Can't Stop the Serenity in Toronto
Joss Whedon's magnificent space opera, Serenity, returns to Toronto this weekend in a special charity screening, which provides Torontonians with a) another chance to catch one of last year's best movies, and b) more proof that the Browncoats (as Serenity's fans are generally known) are pretty much unstoppable.
After Serenity's less-than-sizeable box office take in September (the flick is the big-screen update of the old Fox TV series, Firefly), Browncoats around the world rallied at CantStoptheSerenity.com for an opportunity to put Serenity back on the big screen in support of Equality Now, which happens to be Joss Whedon's favourite charity. A whopping forty-seven fan-run screenings are being held in Canada and around the world, in Australia, New Zealand, England, and the United States. Maybe it's time Universal started seriously considering fast-tracking a Serenity sequel.
The film tells of a band of space rogues (think "the Millennium Falcon with a crew of 9, on the run from the law") who get caught up in a galaxy-spanning conspiracy to hide the truth... truth which happens to be squirrelled away in the mind of 17-year-old River Tam (Summer Glau), who has been programmed by the government as a walking human weapon. Trouble, as one might expect, ensues.
It's a treat of a flick, and the charity event is a brilliant exploitation of the ongoing popularity of Whedon's creation on the part of the fans.
Toronto's Serenity screening will be held at the Royal at 4:00 on Saturday. Tickets are $10 at the door. More info can be found at Canadian Browncoats, or at CantStopTheSerenity.com.
Comments (5)
Sameer Vasta 
on June 20, 2006 9:34 PM
I'm no Browncoat, but I definitely agree that Serenity was quite a wonderful film. Joss Whedon did an awesome job, and if I wasn't working on Saturday (again), I'd totally be at the screening.
I am a Browncoat (not in an official sense) and I wish I could go! They should greenlight another sequel. I need more of Zoe with shot guns and a fiery vengence.
I don't understand why more people didn't go to see it since it was 1000x than the crap that's been playing in the mainstream theatres during the past year or so.
Elizabeth, I share your incomprehension. Actually I think the studio's largely to blame; the advertising campaign didn't do a particularly good job of conveying the concept of the flick, and September was way too late in the year to put the movie in theatres. If they'd opened it in April as they'd originally planned, it would have had 3 weeks before Revenge of the Sith in which anyone and everyone would have been hungry for sci-fi.
Serenity lives on in comic books (another 3-part series written by Brett Matthews is coming later this year), and I really am glad that we got at least one big-screen adventure, but I'd sell my left nut for a sequel.
This will be a great occasion. While Serenity works on a TV sized screen, it is best on the BIG screen and I am looking forward to seeing it there again on Saturday. Seeing it with a large audience? Priceless.
What I'm wondering is whether the Browncoats will "Rocky Horror" the flick for us all. You know, throwing toast at Wash, etc.
And yes, Lioness, Serenity puts the "big screen" back in "big screen adaptations." The Star Trek movies should be spinning in their graves about now.
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