I have it from the ex-wife, who has it on very good authority herself (via this Instagram vid), that Nathan Fillion has been dropping some very direct, broad hints to the other cast members about some forthcoming…uhmm…developments in the Firefly/Serenity multiverse. Me being a tremendous fan of Joss Whedon’s masterpiece, I couldn’t be more excited about this, and I hope the ex has the story straight (it would be VERY out of character for her not to, honestly).

From the text messages and other things she forwarded me, originally sent by Fillion to Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Adam Baldwin, et al, it does indeed sound pretty serious…more so, even, than most of the other rumint which has made the rounds ever since the morning after Fox foolishly dropped Firefly from the roster. We shall see, I reckon. Meanwhile, a little reminder of just how great the show and the movie really were is in order.

Captain Mal’s justly renowned “I aim to misbehave” soliloquy from Serenity says it all extremely well, don’tchathink? Sadly, disturbingly, it rings every bit as true today as it does in the movie.

Update! In the course of watching all sorts of Firefly/Serenity-YewToob vids earlier today, I ran across a fun little tidbit: Whedon spent over 100k to have two (2) full-size replicas of Serenity’s interior spaces constructed, which the cast members promptly adopted as their own semi-official green room/clubhouse/hangout to kick back and relax in between takes.

Whedon came up with the idea of building each deck of Serenity as a contiguous set, so that he could establish the size of the spaceship, and film scenes where the actors could be followed as they moved around the ship. The two sets were built on separate sound stages, making second unit filming possible. The opening to the film highlights this: a 41⁄2 minute shot (technically two shots connected together) near the start of the movie follows Mal from the bridge as he walks along the entire upper deck set, down a set of stairs near the engine room (where the cut is hidden by a whip pan from Mal to Simon) and back along the lower deck set to the cargo bay. This shot (and similar shots in the early episodes) were intended to establish the space which made up the ship, and where locations were in relation to each

Having the sets constructed as contiguous decks had several advantages for the cast and crew: Joss Whedon would physically move around on the sets to help him in writing or blocking difficult scenes, Summer Glau (playing River Tam) would often walk around the set to get into character and prepare for filming, while other cast members would use the set as a green room or a place to relax. The sets were built with all walls and ceilings, but designed so that walls, ceilings, and large objects could be moved to facilitate filming. Director of photography David Boyd chose to use small hand-held cameras for interior filming, which in turn enhanced the ‘documentary’ feel Whedon wanted for the series. Lighting was provided by lights built into the ship, which were designed to appear practical and realistic.
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Having spent interminable hours of soul-searing boredom on several motion-picture sets myself as a “talent,” I can assure you that having access to a quiet, personal space to gather one’s wits, run lines for your next scene, have a soda or a snack from the catering tent, or just flop around and do not much, is worth whatever the production company has to pay for it. Yes, the ordinary motor home, bus, or travel trailer is fine and well, natch, but an honest-to-God spaceship?!? Now THAT is just too cool for school, kids.

A hundred grand sounds like a lot of dough—okay, okay, it IS a lot of dough—but I can also assure you that to Fillion, Torres, Tudyk, and Co, their Serenity hideaway was easily worth two or three times its weight in gold bullion. In fact, once they’d had a cpl-three days to get their heads around the idea of having their very own spaceship (!) to do them for a green room/lounge/retreat/off-camera hideaway, I seriously doubt they would’ve taken anything at all in trade for it, if only just to retain A) the Cool points, which would have to be considerable, and B) permanent bragging rights amongst their film-industry colleagues; sleazeball agents & managers; phony friends; fans, stalkers, and mentally disordered housebreakers; and/or assorted creepy rumpswabs for this unconventional perquisite.

Now just imagine the possibilities if the Serenity-interior set had locking doors to partition off the main bridge, the galley, the crew lounge/recreation spaces, the cargo bay, personal quarters, etc etc from the rest of the ersatz “ship.”