It was announced last year that Joss Whedon and Warren Ellis would be teaming up for a web series. There was a slight hiccup in the plans of course, Whedon was asked to direct The Avengers (which, from what we’ve seen so far, seems like a good move). With months of production and post-production still left to go on the Marvel series, Whedon wants to make sure we know he hasn’t forgetting about the web series with the comic scribe.
The name of the series is Wastelanders and saying that it’s from Whedon and Ellis pretty much guarantees it will be a hit. Though there are a few hurdles. For example, Whedon is going to be financing the project himself. From Entertainment Weekly, ”I’m just like, ‘Gosh, well, if I’m going to finance this and put it together, it’s kind of dangerous.’ It’s not going to have a soundtrack album, it’s not going to have all these revenue streams,” Whedon said. “It’s going to be something that I put out there because I feel like I have to, and I don’t have to rely on anybody else to let me.”
”I really want to make something tiny. You know, get back on the Internet,” he told them, saying that web series were the “punk rock of filmmaking.” Whedon promised Wastelanders would be very different from his previous web series hit Dr. Horrible. ”I’ll say this about it…there ain’t no singing,” he said. ”It’s a dark piece.”
Ellis couldn’t blame Whedon for postponing their project for The Avengers though as he said on his website, “‘You have to take that job,’ I said. ‘Even though it’ll probably be insane. It’s a tentpole movie. You’ll be able to print your own money afterwards. You’ll be able to do anything you want. Take it.’” He describes the series as ”a funny horrible story about the end of the world” and wrote that he looks forward0 to finishing it.
Depending on the success of The Avengers it still may be a while before Wastelanders sees the light of day but here’s hoping for the success of one helping the other instead of hurting it.
