What do you do when you wrap filming on the most anticipated movie of 2012, but you haven’t yet finished post-production on it? Shoot another movie … in 12 days.

Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, has been busy working on The Avengers for Marvel, but it appears he had enough time off to do some work on a pet project of his own.  It would seem he snuck off for a few days with a few of his old crew from various TV shows and shot a contemporary retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

Apparently this is the first project out of a new venture Whedon has formed a new studio called Bellwether Films with someone named Kai Cole.  They are referring to it as a “micro-studio” that will focus on making smaller productions.  Judging by the fact that no one knew this was filming, and it shot in only 12 days, that seems to definitely qualify as “micro” to me.

The cast has some very familiar names amongst them, and also appears to have very much kept it in the family with only one actor he had not worked with previously.

• Amy Acker is Beatrice (she played “Fred” in Angel)
• Alexis Denisof is Benedick (He played Wesley in Buffy and Angel)
• Nathan Fillion is Dogberry (He appeared as “Caleb” in Buffy, “Capt. Mal” in Firefly and “Hammer” in Dr. Horrible)
• Clark Gregg is Leonato (he appears in The Avengers as Agent Phil Coulson)
• Fran Kranz is Claudio (he appeared in Cabin in the Woods)
• Reed Diamong is Don Pedro

It is known amongst Whedon fans that he has a tendency to gather his actors at his house on Sundays for dramatic readings, including the works of Shakespeare, so it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that this was born out of that.

Right now it is planned that the film will hit the festival circuit next year.

While it is certainly an intriguing concept, and something I’d love to see, I’d love to know how he got away from his duites in The Avengers to do it.

[Thanks to Jo for the tip]

I don’t normally get all that excited about fan made stuff.  I have nothing against it as a hobby, I just don’t ever see much point to watching them.  Well, seeing as I am suffering a bout of writer’s block on the article I’m working on, and someone Tweeted about a fan made Green Lantern trailer, and I thought, “Oh, what the heck”, so I checked it out.

Wow.

This is one of the best fan made videos I’ve seen, and yes, I know that the majority of the footage comes from other films, but it works, and it works well.  And, I have to say, seeing Nathan Fillion in connection with Hal Jordan, he would be excellent in the role,but I don’t expect him to get it.

I would say for those of you unfamiliar with the mythos of the Green Lanterns, this covers it pretty well.  I’m not sure how much the movie will deal with the other members of the Green Lantern Corps, it was a cool concept seeing so many of the recognizable members in there. (Kilowog and Tomar-Re to name a couple)

Good job to whomever made this, lets hope Warner Brothers treats the property with as much reverence as you did.

The amount of people in this world who don’t get comedy is beginning to frighten me.

James Gunn, a writer/director/actor, has started a web series entitled PG Porn with his brothers, Sean and Brian, which is all about copying the porn movies of the 1980′s, but without the sex.  Yes, you read that correctly, there is no sex in the series.  It stars real life porn actresses Aria Giovanni, Belladonna and Sasha Grey with mainstream actors Nathan Fillion and Michael Rosenbaum.  Each short film is constructed to be like a 1980′s porn film, just minus the sex so you can concentrate on the riveting stories.  If the first episode is anything to go by, they will end badly… just see for your self.  (Please note there is NO nudity or sex in this clip, but it does feature some rocking porn-style music… if the embed is not working, go here, it keeps going down for some reason.)

While I personally found this highly amusing, it seems that Theresa Darklady Reed of the Huffington Post didn’t.  Ms. Reed calls it “…another example of violent misogyny self-righteously disguised as humor” and “The Gunn brothers apparently consider violence against women to be not just acceptable but sexy…”.  While Ms. Reed claims to “get” the joke, it is fairly obvious she doesn’t.  James Gunn has defended his series against this argument and informed readers of his MySpace blog that in future episodes there are more deaths, but they aren’t always the women.

This is another case like the recent situation of Paramount having no sense of humor about South Park or a couple getting angry over being featured ina  Saturday Night Live sketch.  In no way did I take this little film to be a case of “misogyny” or violence against women.  The Gunn’s have gone on record as saying how this would also technically be rated as PG if it was a film because Hollywood is far more relaxed on violence than it is on sex.  I would also say that for this to be considered an a case of violence against women, it would have had to be intentional on the part of the construction worker as opposed to what was obviously meant to be taken as an accident.

Did he shoot her in the head with the nail gun out of anger?  No.  Did he show remorse afterwords?  Yes.  Would a cop arrest him for manslaughter as opposed to murder?  Yes.  Was it an accident?  Yes.

Why is everyone taking comedy so seriously all of a sudden?It is meant in humor, it is obviously humor, sure it may not be for you, but does that mean you have to try to make it into something it isn’t?  If this was a case of “misogyny”, does this mean women are completely off to being made fun of now?  Does every female character in every story now have to live no matter what?  Apparently so since women dying, even by accident, is now considered an endoresement of violence against women.

… I think my head hurts now.

Fans of Joss Whedon may want to rush over to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog before Sunday.

For those who haven’t heard about this yet, this is a wacky little project Joss came up with of a series of 3 short films to be broadcast on the Internet.  The story follows Dr. Horrible’s (Neil Patrick Harris) quest to get in to the Evil League of Evil while also trying to woo Penny (Felicia Day). The problem with both of the Doctor’s quests is that Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) is getting in his way by stopping his evil deeds and wooing Penny.

So, why do you need to watch these before Sunday?  Well, for now, they are free to watch, but after Sunday they will be taken down and you will only be able to purchase them through iTunes, or wait for some sort of DVD release.  Each episode is 13 – 14 minutes in length, and episodes 1 & 2 are out, with episode 3 coming out on Saturday.

Now, I am sure some folks out there are wondering how they actually are quality wise, and I have to say I have loved the first two episodes.  I get the feeling Mr. Whedon is a frustrated musician, but I would love to see him do a rock & roll musical film, or dare I say, a Broadway show?  I think he may actually have the chops for this after this project and the Buffy, The Vampire Slayer musical episode showing what he can do.

Anyway, it is great fun, and well worth your time.  It has his common theme that no one is black or white, but we are all shades of gray.  And, could someone please tell me when I started enjoying Neil Patrick Harris’ work so much?  I love him in just about everything he does now.  Nathn Fillion is Nathan Fillion as always, but his last line in episode 2 made me nearly cry I was laughing so hard at his delivery.

Get over there and watch it for free before it’s gone!