Everyone’s anxious to hear an update, so let’s get to it!
First off, this was the original plan, 3 basic phases:
- Generate awareness to get the attention of some serious folks, try to estimate how much we’d raise via a no-cash pledge system
- Get their buy-in to help make things happen
- Raise the funding for real, not just pledges
Where are we at now?
Phase 1 is half done – we have roughly 70,000 people chiming in anxious to help. We’re wrapping up work on the cash-less pledge system. We’ve had a lot of people suggest we use great sites like Kickstarter, but the fact remains that since the best possible goal is to still purchase the IP rights to Firefly, it doesn’t really fall under their acceptable use policy.
We’re in the process of reaching out to managers, agents, and publicists over the next several days to see if we can get more direct feedback towards Phase 2.
The pledge system should be up within the next day or two, so soon we’ll be able to take a full measure of what support this idea has.
Where are we going?
Here’s the thing – we expect Nathan was joking. We’re sure interviews will cover that he was.
When we put a dollar value on all your support for the idea, what may have been a joke could take on a more serious tone. Either Joss might be willing to revisit fan-funded projects or we’ll get the attention of a network who is willing to take a serious evaluation of the series (say, perhaps you Science Channel?).
It would be wonderful to setup a not-for-profit to purchase the rights from 20th Century Fox, but the chances of that are pretty unlikely without at least having Joss involved.
What if Nathan was joking and Joss isn’t interested?
We expect this outcome, to be frank. But, here’s what we plan to do as part of this whole project: When people pledge funding towards the idea, we’re going to be asking what % you’d be willing to donate towards these charities:
- Nathan co-founded Kids Need to Read (helping disadvantaged children with literacy and reading)
- Joss supports Can’t Stop the Serenity (which supports Equality Now, protecting human rights)
- Near and dear to our hearts is Child’s Play (helping improving the lives of children in hospitals)
Bringing back Firefly still a longshot, but we’re going to keep trying until we get shot down hard by the folks that matter. If that happens, we’ll still help a lot of people.
If you can’t do something smart, do something right.
You have my support. You can’t get your pledge system up fast enough. I will be happy to pledge money. Should it all fall through in the end I will be happy to donate 100% to your suggested charities.
If someone can get in touch with me, the company I work with has a FREE non profit funding program in place. The only requirement is that you have to be a 501 C. Get in touch with me so we can discuss more details, the revenue increase could be astounding!
Brandon
Sounds great.
“You can’t take this guy from me…”
I am a starving post grad unemployed student. I’d love to give money to those associations, but I’m really only at this point willing to starve for a month to give money to help get Firefly back.
I recommend not only finding out whether someone like Nathan or Joss would be willing to get involved, but whether Fox would be willing to consider the sale. To be honest, I don’t have the cash to send. I will find it if there’s a snowball’s chance in hell to either bring Firefly back in some form or to keep Fox rebooting it with different actors/crew like they’re doing to Buffy.
Those are great charities and I’d love to be able to give to them, but I can’t. The only way I could justify giving you anything is if I knew that there was a good chance we’d be taken seriously.
I just think you need to be really organised about this. I think I’m safe in saying I can’t be the only one in this 70,000 who feels this way. I’d absolutely love to give to those charities, but I don’t have the money to spare to really even justify giving you something for Firefly. I WILL find the money for donation, but only if I know there’s a decent chance it will go for Firefly. It’s worth the concessions I would have to make for the slightest chance for more Firefly, or, as I said, to protect it from Fox rebooting it.
If you don’t get at least a “we WILL consider selling the rights of Firefly for at least X” from Fox, I don’t think I can pledge. You need to follow up not just Nate and Joss but, the network to see if this is even something worth trying for.
Thank you so much for your honesty! And, even more thanks for your efforts in this. There are so many Firefly fans who are, to this day, outraged about what happened to the series. And in a dream world, it would be incredible if this worked and Fox would sell the rights, but if that doesn’t happen, then at least a lot of people will be helped with the donations. And, for sure, some heads will be raised. We will get their attention at least, and that is always the first step.
Hi, Nicole –
Thanks for the reply. What we also have to consider is we might get just enough attention that fox decides it’s not worth selling, but shelving so that in 5 years they can do a Firefly movie sans Joss just like the (cough*evil*cough) Kuzui’s are doing with Buffy.
So frankly, I just don’t think that even if we could come up with the money and even if the entire cast of Firefly/Serenity put their feet into it to help raise it to make sure that Joss or Nate (or anyone associated with the show) got the rights that Fox would ever sell it. They’d do it out of spite – they don’t think the franchise is valuable enough to do anything with, but they can’t admit how much of a success it could have been if they’d listened to us in the first place and let the show run. If they sell the rights to Nathan and he and Joss organise webisodes, which then become a massive hit ala Dr Horrible, Fox will be left without money or praise.
In short, they’re screwed if they sell the rights because they know Joss can take it and make it work. They’re screwed if they don’t sell the rights because all the fans will hate them. But at least by keeping the rights, there’s a chance they can always revisit it and then be the heroes who resurrected the Serenity that they killed.
So, ya, I really don’t see it happening.
Gods do I hope I’m wrong. Like I said, If they say they will sell the rights and we can raise the money, I’ll put in just to keep them from rebooting the show in 5 years with a new crew, even if we never get more Firefly or Serenity, the knowledge that they can’t destroy the memory of the show later would be worth putting in the money for me.
Nathan may very well have been joking (let’s face it, it’s NATHAN), but I think things changed when the Browncoats ran with it. He’s pointed his fans several times to articles about this whole thing (on CNN.com, etc.) Seems to me he’s backhandedly giving his approval, but leaving himself an out if something goes terribly, terribly wrong along the way. How Mal of him!
Let’s show ‘em we need business. ‘Cause right now, business is booming!
Good times!
I love that you’re both realistic and secretly hopeful about this
Whatever the outcome, the world will have noticed!
Sounding good
Only problem i can see with the giving-money-to-charities-if-all-falls-through is that this is being supported by fans all around the world and i imagine we’d prefer our money to go to a charity that works across the world, not just the US (i’ve no idea if the one’s you’ve mentioned are american or not, just a thought
) Obviously, not important unless all our efforts for firefly fail 
Maybe I’m alone in this, but while I’d pledge to bring back Firefly, I would not pledge if my money was going to be thrown to a charity.
Great plan! I think we got this boulder rolling faster and stronger than anyone was expecting, and whether or not the best comes to pass, feathers will be ruffled. So let’s do the best that we can and shoot for the stars!
No offense, but I’m not pledging money to a charity here. I’m either spending money to help with some sort of Firefly project or I’m not spending money. My charity money goes elsewhere already (Kiva).
Also no offense, but you guys are way behind the 8 ball on this one. The pledge system should have been up during all the press coverage. You don’t need anything fancy, a single php page that collects a name, email, and an amount. 20 lines of code and you’re done and ready. Where is this already?
When Oprah goes on TV and announces your startup’s ecommerce storefront to the world, you need to be up and running then–not a week later. When your 15 minutes is up, it’s up.
I agree. Currently there are +77.000 ‘likes’ on Facebook. That’s about as close to a pledge you will get – those people are NOT all coming back for a specific pledge function. Anyway, if the Facebook page hits 4-5 million AND the rerun on the Science Channel gets good ratings, then it’s unlikely that Fox and Whedon will ignore it.
This campaign should be about showing the strength of the Firefly fanbase and not about actually buying the rights – although that might serve as a humorous element/threat.
Well, yes, isn’t it? I mean I’d love to help out the needy, but… to quote Cordelia Chase, “I AM the needy!” I would literally have to take it out of my very modest food budget. I’m not willing to starve unless we have a total green light not just from Whedon/Fillion/etc but from Fox saying “let’s talk.” Until then, it’ a pledge with those conditions. I’m willing to starve for the Firefly fight, but I’m not willing to starve to help a foundation that has a whole lot more money than I do.
I am not part of this website, just an interested party.
The reason for the charity involvement is not well explained, but it is important. If the HNBF is raising money as a non-profit, they must do so under the cover of a non-profit. having a portion of the donated funds go to charity is the quickest most effective way to do that.
I agree with all of you. It’s a simple enough form to fill out and it doesn’t have to be anything official. We can literally just have a page listing what people would be willing to pledge. They are letting the hype pass them by and not working with ANYONE else that could keep things going. It’s sad really…
http://www.bringbackmyshow.com/charter/addentry.php
$100 minimum.
I think you should consider a phase 1B – Generate buzz to prove there are numbers on our side. As a backup plan (i.e. if Fox won’t sell) if you got a few million facebook likes it may send the message that it would be profitable to Fox to make more. They only care about numbers and money – let’s hit both fronts. Momentum is building (CNN covered it yesterday) but if there isn’t something new happening EVERY DAY, the buzz and momentum will die out.
The carrot approach has, previously, been unsuccesful. Now, I say it’s time to play hard ball.
Carrot and stick time, people. Continue gathering support and pledges. But! we should probably also stop funding The Evil League of Evil that’s running this show, a.k.a. let’s boycott FOX.
Can’t boycott FOX; I’m hooked on Fringe, which seems to be getting the shaft by FOX (moved to Fridays; may be cancelled)… BTW you can see all of Firefly and Serenity on Netflix instant, and you already know about the Science Channel’s airing of the original pilot & an unaired episode Sun. Mar. 6 from 5-8pm PST, right? Even if some say it’s a lost cause, I support the possibility of reviving the show, however that looks…
As cool as bringing Firefly back would be, I’m REALLY pleased to see you planning to turn this inertia we’ve got going towards helping charities. Kids Need to Read and Can’t Stop the Serenity are awesome, and Child’s Play is also near and dear to my heart.
Even if we don’t ‘succeed’, helping those people out will be something Browncoats can be proud of.
Des has a very good point. Make enough noise (1,000,000+ followers?) and you’ll get someone to notice.
