2009 Comic Con Dollhouse Panel

[Gin]

Ign.com report


The IGN Theater was completely packed today at New York Comic Con, with thousands of fans in attendance to see Joss Whedon, as he introduced his new series Dollhouse, premiering this Friday on FOX. Joined by one of his stars, Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica), Whedon showed the first act of the premiere, establishing a series Whedon described as one where "Certain people [called Actives] have had their personalities removed so they can be implanted with personalities of another person," by clients willing to pay a fortune for someone to be everything they want, whatever that entails.

Spoilers for the first few minutes of Dollhouse follow in this paragraph: The opening of the show introduce us to Eliza Dushku’s Echo in what is presumably her true identity, a woman named Caroline. We see her meeting with Olivia Williams’ character Adelle DeWitt, discussing her entering the Dollhouse program – which DeWitt refers to as a volunteer decision, while Caroline/Echo says she has no choice. We then cut to sometime later, with Echo in a much different persona – a sexy, wild child on a motorcycle, spending an exciting weekend with a man she clearly cares deeply for… only for her time with him to be up, and for her to be escorted away. We see her mind wiped, as she reverts to the childlike state she and the other Actives retain while inside the Dollhouse. We see her handler Boyd Langdon (Harry Lennix) display some clear doubts about what is going on, while programmer Topher Brink (Fran Kanz) is the opposite – excited by what they do. We then are introduced to a clearly wealthy man being driven in a car, talking to his young daughter, when his car is stopped – only for his daughter to meanwhile be grabbed at home by masked men, who take her away.

Penikett’s character was not seen in the footage shown, causing Penikett to quip, "That clip would have obviously been a lot better if I was there." Penikett said his character, Paul Ballard, was "an FBI agent given the case of the Dollhouse; trying to expose the urban myth of the Dollhouse. Nobody has any confidence he’ll get to the bottom of it, because nobody really believes it exists." Penikett noted, "Paul on the other hand absolutely believes it and he becomes quite obsessed and driven to expose it."

Whedon said that when it comes to Paul’s investigation and how it’s portrayed on the show, "He can get close to it; even get close to her, but she won’t remember. So they can meet for the first time all year! But he does make progress." However, he noted that the people behind the Dollhouse "are as anxious to not be discovered as [Paul] is to discover it."

Whedon described Dollhouse as "far and away the most disturbing thing I can remember doing, at least since Season 6 of Buffy, and probably more than that." He then noted that there were potentially disturbing elements in the show, regarding Echo seeming somewhat enslaved, and the fact that she sleeps with clients, only to not remember it. He said that for those offended, "they’re not wrong" and "I went for something that is very dark." Or as he joked, "I’m such a bitter, sad man, and this is my bitter, sad show. Welcome to it!" He noted that his intention was "The audience comes away as unclean as the people in the show – everyone is compromised."

Whedon noted "The subject matter is daunting and potentially creepy. We want to make sure we’re not just objectifying people – it’s a very fine line."

Asked about those working for the Dollhouse, Whedon said they weren’t all necessarily evil, noting, "They are, sadly for them, people – people with power, who do one thing, which is abuse it." As for the clients, "A lot of them are [evil], but not all of them. Some of them are just lonely and strange." He remarked that some people hiring an Active, "Are misguided, but not terrible."

Looking ahead through the thirteen-episode season, Whedon described episode 6 as a "key episode" and "involves Paul Ballard getting a little bit closer and meeting a client and not finding what he expects." As for the end of the season, Whedon said, "We didn’t hold back – We didn’t wrap everything up, but [the finale] makes statements on how corrupt people can be."

Dollhouse has gotten a lot of attention for what has been perceived as a troubled history, with the original pilot discarded and other re-tooling along the way. Whedon admitted that during this process, "There was a period where I said, ’I don’t know what this show is anymore.’" He added, "It was the same with Angel. We didn’t find it for five years!"

While he described this as "a dark and scary Joss period," he said that eventually, "We not only found the show that we were excited about making and the network was excited about airing, but the show actually ends almost exactly the way we had [originally] intended to end this season." While he admitted that in the early episodes, "I think you’ll see some growing pains," he also remarked, "I’ve been pumped about what we’ve been putting out the last few months."

