At the same time, Warner Bros. told Whedon they had been unhappy with his work on an adaptation of Wonder Woman he’d been set to direct, and a change of management at Universal meant that Goners, a horror project he’d been nursing, was shutdown on the verge of production. “It was a whole laundry list of gut punches. There were years where I wondered if I should even go to Comic-Con. I had nothing to say, other than, ‘I failed at the following things…’”

This actually was the first time I’ve ever heard the project described as “shutdown on the verge of production”, having mainly remembered an apparent series of re-writes in 2007, and then the project going away after Mary Parent left her production deal with Universal for a post at MGM.

So I asked the reporter about where that came from, and in the post comments there he kindly provided the relevant portion of his interview transcript.

“After I made SERENITY, I had GONERS set up at the studio. Mary, who’d basically produced SERENITY when she was working at Universal, had bought it. Everything was in place. And the new people just completely shit-canned it. And I wasn’t ready for that.”

Those re-writes in 2007 did not appear to be going well as late as that fall and winter. Mary Parent left her deal with Universal for MGM in March of 2008. By that July, Joss was quoted as saying the project had been “back-burnered”. I guess now we know the operative phrase wasn’t so much “back-burnered” as the more colorful and decisive “shit-canned”. But it’s also the first time, to my knowledge, we’ve heard the project described with “everything was in place”.

All of this perhaps sheds some more light on just what Joss meant mid-2010 when referenced the project for a Sydney audience in the context of a more recent one.

The producers that were attached to it still are attached to it emotionally, and the regime at Universal has changed, and I actually met with them recently and they were saying, “You know, you’ll be finished with the Avengers in ten or twelve years, so why don’t we revisit this.”

It’s never been entirely clear to me here whether the “them” in “met with them recently” referred to the new regime at Universal or to Mary Parent and her then-partner Scott Stuber. Given that the regime at Universal scuttled the project, I’d tend to suspect now that it’s a reference to Parent and Stuber. He again referenced this idea of revisiting the project at SXSW this year, but said he wasn’t sure exactly how that would work.

In the end, the developing tone seems to be both harsher about the project’s demise, and perhaps more skeptical on the idea that it could be resurrected. And that doesn’t even reach the issue of whether or not it’s necessarily even amongst the projects Joss most wants to be working on at this point.

Nonetheless, and as always, I encourage people who want to free Goners to write those open letters. The world might have forgotten about her, but, unreasonable as it might be, some of us still haven’t.

They never really told me. But by the time it was looking grim, I was so burnt, and so excited about my next project, Goners, that was DEFINITELY going to happen, that I didn’t mind.

And, no, Wikipedia, that “definitely” was not an announcement that Goners is moving forward. It’s a sarcastic remark about both projects having collapsed in somewhat rapid succession.

If you’d like to read the entire AMA, you can wade though the entire thread or just read his answers (click “context” on any one for the question at hand).

For the record, I didn’t succeed in getting an answer on the matter of buying back Goners from Universal Pictures.

Are there any unfinished projects that you are hoping to revive post-Avengers?
I do have screenplays I’ve written that never saw the light of day but I don’t usually go back to them. When I’ve told a story, I want to tell another story. Some people might have a hearty laugh about that because I’ve taken Buffy from movie to TV to comic and Serenity from TV to movie to comic. I don’t mind being in the same world, I just don’t like telling the same story. I have spent a bit of time thinking about if Avengers does well and I can do anything I want for a short period of time [laughs]. What would be the next big thing? There are two things that I cannot resist: one is musicals and the other is a spaceship in trouble. But I am smart enough not to combine the two things…

While it’s true that as recently as the middle of 2010, Joss has expressed interest in the possibility of revisiting Goners after the likely blockbuster success of Avengers, he’s more recently expressed some doubt as to just how that could happen.

It’s probably important to remember that Goners was written six or seven years ago now, and it’s always possible that makes it, in a sense, old news creatively. With a new micro-studio fired up, and plans for a Dr. Horrible sequel as well as a web series collaboration with Warren Ellis, it’s not likely Goners is atop the list of storytelling priorities.

I’m still fairly certain that we’re approaching the start of a two-year period during which, under Writers Guild contract provisions, Joss could buy back Goners, but I’ve never actually confirmed that and, more importantly, there’s certainly no guarantee that either Universal or Joss even would be interested in such a sale, or that Joss could afford to buy it back it he wanted to.

Nonetheless, I and others will persist in “believing unreasonably” (as Joss said of the Browncoats who wanted more Firefly and found themselves with Serenity) and, as always, seek to free Goners, one way or another.

But what of this idea that Goners might go first? “Universal’s Mary Parent has it. She’s been setting up and working on it knowing that I was finishing my draft of Wonder Woman. But she and I are going to sit down soon and thrash out the work that needs to be done on that, and it really is going to be a case of, ‘which draft is in better shape? Who is ready to pull the switch?’ and then I’ll do whichever. Goners has been very close to my heart for years. Wonder Woman is something I’m in love with as well. I can’t lose!”

Ouch.