Bit of a double-edged sword we are playing with here. Fox wants to make as much as possible, the question is can they make more by keeping and controlling the rights or by selling them? The more interest that is generated the more likely they are to try to keep and control the rights. If that is the case, that probably makes it less likely that Joss would be interested in being a part of the project. No Joss, no original stars. Worst-case scenario: Fox gets excited enough to try to revive the idea without any of the talent that made it worth watching in the first place, in effect throwing even more dirt on the corpse of our loved one.
Not to be callous, but I’d leave the charities out of it for now. People are behind this because they want Firefly back. If they want to support charities, they’ll do it without your prodding. As you said yourselves, there are projects to decrease suck, and projects to increase awesome. Don’t confuse the two, or you’ll lose support from fans who are scared that this is just a big scam to drum up cash for charity.
Not that giving cash to charity is a bad thing. Just, focus, that’s all.
I’m so glad that everyone who is involved in this so far is smart :] Not just you silver, but I just really agreed with what you said. Great work so far, I can’t wait until this really starts taking off (assuming we get enough support).
I am hugely in support of this and just a look at my blog will confirm that. But I think that if we get serious numbers at facebook, say 500,000 and up we should use that to our advantage and have a mass e-mail/snail mail day, in which we have everyone contact fox within the same 24 hours. I think these things generally fail because the volume doesn’t show if the letters and e-mails trickle in. Just an idea, but for now all the above looks great, especially the part about confirming via agents and managers, as I feel people can say one thing in public, but when it comes down to it can be hiding their true feelings.
I also concur with Des, something needs to be happening every single day. Contacting writers and background folks should come now. And I think if anything were to happen, we’d need Joss to speak up now. I think people are hesitant to join the cause because they feel that without him, not only would the quality of the show suffer, but even the chances of it getting picked up at all.
Still, let’s build on this great momentum!
This is probably the best way to test the viability of a large, independently developed webseries. If the funding does indeed come together. Why do we need Fox? Let’s create a Firefly clone if need be.
I’m sorry but I hate that idea. I don’t want any crappy rip-off of the series, and I’m assuming most other Firefly fans don’t either. I want the REAL show back with the original actors/director etc. It would ruin the show for me otherwise. Kind of like that movie rip-off they made “Browncoats: Redemption”. I don’t know if its good or not, but I don’t even want to watch to find out.
Des is 100% correct. The facebook numbers have been increasing, but the rate of “likes” has been decreasing since yesterday.
We need new momentum. Someone on FB suggested reaching out to Penny Arcade. You mentioned Child’s Play as near and dear to your hearts, and the PA guys are very fond of it. They could generate a lot of traffic our way.
A press release, or something else offical to news outlets could help too. An actual call, a VERY public request that Joss or Nathan reply to us, or at least contact us could get the idea out there further.
The reaching-out process needs to be done with great speed and force! I’m willing to help anyway I can.
Considering you have gained 70,000+ followers, and we’re all obsessed(in a good way!), I think it’s safe for you to provide a press release to any network that will cover it.
My concern, is this:
FOX might discover that Fire Fly has a lot of fandom supporting it to realistically bring it back, BUT no interest in actually doing it themselves. Simply out of spite, they would refuse to part with the property, under any conditions. If I recall, they tried to do this over Watchmen, just before it came out. They may prefer to keep it and make no money on it than sell it and make a little money and have someone else be successful with it.
Seems reasonable. No one has pie in the sky expectations, and no one seems out to hustle a buck. Either it will work out, or it won’t.
At a minimum, if I were a Fox exec, I’d have to give a moment’s pause at least to 10’s of thousands of people rushing to get in line and open their wallets just for the CHANCE of this show coming back somehow.
The property makes no money now sitting on a shelf other than the consistently decent DVD sales. And I don’t know how much clearer it can be to Fox that money is still sitting on the table here.
Fox might have decided they are done with Firefly, but it just doesn’t seem like the rest of the world is done with it. I mean, not only has this been covered on CNN, but did anyone notice how many comments and how popular those articles were on CNN?
In fact, I have an honest question, has any TV show, currently running on Fox, or ANY network, gotten as much coverage and ‘buzz’ in the last several days as Firefly? A ‘failed’ show that was cancelled 8 years ago.
Then again, at this point, I think at a minimum Fox owes us (well, really more the people that made it) a statement to the tune of;
‘OK, 8 years later, we give up and are willing to admit what has become obvious. We screwed up in cancelling this show. Sorry’
But as impossible as it sounds, I am still not that pessimistic. The current state of the show is a network that would like to make a buck if possible that owns the rights. Cast members, writers etc. that express interest in returning if possible. and in just a few days 70K people lining up with cash in hand on the off chance of a maybe from an offhand remark likely made in jest. As much momentum as there is now, how much if we did have an official… something… from the powers that be to the tune of ‘if we can hit target X, Firefly continues’
I am no expert in this field, but there are shows being produced, demoed, pitched, piloted, green lit that don’t have NEARLY that kind of momentum behind it. I can’t believe there is no way for Fox to make money on this. Fox is starting to look… irrational… about this. I almost have this vision of a cartoon villain there lamenting ‘why won’t this show just DIE ALREADY!!’
And if it did come back, there should be a special Family Guy episode wherein they hand over the crown for the worst cancellation decision of all time
If we’re really lucky, maybe there are Browncoats to be found among some insanely wealthy Google execs or something…
As for the very last part, someone mentioned this in another thread: http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/02/an-open-letter-to-nathan-fillion/
The earlier numbers said something like one million fans contributing $40 each, but if you have several people like Mr. Rothfuss here who seem serious about getting the show back (and have/will have a substantial amount of money they are willing to part with for the project), suddenly only having 70,000 followers on Facebook doesn’t seem so bad. Keep in mind this is only a week after the idea was spawned, coupled with the fact that it’s been how many years since the last major attempt to get Firefly back/continued?
So, I agree with what you and most of what everyone else in the thread has said. Get the word out, get the pledge system up and if we don’t have the number of people to get the attention, maybe we will have the number of dollars.
You sir, have just made my day. I’m going to go have a geekgasm now and then take a nap.
I have to agree; there are plenty of people who *do* have money, who loved the series, who might be willing to contribute.
I seem to remember footage from “Doing the Impossible” with Orson Scott Card talking about how Firefly was the only really good sci-fi show ever made. I guarantee he is not alone with the sentiment (or the funding). I’m basically on welfare right now, and I would contribute if I thought there was a good chance of it happening (it’s still tax-deductible, at least).
Where is this “pledge” thing supposed to be? It might help to get more pledges if there’s some very obvious link on the page where it’s at. I looked through all of the updates that I could find and saw nothing. You’re likely missing out on a LOT of potential people who don’t know what you’re asking them to do, also. There should be a direct link at the very top of the page to two things: An explanation of the project and then directly to the pledge/whatever system/page/whatever you’re doing. The further people have to scroll down or dig around to figure it out, the more loss.
Right. Can someone give me an indication where I can pledge to?
At worst, this is a cool little gag. At best, an opportunity to reroute my money to some much needed charities.
Glad to see this move toward more concrete plans. I wrote about that as an issue here and I’m glad to see this. I’d still love to see you reveal who you are to strengthen your credibility and leadership in the fan community and for this project.
As a possible elaboration on Phase 2 I’ve been wondering about starting with a fund raising campaign for a “feasibility study” — enough money to hire an entertainment lawyer or other expert — to determine which option, like licensing vs. IP rights purchase, and costs, timing, etc. would be most likely to succeed. I’m glad to hear that you are “reaching out to managers, agents, and publicists over the next several days to see if we can get more direct feedback.” This suggestion might be another way to take it to the next level. On the other hand two campaigns could lead to “backer fatigue.”
Perhaps http://www.IndieGoGo would work where Kickstarter will not? From their site, “IndieGoGo is open for anyone to use, with any type of campaign – creative, cause-related, or entrepreneurial.”
BTW I know a good crowdfunding expert who may be able to lend some guidance if you’re interested.
I think the important thing right now is that we have to somehow overcome the obstacle of no feedback from Nathan, Joss, etc, before we can move ahead. I agree that this would allow us to do that and that it might all come to naught, but at least we will know.
So glad to see you taking this project to the next level.
Dave, you are boss.
p.s. http://www.prweb.com is a place to do press releases.
I agree with the earlier statements of rattling the internet circuits such as Penny Arcade. If the word is being pushed around not only by this website but also by the admins of places like Cracked.com, Topless Robot, Kotaku, and the various webcomic artists that get alot of traffic, you can really marshall the troops with cash ready to go. Then you’ll have pledges out the wazoo. It’s obvious there are people out there who care, and likely some with enough mustard to push this project down the tracks. Let’s go viral guys.
Has anyone picked up on:
http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/02/an-open-letter-to-nathan-fillion/
Apologies if it’s already posted somewhere else here
@ “S”
They haven’t set it up yet. We’re still in Phase 1.
We should be careful (or aware) that what might happen is, in order..
– Fox refuses to sell the rights.
– Fox promises to bring the series back if we pay the money to them
– Fox makes more firefly eps without Joss and without most/all of the origional actors
– We are left with an awful firefly remake.
– Joss and us are all left with a bitter taste in our mouth wishing it had never happened.
Steps should be taken to control what Fox can/can’t do if they take the money
What I’d like to see as an alternative if the Firefly resurrection fails is setting up a non-profit to create a completely new show. The big deal here is getting the IP off Fox, and if that can’t be done, why not make something new instead? It wouldn’t be Firefly, but it could be just as good (it seems plausible we could get at least some of the people involved in Firefly onboard, along with other talent), and it could stop travesties like Firefly’s cancellation from happening again – because Firefly is hardly the first or the last show to be cut off prematurely by the networks (Dollhouse, anyone?). Set up infrastructure for creator-controlled, directly fan funded shows.
I agree with those above that we need to keep the ball rolling to even have a shot. Even a small dip in activity could have massive negative repercussions.
