Inside Chloé Zhao’s failed ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ reboot: A close reading of the script, directed by Chloé Zhao, may give clues to why Hulu passed on the show, which has caused an ongoing uproar online from the “Buffy” faithful eager to see their favorite character return to television. ... Buffy has but one line in that original script.
[...] Why the absence of Buffy in the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot wasn’t flagged as a potential problem from the beginning is a mystery. Sources say, though, that Hulu is still hopeful that a new creative team can revive the revival sometime in the future. But one well-placed source close to the show said the pilot process wasn’t more difficult than launching any other television show — yet it was made “all the more difficult” by Hulu, which ultimately had “no idea what they really wanted.”
[...] On paper, there’s never been more of a slam dunk than “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale.” [...] Somehow, the stakeholders figured out how do it without Whedon, who’s considered too toxic to hire after allegations of abuse have sidelined his career. And most significantly of all, Gellar had finally — finally! — agreed to return as Buffy, after being convinced to do it by Oscar-winning director Zhao, who helmed the pilot. With Gellar and Zhao — who’s professed her love of “Buffy,” and has said she “watched religiously” — serving as stewards, what could go wrong?
[...] The issues with the pilot seem to be manifold. [...] despite her love of the original series, Zhao proved to be a mismatch for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale.” ... Those sources say that Zhao’s prodigious skills as a director didn’t lend themselves to a television pilot that requires a lot of exposition. It was undershot ... The performances from the actors playing the new characters, who need to make a strong impression as they’re introduced, were under-directed, the sources said. That Armstrong, the new Slayer, has a very young appearance — she turned 16 on March 10 — contributed to the whole enterprise playing too young.
https://youtu.be/byAu3EwbNYw
VIDEO EXCERPTS: [...] So Sarah Michelle Geller is out there blaming the Hulu executive right now and they're naming this guy, which is just unbelievable....
[...] People are trying to protect Chloé Zhao. Hulu wanted to go forward with a season. They were paying up out the ass to keep the pre-production going cuz the contract stated that people in pre-production would still get paid.
They couldn't nail Chloé Zhao down to commit to a time frame to film this and then decided to ultimately just cut the neck off it. Maybe the release of the script is an effort to protect Chloé cuz maybe nobody ever believed in this script, and after you read it, you can sort of see why.
[...] Yeah, that script was something. It's making the rounds now and people understand why it was cancelled, but there might be a lot more to this story.
[...] Behind her, a second wraithlike figure crawls from the sand. Its skin is dead and stretched like a corpse with stringy hair and dirty clothes that might identify it as female. ... and Nova says, "Oh my god, a girl died."
And someone else says, "Well, we shouldn't assume her gender."
Leaked Buffy reboot script is painful ... https://youtu.be/byAu3EwbNYw
