Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, Joss Whedon (best known for the television shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly) decided to create a supervillain musical, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. The goal was to make a “professionalish” piece of entertainment – without studio involvement – as cheaply as possible and specifically for the internet, where it would be released free of charge …for a limited time. Then it would be packaged as a DVD and sold, hopefully earning enough money to pay the cast and crew for the time they donated in order to make it.
Joss Whedon, his two brothers, Zack and Jed, and Maurissa Tancharoen wrote the story. Joss and Jed wrote the music. Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, Nathan Fillion and Simon Helberg acted in the main roles. The 42 minute long story contains comedy, tragedy, music, frozen yogurt and a death ray. The budget was allegedly just over $200,000 and Whedon (who apparently has no idea what “cheap” actually means) funded the entire thing on his own. It streamed on Hulu and was eventually made available from iTunes as well. The DVD, with its extra musical commentary track, was sold through Amazon and the total sales made enough money to pay the bills and the crew.
If this were only someone’s attempt to bypass the studio system, it would be a cause worth supporting, but, luckily for everyone, it’s a highly entertaining bit of creativity that is definitely worth your time and money. There is talk of a sequel, but the medium has not been finalized yet. It could be feature-length or it might be another small independent project. We won’t know until they write it and decide what they want to do. I can’t wait.