If you wait too long, you might miss out on being able to cash in on the hype. Get the pledge drive going now and when people see that there is a substantial amount of money behind it, it will generate more hype and more support. This thing has to raise a substantial amount of money if it is to be taken seriously (I’m talking about millions of dollars).
I agree, the pledge system is a must, otherwise we might losse the momentum. I expect the facebook group to be at 100.000 over the weekend, impressive. and than the pledge system
as soon as the numbers roll in, the suits will react in one way or another
“If you can’t do something smart, do something right.” Choked me up a bit!
FWIW, this thread is confusingly and inappropriately conflating FOX the network and 20th Century Fox the studio. You might want to see to that.
Also, the last thing you want to do, suggested by someone above, is to specifically make some sort of hand waving “hey Nathan or Joss, why won’t you say something” deal. Maybe they have valid reasons for staying out of it, or want to do so on their own terms. Trying to in essence shame them into making a comment would just be disrespectful and amateurish.
Sounds like what we need is a legal advisor/lawyer to enter discussions with the guys at Fox and get the news on the situation. Someone in LA who can rattle their trees. If it comes down to it, I think Fox will cave if we have the money, everyone has a price.
Well, as many people has stated before, I am another person who is very grateful for the up front honesty of the situation. I know that there are probably a lot of people lurking in the shadows of the internet just reading the articles, but I think the pledge system would help bring some of them out. Not everyone is comfortable saying what is on their mind.
Hopefully we can generate the hype needed for at least someone, Joss, Nathan or FOX, to come out and give a public statement about the cause that has been rallied over this week. I know that Nathan has given the silent nod to it so far, so maybe there is something in a contract somewhere that takes away his right to be able to voice his opinion.
I will also agree that for this to work, there needs to be a strong, continuous rally without a falter to be able to really pull this off if everything actually works into our favor. It’s as I’ve heard before, you show the slightest bit of weakness and that’s when the animals will attack.
As for your pledges, I am willing to place a pledge, even if it goes to charity. I am a firm believer that sometimes there is people out there that need more help than others do, and I am also a big fan of Child’s Play as well. As I stated in a tweet earlier, based on the 350 comments that was made in the “Wait, What?” article (http://helpnathanbuyfirefly.com/?page_id=2), I took the time and added up all the pledges. Now I did not take into account of people stating “I’ll donate X per show” since there is no defined number of shows yet, and I only took the lowest number someone gave on the site. Those numbers added up to $29,355 and there was one person who wanted to donate $10,000. So based on an average of those 350 people, I ended up with an average of $83.87 per person, and that’s counting those comments who didn’t give any number at all. If you take that into consideration with the 70,000 people showing participation, that’s close to $6 million. (Again, just averages, but that’s at least something we can work with at this point.)
Worst case scenario, if this doesn’t get off the ground, I’ll make my verbal pledge of $100 to Child’s Play, but if this does get off the ground and we can get a good rally going, I may dip deeper into my pockets. My personal plea to those who are voicing their opinion about not donating a dime unless it goes straight to Firefly, please reconsider. The main reason why I say this is I hope our image will shine brighter if people know that we are even willing to give to a good cause.
All I hope is that we can keep this as legitimate as possible to make sure no one starts throwing the scam flag on this one or taking advantage of the hype for their own personal purposes. I would be severely disappointed if the vultures started circling around us looking to make a quick dollar. (Which is unfortunately a sad truth to the internet these days.)
My last thought on this subject is I think it would be a great idea to start getting some high traffic sites in on this as well as someone else commented. XKCD, Penny Arcade, Kotaku, Joystiq, Digg and Engadget are just a few names that come right off the top of my head.
Let’s keep this ball rolling and hopefully we can take this into the history books with what we are hoping to do. We’ve got the momentum, we just need the reaction from the other side now. (And hopefully it won’t be silence…)
Joshua
Hey guys, I just wanted to let the world know that I am on board with this effort. I’m following on twitter and doing what I can to spread the word. Even if Nathan was joking it’s clear that he and so many others that were involved with the show want to continue the story. Even though the odds may be against us there has been and still is a fervor surrounding this story unlike any before. Keep flyin’!
Please, turn on full RSS feeds!
thay got my money when it gets set up
http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/02/an-open-letter-to-nathan-fillion/
Me and mine are in. A Parliament of Owls too. Titillatin’ to be sure. Keep flyin’!
Don’t remember where I saw it but +1 on going with AMC. I say we keep FOX out of any kind of remake. Don’t know if it’s true but alledgedly this is the network that told Joss “No, don’t film it in widescreen”. Pu-leeze. I believe they would sabotage any future effort just to say I told you so if it fails.
The captain speaks.
Over on Twitter.
Who said sending anything about sending Nathan money? I thought we were getting a representative to buy the rights and sign them off to him. Mr. Fillion you have kicked up the hornets nets, best you just man up and lead this crusade cause it’s rollin now.
I second that, movement is on !
And if you read all of Fillions new tweets, its more like a:
“Sorry guys, I Cant make a commitment, due to contracts and obligations, but I LOVE what you do”, smirking, so keep going!
Thats whta it sounds to me, but its just my interpretation of the the whole thing….
He doesn’t say don’t send him money. He says don’t send money. Period.
he obviously has to say this to satisfy agents, castle people, abc, etc.
Twitter has limited characters, as you might know. I think he just doesn’t want anybody to get excited and send him or anybody else letters filled with bank notes. Why are you so gosh darn negative anyway. It’s almost as if you really, really want this whole thing to fail. I think everybody knows that the chances are slim here but that shouldn’t stop anybody from thinking positive.
Why you gotta be such a grumpy Gus?
of course, he says that, he HAS to, cause of his contracts with castle, his pr people, his agent whatsoever…
BUT, what he DIDNT say is: STOP THE GORRAM THING
Thats a clear indication that he wants it to happen, secretly !
let start the money ball rolling and we show them
When the show was closed, we all were thrown into darkness – dark as deep space without stars and any objects at all. We didn’t know what to do, didn’t know where to move – cause there are no ways in the darkness and no matter where to go. But now you have given us light. It’s weak, it’s like a real firefly miles away from you, but sometimes, I think, far away firefly means more than big damn sun in front of you.
From now we have a hope.
From now we are moving.
I’m in.
Russian Browncoat.
hello from germany, you are so right
we are much more people than in 2003 and we have te social networks, which we didnt have at the time
I’m all for this project, but Nathan’s tweet is hard to read. I hope he talks to the creators and takes a lead in this somehow, but I’m starting to doubt this will even hit Phase 2
what did you expect him to say, he had to say something like this, because of contracts agents, the castele people.
BUT, if you read the tweet and his other tweets afterwards properly, what he didnt say is:
Stop the whole thing?
Of course he wants it to happen
he just didn say that
Or he could have not said anything and just let us keep going.
Simply got to keep makin noise. There’s money to be made here, and thats what makes the world spin, supply and demand, we provide the demand, the market. It’s only reasonable now that its clearly marketable that this whole buisness moves forward.
We really need to get some kind of pledge system up and running, at the very least a guestbook with names and pledge amounts. This way we can show Fox and everyone else a straight up dollar amount that exists already, plus it makes sure that when the hype starts to die down (which it is starting to already) that people don’t just forget. It’s great to have ideas and such, concrete figures and lists are extremely important to make it known that this isn’t just another great idea, but has weight behind it.
This is awesome!!! You have my full support, and I would be willing to donate 100% of whatever I pledge to those charities!
If I knew that Fox would sell the rights for X$ and we had a Pledge system up, I’d donate more than my fair share to the pot. 100$ to 200$ a month until the goal is met doesn’t seem unreasonable to me. Not for the type of rewards involved.
BUT, I wouldn’t donate that money to a Charity. You may call me a bad person if you will, but I’m just being honest. I donate money to the cause that I want, which is a continuation of Firefly/Serenity in some fashion other than in Comic form, not to charity.
I also really enjoy the idea previously posted that, if Fox ends up not selling the rights, the money should go towards developing something else entirely. If Fox says no, I say the money should go to Whedon to develop something new and grand (whether it’s Dr. Horrible 2 or something else entirely).
If Whedon had millions of dollars at his disposal and no networks to appease or rules to follow, he and his team could create something magnificent. And I don’t think that any of us can deny that. So I believe we should seriously consider that option as a backup plan.
Agreed. If the admins would like to set up a link to the pledge, I have $100 that I’ll pitch in the pot but we need to show the numbers we have.
And I’d really love to hear an honest-to-god opinion from Joss about all of this (a Truthful opinion, not a PR’d opinion). I’m of the mindset that, if fans want to raise money for this cause and can actually raise an adequate amount of money, Joss would not only accept it gladly and humbly, but could very well continue the revolution he began with Dr. Horrible.
Your fans are here and in the 10’s of Thousands waiting to help you bring your Baby home safely. Why would you deny us? If nothing else, the rights could be bought and sit for a little while so that everyone can finish up their contractual obligations and ideas can begin to flow. As long as the rights are secured from Fox, I don’t care if they end up sitting for another year or two while the planets align properly.
If Joss Whedon is not behind a reboot of Firefly in any form it might take (direct to DVD even), then he is actually disrespectful to his fans and can go fuck himself.
Nobody said anything about it being “rebooted without Joss”. Without Joss (in some form or another) there is no Firefly just like there is no Buffy. Although I understand that he is a busy man lately, there is always room for him to make time for something Firefly-related.
How do we even go about showing our support? It mentions 70,000 pledges, but I’ve found nowhere to ‘pledge’ my money. I’m in for $100, no question. But not to the charities, no offense. As they said on the facebook page- there are projects to decrease suck, and projects to increase awesome. I already support several suck-decreasing ones, I choose to donate this money to the awesome-increasing for once.
I’m beyond broke, but that’s what credit cards are for
Count me in!
I took a look at adam baldwin’s twitter page to see if he had anything to say about this. That page is scary.
Is no one here on Twitter? Nathan just posted this: “It’s beautiful to dream of more Firefly, but PLEASE DON’T SEND ANY MONEY. Just keep being great Browncoats, which you are!” I don’t think he was remotely serious, nor do I think he’s interested in this project. Is no one trying to reach one of these celebrities personally?
