After being on vacation from television for a few years, the one and only Joss Whedon is back with Dollhouse, a new show produced by Fox. And joining him will be none other than Eliza Dushku, who played the darker, more existentialist antithesis to Sarah Michelle Gellar’s cult character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Tim Minear, who previously worked with Whedon on Angel and Firefly, will be on the writing team. Fox has already ordered seven episodes of the show and filming is expected to begin after the writers’ strike ends next year.
Dollhouse, it seems, will give Whedon plenty of opportunity to explore people’s fantasies, deconstruct the notion of power in present day society and tackle the relationship between identity and persona with his protagonist, named Echo.
Whedon, whose last contribution to quality entertainment was his 2005 big screen debut Serenity, explained the premise of the show in an interview with Kristin at E!Online earlier today, “The idea is those with the money or connections can access this secret highly illegal facility where they can basically fulfill their greatest fantasies. Most people assume that means sex — and on an occasion it does, because that is a lot of people’s fantasies — but it’s basically scenarios. They can basically reenact scenarios of romance, adventure or anything perfectly, because they become the person that you want them to be — they become that person. They don’t act like that person, they are not a robot pretending, they become that person, and then they forget all about it.”
Dushku, who will get to wear a different personality in each episode, said: “I’ll be one of the producers of the show and it’s eventually kind of a story of my life. I’ve had kind of a crazy life, traveling around the world with my mother at a young age, going on these crazy trips and adventures, and then being in this business. It is the story of who I am, in this business especially, like the objectification of people, and who people want to make other people into, and people clicking a button and thinking they can make something happen.”
Sounds like another cult series on the horizon.
