Amy Acker and Chris Hemsworth, so it seems that even if the big-bugdet movie wasn't his cup of tea, he at least appears to appreciate the Avengers actors.