Not to mention that at least two articles point out the very real flaw: Fox probably won’t sell the rights. They are neither obligated to, nor would it be very good business sense. I mean, not to piss on your parade, but 70,000+ people is not that big of a number, and I don’t think anyone involved in the original project is interested in resurrecting it or available to do so.
I’m sure a lot of people here have a Twitter page, but Nathan’s response is most likely a PR move due to his Contract with Castle or a Moral move due to his opinion that Fox won’t sell the rights. Neither of which should deter us from TRYING.
I think you’re wrong. The # of DVD sales and the amount of success Firefly has gained proves otherwise. You’re forgetting that this 70,000 listed are only the “Hardcore” Firefly fans. The ones that, within a week of its creation, are ready to pledge a whole wad of money to the cause and do anything they can to help. If that 70,000 are all 100$+ pledgers then that’s 7 Million+ alone. And we’re just a core audience. There are MANY more Browncoats out there. I know this for a fact. 70,000 might not be a strong number, but 7 Million, 10 Million, 20 Million, 40 Million, those are all strong (and not unreasonable) numbers.
Also, pretty much everyone involved has stated they’re interested in the project and would be back in a heartbeat if it ever came back. So there IS interest. There just isn’t availability at the moment. Which isn’t that big of a problem.
people, that tweet from Nathan is obvious, he HAD to say something like this, because of contracts with castle, because of his agents etc.
but what he didnt say is stop the whole thing
and if you read further on in his following tweets he clearly is a browncoat himself
so I say get the pledge system running and we show these suits what we can do
I would love to see more Firefly as much as anyone. But I am deeply disturbed by how this campaign is being managed. Here are just a few of my concerns:
1) The above mentioned plan places research into whether or not Fox would even be willing to sell the franchise at any price (especially to a group of non-industry players), AFTER drumming up excitement within the community. This makes absolutely no sense. If Fox isn’t even willing to consider the idea, filling people with false hope is just cruel. And if there IS a possibility of Fox being interested, proving just how popular the series is before negotiating a price is just bad negotiating technique. Showing Fox much demand there is for the property is the best way to convince them NOT to sell. This just doesn’t make any sense.
2) The organizers admit that they expect Joss isn’t interested. And yet they continue to get people excited under false pretense, to raise money for charities as a backup plan. I’m all about raising money for charity in the name of browncoats (I’ve done plenty of it myself). But you have to be honest with your community. Intentionally dangling an imaginary reboot in front of enthusiastic fans, simply in order to redirect their excitement toward donating is, quite frankly, dishonest and morally questionable.
3) For any campaign where money will change hands, reputation and transparency is absolutely vital. No money has change hands here yet, but the above plan clearly indicates this is the intention whether a reboot is likely or not. And yet the organizers ignore repeated requests to reveal their identities. If their intentions are truly honest and pure, why do they cling to anonymity? And why would anyone trust such an opaque organization with their money?
4) Speaking of reputation, I think it’s safe to say that everyone here trusts and respects Nathan Fillion. Considering Nathan’s tweet asking people to not send money (in all caps, even), I would expect the organizers to admit that their efforts (as well meaning as they might have been) have been misdirected, and stop trying to convince people to pledge money toward a phantom cause.
I believe the organizers here (as ominously anonymous as they may be) probably had their hearts in the right place. And given that they now know that even Nathan doesn’t support the cause, I sincerely hope that they will thank everyone for their enthusiasm, encourage them to donate (directly!) to their charity of choice, and close up shop.
But if they continue to ignore reality and attempt to whip up a media frenzy, specifically to pull a bait-and-switch to redirect fans’ attention to a secondary cause (no matter how noble), they will be proving my worst fears about them.
I am always in awe at how much passion browncoats bring with them to anything they do. But we shouldn’t allow a nameless/faceless entity to abuse that passion. Save it. We’re going to need it. It won’t be long before Joss finishes his stint in the Marvel-verse and decides to launch his next passion project. When he does, I know we’ll ALL rally around his flag, with wallets in hand.
But now is not the time. And this is not the way.
–ray
I’m with you on that one. I saw this an attempt to get Joss Whedon to revisit the idea of fanbased funding and would never pay a dime to some random company.
I agree. One of the few reasonable posts here. As much as I would love to join the cause I can’t help but be sceptical here and I would advise everyone to be cautious because this might be a scam.
Even if Nathan was joking, we are not. Raise the 300 million and buy up Firefly. Establish it as a Firefly Film & TV production company owned by the fans. If it makes a huge profit, lets finance lunar colonization and space travel. Didnt NASA just say they could build an interplanetary spacecraft if they had 3.5 billion dollars? Sounds world building…
I’m sorry, but no matter how noble the charities are, I’m not giving the money meant for Firefly to them. It’s for Firefly alone, or I’m not giving any money at all. I have other charities and human rights organisations on my priority list. (Also, I don’t live in the US, I have little to do with the ones listed.)
Also, I assumed a pledge system was to promise money you were only going to give the moment it’s actually going to be used (for the purpose it is meant for).
On a side note, did anyone look at Summer Glau’s twitter? She is f-ing hilarious!
huh? I’m pretty sure Summer Glau doesn’t have a twitter. Link?
Well, even if Nathan is not behind this, we should not give up. We need a pledge system and do this ourselves. Our voice becomes louder and louder every day. In the last 7 hours, over 5000 people joined the facebook page… SPREAD THE WORD!
(but goddamnit, we need that pledge system NOW… doesn’t need to be fancy at all.
)
what makes you think Nathan is not behind this ?
its a very smart way to tell us keep going
rememeber out of gas
thats what it is
yeah, I think he want’s us to continue, sure. but there is the chance that he can’t lead the negotiations, or be the one to represent us. I’m only saying there is no reason to give up if that is the case…
And we need a lawyer to contact Fox… And maybe other networks like AMC and Showtime. Maybe we can get their attention. If other networks realize how many of us want a new show, they might try to acquire the rights themselves.
Spread the word, my flying monkeys!
Please can this initiative be changed from *Help Nathan buy Firefly* to something like *Reboot Firefly’. We are not seriously attempting to buy Firefly rights for Nathan Fillion, but to show the industry that there are a considerable amount of people, who are willing to part with cash for more Firefly.
A TV show can be considered successful if they have around 7 million viewers: people who do nothing more than sit through commercials in order to view the show (that’s how income is generated). When a show has potential for paying viewers, then we are looking at a whole new concept for television. Few other shows have people figuratively stuffing money down the networks throat.
Firefly’s fanbase has gone global during the last 8 years. People who never saw the show on TV (and don’t even have access to Fox) have now bought the DVD and are supporting the rebirth initiative. This represents a potential no network executive can ignore: International syndication.
The ‘Help Nathan buy Firefly’ needs to show Fox that a new Firefly can generate around 7 million American viewers and have potential for international syndication.
Good Nielsen ratings on Science channel would give the project a huge push forward. Most shows are only breaking even on reruns.
Waiting to pledge.
Helloe everyone,
isnt Fillion a smart man, i had to laugh when I read the tweet.
Its what he didnt say, he didnt say call the whole thing of.
Its the same sitution as in OUT OF GAS, he wants us to misbehave.
I think this is exactly what we need to do, start that pledging system, otherwise we loose momentum.
I see more and more people from allover europe coming to the Facebok site, we need to start moving.
I think that’s a dangerous assumption to make. What he said was pretty clear. We need to start moving on things that are active and alive in the Firefly fandom now.
Got to your local Can’t Stop the Serenity Events and if there isn’t one near you start one, be an active part of your local Browncoat group and make noise doing good works for charity and if there isn’t one near you start one, and support fan created projects like Browncoats: Redemption, Reaverized, and such.
We need, as a community, to rally behind the things that involve/support Firefly, and their cast, that are active and going on now rather than waiting. Until we make this ‘Verse our own like the way the Star Trek and Star Wars Community does…we’re going to be viewed as flash in the pan fans jumping when we assume our Captain says jump . We are more than a flash. We’re better than that. We Are Browncoats and We Are Mighty.
I think this whole thing is great. The facebook page is less than 200 likes away from 79,000 and last night when I went to bed, it had just passed the 76,000 mark. I agree with those who saw Nathan’s tweet, he didn’t say ‘stop’. He didn’t say ‘I was kidding’. He in fact THANKED cnn.com for running the firefly article. Then he did it again. Yep, he re-tweeted his thanks.
Then he posted a picture of a license plate that said nothing but the word ‘SHINY’ and asked his twitter followers if they thought the owner might be a browncoat. THEN he posted a picture of himself with the doctor from Ariel and said “Anyone recognise this man? Think Ariel. Think Dr. Think Cortical Stimulators”
He’s toying with us. Telling us not to send money, then posting tweets like that!!!!!
It’s the Captain!!!!
He might not have been aware of the ‘Help Nathan Buy Firefly’ when posting the other Firefly stuff. I think it’s pretty clear that he don’t want to be involved in this.
Emma, Fillion posted the tweet because the actor also appeared in “Ariel”. He’s not “toying” with any of us; he was clear in his message.
So, is there an official sign-up? I’m in, brothers. Give me the parchment and the ink.
I’m in highschool but I’d be willing to contribute $50 if this was certain to happen.
I’m with Mondariz
“Please can this initiative be changed from *Help Nathan buy Firefly* to something like *Reboot Firefly’. We are not seriously attempting to buy Firefly rights for Nathan Fillion, but to show the industry that there are a considerable amount of people, who are willing to part with cash for more Firefly.”
It’s going on 10 years and we’re still wearing our browncoats. There’s more support for this CANCELED shown than for some shows that are still on the air!!!
I contacted the people at kickstarter, and they said they would love to help us out. Their message is below.
“Hi Angela,
Thanks for your interest. HNBFF are still in the research phase of things, but when they’re ready, they’re definitely welcome to try a project with Kickstarter.
