Is it a good idea for Sarah Michelle Gellar to do a Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie ? There are rumors that she may be in talks to bring it to the big screen—finally ! But is it a good move for her career ?
—Andrea L., Tampa, Fla.
Sorry to crush and squeeze out your dreams like a Sunkist orange, my dear Floridian, but the Buffy movie rumors are a no-go.
"Not gonna happen," Joss Whedon told reporters in Hollywood last week. "Not gonna happen. Until I...make a public announcement myself that it’s going to happen. Never believe anything."
That Whedon—about as sunny as the Hellmouth itself, isn’t he ? As for Sarah Michelle Gellar’s career, I have a source who has seen the script for her next project...
Based on the details, the pregnant Gellar is about to make a brilliant move. Preproduction has begun on an upcoming HBO series called The Wonderful Maladys.
Think Matthew Fox’s Party of Five meets Gwyneth Paltrow in The Royal Tenenbaums : Gellar is part of a tight band of brilliant, eccentric adult siblings who lost their parents early in life...yadda, yadda yadda, dramedy ensues. Sci-fi it ain’t, but then again, Gellar’s dweeb fan base may not be as big as you think.
"A lot of fans were disappointed that she didn’t do the final episodes of [Buffy spinoff] Angel," talent manager Marrissa O’Leary tells me. "It’s the reason why I think it’s safe for her to try another genre, and why I don’t think she’ll be alienating sci-fi fans for doing this."
Besides, Gellar really shouldn’t be doing a ton of movies, O’Leary muses.
"If she does features," she says, "people would theoretically want her to be the lead. But if the film doesn’t work, she would get blamed."
Ergo, Kristin Bell is being very smart by shunning lead roles and sticking with supporting parts like she did with Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
"If that had tanked, it wouldn’t have been her fault, but there are still plenty of people who would see that film because she’s in it," O’Leary explains.
And lastly, the Maladys part Gellar has selected—Alice, a bookish sort who hangs out in coffee shops and who is the only single person in her family—is a genius move.
"She doesn’t play stupid well," O’Leary says.
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