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A new ‘Buffy: the Vampire Slayer’ takes a small step toward the big screen

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‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ began as a film and then became a hugely successful TV show. Now it’s returning to its roots.

The hit WB series, now off the air for seven years, is coming back as a movie courtesy of a young writer named Whit Anderson, who will write the movie for the producers of ‘The Dark Knight.’

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The original 1992 movie, which series creator Joss Whedon also wrote, was more of a spoof than the series and its more substantial vampire tales. As our colleague Geoff Boucher tells us in an exclusive story at our sister Hero Complex blog, Anderson was a fan of the show, so expect some of the darker themes — and humor — of the series to be present here.

There will be an interesting piece of timing in all this — the ‘Twilight’ franchise is entering a heady homestretch, with the final movies scheduled for fall 2011 and 2012. ‘Buffy’ in many ways laid the groundwork for that franchise but with a lot less of the doe-eyed romance that the Bella-Edward chornicles favor. So it will be interesting to see if ‘Buffy’ can come back and thrive at a time when many younger filmgoers, at least, associate vampire movies with said romance.

It’s worth noting that Joss Whedon, off working on all things ‘Avengers,’ won’t be involved in the new film. And the project sounds a long ways away from casting, though the question of who will play Buffy will be an interesting one too. (Sarah Michelle Gellar, at 33, is probably a bit too past her slay-by date.)

If the movie does get made, it would complete a neat movie-TV-movie circle. And at a time when every classic and modern television series has been made, or could soon get made, into a movie, here’s one fans would genuinely want — but would they want it without Whedon?

— Steven Zeitchik

twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

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