|
Finding Serenity
''Finding Serenity: Anti-heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly'' is a compilation of essays edited by Jane Espenson with Glenn Yeffeth. The book was released in late 2004 following the cancellation of the television show '' Firefly''. Jane Espenson was a writer for the show and the book contains a series of essays that discuss the show from a variety of viewpoints, some scholarly, others with a comedic note. As well as answering unresolved plotlines and character arcs, the compilation includes insight into the filming of each episode with actress Jewel Staite (who played the role of Kaylee Frye on the show) providing a commentary on each of the episodes produced. Due to ''Fireflys early demise it left viewers with unanswered questions and a certain sense of loss. The essays attempt to resolve the unanswered questions brought up in the show, ranging from the origin of the Reavers, the multi-racial casting, and the use of the Chinese language. Some essa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jane Espenson
Jane Espenson (born July 14, 1964) is an American television writer and producer. Espenson has worked on both situation comedies and serial dramas. She had a five-year stint as a writer and producer on ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and shared a Hugo Award with Drew Goddard for her writing on the episode " Conversations with Dead People". After her work on ''Buffy'', she wrote and produced episodes of '' The O.C.'' and ''Gilmore Girls'' among other series. From 2006 to 2010, Espenson worked on ''Battlestar Galactica'' and many of its supplementary works. Between 2009 and 2010, she served on ''Caprica'', as co-executive and executive producer and co-showrunner. In 2010, she wrote an episode of HBO's ''Game of Thrones'', eventually earning a Writers' Guild Award for her involvement with the show. In 2011 she joined the writing staff for the fourth season of the British television program '' Torchwood'', which aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom and Starz in the United States du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BenBella Books
BenBella Books is an independent publishing house based in Dallas, Texas. BenBella was founded by Glenn Yeffeth in 2001. It specializes in nonfiction books on popular culture, business, health, and nutrition, along with books on science, politics, psychology, and other topics. BenBella Books has four imprints. The BenBella Books imprint publishes broadly in non-fiction. The Smart Pop imprint, now headed by Robb Pearlman, originally focused on essay anthologies on popular culture but now focuses more broadly on fan-friendly titles. The BenBella Vegan imprint focuses on plant-based cookbooks and lifestyle titles. The Matt Holt imprint, launched in 2020, focuses on business, finance, and professional development titles. Selected works BenBella published the nutrition book ''The China Study'' by T. Colin Campbell in 2005, which has gone on to sell over 3 million copies. The company published NYT bestseller ''Presumed Guilty: Casey Anthony: The Inside Story'', written by defense ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paperback
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, leather, paper, or plastic. Inexpensive books bound in paper have existed since at least the 19th century in such forms as pamphlets, yellowbacks, dime novels, and airport novels. Modern paperbacks can be differentiated from one another by size. In the United States, there are "mass-market paperbacks" and larger, more durable "trade paperbacks". In the United Kingdom, there are A-format, B-format, and the largest C-format sizes. Paperback editions of books are issued when a publisher decides to release a book in a low-cost format. Lower-quality paper, glued (rather than stapled or sewn) bindings, and the lack of a hard cover may contribute to the lower cost of paperbacks. Paperback can be the preferred medium when a book is not expect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firefly (TV Series)
''Firefly'' is an American space Western drama television series, created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as an executive producer, along with Tim Minear. The series is set in the year 2517, after the arrival of humans in a new star system, and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of '' Serenity'', a "''Firefly''-class" spaceship. The ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on ''Serenity''. Whedon pitched the show as "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things." The show explores the lives of a group of people, some of whom fought on the losing side of a civil war, who make a living on the fringes of society as part of the pioneer culture of their star system. In this future, the only two surviving superpowers, the United States and China, fused to form the central federal government, called the Alliance, resulting in the fusion of the two cultures. Accord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jewel Staite
Jewel Belair Staite (born June 2, 1982) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her roles as Kaylee Frye in the Fox television series ''Firefly'' (2002–2003) and its spin-off theatrical film '' Serenity'' (2005), and as Jennifer Keller on Sci-Fi Channel's science fiction television series '' Stargate Atlantis'' (2007–2009). Staite also starred as Catalina in '' Space Cases'' (1996), as "Becca" Fisher in '' Flash Forward'' (1996–1997), as Raquel Westbrook in the Canadian drama ''The L.A. Complex'' (2012), and as Caroline Swift in AMC's crime drama '' The Killing'' (2013–2014). Since 2021, she has starred as Abigail Bianchi in the Canadian legal drama series ''Family Law''. Early life Staite was born in White Rock, British Columbia. The youngest of seven children, she modeled as a child and has acted since age six. She has stated that she is of British, Irish, French Canadian, and Iroquois ancestry. Staite attended Vancouver Film School and worked at the Vancouver You ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kaylee Frye
