Goners became a thing at Universal when Joss was working there with studio executive Mary Parent on Serenity back in 2004 and 2005. Parent, you might recall, then moved to MGM in March 2008, where she then shepherded into production The Cabin in the Woods, written by Joss and director Drew Goddard.

(Perhaps not so incidentally, given Joss’ prior experiences with Wonder Woman and Goners, Cabin was presented to MGM in a take-it-or-leave it fashion, with Joss and Drew insisting that greenlighting the picture was a condition of its sale.)

Parent and the financially-beleaguered MGM then parted ways in October 2010 (with The Cabin in the Woods produced but unreleased), finally landing an arrangement with Paramount (more here) this past February.

In his August 2010 remarks in Sydney I posted earlier, Joss said the following perhaps-relevant thing about Goners.

It may not be dead, It may not be entirely dead. 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 not especially clear from this with whom he met — the producers that were attached to it (presumably Mary Parent and Scott Stuber) or the “regime at Universal”. If the former, it remains to be seen whether Parent is able to make anything happen with regards to Goners, since her deal with Paramount gives them first look at any projects she generates, the copyright on Goners is held by Universal Pictures as a work for hire, and the length of their option on it remains unknown.

But since I offered occasional updates on Parent over the years here, it seemed a good idea to catch up with her whereabouts.