Joss is fairing better this year, with The Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers opening, his micro-studio working up Much Ado About Nothing and In Your Eyes, progress toward Dr. Horrible’s follow-up, and apparent movement on Wastelanders with Warren Ellis.

What appears to have happened is that the endless series of rewrites for the studio (as well as the collapse of Wonder Woman) led to Joss souring somewhat on the studio process, which likely helps explain his September 2009 plea via SCI FI Wire (now Blastr): “Universal, release Goners into the wild so it can be free again.”

As part of the existing Dear Universal, FREE GONERS effort, you now can write an open letter to Universal Pictures via a new website called Write Public.

Dear Universal Pictures,

Joss Whedon has called Goners a supernatural thriller, a kind of horror film, and a young woman’s journey. “It’s an antidote to the horror movie with the expendable human beings in it,” he once said. “Because I don’t believe any human beings are.”

Written after he finished filming Serenity, the script spent a number of years at Universal Pictures in rewrites only to be end up on the back burner by the middle of 2008, not long after Mary Parent (the executive interested in the script, as she had been in Serenity) left the studio for a position at MGM.

In a September 2009 interview with SCI FI Wire, Whedon responded to a question about the status of the script with a simple request: “Universal, release Goners into the wild so it can be free again.”

Since several years of rewrites led only to the project being put on the back burner, I respectfully urge you to do as he asks, so that the film can move forward.

As part of his fan base, I defer to whatever his wishes might be on just how that should happen. My own wish simply is to express my support for his request.

Please free Goners.

This letter (mine, obviously) can serve as a model, or you can write your own. Whatever words you use, please remember to be respectful and courteous. After all, we are asking them to do something they are under no obligation to do, and we are taking up some of their time to do so.

It should be noted that the loss of both Wonder Woman and Goners in the end yielded a creative path which included the writing and production of The Cabin in the Woods and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a return to television with Dollhouse, landing the summer blockbuster that is The Avengers, forming a micro-studio to produce Much Ado About Nothing and In Your Eyes, and forward movement, apparently, on the web series Wastelanders with Warren Ellis.

In no way should expressing support for Goners be taken to be disappointment with the slate of projects Joss has managed to manifest since that project got sidelined. It’s indisputably a very exciting time be a Joss Whedon fan.

But I and many others will always and forever be Team Goners and my appetite for that mysterious project remains frustratingly unsated. And so, this, even though, in all likelihood, it’s all just so much tilting at windmills.

With Joss’ 2009 public plea to Universal, and his clear hesitation to return to the frustrations of the process which trapped the project in development hell to begin with, perhaps, even as we gear up for all he’s bringing us this year and next, it’s worth making at least a little bit of fuss about Goners, too.

Image of Don Quixote and the windmill courtesy Robin Ator via the specified Creative Commons license.

There has been some talk about, after ‘The Avengers,’ trying to resurrect it. I’m not sure what that process would be like.

At today’s conversation with Joss Whedon event at SXSW, there was an audience question about Goners. At this point, all we have is an incomplete transcript of the exchange via the Snarkmarket live coverage.

Audience: Whatever happened with Goners? The way you described Cabin in the Woods was sort of how you’d described Goners.

JW: Goners and Cabin were very different movies. [Exposition about the fate of Goners that seems complex and hard to summarize.]

Short story is, Joss felt yanked around by studios with Goners. He describes the feeling of constantly being jerked around as being akin to the experience of being a goldfish.

If at some point someone posts a complete transcription of this exchange, rather than Snarkmarket’s attempt to give the gist of Joss’ remarks, I’ll post it here. In the meantime, some thoughts.

First, whoever asked the question likely was referring to the fact that in a recent interview about The Cabin in the Woods (don’t read until you’ve seen the movie) Joss made an observation.

I think that’s the thread that’s going to run through all of my stuff: Nobody is expendable

That’s remarkably similar to something he said back in 2006 about Goners.

But it’s told on a very mystical scale and, in a way like everything I’ve tried to do including Buffy, it’s an antidote to that very kind of film, the horror movie with the expendable human beings in it. Because I don’t believe any human beings are.

As for Joss description of the development process on Goners over at Universal, for which we currently have only the reporter’s “short story” version and not Joss’ actual quote, it sounds mainly like a more blatantly stated version of the sense one gets from the slideshow of quotes over on Dear Universal, FREE GONERS (and scattered as well throughout the Development category here), so perhaps not entirely a surprise.

It’s not clear from Snarkmarket’s coverage if Joss spoke only of the development process or also gave any indication of Goners’ current status or potential for revival (or rescue), but it doesn’t sound like it.

Update: Thanks to The Playlist, whose coverage of the panel includes the following lengthy section on the Goners exchange, edited only for additional paragraph breaks.

When someone asked in the crowd about “Goners,” the 2005 spec script sold for “seven figures” to Universal, they asked if elements of the screenplay, which was said to have been a kind of widescreen horror epic, had been cannibalized for “Cabin in the Woods.” Whedon had described the movie as “Like ‘Buffy,’ but scary,” but said little else in the way of details.

None of “Goners” is in “Cabin in the Woods,” though.

