Are you seriously equating Hollywood movies with all human culture?

Good god, man.

No, I get what you were saying, but my point still stands. If you’re looking to reboot a franchise, particularly one that’s still warm like Buffy, you’re not going to surpass the original’s numbers very easily. Star Trek’s success now is comparable to the success of the first movie. It hasn’t surpassed it, and its success was largely dependent on the nostalgia factor for casual viewers and rabid devotion from the core fanbase. Buffy will have neither of those things, and in fact will probably have to deal with a hostile core fanbase.

It’s not a great business move, unless it goes straight to DVD or SciFi Channel or something.

I would much rather follow the comics than see a movie that Joss Whedon isn’t involved in.

I wasn’t comparing Buffy to Star Wars in terms of audience size and popularity, so your pointing out the differences between the two in that respect has no real bearing on my argument.

Not incuding Whedon will alienate many of the fans of the series.

This movie smells of epic fail.

And when it comes down to it, the new Star Trek just brought the franchise back to prominence, but when adjusted for inflation, is tracking comparably to the first movie. Assuming that Buffy follows the same model, it hits the ceiling at the same numbers as the show’s peak, probably lower because you didn’t have to pay ten bucks to watch the show.

Buffy is a niche property that is successful within its niche, it doesn’t have the mainstream appeal that Star Trek does. Star Trek is like Batman or Superman, even if you’re not a regular fan of the original property, you know who they are and what they’re about. Buffy is like Manhunter, to continue the DC analogy. A great series with loyal fans, but it’s not going to break any sales records.

First of all, the idea that Buffy fans won’t have anything to do with it is probably perfectly okay to the filmmakers because (as much as the Whedon army is loathe to admit it) Buffy fans are a relatively small clique who don’t nearly comprise a large enough number to carry a feature film in and of themselves. Hell, they were barely enough to keep the TV show on the air. (And, as a matter of simple fact, had the show aired anywhere other than WB/UPN, it’ viewer numbers would have gotten it canceled before it ever saw year 3).

Much like the recent Star Trek film (which has been monstrously successful–and in all likelihood the impetus for the Buffy revival) the whole point of this reboot will be to remake the franchise for a new generation of (mostly younger) fans, not cater slavishly to the old fans who are obsessively steeped in the nostalgic detail of what’s gone before (but, at the same time, leaving the door open for any of them who want to come along for the ride).

Could it fail? Sure, but then so could everything. That being said, the reasoning behind the decision, for a business standpoint (and never forget, it is a business) is actually pretty sound.

Really, the only part that sounds like a bad idea is putting it in the hands of the original film’s director because, y’know, the original film sucked.

And oh yeah — bad idea, this remake. Baaaad.

Do not reboot the movie property. Make a sequel. Get the original cast back together, as much as you can, and make a sequel to the ’92 movie. Kristy Swanson can be the all-grown-up Buffy Summers, a forty-something kick-a$$ and take names vampire-slayer (who could maybe even have just reached the peak of her powers, if you wanted to go that way). At this point, it would be a fairly star-studded cast, I think. Like I said, I’ve never seen the original, but I just looked at the imdb page, and it’s really a pretty impressive cast, these days. It would be especially awesome, and a big draw from an untapped potential fan-base, to bring in Keifer Sutherland to replace his dad as the new watcher. He could even actually be the son of the previous watcher! I would actually love to see this movie, if it got made. It would also make me go back and watch the old 90s one finally, while I almost certainly wouldn’t do that if they just rebooted the property.

Plus, isn’t a reboot redundant? Wouldn’t a reboot give us the THIRD beginning story of Buffy? I don’t think we need that.

You know what I want? I want Whedon to bypass the legalities of character use in movie properties by getting down to business on a “Fray” movie that builds off of the mythos of the show. That’s what I really want to see.