Thanks again for reaching out!
~Cindy”
sounds good to me. I feel like a race horse, right before the start, but the start is just not coming …
hope people dont loose interest, or faith thow…
i know we need patience, and have to be careful, but if things dont move forwrd next week, we might loose the momentum..
We need Patience. Ha! You make me giggle.
hahaha, giggle, why, because of the Horse thingy, i hope my english is good enough, maybe I used thw rong words
cheereo and a warm hello from Germany
cheers
beate
I agree, we should act soon… But remember, the last few times we had no facebook. Everyone who ‘liked’ the page on facebook will be notified if something new happens, even if it takes a little longer. This way the momentum is not going to die off so soon. We can do it.
I have mobilezed all my german browncoats I know over the past few days, also wrote to all german newspaper, to see if one of them wants to pick up the story, one wrote me back they want to wait until the pledge system is up and running to see where the whole things is going
we hold of course, we hold
The organizers here need to take this very carefully. This has a strong potential of harming Firefly fandom. None of this is as easy as ‘getting money and buying rights’. Look at how crazy the rights for the Hobbit got. What the real goal here should be is to revitalize interest and passion for Firefly.
If something happens with this property, it will be done from Joss’s side of things and that is how most of us want it. If Joss wants me to prepay $100 for a box set of new episodes to help him buy rights, produce shows, he’s got it. If a bunch of anonymous random strangers on the net want $100 in hopes of maybe getting something going and if that doesn’t work hey here are some charities… that doesn’t quite cut it. I support Can’t Stop the Serenity/Equality Now by attending the CSTS events, buying auction items, and donating directly.
hi there,
I agree.
I think most people here are aware of the delicate situation.
On top, what we are trying here, has never been done before. That´s one of the reasons why I like this idea so much. Besides beeing a Browncoat of course.
I wasnt aware of the series in 2003, I doscvered it years later on the net.
Since we now have the social networks chanels and we are much more people than 2003, we have a real chance.
Its been done in the music industry before, bands releasing albums through fan money, why not in the tv industry?
Streaming is the tv of the future anyhow, even if tv executives in their ivory towers still dont wanna believe it.
And the Guild and Dr. Horrible proved it can be done.
what we need now is patience and believe.
I believe in the pay-to-experience model and think it could work for television too. However, this issue needs a business approach rather than a haphazard Facebook/Website ‘fangasm’.
The enthusiasm of fans alone will not bring back the show back on TV. 87.000 Facebook ‘Likes’ in a week is not going to shake the world of network television, even if they theoretically are pledges of $50 each – this money can’t be capitalized unless the whole initiative is successful. Had the number been +500.000 we might have seen some network interest – 87.000 is simply not that impressive: skin diseases get more than 87.000.
The anonymous ‘rope holders’ are walking a very fine line here. In the same release where they state that no money will change hands before Joss Whedon is onboard, they suggest charity donations in case things fall apart. Since I’m European I have absolutely no intention of donating anything to various American charities: I will not even pledge towards such a goal. This is global and needs to focus on Firefly only and they need to remove themselves from the idea that Nathan wants the rights – he does not and have said so.
I am ready to donate.
Though I’m hardly flush with money I can pledge to donate as each paycheck comes in, so from me you’ll get a pretty penny.
Although I do mirror some of the sentiments as above, I am donating to a project to increase the awesome in this world, I already donate to decrease suck, so if this project falls through I do not want my money going to an American-based charity, instead I would want to see it go towards a fund for Joss to create some new independent content which can be released world wide, just as Doctor Horrible was.
It wouldn’t be Firefly, but it could be the next big thing and we could be a part of it.
Now the idea that some of us seem to have that whoever launched this site should take care of everything seems a little.. well off, we as Browncoats should be creating the hype that will carry this project through in the forefront of peoples minds, we shouldn’t be sitting back with the promise of a donation and thinking we’ve done our part.
We’re sitting on one of the greatest marketing tools ever created, we can blog, we can tweet, we’ve got youtube and we’ve got everything, the internet is our playground, we can get the world out there in any imaginable way, so get the word out there.
Now we’re not all social zen masters, so we may not have however many friends to tweet at or followers on our blogs or what ever, but no doubt each of us have something we can bring to the table skill-wise, so what’s stopping those people stepping forward with some offer or other.
What I’d like to see is the community supported all together, for each user to volunteer what we can do to help the cause as much as how much money we’re willing to donate and by that same measure if we could post what ever content we might create in the purpose of our shared goal to either here or a specific forum as linked on the front page, then it would give us all reason to return other than to see if the news has updated.
We’ve proven we can start this movement, but it is going to take a lot of work on all our parts to keep it active and make this more than what it currently is.
As I see it, what we need is a forum, we need a visible group behind all the activities (a single admin doesn’t cut it), we need users volunteering.
We can do this, but we have to do it together.
Sorry to say it, but this is already turning into a train wreck and a begging campaign.
Somebody was advertising on Facebook, that they were selling Firefly ribbons on Ebay and pledging 20 % to Help Nathan buy Firefly. Despite there not being anything to donate to yet.
The there are these two:
“Adagio teas is currently donating $3 for every Malcolm and Inara blend of tea sold to helping Nathan buy Firefly!”
Since y’all crumpled our servers yesterday, I’d love to see how quickly you turn this 1,000 user group into 50k+. What do you think, 4, maybe 5 hours?
This has disaster written all over it – people need to focus on the objective, not pissing about with secondary projects and charity donations no one outside USA have ever heard about or have any interest in supporting.
People should start using my site as a centralized location to communicate. There is a facebook page and this blog, and that’s it. Not a very clear way to communicate.
http://www.bringbackmyshow.com/forum/index.php
I have a section strictly for Firefly. I just need you, the fans, to start talking!!!! Let’s use this site as the discussion side of things.
Agreed. Somewhat. This is not a train wreck, but we need to focus more. That’s true. There should only be ONE group on facebook from where the movement is organized. The ebay sellers who try to make a quick buck with HNBFF need to be ignored…
Is anyone out there from utah or around about!? I’m thinking of starting up a FireflyCon in utah and working with the local comic stores to get it off the ground. It wouldn’t cost a lot of money and the revenue we could build for the cause would substantial! Anyone out there willing to help me plan this?! I’ll do it with or without I’d love some help!
email me at @ all.i.got.was.this.stupid.email@gmail.com
There’s a pretty active browncoat group in Utah. They’re the ones behind the Done the Impossible documentary and the Browncoat Cruise. You can find them (and a ton of other local groups) over here:
http://bigdamnboard.com/websites/groups/
I’d really rather not give money to charities of someone else’s choosing to be honest with you. I already give plenty to that.
If I donated to this cause it would be out of my *entertainment* budget, which is completely separate. So I hope you give us the option to pledge purely for Firefly if we want to.
In any case, I would give $200 to see more Firefly right now (since that’s the money I currently have put to one side for entertainment purposes). But if it really came down to it, I would save up my money and pay $1000 per season. I could probably get that kind of money together within a few months. If I was forced to give the money to charity, I doubt I’d be comfortable pledging more than $100. Nothing personal, I just have my own pet causes I’d rather support.
Facebook Pages:
Firefly: http://www.facebook.com/HelpNathanBuyFF#!/pages/Firefly/15025880513
BringBackFirefly: http://www.facebook.com/#!/BringBackFirefly
HelpNathanBuyFF: http://www.facebook.com/#!/HelpNathanBuyFF
CSTS Charity: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31474601590
Browncoats: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=2204484739
Nathan Fillion: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Nathan-Fillion/108117682549698
Twitter:
HelpNathanBuyFF: http://twitter.com/#!/HelpNathanBuyFF
Nathan Fillion: http://twitter.com/#!/NathanFillion
Jewel Staite: http://twitter.com/#!/JewelStaite
Articles:
FeedTheGamer: http://feedthegamer.info/2011-02-25/help-nathan-buy-firefly-a-grassroot-movement/
BuddyTv: http://www.buddytv.com/articles/castle/nathan-fillion-and-the-dangers-39454.aspx
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/02/23/bring.back.firefly/index.html?iref=allsearch
InsideTV: http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/02/17/firefly-returns/
DDpeterson: http://ddpeterson.com/just-reading-this-will-save-a-life/
Ology: http://www.ology.com/technology/fans-launch-help-nathan-fillion-buy-firefly-movement
Herald: http://heraldbulletin.com/peopleandplaces/x1709531733/Heather-Bremer-Browncoats-unite-to-resurrect-Firefly-series
Edmonton: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Edmonton+Nathan+Fillion+starts+Firefly+fury/4348213/story.html
Wired: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/02/fans-want-to-help-mal-get-serenity-back-in-space/
IGN: http://tv.ign.com/articles/115/1151883p1.html
Charities:
Browncoats Redemption: http://browncoatsmovie.com/?page_id=74
CSTS: http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/
Endorsements:
PatrickRothfuss: http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/02/an-open-letter-to-nathan-fillion/
Hopeful Endorsements:
Colbert: http://forums.colbertnation.com/?page=ThreadView&thread_id=25291
DailyShow: http://forums.thedailyshow.com/?page=ThreadView&thread_id=37610
TheOatmeal(Comics): https://www.facebook.com/theoatmeal/posts/10150428390810078
Money Pledges:
Adagio Tea: https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/blend.html?blend=2363&SID=9f0e2e5dfdb28b4e0451edbd275c56bb
HelpNathanBuyFF: http://helpnathanbuyfirefly.com/
wow impressive, and thanx i was just about to collect all those sources myself, thanx for saving some time
great work, merci
and hello from germany
cheers
beate
I’m in for $40 a season, and $200 to get things off the ground.
count me in.
There needs to be something somewhere, where people/press can go and SEE actual numbers of the pledges. Don’t collect money and make it for the sole purpose of bringing Firefly Back. Fox needs to see $ numbers, period.
Right now, after Natha…ns tweet, the movement is decreasing in hope. If there is no “Box” where people can see who and how much, this will fall apart in the next news cycle.