“‘Goners’ and ‘Cabin in the Woods’ are very different movies. ‘Goners’ was sold to Universal through Mary Parent. She was the de facto producer of [big screen adaptation of his short-lived 'Firefly' television series] ‘Serenity.’ And she set up her shingle at Universal, so I thought it would be protect. But the new people that came in turned around and said, ‘No.’”

Whedon remains cautiously optimistic about the project: “There has been some talk about, after ‘The Avengers,’ trying to resurrect it. I’m not sure what that process would be like.”

He still sounds wary of the studio system that had treated him so poorly (“I think I come up with super-commercial ideas”), and “Goners” was certainly part of his entrance into the creative wilderness.

“‘Goners’ came after ‘Wonder Woman.’ And that was the kind of one-two punch that made me do ‘Cabin’ and ‘Dr. Horrible.’ I had been led to think that, well, sometimes you’re not naive, you’re a goldfish. But ‘Goners’ was, like ‘Cabin,’ about getting under the skin of horror in a big way, and I’d love to make it but I don’t know if I can suffer through the process.”

What saved Ledge was a WGA-required provision in Fenjves’ contract that allows the author of a script to reacquire the rights to unproduced original material at the five-year mark; it’s not a provision used very often, since most writers don’t have the funding to take back their projects, and the time period for reclaiming the material is short.

So, is this true? And, if so, is that five-year mark something specific to this particular contract, rather than a standard period? What’s more, just how “short” is the time period for reclaiming a script?

As it turns out, the Writers Guild of America has a page on its website dedicated to reacquiring scripts, and the above appears to be true. But six conditions need to be satisfied for a reacquisition attempt.

1. Was the project theatrical?
2. Was the project done under employment or, if it was a sale, were you a professional writer at time of sale?
3. Was the project not based on any pre-existing material?
4. Has it been AT LEAST 5 years and NOT MORE than 7 years since you last delivered material to the Company?
5. Has the project never been produced?
6. Is it currently not in active development?

Here’s what we know (or don’t know) about Goners in light of the above. Goners, of course, was a theatrical project, and the script, if I’m reading the copyright record correctly, was written as a “work for hire”. (That copyright record is dated March 3, 2005. Additionally, the “short form option” for the script, between Mutant Enemy, Inc. and Universal, was recorded with the copyright office on November 29, 2007, with a date of execution of November 2, 2007.) The script was not based on pre-existing material, has never been produced, and unless something secretly has changed is not in active development.

That last point is important, and likely factors into the criteria I skipped, that of the two-year time period starting at five years out, so let’s take a moment to look at Goners’ development process as currently understood.

As far as is known, Joss has not delivered a draft of Goners to Universal since sometime in 2007, when his then-latest was “not incredibly well-received”. By the middle of 2008, the project was known to have gotten back-burnered by the studio. As late as mid-2010, Joss had indicated that there’d been some interest expressed at revisiting Goners when he was finished making The Avengers.

So, back to the critical time period criteria. Based on the above (plus this), the last time Joss delivered a draft of Goners to Universal appears to have been in 2007, which would make the start of the two-year reacquisition period 2012. This year.

In theory, then, under this particular provision of the WGA’s Theatrical and Television Basic Agreement, and if all of the above development and rewrite dates are correct, Joss has access to a process for buying back the script, during the time period running roughly from late 2012 to late 2014.

The two wild cards in all of this, however, are: the aforementioned potential for revisiting the project now that The Avengers is nearing release; and, of course, money. In the case of the former, the almost inevitable success of that film could certainly reignite interest on the part of anyone who happily turns out to own a script penned by Joss. In the case of the latter, that same success surely would yield no end of producers willing to help Joss extricate a script in which he was still interested.

And that, in the end, appears to be the most critical issue: is Joss still interested in Goners?

He certainly still was just a year and a half ago when he made those remarks about certain parties revisiting it. So, as near as I can tell and if all of the above dates are correct, beginning this year — a year which will see the release of The Avengers, The Cabin in the Woods, Much Ado About Nothing, and the production of In Your Eyes — on Goners the ball potentially could very much be in Joss’ court.

Update: Any writerly types want to weigh in on whether or not the second reacquisition type mentioned on the WGA page in question comes into play here, based on the information related above about Goners?

Update: A note about the wild card of money: Variety reported at the time of the script sale in 2005 that Universal paid “seven figures” for it, which certainly helps reflect the Hollywood Reporter remark that “most writers don’t have the funding to take back their projects”.

This site would like to humbly suggest that one way to avoid this alleged problem would be to pull Goners out of the development hell into which the studio so ignominously sent it. Then again, given his self-criticism about how poorly they’ve handled other productions, perhaps that’s not the best idea?

I’m taking no position on his observations here, but if for the sake of argument we take them at face value, if he’s correct about their mishandling of so many recent productions, maybe unshelving Goners isn’t enough.

Instead, Meyer could simply choose to free it, thereby allowing it to pursue production elsewhere. That wouldn’t much help with Meyer’s charge against his own studio, but it would at least get things moving again.

Update: The above described teaser no longer is active. It’s been replaced by, shall we say, a much less dynamic, much more minimalistic version.