Whedon had an infamously bad experience with FOX on Firefly, but said that when it came to working with a very different regime at FOX on Dollhouse, "They’ve been completely honest and totally supportive… except for the things they don’t like!" He said that he felt a very collaborative vibe with FOX this time, and as for the show being put on Friday nights — which is feared by some fans as a death sentence — he said he completely understood the decision, noting that he and FOX both felt the show would be allowed to grow on Friday nights and "Our expectations are that people will come to this the way they come to all my shows, which is usually kind of gradually."

When it came to Dushku getting to play a different character each week, as Echo is reprogrammed, Whedon remarked, "It’s an actresses dream, but also a nightmare – every episode is a pilot [for her]! She has to rethink how she moves; how she thinks. It’s an exciting opportunity for her and for us."

Returning to the darker themes of the show, Whedon noted that he is a vocal feminist, but that because of the storyline of the show, "I expect there to be some kind of backlash" because, depending on how it is handled, the show could end up either being "A fight for her identity or just a misogynist fantasy." Remarked Whedon, "I’m scared witless by how people will react, but I find I do my best work in those situations."

[Gin]

Comicbookresources.com Report

It’s hard to tell that Joss Whedon’s latest small screen venture "Dollhouse" has been relegated to Friday nights, a common death knell for episodic television, when considering the bountiful outpouring of fans at his New York Comic Con "Dollhouse" panel. The series creator, adored by the geek community for his work on "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," "Angel" and "Firefly," was in high spirits when he graced the NYCC crowd to explosive applause. He jokingly ran off the stage mere moments after he first appeared, slowly crawling his way back up towards the microphone.

Joining Whedon was Tahmoh Penikett, currently known as Helo on "Battlestar Galactica," though with any luck he’ll be famous for his "Dollhouse" character, FBI Agent Paul Ballard. TV Guide’s Matt Roush moderated the panel.

"Certain people have had their personalities removed so they can be imprinted with new personalities, [and] one of those persons is a little known actress, Eliza Dushku," Whedon said of the show’s premise. Rather than explaining the show further, Whedon debuted the opening to the first episode of "Dollhouse."

The clip began with Dushku’s character, Echo, in a meeting with enigmatic Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams) about the Dollhouse program. DeWitt offers Echo an alternative to a lifestyle where you can be held accountable for your actions. The scene then shifted to a motorcycle race between Echo and another man as they speed off towards a party. Despite acting rough towards one another – Echo even calls the guy "a little pregnant dog" – they have a romantic connection, evidenced by the jewelry that the man gives her after they’ve finished dancing.

Suddenly, Echo leaves the party and hops in a van where Boyd (Harry Lennix) is waiting for her. He takes her back to a complex for an "appointment," which ultimately leads to her mind being erased by a technician named Topher (Fran Kanz). (Whedon later told the audience that he wrote a lot of himself in the Topher character, as they are both writers in a sense – Whedon writes scripts and Topher "writes characters – and has no morals.") Boyd and Topher watch as a mindless Echo walks around the complex in a sea of like-mindless people – this, we learn, is the Dollhouse. Tahmoh Penikett stars in "Dollhouse"

Later, a little girl is on the phone with her father, an important man of some type – perhaps a business executive or a politician. The clip ended as the girl hangs up the phone and is abducted by a group of masked men.

Though he didn’t appear in the shown footage, Penikett’s character Paul Ballard is important to the show’s story. "I play the FBI agent who is given the case of the Dollhouse," he said. "Nobody really has any confidence that he’s going to get to the bottom of it. Nobody really believes that it exists. Paul feels from the jump that it does. Everything that it represents is morally wrong to him. It affects him in a personal way, thus he becomes quite obsessed and driven to expose it."

Penikett sees Ballard as Echo’s rescuer in a sense, noting that Echo becomes the face he puts on the Dollhouse — which only motivates him further. "Cause it’s Eliza’s face!" Whedon joked. Penikett laughingly agreed, "I gotta save this girl, she’ll be so happy with me!"

Whedon talked about the genesis of the show: he and Dushku had lunch to discuss potentially working with one another, and "Dollhouse" emerged as a way to keep the versatile actress from getting "bored" with a television gig.

"I’m such a bitter, sad man, and this is my bitter, sad show," Whedon joked of the show’s more disturbing theme. "My hope is that people will see something appalling [in "Dollhouse"] and find something beautiful in it … and that the audience comes away as unclean as the people in the show. Everybody is compromised."