I am not decrying this, I am a Browncoat and a member of the 501st Legion so I know fans
WE NEED TO SHOW THEM THE $ NUMBERS!
i agree, I hope next week, something like this happens
cant wait to see those numbers…
Go to the Facebook page and multiply the ‘Likes’ with $50. This will currently get you $4.4 million. I know some are willing to invest more, but there are also some who will be backing down when the time comes. $4.4 million will get you half an episode.
Hurry up and start the pledge drive! The longer you wait the more quickly this effort will die.
START SHOWING SOME NUMBERS!
FOR REAL! We should be having updates every few hours….this is something that requires very fast action and we are moving so $#@!ing slow! Pledge system should be done, some press would be nice, and I don’t know for sure but it seems like nothing has been done except for this website being made, a facebook & twitter being made, and a lot of hollow hype.
We can do this people!
i totally agree, we are more people than ever and we have the social networks
lets show them what we are capable of
all the best from germany
cheers
beate
I’ve been a Browncoat ever since my brother borrowed the dvd box set from a friend when we were in high school. I’m just one person and I don’t have a lot of money or expertise to lend towards this but my support is for sure something I’m willing and able to give. I’m pleasantly surprised by all the attention this is getting. I would like to say though that I think FOX is aware of how much we all tend to hate them when it comes anywhere near Firefly. It seems like the best thing they could hope for is to sell the show off and at least make a bit of money instead of trying some ill made slapped together project and having it fail miserably because the very people they assume would support it turn their back on it. So with that all being said, let’s aim to misbehave!
Even if he was joking, it is still worth a shot. Hope and hard work has worked wonders before, why not now? Fan support is how “Serenity” came about. Maybe 20th Century Fox and/or Joss will notice this and us and bring back Firefly. It never hurts to try. I am will to pleadge $100.00. Browncoats unite!!
its definitely worth a shot, its never been done before. But all inventions have to start somewhere.
Look at Apple and facebook and twitter, I am sure there have been many people telling them, that it will never work, but we have to start somewhere.
I sincerely believe, this time we have a real chance !
Just found this! I’m willing to give $5. Wish I could give more…
I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned this, as I’m afraid I’m far too impatient to read every single comment (sorry!) but how about trying to get the peeps (or, one person maybe) at Google on board, I mean, they did name (albeit a now failed project) Google WAVE after the messaging system in Firefly (honest, they said it at the conference).
And I know that Nathan has said “don’t send any money” but the fans did it for Jericho! (OK, so I know they only got one more season out of that but the producers and writes were a bit too ambitious), but if the idea was to distribute it via the net from the get go, then a website like vodo.net or a similar idea to drhorrible.com (oh look, Joss and Nathan already did a web project together…) could work – It’s not entirely beyond the realms of possibility.
This is a sample letter i’ve sent to friends, and media outlets. Please feel free to edit and use this for yourselves.
“The Signal”
What began as a off-hand comment from “Firefly” actor Nathan Fillion has turned into a full-scale grassroots movement. On Feb 17, 2011, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nathan Fillion said: “If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.”
In a bizarre twist, immediately afterwards, writers and actors from the show started tweeting, saying they’d love to head on back. For fans of the show, “Browncoats”, this needed no further prompting.
A website, Helpnathanbuyfirefly.com, has sprung up, and put forth a plan to raise the money needed to purchase the rights from Fox and start the show up again. This news has since been picked up by dozens, if not hundreds of blogs, CNN News, Forbes, IGN and another EW article.
A Facebook page has grown to over 85,000 strong in less than a week. Will this bring back the show? Who knows. But it sure is interesting
I think more than TV release, a series of DVDs would be just as good, better perhaps. Futurama proved it could be done, surviving on straight to DVD for years until reupped by Comedy Central. I am tired of TV execs telling me what I want is wrong. I am tired of hearing my favorites are unprofitable but having them outsell and outlast cheaper, less worthy Television. I want what I want and I am proud to pay for it.
That being said, even before any release, I would be happy to donate cash to get shares in Firefly Inc. or whatever.
-James Daniel Ross
http://www.RadiationAngels.com
I’d be glad to support the suggested charities, but I’m not giving up hope for Firefly just yet!
One of the coolest things about castle is how many references to firefly there are. Here is a compilation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSz3hRSlA4Y&feature=related
It makes me wonder how the writers of castle would respond to Nathan filming episodes of firefly.
Being an independent filmmaker/producer myself I know how important numbers and statistics are to getting things rolling. We should not only take pledges, but also collect market research data (easily done in the form of polls or surveys) to really show the support towards the show and the variety of people interested in seeing it back. Specifically, age, gender, and location to emphasize how vast an audience it is, and what Fox is losing out on by not doing anything with it. It’s obvious that there are a great number of supporters, but if you were to really show this data along side with whatever amount of money is made pledging, then it would be an even stronger argument for why it should be brought back. These polls can be added while we wait for the pledging system to be put up.
Also, I agree with the people who are questioning the legitimacy of pledging to an anonymous person. I suggest you create an LLC (costs about $50-$75 depending on what state you are in) to which all of the pledged money will go to (so it’s towards a legitimate company rather than a specific person). Also, you should include a disclosure agreement when we are pledging stating that by pledging the money it is guaranteed to only go towards bringing the show back, and that the person behind the LLC will be legally held responsible for any misuse of the money if it is collected past a pledging stage (I know I personally will only pledge if something like this is present when giving my credit card information). You can easily get an LLC online and will have the legal documents to show everyone here that this is for real and not just a scam.
I know kickstarter uses a system where you have to submit your credit card information to prove that you actually have the money you are pledging (and it keeps it on hold until the project reaches it’s goal; I believe it used amazon as a safe way to do this), so I was wondering whether this pledge system will do something similar, or if it will just be a collection of data of how much people are willing to give towards the show. I feel that if it’s the latter, then the pitch will not be nearly as strong because we will have no proof that those people actually have the money they say they are willing to put forth. Just something to consider.
I also agree that while the charity idea is a nice thought, I don’t think it should still be sent there even if the project fails. People are here to support firefly, and you will lose pledges if they know they are definitely giving that money away whether the project works or not.
We may be able to reach Fox by contacting them through the information given on IMDB pro. If I were running this movement, I would call them up and try to set up a meeting (once you have an LLC behind you) to explain the situation and find out that information of whether they would be willing to sell the rights or restart the series and for how much money. If you need their contact information I have an IMDB pro account and will gladly get it for you (e-mail me at emsubzero@gmail.com) but I don’t know if i’m legally allowed to post it here so I’m not gonna risk it.
All that aside, I am extremely supportive and will definitely be pledging $100 when it is all set (and would love to help in any other way I can). My boyfriend and I run an independent production company in FL and would love to throw together some viral videos to help spread the word around once the pledging system is up.
You can’t stop the signal!
A number of us have been advocating this approach for a direct-to-DVD season 2: company – trusted board – business plan – negotiations – contract – Firefly.
It’s very important to get a board of trustworthy directors. People of a civil standing that can guarantee the financial aspect of such a venture – I have a few in mind and have contacted some (no reply yet).
Before we go overboard: getting 88.000 ‘Likes’ on Facebook is not going to rock any boats in the world of network television. Rare skin diseases get more than 88.000 ‘Likes’. However, it shows there is a potential for a pay-to-experience type business model.
Unfortunately I don’t think this site is the way forward. It has been a week and there is not even a shadow of a plan; damn they don’t even have an estimate for the required funding ($300 million is obviously a ridiculous figure).
The charity idea is even more ridiculous. The Firefly fanbase is global and you will only alienate people by suggesting the money goes to American charities. Also remember that there IS NO MONEY there are pledges to join a fanbased funding of Firefly – no more! If a serious proposal do not materialize within a few days, you can consider those pledges wasted and no money will be donated for neither Firefly nor charity.
Keep thing focused and work for a reboot of Firefly – let people choose their own charity donations.
I wonder if pessimists go to the special hell?
It’s not pessimism its realism. What do you know about the people behind this initiative?
As a person who works with project planning nearly every day, I know from experience that things need to be structured if you want to succeed. There has been nothing as regards to plans for this project.
A Facebook with 88.000 ‘Likes’ is not a project. There is already a Firefly page with more than 240.000 ‘Likes’. With the current Facebook rate of pledges it will take 2 months minimum to get enough people onboard (and a ‘Like’ is nothing in the world of corporate networks, they run on Nielsen ratings). Before this happen Joss Whedon will need to distance himself from the project and 99 % of the people will fall by the wayside.
To succeed you need to approach Whedon from a position of strength. You need to incorporate, gather a trustworthy board of directors, and draft organizational bylaws. Then and only then can you negotiate from a realistic position. This initiative has shown that there is an interest in pay-to-experience business model, now we need to formalize that idea.
^
sounds good. we should try this.
Do you think it would be possible to commission a market research of some sort to gauge the market potential? How does that work and what would it take? We could easily raise some money for that sort of work.
I know focus group type research costs thousands of dollars, but if the research shows that greater than 30% are interested then the show generally gets greenlit. If we were to show previous episodes in a focus group and asked if they would watch it if it were continued and we get a high percentage, then that will be strong data supporting our efforts.
Don’t forget, in Russia about 10000 fans of Firefly (minimum) ^^
http://lostfilm.tv/news.php?act=full&type=1&id=1467
I have to post something here. I have been reading over this and many other sites tonight. I have seen the good and the bad side of the comments. Some of the problem I see is that the creators of this site lead with their hearts, not bad, and got the world to notice that Browncoats are still a wanting bunch. They have also, IMHO, done right by refusing to take money now and making it clear from the start that they would not.
I have been on here since last friday and really have seen the tide wash in and out. By this point we all need to realize that the Nathan’s and Joss’ are not going to jump on the ship with us and take down Fox. Not going to happen. And we really don’t want to piss Fox off anyway. Any of you ever see an angry Fox for real? Mean little buggers. And this would be one really big pissed of bugger and Firefly never sees the verse again.
