From: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org (stillpt-digest) To: stillpt-digest@smoe.org Subject: stillpt-digest V6 #26 Reply-To: stillpt@smoe.org Sender: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk stillpt-digest Monday, June 28 2004 Volume 06 : Number 026 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Buffy animated news [Todd Huff ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 20:59:27 -0700 (PDT) From: Todd Huff Subject: Buffy animated news Things are looking up. Apparently work is well underway for a pilot, which will still have to be pitched and sold. http://www.animationinsider.net/modules.php?module=article&id=145 According to this week's print edition of TV Guide, the new animated series will feature Buffy Summers and the rest of the Sunnydale gang back in high school. A few of the original cast is slated to return, with Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) instead deciding to focus on her blossoming film career. Giselle Loren will instead fill the vacated role. Nicholas Brendon (Xander), Alyson Hannigan (Willow) and Anthony Head (Giles) will be voicing their respective characters on the new series. The is no word yet on whether David Boreanaz (Angel), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase) or James Marsters (Spike) will be involved with the show at all. Presently, the show is being developed by Jeph Loeb, a well-known comic-book writer and a writer on the popular Smallville series that airs on The WB Network, as well as Whedon at his production company, Mutant Enemy. The show will be pitched to several networks in the next month or so. Originally, the show was announced three seasons ago, but it never made to air, dying early in production. According to published media reports, much of the staff from that original animation pitch have returned to work on this pitch. http://www.mediasharx.com/index.php/columns/2338 Actress Giselle Loren is enjoying life. And why shouldn't she? She's been cast as the lead in a pilot which will hopefully result in our favorite Slayer coming back to our living rooms on a regular basis. I play a blonde and kick some baddies' asses while wielding pointy objects," she says. "Life is good." Speaking in her first interview via email, exclusively with MSX, Loren confirms reports that she provided the voice of Buffy in Joss Whedon's pilot episode for his planned BUFFY THE ANIMATED SERIES. "Working with Joss and the other producers for the pilot was fantastic," she says. "They know this world so well obviously that the direction is clean and clear. They know exactly what they want which makes my job easy." Joined by original BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER cast members Alyson Hannigan (Willow), Anthony Stewart Head (Giles), and Nicholas Brendon (Xander), Loren actually says she completed the voice tracks for the pilot a few months ago. Of the three BUFFY veterans onboard for the new animated pilot, Loren says she only got a chance to work directly with Brendon. She enjoyed working with him immensely, however. "He's a nice guy and does a great job," she says. Sarah Michelle Gellar's apparent decision not to reprise Buffy in this new incarnation of the series apparently provided an opening for Loren, who has already voiced the role in the videogames based on the TV show. Unfortunately, Loren says she can't provide any answers to the burning casting questions that recent reports on BUFFY THE ANIMATED SERIES have left open, such as who will be portraying Buffy's beau-with-a-bicentennial, Angel, or her kid sister, Dawn. Asked about gaps in the cast, Loren demurs, "As for other cast news, I have no idea." "Here's how I got the role initially for the video games: I auditioned," explains Loren, whose other credits include appearances on GENERAL HOSPITAL and THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL. "I'm an actress. I studied [Gellar], I learned how and where to place my voice to match hers and then I watched specific seasons of the show to understand her mannerisms, her physicality, her inflections. Finally, I created my version of Buffy as she seems on the page. Joss has created an amazing world and [Gellar] has a very specific style. I just got lucky enough to be able to do it." Loren says she feels that both her similarities to Gellar, as well as her own style, will be important contributions she makes to the role. Asked where the similarities to Gellar end, and her own contributions begin, Loren replies simply, "I have no idea, except that she's shorter than I am." "I play a blonde and kick some baddies' asses while wielding pointy objects..." Despite the excitement around bringing Buffy back to continue to save the world a lot, Loren cautions that Joss & Co. still have to fight their own good fight just to bring this new series to television. "The series, however, has not been bought," she says. "The animation needs to be completed; the producers have to pitch the pilot; and someone has to buy it." Even her own continued involvement in the show, should it move forward, is unclear. "Whether or not I'll be Buffy in the series is up to Joss and his crew," Loren says. "Of course, I'd love to have the role as I absolutely love the character." Asked what she brings to the role of the Chosen One, Loren answers, "Well, I channel Buffy. It just happens after all the homework's been done.  I have no idea what the future holds, so I won't even hazard a guess. But, if I do play Buffy in the series, I'll bring my own style and energy to it as I did in the games." The difference between playing Buffy in the videogames and voicing the character in the pilot, Loren explains, was taking direction from Whedon. A BUFFY fan even before she signed on to the videogames, Loren also mentions she's eager to see how the fact the new series will be animated, rather than live-action, could enhance the show. "I'm excited to see what they come up with for the series without the constraints of reality,'" she says. Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ End of stillpt-digest V6 #26 ****************************