Product Description

Five hundred years in the future, Captain Mal Reynolds and the crew of the transport-for-hire ship Serenity take on two new passengers and soon find themselves in a crossfire between an invincible military force and cannibalistic savages. Writer/director Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel", makes his long-awaited feature film directorial debut with "Serenity", based on his cult television series "Firefly". This large format, full color companion to the movie features: a special Introduction by Joss Whedon; an in-depth interview with him about the making of the film; the full shooting script, including scenes cut from the final edit; fascinating production and background memos by Whedon, including "A Brief History of the Universe", circa 2507 A.D.; and scores of stunning movie stills, storyboards and pieces of production art.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30986 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Review
"The prospects for Serenity look very bright indeed." - Empire "Miss this movie at your perill" - Ain't It Cool News "A damned fine writer." - The Guardian "A wickedly big-brained deity in the cult-pop underground." - Entertainment Weekly "What's not to love? Genuinely landmark pieces of television. Just staggering." - Simon Pegg, star of Shaun of the Dead and Spaced" Empire, November 2005: " A must -own for Whedonites (*****5 Stars)."

SFX Magazine Christmas 2005 Issue
Winner of the 2005 SFX Awards Best Non Fiction award.

Synopsis
Five hundred years in the future, Captain Mal Reynolds and the crew of the transport-for-hire ship Serenity take on two new passengers and soon find themselves in a crossfire between an invincible military force and cannibalistic savages. Writer/director Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel", makes his long-awaited feature film directorial debut with "Serenity", based on his cult television series "Firefly". This large format, full color companion to the movie features: a special Introduction by Joss Whedon; an in-depth interview with him about the making of the film; the full shooting script, including scenes cut from the final edit; fascinating production and background memos by Whedon, including "A Brief History of the Universe", circa 2507 A.D.; and scores of stunning movie stills, storyboards and pieces of production art.

Customer Reviews

Addition territory
This is the SIXTH Firefly/Serenity related item I'm writing a review for--which almost gives me cause for concern.

Why? Because, despite many years of exposure and occasional moderate-to-fan-like interest in other sci-fi series--including Babylon 5, Farscape, an occasional Dr. Who, Star Trek, Enterprise, Stargate SG1, plus several I'm sure to have missed--I've never actually bought five of anything relating to just one short-lived TV series plus a movie; or for any of those other series. I attended a Star Trek convention once, but that was because it was in the same city as I lived then...

I detect a worrying trend that has to do with the development of an addiction, and this book here may well be one of the bricks in the wall sealing my fate. It's got the shooting script, such as they saw fit to publish, plus lots of photos and interspersed production materials, as well as a lengthy and revealing introduction.

A great fix for addicts, and a treasure of thought provoking stuff for me in my writer/film-maker persona.

Till Noever, owlglass.com

An essential companion volume to the film for "Serenity" fan
I remember being impressed a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away from that of Joss Whedon's "Serenity" when they published the scripts for the original "Star Wars" films with pre-production paintings and storyboards. So it is with a profound sense of understatement that I can tell you that "Serenity: The Official Visual Companion" is the proverbial much, much more. There certainly are the promised visuals, consisting of dozens of pieces of not only production art and storyboard but also movie stills. Being able to see a production painting of a deserted street on Miranda next to a photograph of the actual set, the storyboards for the escape from the Reavers on Lilac, the conceptual art for the Alliance spaceships, and Inara's costume designs are all worth the looking. But there is a far amount of worthwhile reading between these covers as well and that is what makes this companion volume essential for fans.

The cover trumpets that this book has an introduction and the motion picture screenplay by JOSS WHEDON, but in between the cheery welcome to the book and the full shooting script (i.e., it includes scenes cut form the final edit) there is 32-page interview with Whedon conducted by Abbie Bernstein. In it Joss talks about how he originally developed "Firefly" and its main characters, how he had the opportunity to make a movie version, and what it was like making the film. So this is an in-depth interview and not simply a case of ten or twenty questions. But, wait, boys and girls, there is more, because in the pages of that interview you will find Whedon's pre-production memos on "A Brief History of the Universe circa 2507 A.D.," "Frame/Lens/Perspective," "Light," and "Music" (Yes, Joss has worked out what music will be like in 500 years). We have known for some time that Whedon pays attention to detail, and here is the textual evidence that proves the point. Bernstein does a good job of not just setting up Whedon, who always provides long replies to any and all questions, but also of asking questions about things fans want to hear about (you will find out more about the series and the film from this interview than you will from listening to the commentary track Joss made for the DVD and that commentary track was not hay).

Consequently, this is much more than a visual companion, as stunning as that part of the book can be. Once you read all of the background material you can sit down with the shooting script and follow along while watching the film to see not only what has been altered or deleted, but also to enjoy Whedon's stage directions (If you read any of the script books for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" then you know there are always some fun little comments worked into his scripts). This is an absolute must have volume for the legion of fans of the television show and theatrical film. Final note: I thought the blue tinted shot of River with Mal's head behind her that appears on the cover of the "Serenity" premium trading cards binder looked pretty good and while they follow the same basic design with the cover for this book they have used a much better shot of Summer Glau as River (plus adding a shot of Firefly in flight from the binder's back cover rather than the Serenity symbol). The "Serenity" poster that is available is actually a cross between the two, the original River with the Firefly from this one, which is good, but not great.

Truly the Perfect Companion
This book truly does live up to it's title, any one who enjoyed this year's Serenity will love this book, particualrly any Whedonites out there. Not only does this book have the entire shooting script (all deleted scenes included) it has an extensive interview with Joss on the writing and making of the film. As usual Joss Whedon is both humourous and informative. Intersperced with the interview are production memo's Joss made to various departments giving an even greater look into the process of making a film and the detailed thought that goes into it.

And possibly best of all are the stunning high quality pictures, a collection of movie stills, behind the scenes photos and conceptual art really complete this companion and make it truly visual. For any fan of Serenity, Joss or movies in general this book is a must!