Serenity
Short description
Set in the 26th century, Serenity follows the crew of a small transport ship that takes on cargo and smuggling jobs while staying clear of the Universal Alliance, the authoritarian government that controls the galaxy. Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a veteran of a war he lost, commands a loyal but unruly crew of dissidents and outlaws. Their routine is disrupted when they accept two passengers: a young doctor and his sister, a telepath whose mind holds secrets the Alliance is determined to recover. An Alliance agent pursues them relentlessly, and the crew comes to realize that the greatest danger may be travelling with them.
The film is Joss Whedon's directorial debut and the first entry in his filmography, arriving after his work in television. Whedon wrote the screenplay, Barry Mendel produced, and Nathan Fillion leads a cast that includes Summer Glau, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin and Adam Baldwin.
Released in 2005, Serenity had a budget of 39 million dollars and took in about 40 million worldwide. Audience response has been strong and durable: it holds 7.8 on IMDb from some 315,000 votes and 7.4 on TMDB from about 4,000 votes. Critics' ratings stand at 7.4 from 187 reviews, a level essentially matching the audience scores. The vote counts indicate a devoted following rather than broad mainstream attention.
What's left behind the scenes
- In the star system inhabited by the characters in the film, Chinese is quite common, and they specifically prefer to use profanity in that language.
- This film is the first product from Universal Studios to be released on HD-DVD.
- The cannon installed on 'Serenity' by the crew is a German 20mm Flak 38 anti-aircraft gun from World War II.
- While trying to get River to sleep, Dr. Simon Tam says the phrase 'This is a laughing matter' in Russian.
- In the funeral scene, Kayleigh wears a medallion depicting a Chinese symbol of happiness, which is typically used at weddings.
- According to Nathan Fillion, he personally brought blueprints to the set, which were then used to build the spaceship set, as the existing and prepared blueprints had been lost. He had them himself because he had previously participated in the filming of the original series and photographed all the sets and blueprints.
- In the cargo hold, after Summer Glau’s character is wounded, boxes labeled “Suitable for Reuse. Do Not Destroy” come into the frame. This is a kind of joke and a reference to the fact that the spaceship sets had to be rebuilt from scratch, as the sets from the original series "Firefly" (2002) were not preserved.
- Director and screenwriter Joss Whedon, as well as Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nathan Fillion, Summer Glau, and Sean Maher, performed many of the stunts themselves. Before filming began, Glau trained with fight choreographers for three months. During the second fight scene, cinematographer Jack N. Green moved directly between the fighters and took up a different position, which added dynamism to the entire scene.
- During filming, the actors involved in the project would shout Summer Glau's name whenever someone forgot their line or an action within their role. This peculiar custom originates from the filming of the series “Firefly” (2002), when after completing a long and complex scene, Glau forgot to say her line.
- During a conversation between the characters played by Nathan Fillion and Morena Baccarin, the viewer sees four scars on Fillion’s character. All of them were received in different episodes of the 2002 project “Firefly”.
- The viewer gets the impression that the opening shots of the film were filmed in one long take without cuts or edits, but this is not actually the case. In the scene where Nathan Fillion and Sean Maher’s characters descend to the lower decks, some image details were “erased” using digital technology because the characters were transitioning from one set to another at that moment.
- According to Joss Whedon, the characters of Alan Tudyk and Ron Glass had to be killed off because the actors were unable to participate in the sequels. In the original script, before it was known that some of the leading actors would not continue filming, it was assumed that all the main characters would remain alive.
- Mel's personnel file, which the Operative was reviewing, lists his date of birth as September 20, 2468. This is likely a reference to the premiere of the series "Firefly," which premiered on September 20, 2002. Furthermore, September 20, 1968 was the birthday of the series' writer and producer, Ben Edlund.
- Wash, the pilot of Serenity, wears a jacket with the emblem of the Interkosmos international space program on one sleeve and the emblem of the Cosmonaut Leonov spacecraft mission from the film Space Odyssey 2010 (1984) on the other.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