So stop bashing Fox, we want them to see this, read this and realize that they want to help us for the betterment of their pockets.
And while we are all at it stop bashing the HNBF admins. They have been posting elsewhere and are starting to see that this dream, like most, coming to an end. Not a Finish mind you. With as of this writing almost 90,000 likes it is far from finished. Before this ends the world press will create enough spin that, not soon but maybe, we get something new from Joss and crew.
I have said in post that I am hoping for another movie at best and I think with the cast’s current jobs that would be our best hope. So many things run thru my head from that movie that I can only imagine what is in Joss’. TV…I don’t dare hope for that much but, if Fox looks at all this and Joss is willing to even think of the idea about going back to them I would watch grinning like a fool.
Now the admins made mention of putting the money to charities and some have said that since they are not in the states they won’t help and they don’t know these charities, well the cast does and all the ones mentioned are ones that are dear to the ones we say we adore. If noting else contact the charities and start working with them to help out in your country or help in setting up an offshoot of them in your country directly.
A few names on some of these post I have seen around the net. And most by their own words have been Browncoats from the start. I am new to this here little war but, I will still say I am seeing some bitter memories from past attempts coming through a few of your post here and on other boards. I will not say who cause I know it would only have them go reaver on my gorram backside. I would only like to point out that yes I got a big smile and flutter of heart when I saw all of this and for a moment thought, Could it?
I ask you all out there that have been thru this before, Wasn’t that you 7,8,9 years ago? Jumping at any hope? Yes you have felt the sting and licked the wounds but, this is the wave of new Browncoats that, much to my dislike, must learn what it is to be a true Browncoat. Hope and a never ending supply of it when the troops fall back and you are left standing there alone. You have been there and know that it will pass but, let it happen.
As long as no money is collected falsely there is no foul with this and the next generation will get to know this little ship that landed in our lives and took us all out into the black.
If the admins do take money and only then for charity, damn make sure that that is up front or hell will have not fury like Browncoats on a hunt for an Alliance mole.
I have two young boys not even in school yet and since christmas they have learned to sing the theme song. I have the good fortune of getting to see the wonder of watching it new thru them and at 5 yrs old they get it. It’s something to be treasured.
People until Fox wants it, this won’t happen. Don’t blame the admins for handling it wrong or not doing this or that soon enough. We may still have won in the long run with what they Did do. 90,000 in a week? That would make a lot of people in the right places start to think and if we got that seed planted…Our Cap’t may have his woods to see his path clearly in yet again one day.
Fly True and Never let the Signal Fade
Drow
The charities need to go; people can make up their own mind about donations. This has nothing to do with the actors and we do not need to humor them by promising donations to their favorite charity. Should we also donate to NRA or GOP because Adam Baldwin supports these organizations?
90.000 Facebook ‘Likes’ are not going to move anything. The original Firefly Facebook already have 240.000 ‘Likes’ and this has not produced more Firefly. Before we reach any significant numbers joss Whedon would need to distance himself from the initiative (even if from a purely professional standpoint) and 99 % of people will fall by the wayside.
The HNBF has shown an interest in a pay-to-experience business model. We now need to formalize this idea by incorporating and getting some structure behind the effort. A professional approach to Joss Whedon might reveal the real chances of rebooting Firefly. And if we succeed the best option might be a direct-to-DVD season 2. That way it can work around the schedule of crew and actors. This can be achieved for around $50 million for 13-16 new episodes.
why direct to DVD, the future model ov tv is streaming.
its has been done with Dr. Horrible and the Guild
that idea got me interested in the whole thing in the first place, and beeing a browncoat of course.
But I agree, that we need to get the numbers up, fb likes and of course pledges to show how serious we are
Web-Tv will not break even. I don’t think anyone in the industry is interested in making $50 million product for free, even if they had the money handed to them – it ruins their business concept. The direct-to-DVD model is tested and proven – in Japan most manga is released this way.
why for free, what I am talking about is, people pay for streaming, most people I know stopped watching tv a long time ago, as german tv sucks big time. Its mediocre and obsolete.
make content available, good content, as content is king. and make the content available around the globe. via paypal or credit card
I would pay up to 50$ a month to see new firefly episodes for example
most tv series dont even make it to german tv or with horrible synchs years later.
its the same mistake the music industry made years ago, ignoring a market.
A market for streamed content and its huge.
at the moment, as there is no official offer for world wide streaming, the only chance for people outside the us and the Uk is, wait until dvd boxes come out, or watch it for free on the net.
and as i am a supporter of art in any form, I want to pay, but there is just no service that provides what I want. 100dreds of thousend of people watch tv series for free at the moment, which of course is not ideal, but there is just no other way. on the other hand its a huge promotion tool
I have been writing to tv stations in the us and the UK since 6 years, asking for that kind of streaming service right onto my labtop, no answer, except showtime, telling me they are working n something.
Until now, nothing happened.
as I said before they are making the same mistakes as the music industry all over again.
We have slowed to only 5.8 Facebook likes a minute. We need to regain momentum. Or perhaps it is just late at night.
G’Day Cobbers.
Can we get tee shirts with the Mal, FF/Serenity and flag on a brown shirt?
That would be shiny.
Like I said before, show some numbers. Make a pledge box, at least we can show people the power we have. By Monday this thing will hit critical mass. With all the net press plus I am expecting something from the Colbert people, if we have nowhere to pledge money for FIREFLY, no charities, this will fail. I don’t want it to. I spent all night on GetGlue.com and became Guru of Firefly to promote this. Sent press statements to many sites. No numbers for Firefly, no show. We miss the boat. And again, no charities. We want Fireflly and if the numbers don’t get a reaction, we take no money. If Nathan or others see we don’t have a pledge system, they loose intrest. The Internet is FAST. We may have already missed the boat but we have to show something and fast.
I posted in every forum, blog and other website I’m in, even if I know, this project has not the biggest chances. But why not try? I’ll be able to spend some money, but really not that much and I only will, if there’re official statements, that it will help, because XXX amount is needed. Until that, I’ll go and spread the word.
thats gerat, I did exactly the same, thats the kind of effort it takes.
why so pessimistic? I certainly see a chance for us, we are so many and we have the social media on our hand.
you will see, as soona as the pledge system is up and running what we are talking about
Dr. Horrible and The Guild proved already that it can be done
lets change history of entertainment
Don’t know if this was already mentioned, but you/we should reach out to SciFi and RPG Podcasts. There are thousands of people waiting for more Firefly!
ON CHARITIES
It seems like there is a fair amount of people who don’t want their money going to Charity if this whole thing doesn’t happen. Which I can understand, but if you read the HNBFF admins post it sounds like you’ll have exactly that option. Along with your donation you put a % on the money you want to go to the charities if this fails if that be a 0 so be it. If you argue you’d like to donate but these charities aren’t in your country or they’re not the charities you’d support you could always say 0 but plan on donating it to a local charity in your area. And note these are charities to help people especially kids so if you want to donate great if not that’s fine but why bash the charities/idea? Do you want to be known as “angry mob vows revenge on FOX”(which by the way, remember a lot of people like FOX) or “charitable masses wish to buy back their beloved television show”?
ON FB NUMBERS
Yes ~100,000 isn’t that impressive for a facebook group. But in a little over a week?! That’s not bad! I’d say these things probably generally have exponential growth and then decay. It’s going to start slow gain momentum and then eventually once word has spread as far as it can the numbers will slow. I think we still have some growth expected. You also have to account for those who know about the Facebook group but haven’t added it yet(me for about 3 days) or might not add it or don’t have facebook that would gladly contribute or watch the show.
ON MONEY
This I’m not completely sure on. It sounds like the admins want to use the money to buy the rights and bring new content. Which is great but I think we also need to remember advertising is big. In other words if we raise enough money to buy the rights and then some, you have to remember it might not be enough to get new content but the fact that there’s X number of people willing to pay means there’s X number of people reallllly willing to watch (and thereby expose themselves to ads and commercials) which is where tv-shows get their income to run from anyway. And then the additional start up cash is nice.
ON FILLION/WHEDON
If they’re in they’re in, if not they’re not. We have no control over that and so why spend time worrying about it. Lets do what we can make some proposals, raise some money and when they see the final figures/progress we’ve made they can decide. But you can’t blame us for trying and doing everything that’s in our power.
And lastly spread the word! Get those browncoats out! I talked to four browncoats yesterday and I don’t believe a one of them had heard about this yet.
“Maybe on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one”
Well spoken Vera, nicely done. Now as we move this project forward we got a lot of fans that need direction, I suggest the admins lead the charge here but all the same this process needs to be diplomatic in regards to the money. Once this movement reaches critical mass then Joss or Nathan and Fox will have to step in and get involved.
Seriously guys. If you don’t get a pledge system up and running you’ll lose this… ‘justgiving’ is a good one or any of the others… just put one up.
Also, I’m against putting the money to charity. I have other, local charities i support. If Firefly isnt being made then I wont pay and save my money for a UK charity like Acorns or a childrens hospice (which i give to annually)
Also, make it and sell it. There are numerous networks around the world that would pay for rights even if many people already have the DVD. Youre missing out on money that might make a third season.
This should not be a donation system, it should be an ownership system. If Firefly fans are going to collectively buy the rights, they should collectively own them, too. Our ‘donations’ should go toward shares of stock in a company that purchases the rights to the franchise. And then of course the talent should get shares as well.
Has anything happened at all the last 24 hours? That would be a bad sign.
I’ve thought about this a bit after reading through the comments. Here are my 2 cents, or should I say $200?
The Guild has 5 seasons, so I don’t think they are losing money or they would have stopped producing more. Part of the first season has been financed by paypal donations but that’s exactly what we want to do, so it does work and now they have a sponsorship from Microsoft. That’s nothing to scoff at. As for Dr. Horrible, that one did break even on its own: http://whedonesque.com/comments/18243#270186
Joss loves Firefly and there’s no doubt in my mind that, if there’s a real possibility of making more, he will go for it. The question is not if he would be up for it, the real question is what we need to do to make it viable.
