Joss Whedon’s DOLLHOUSE FOX TV series – FANSITE – Watching Dollhouse
Some news on Dollhouse filming:
Late last week, there was a two-day-long shoot at a Spanish Mission Revival-style duplex in L.A.’s Miracle Mile area—mostly night shots, I believe—and if I had to bet money, I’d say it was serving as Paul’s (Tahmoh Penikett) apartment, where Echo and Paul have their meet-cute/meet-complicated and their very first fight scene.
Source: E! Online
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Many people are already hyped about Joss Whedon’s upcoming ‘Dollhouse’, but for those of you still unsure of whether it will be for you, Televisionary has a good description of what “Hollywood’s best new show” has in store. Slight spoilers ahead:
This isn’t latter-day Alias by any stretch of the imagination: while there are still costume changes and choreographed fight sequences, it delves into bigger issues of morality and mortality and asks hard questions about the ethical ramifications of science and technology.
Yes, there is much more to Dollhousethan meets the eye and Whedon succeeds here by filling his script with a multitude of morally grey characters engaged in one of the most sickening and intriguing displays of human trafficking ever devised. I don’t want to spoil anything but I will say that there there’s an unexplained back story (referred to as Alpha) that will likely come into play down the line and the power structure within the Dollhouse is a fluctuating, living thing unto itself. As for the Dollhouse itself, it certainly didn’t “look” anything like I expected it to based on the information that was trickling out during casting: it’s not a draconian prison nor an icy SD-6-type operations hub; instead it’s more like a serene, Japanese-influenced, high-tech spa for the Actives.
But there’s a real undercurrent of danger lurking here and the staffers–from jokey and amoral tech Topher and gruff handler Boyd to the physically scarred Dr. Claire Saunders and manipulative overseer Adelle DeWitt–engage in a high-stakes game of human chess, with the Actives little more than expendable pawns. Or, well, dolls.
As for Dollhouse’s lead character Echo, this is quite a role that Whedon has written for Eliza Dushku, allowing her to play a variety of personalities and moods in a single episode. In fact, we get to see Echo in no less than five (off the top of my head anyway) identities in the pilot episode alone. As we all know, Echo is struggling with self-awareness, as she begins remembering things from her previous “engagements” that she shouldn’t, things that should have been wiped clean from her memory by Topher. Things that her “captors” don’t want her to remember.
So is it an action-adventure yarn? A story of science gone mad? A tale about a cop determined to get at the truth no matter what the cost? Or a metaphysical drama about the nature of memory and identity? Why can’t it be all of the above?
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Dollhouse writers Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain have just given an exclusive interview to folks at dollhousetvforum.
Here are a few snippets from the interview (it’s spoiler-free):
What are you finding to be the most creatively challenging aspects of the show so far?
Having a main character who can be several different people in a single episode ain’t a picnic. But that challenge is also one of the show’s strengths. And we think that even as Echo changes identities there’s still an Echo-core in there somewhere, waiting to come out. Or maybe it’s not Echo at all… God, we love this show.
What Will Set Dollhouse apart from other whedon-verse shows?
It’s going to be boring and badly written. No, no, no. The main difference is probably that Dollhouse is set in the real world. There are no demons, no spaceships. It’s today, only
with some pretty scary technology. It’s not about super-humans, it’s about how frighteningly human we all are.
When will we start seeing things like promo shoots, an official website, TV/Web advertisements etc?
Joss starts shooting the pilot on April 23rd, and there’s a promo shoot coming up a few days later, so there should be stuff to see in the not-too-distant future. We’re all working with 20th and Fox on the web presence of the show now. Exactly what that’s going to look like we can’t say– because we don’t yet know– but summer is probably a safe bet. Everyone’s trying to get things rolling sooner rather than later.
Will Dollhouse be in the same vein has other Whedon shows? Dark themes with a humorous undertone? As with Buffy and Angel, where the stories were deep, but there was almost always a comedic release. Or will Dollhouse be approached from an entirely different angle?
There are definitely dark themes. The stories will definitely be deep. And there will definitely be some funny. This is Joss we’re talking about– the guy can make homelessness funny. (That’s a Dr. Horrible reference. As soon as it’s possible to see it, you must, you must.)
The more I hear/read about this show, the more hyped I get. It’s looking set to be a terrificly dark portrayal of humanity in a world of science, technology and politics.
You can read the entire interview here.
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Hot news! A few “Dollhouse” casting slides for the characters Dr. Claire Sanders and Sierra have been leaked, and we’ve got them for the pleasure of your beady eyes. To view them click on the following links…but needless to say, they are VERY spoilery, so you’ve been warned:
Side 1 Side 2 Side 3 Side 4 Side 5 Side 6
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Oh Yes! Guess who’s signed up for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse!? Yeah, as if you missed that picture to the left 
Anyway, Amy Acker (Angel, Alias) has been cast in the role of Dr. Claire Sanders. That’s not all, ‘24′ star Harry Lennix has also jumped on-board. He will play the role of an ex-cop who will be Echo’s muscle/bodyguard whilst she’s out on assignments.
I guess things will get a little rough out there for Echo. Unlike NBC’s Bionic Woman she wont be able to look after herself quite as well as Jaime Sommers, although the similarity (in terms of ‘themes’) between the two shows are certainly apparent.