Asked about the moral alignment of the Dollhouse runners – are they good, bad or both? – Whedon said, "They are, sadly for them, people. And they are people with power, and people with power do all of one thing, and that is to abuse it. They’re people that I like very much [as a writer]."

Whedon spoke about the difficulties in the production process – the initial "Dollhouse" pilot was scrapped and reshot – saying that it was "not unusually tough, but tough in an unusual way."

"Because the subject matter is so very delicate … which is good, when you want it to be creepy … [but] it’s a very fine line," Whedon said. "There was a period where I was like, ’I don’t know what the show is anymore! And it hasn’t even aired yet!’ Now, I never knew what ’Angel’ was about and we did fine for five years," he joked to loud cheers.

"But [with ’Dollhouse’] there was a dark and scary Joss period," he said. "That’s something that’s a very difficult and personal thing … but we [the production team] kept slogging through and then we found it."

Whedon also praised Fox for the cooperation they’ve shown towards the show. Unlike "Firefly," he feels that "Dollhouse" is being treated fairly and honestly. He went on to say how Friday night television was going to be a science fiction "event night" since "Dollhouse" airs on Fox an hour before "Battlestar Galactica" airs on the Sci Fi network, both of which star Penikett.

Asked about his return to television, Whedon said he was initially skeptical because he was so committed to writing screenplays for film. "But nobody else’s head was into the movies I was writing, so that turned out to be a problem," he joked, a likely dig at his defunct "Wonder Woman" script. He also said that he hoped to pursue more internet projects, confirming his desire to one day explore "Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog" further.

Audience members were then allowed to ask their questions. A fan asked Penikett what his respective "Dollhouse" and "Battlestar Galactica" characters had in common. "There are similarities," he said. "The sense of right and wrong, they share that. But what’s really interesting for me about Paul is that he’s very much alone and he operates by himself, and he chooses to. I’m curious about why that is the case. What happened to him in the past? What has he gone through that makes him so mistrusting?" Scene from "Dollhouse"

"It’s because he let Baltar on Galactica!" Whedon joked.

Whedon called "Dollhouse" a show that frightens him as a creator. "It’s so morally tricky that I expect there to be a certain amount of backlash and disappointment," he said. Identifying himself as a vocal feminist, he added, "This is a show that can be read two ways. It can be read as a woman’s fight for her identity and it can be read by some people as just a misogynist fantasy. I’m doing that deliberately and I’m scared witless by how people are going to react to everything we’re doing."

Asked when Angel will show up in the current "Buffy" comics from Dark Horse, Whedon answered, "I don’t know. Probably when it’s the most painful, or when [artist] Georges [Jeanty] figures out how to draw him." He then joked how Angel was difficult to draw due to his "huge forehead."

Whedon was asked if there were any Stephen Sondheim musicals he’d like to adapt to film. He maintained his desire to direct a "Sweeney Todd" movie, saying that the Burton version didn’t quite hit the mark. "I want to be on Broadway," Whedon admitted. "I’m just a Broadway baby." Jokingly embarrassed by the admission, Whedon sunk into Penikett’s comforting arms.

As for other genres Whedon would like to explore, he said he’d be interested in working on a western or an Elizabethan period piece due to the "smoking dresses."

One fan informed Whedon that Bruce Timm sang the praises of Whedon’s "Wonder Woman" script at the earlier "Wonder Woman" panel. "I had no idea that anybody read it," Whedon joked. "I wasn’t aware that I’d finished it!" He seemed very flattered by the compliment.

Whedon thinks quality actors and production members tend to follow him because of his "one talent as a collaborator – bringing out the best in people that I work with. I think that the most important thing that happens in my writer’s room and on the set is trust. They trust that I will get the best version of whatever they’re doing that I can. That if they write something that works, that is right and great, it will air," he said. "If [the production] is not kind of a family, you don’t have the freedom to do the things I’ve done."

Asked if fans could expect a "Dollhouse" comic book should the series get cancelled, he said no. "It doesn’t have that visual punch that I think a comic book requires. [Echo] is not a superhero in the way that Buffy is, or even River [from "Firefly"]. We’re probably going to do some web stuff [to coincide with "Dollhouse"] but that’s not going to happen this season."

He added, "Hopefully, four years from now, people will be so excited by the show that they won’t be asking for other stuff!"

"Dollhouse" premieres on Friday, February 13 on the Fox network.