The same goes for the rest of the crew. Sean Maher, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin and two of the writers have already said that if, against all odds, this should work out, they would be on board. They did so quite enthusiastically and I think it would be the same for the other cast members too. Summer Glau loves Firefly and has said that she would love to work with Whedon again, Adam Baldwin is in very fond of his Jayne character. I don’t know about Gina Torres but I’m sure she would be up for it too. Again, the question is not if they would be up for it but what we need to do to make it viable.
A real issue could be time because lots of these fine actors and actresses have roles in ongoing TV shows but those don’t shoot all year. It’s only 4-6 months or so. If we’re talking about a web series or direct to DVD projects, the shooting schedule can be adjusted accordingly and there should be no real time issue.
About the charities, I think it’s a nice touch and it will make for good press too. The problem is just that it seems to be a bit confusing. I’m still a bit confused about it myself. As I understand it, it’s first of all entirely optional, meaning if you want to, you can choose 0% of your pledge to go to charity. What I am confused about is whether that’s only supposed to be if this all comes to fruition and the full pledges are actually being collected to be spent towards more Firefly or if the thought was to still collect these percentages of the pledges and give them towards charity even if the main mission fails. If the latter is the case, I think you’ll drive away a lot of pledges and also will get a lot of zero percenters, so you might want to think that one over.
The other problem some people have, since this is an international movement, is that the charities are all American based. Maybe branch out a bit or… I don’t know. That’s another problem I see with it. This charity stuff is creating extra work and considerations and redirects focus from the actual goal.
To all the naysayers and people who criticize the admins. It’s always easy to shout directions from the side lines and cynicism is cheap. I’m sure the admins are working hard around the clock, trying to make this happen, designing a stable pledge system, talking to agents, managers, lawyers etc and trying to get more press coverage. They can’t just snap their fingers and have everything be in place, these things take time. I’m sure they are doing the best they can and are in a hurry, just as much as everybody else. Even if, god forbid, this project ultimately fails, they have already achieved a lot and should be applauded for their efforts instead of being criticized harshly.
I understand that there have been previous attempts to resurrect Firefly that have failed miserably and some were apparently even scams. This is different though, the time is right. We have social networking, we have press coverage and next month the Science Channel will air reruns of Firefly. The stars have aligned, this is the time. Please don’t be bitter or jealous, just hop on board, ’cause we’re taking off.
Now, let’s look at some numbers. The Firefly pilot, reportedly, cost about 10 million and each of the following episodes about 3-4 million. Serenity cost 40 million but it was made for the big screen and had lots of CGI space battles, different location shoots and they had to completely rebuild the set which is all very pricey. What made the TV pilot so expensive was also that they of course also had to build a set first, so there’s that hurdle but from there on it gets cheaper.
Someone said that Facebook likes don’t equal money but from what I’ve seen there’s an overwhelming willingness to reach into ones pocket if it really means we’ll get more Firefly. We want our show back and we’re willing to pay up for it. It’s really amazing, the standard amount that people are willing to give isn’t $10, no, it’s $100 and the people that are willing to pay even more than that far outnumber the people who offered to pay less than that.
We are looking at a considerable amount of money here, especially with our numbers rising and with Pat Rothfuss willing to chime in.
So, how are we going to make this happen, assuming that we do have a lot of money? A very real concern is that Fox won’t sell because Fox doesn’t have an incentive to sell. That’s not entirely true, there’s one thing in it for them and that is positive publicity. They would be looked at in a different light. Do I think that’ll sway them? Most likely not. No matter how many people say that they hate Fox, the network is doing well for themselves, they are far from bankruptcy. I am trying to be as positive as I can but I don’t think there’s much of a chance that they’ll ever sell those rights to us. I think it’s more likely that they’d reconsider putting the show back on the air. Not that I think that’s going to happen either, I just think it’s more likely. But who wants that? I don’t. Do you?
So, what else can we do? Well, Serenity got made. Fox doesn’t hold the movie rights, Universal does. We don’t actually need Fox. It seems much more realistic and easier to try and make a deal with Universal. Give them the money to make more movies, either for TV or direct to DVD. Yes, I said movies, plural. If we can’t have a show with a series of episodes, why not a series of movies? If it’s not for cinema it doesn’t need to have a 40 million budget. It doesn’t need a bunch of fancy CGI space battles and whatnot. Building a set and shooting a feature length movie can be done with 10 million and once the set is rebuild, further movies could be made on a budget of 6-8 million.
Serenity the movie was shot in 50 days but they had a lot of stuff going on in that movie, so I think less ambitious sequels could be shot in 30-40 days. That means there could be 3 or more TV or direct to DVD movies shot per year, without any actors having to leave the shows they are currently on, which would never happen anyway. It wouldn’t be as good as having the show back but it would allow the writing to be more episodic, like a TV series, which is where Whedon excels in my opinion, and less like standalone movie plots.
I don’t think Universal would agree to any kind of internet distribution model. It would be nice if they would but I think it’s better to be flexible and go for what’s possible and has an actual chance of succeeding.
How about we say: “Screw you, Fox, we’re going to Universal!” Sounds good to me.
All copyright regarding “SERENITY” reverted back to Fox as the source copyright holder at some point in the last eighteen months.
Where did you get that information from, do you have a source that you can link? I’ve heard rumors that Universal had a ten year clause in their contract that forbids 20th Century Fox from producing new Firefly episodes for television. That clause is going to expire soon, which would allow a reboot or continuation of Firefly but I don’t think the movie rights will revert back to anyone. As far as I know, Universal bought them and will keep them unless they sell, same as with the television rights and 20th Century Fox.
Well, ShitGotReal, I know people – can you prove your “rumours”? Unfortunately, there is no online source “link” for my knowledge and to be perfectly honest, given your, frankly, obnoxious postings to Mike Dougherty today, I have no inclination to substantiate anything to you.
Well, if you can prove a rumor then it wouldn’t be a rumor anymore, now would it? It’s just what I’ve read on other boards. I never said I know it for a fact. If you have anything substantial to offer to solidify your claim, I think you should let people know. Not for my sake but for the community, I doubt I’d be the only one interested, if there’s anything to what you’ve said.
To clarify, putting it back on the air with a differnt cast, writer and director.
Actually, I think it is great that EVEN IF Nathan was joking AND Joss isn’t interested, that we could pledge to charities they founded or support. It would be a great way for the fans to show they care BEYOND the series.
Has anyone noticed that the Colbert thread has become completely hijacked?
I’m sure many many people have already said this but the obvious answer would be start something on Kickstarter. If they can get money for a Robocop statue I’m sure we can rescue Firefly.
Once that’s done it’s just a matter of promotion and getting it out to Neil Gaiman, Will Weaton and Stephen Fry on Twitter will do that job nicely.
The only question before doing that is how much would Fox want? Getting them to give you a straight figure is that hard part. Also depends if you mean TV, film rights or whatever…?
I am offering my time for this cause. I WILL pledge money. There needs to be more than one admin and there needs to be updates. I am not the “Guru” of Firefly on GetGlue.com and can disseminate info from there AND HNBF. Use the talent you have here. I am also a member of the 501st legion and know how these things work. contact me and put me to work! I am on disability and have all the time in the world to dedicate to this.
The story of Patrick Rothfuss needs to be on the front page. There are enough wealthy people who have said they loved Firefly that you don’t need more than 20-30 to raise a considerable sum. Don’t let the Firefly haters at Whedonesque get to you.
How does the Serenity travel? It has a superconducting container that decelerates Neutrinos and confined them in an antimagnetic bottle where they chain together. It then introduces a spray of Protons (Hydrogen) which it allows to collect at the centre of the bottle by rotating the Antimagnetic bottle – before pulsing it with an intense magnetic field – the consequence is Fusion. A massive surge of energy escapes the magneticaly intensified neutrino votex contained within in the spinning antimagnetic bottle out the axis of spin (exhaust).
@Sean Robert Meaney: NICE job. @Anonymous Site Creators: NICE job. If you good folks get Fox to consider selling, I would definitely consider donating thousands. I really would. Holy good luck to us all.
we should promote the cause here: http://castletv.net/forums/ because a lot of castle fans remember how awesome firefly was.
KERMONK,
The people over at Whedonesque DO NOT hate Firefly, and it actually offends me to hear you spread your own obvious hate. The folks on Whedonesque LOVE Firefly. They just want everyone to know the facts and be aware of how many times this kind of movement has been tried and failed. They just want to spread awareness so nobody gets their hearts broken if nothing comes of this in the long run.
You have my sword!
My browncoat has been collecting dust for far too long.
Congrats to the admins on getting the pledge system up and running! Now we gotta get the word out not just about the movement but about pledging. Some people may have just clicked like on facebook and then went about their lives, we have to remind people.
Since Nathan is most likely not serious with this, why is the site based on him buying the rights? Wouldn’t a more logical use of this fan base be to get an independent production company- likely an LLC formed primarily for this purpose, or a 501c if it fits- to purchase licensing right for continuing derivative films? It seems much more likely that going in that direction, keeping it with the fans rather than an actor (not to devalue Nathan, of course) would result in new content for the franchise. Buying total rights isn’t even necessary, just the ability to create new content by a company owing everything to the fans and working for their interests.
Now I’m thinking about this more. Haven’t head writers said they support this? If so, step 1 shouldn’t be ‘generate awareness'; it should be getting them to come up with some loglines and detailed synopses for possible films. A business plan can then be built around that, including market research, then discussion with Fox regarding what licensing fees and contracts would be required to move forward. After that comes script writing and funding, again through an accountable corporate entity set up to deal with this. It’s business and needs to be treated that way.
I definitely agree — as much as I would love to see the current plan work, I feel like the most it will do is turn some heads. I’d doubt Fox will take us seriously unless we treat it like a business, and we need to be working on that now so when the pledging slows down we can go directly into the next plan instead of letting it dwindle off into nothing.