It was officially announced today that Warner Bros bought the rights to Buffy the Vampire Slayer from Fran and Kaz Kazui, and are moving forward with a re-boot film.

They’ve hired unknown writer Whit Anderson to pen the script, and have completely excluded creator Joss Whedon from the mix.

For ages now, genius Joss has been answering questions with regards to a new film. Most die-hard Buffy fans, myself included are/were hoping for a new movie to erase our memories of the crap pile that the Kazui couple did to the original script.

If you watch the 1992 film that starred Kristy Swanson, Luke Perry, and Donald Sutherland carefully, you can see that it did in fact have a lot of potential… too bad a horrible director and sub-par production team failed miserably in their execution. It was so awful that I wouldn’t be surprised if Joss wanted to be disassociated from it entirely.

Fast forward 5 years to 1997 where a clever and inventive screenwriter decides that his bubble-gum blond heroine deserves a second go… low and behold, the epic greatness that is BtVS the series is born.

This time ’round we have Sarah Michelle Gellar, Anthony Stewart Head, Alyson Hannigan, and Nick Brendan making us fall in love with a character and situation that most people previously found “heinous”.

The TV Buffyverse allowed Whedon to do things the way he had always intended, the right way. The show was smart, funny, quirky, scary, and a million other things all rolled into one.

Never before, or since for that matter has there been a show that I HAD to watch, period. Every Tuesday, at 8pm, I was glued to my set for an hour. Everyone in my life knew that if they disrupted me during this time with a phone call or any other distraction, it would mean the loss of one of their limbs.

Anyways… back to the story…

Today, all over the internet, there have been articles posted hating on the idea of the reboot. Kristin Dos Santos from E!’s Watch With Kristin, emailed Joss Whedon to get his opinion on what’s going on…

Kristin, I’m glad you asked for my thoughts on the announcement of Buffy the cinema film. This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths—just because they can’t think of an original idea of their own, like I did with my Avengers idea that I made up myself.

Obviously I have strong, mixed emotions about something like this. My first reaction upon hearing who was writing it was, “Whit Stillman AND Wes Anderson? This is gonna be the most sardonically adorable movie EVER.” Apparently I was misinformed. Then I thought, “I’ll make a mint! This is worth more than all my Toy Story residuals combined!” Apparently I am seldom informed of anything. And possibly a little slow. But seriously, are vampires even popular any more?

I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death. But, you know, AFTER. I don’t love the idea of my creation in other hands, but I’m also well aware that many more hands than mine went into making that show what it was. And there is no legal grounds for doing anything other than sighing audibly. I can’t wish people who are passionate about my little myth ill. I can, however, take this time to announce that I’m making a Batman movie. Because there’s a franchise that truly needs updating. So look for The Dark Knight Rises Way Earlier Than That Other One And Also More Cheaply And In Toronto, rebooting into a theater near you.

Leave me to my pain! Sincerely, Joss Whedon.

In my opinion, if Joss Whedon, and the brilliant writers that made BtVS come to life on television are not involved (which they aren’t), then it is NOT and will NEVER be Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Leave it to those damned Kazui’s to ruin everything once again… numb-nuts.

What’s your take on this? Do you think Buffy should get a big screen reboot, or should it be left in the hands of it’s creator? Sound off below!

Source 1: Joss Whedon Reacts to Buffy Movie News: ‘I Have Strong, Mixed Emotions’ [E!]

Source 2: Warners revives ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ [Variety]

Source 3: Joss who? Meet the writer of the new ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ film [L.A. Times]