This page lists characters from the television series ''Firefly''. Major characters Malcolm Reynolds Malcolm Reynolds ("Mal"), played by Nathan Fillion, is owner and captain of the Firefly-class spaceship ''Serenity'', and was a volunteer in the war between the Alliance and the Independents (aka "Browncoats"). He got the name for his spaceship from a famous battle he fought and commanded in, the Battle of Serenity Valley. When asked why he named his ship after a lost battle, Zoe comments "Once you're in Serenity, you never leave. You just learn how to live there." He is fiercely loyal to those he calls his crew. Malcolm's main mission is to keep his crew alive and to keep his ship flying. As ''Firefly'' writer Tim Minear stated in an interview: "It's just about getting by. That's always been the mission statement of what the show is—getting by." In "Serenity", Mal says of himself: "f theWind blows northerly, I go North." Screens from ''Serenity'' suggest that Mal was born o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reaver (Firefly)
Reavers are a fictional group of humans in the television series ''Firefly'' and subsequent film ''Serenity'' who live on the fringes of civilized space and have become animalistic. Within most of the timeline of the series and movie, the existence of Reavers is officially denied by the Alliance, the ruling government of humanity in the ''Firefly'' franchise, but they are a harsh reality around the outer planets. The Reavers are mentioned several times during the course of the television show. A Reaver ship is seen in the pilot episode, and the episode " Bushwacked" shows someone who was exposed to the Reavers madness and starts to mimic them. The movie ''Serenity'' featured Reavers and reveals their origin. Concept Joss Whedon, creator of the ''Firefly'' series and director of ''Serenity'', has said of Reavers, "Every story needs a monster. In the stories of the old west it was the Apaches". He explained how he removed the racial aspect of the Apache metaphor by using the Reave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Existentialist
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value of human existence, and the role of personal agency in transforming one's life. In the view of an existentialist, the individual's starting point is phenomenological, grounded in the immediate direct experience of life. Key concepts include " existential angst", a sense of dread, disorientation, confusion, or anxiety in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world, and also authenticity, courage, and human-heartedness. Existentialism is associated with several 19th- and 20th-century European philosophers who shared an emphasis on the human subject, despite often profound differences in thought. Among the earliest figures associated with existentialism are philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche and novelist F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill Whedon (; born June 23, 1964) is an American filmmaker, composer, and comic book writer. He is the founder of Mutant Enemy Productions, co-founder of Bellwether Pictures, and is best known as the creator of several television series: the supernatural drama '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003) and its spinoff ''Angel'' (1999–2004), the short-lived space Western '' Firefly'' (2002), the Internet musical miniseries '' Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog'' (2008), the science fiction drama '' Dollhouse'' (2009–2010), the Marvel Cinematic Universe series '' Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' (2013–2020), and the science fiction drama '' The Nevers'' (2021). After beginning his career in sitcoms, Whedon wrote the poorly-received horror comedy film '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1992) – which he later adapted into the acclaimed television series of the same name – co-wrote the Pixar animated film '' Toy Story'' (1995), and wrote the science fiction horror film '' Alien ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion (; born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian-American actor. He played the leading roles of Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds on '' Firefly'' and its film continuation '' Serenity'', and Richard Castle on '' Castle''. , he was starring as John Nolan on '' The Rookie''. Fillion has acted in traditionally distributed films like '' Slither'' and ''Trucker'', Internet-distributed films like '' Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog'', television soap operas, sitcoms and theater. His voice is also featured in animation and video games, such as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern in various DC Comics projects, the Bungie games ''Halo 3'', '' Halo 3: ODST'', '' Halo: Reach'', ''Destiny'' and ''Destiny 2'', along with the 343 Industries game '' Halo 5: Guardians'', and Wonder Man in Marvel's '' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'' (2017) and '' M.O.D.O.K.'' (2021). Fillion first gained recognition for his work on '' One Life to Live'' in the contract role of Joey Buchanan, for which he was nominated for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malcolm Reynolds
Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds is a fictional character and the protagonist of the ''Firefly'' franchise. Mal is played by actor Nathan Fillion in the 2002 TV series ''Firefly'' and the 2005 film '' Serenity''. In the series, Mal is a former Browncoat sergeant and the captain of the "''Firefly''-class" spaceship ''Serenity''. The character was named #18 in ''TV Guide'' Greatest Sci-Fi Legends list in 2004. Production details Conceived by Joss Whedon, the character Malcolm Reynolds was the only definite character he had in mind when formulating the ensemble cast. He wanted a hero, but not a hero in the classic sense; someone that is "everything that a hero is not." In the proposed pilot, Mal was much darker and considerably more closed-off. Fox network executives objected, and asked that Mal be "lightened up". For the second episode ("The Train Job"), Whedon created a more "jolly" Mal Reynolds. Fillion shares his view on the motivations of the character he portrayed. Mal has lost so mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and (as of 2022) only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both his novel ''Ender's Game'' (1985) and its sequel ''Speaker for the Dead'' (1986). A feature film adaptation of ''Ender's Game'', which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series ''The Tales of Alvin Maker'' (1987–2003). Card's works were influenced by classic literature, popular fantasy, and science fiction; he often uses tropes from genre fiction. His background as a screenwriter has helped Card make his works accessible. Card's early fiction is original but contains graphic violence. His fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