This news follows the announcement that Tahmoh Penikett has also signed up. Oh, and Joss Whedon has also said that Miracle Laurie will play a recurring character called ‘November’. Cool.
Source: Cinema Blend
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E! Online’s Kristin is a lucky lady - she’s already had a sneak-peak at the Dollhouse Pilot, and she gives it a massive THUMBS UP, whilst painting a very delicious picture of what we can expect from Joss Whedon’s potential masterpiece:
What’s the pilot episode called?
“Echo.”
What’s it about?
The logline don’t lie: “Echo (Eliza Dushku) is a young woman who is literally everybody’s fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.”What’s it like?
Dollhouse is like The Bourne Identity meets Stepford Wivesmeets boarding school meets Los Angeles neo-noir meets the Whedonverse. In short, it’s rad, man.If I was writing an eighth-grade book report about Dollhouse, what would I list as the “themes”?
Identity, self-determination, free will is both a blessing and a pain in the ass, The Next Generation’s Data is a great TV character, Eliza Dushku is hot. What? Those first three at least are almost certainly themes.Is Echo just a new name for Faith?
That’s a negatory. Echo has a genius for contemplation and self-awareness that Faith couldn’t begin to approach. Echo also has about 48 different faces to show the world, which gives her a good head start on Faith, who seemed to vary primarily between rage and desolation. In the first episode, we are shown that Echo is essentially like the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz—”If I only had a brain…”—but she’s otherwise fully equipped with a soul, a rockin’ bod, and a good, fearless heart.
Where’s the twist?
The Dolls are programmed to mix up identity and personality with a splash of subterfuge and a dash of dementia—but they’re not the only ones. Tahmoh Penikett’s FBI agent Paul Ballard is obsessed with opening up the Dollhouse, but he may have more in common with—and already be closer to—the Dolls than he even knows.Where is the love?
Echo and Paul are going to be hot like fire, no doubt, but I predict that cerebral Doll mechanic Topher (think Kevin Rankin’s character in Bionic Woman, but more evil) and blank-slate Kewpie-doll Sierra (Dichen Lachman) might end up being the other pair of opposites that attract.
Well, that’s certainly wetted my appetite – how about you?
For more juicy info, head over to E! Online.
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io9 Blog have some interesting spoilers on the upcoming show:
In one scene, Adelle, the “ice queen” who runs the Dollhouse, meets with a Senator who’s considering “buying” an Active doll to use as an “escort.” She convinces the Senator the Active will be better than any human escort, because the emotions will be real to the “doll” and she’ll be programmed to want it as much as he does.
Politics and ‘mind-wiping’ – now there’s an interesting angle!
The geek who programs the dolls, Topher, calls Echo’s “handler” Boyd, because he’s noticed that a group of the mind-wiped dolls has sat together at lunch at the same table for the third time within a week. Dushku’s character, Echo, seems to be initiating this clique, which means she may be evolving beyond her mind wipes.
For me, this is one of the most interesting Dollhouse spoilers that i’ve seen. It poses the question of memory versus evolution. Is Echo retaining some form of ‘memory’ from her experiences and subconsciously responding to them, or is she evolving?..but evolution needs an external impactor to influence such development, right?
The possibilities (of this show) are endless..
Topher the geek and Boyd the handler have differing opinions about their work. Topher believes it’s purely programming and sort of morally wrong (even though he enjoys doing it.) But Boyd thinks it’s healthy for the “dolls” to get to experience every possible human emotion through their programmed personalities.
Interesting to see the prospect of ‘morality’ and ‘ethics’ come into play. I guess the show will also ask the question of whether doing something morally wrong, can still be ethically right..
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Wow, first post, and one of what I hope will be many!
So, you’re here for Dollhouse, right? Well, let’s get this thing started!
First, for an overview of the show see here. Yeah, I know, this show sounds awesome. The Interweb is a-buzz with people open-jawed at just how good a show this could be. Jace at the Televisionary Blog is one such drooler, he offers a bit more backdrop to the show and how it got started:
Dushku will star as Echo, a member of an elite team of secret agents each of whom, according to James Hibberd at TV Week, has “the ability to be imprinted with custom personalities and abilities for special assignments. When they return, their newly acquired memories are wiped. The show follows Echo as she takes on a variety of assignments—some romantic, some adventurous, some uplifting, some illegal—and gains awareness of her role and confinement.”
The idea for the series was hatched by Whedon at a lunch with Dushku, who was allegedly instrumental in bringing Whedon back to network television. The series concept was sold to FOX a week later.
“Beyond Dushku’s character, the show will also revolve around the people who run the mysterious “dollhouse” [the lab] and two other “dolls,” a man and woman who are friendly with Echo. Then there’s the federal agent who has heard an urban myth about the dolls, and is trying to investigate their existence.
Whedon admitted there’s a little dose of The Matrix in the plot — “I do have that entire movie tattooed on my brain” — and said Dollhousewill enable him and Dushku to explore some political and social issues.”
Dare I say that this show ‘could’ be the show that David Eick’s Bionic Woman SHOULD have been!? Themes such as ‘re-awakening’, self awareness, social and political choices, empowerment, to name a few. These are all themes which Bionic Woman promised, but ultimately failed to deliver in a convincing – or entertaining manner.
I have high hopes for Dollhouse- in fact I haven’t been this excited about a TV since LOST and then Bionic Woman. Two out of three (quality shows) is possible, right?
More soon!
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