New 'Buffy' Movie & Whedon's Response

joss_whedonE! Online brought some details about the planned BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER feature film from Warner Brothers and Atlas Entertainment. This project is going ahead without Joss Whedon or Sarah Michelle Gellar.
DARK KNIGHT producer Charles Roven is quoted as saying:
“There is an active fan base eagerly awaiting this character’s return to the big screen.  Details of the film are being kept under wraps, but I can say while this is not your high-school Buffy, she’ll be just as witty, tough, and sexy as we all remember her to be.”
According to Warner Brothers, Roven, Steve Alexander (GET SMART), Doug Davison and Roy Lee (HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON) will be producing the new BUFFY feature film,and Whit Anderson, an actress (credited as Whitney Anderson) said to be a Buffy fan, will write the screenplay.
E! asked Joss Whedon for his reactions, and he replied in humorous fashion.

“… My thoughts on the announcement of Buffy the cinema film.  This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths—just because they can’t think of an original idea of their own, like I did with my AVENGERS idea that I made up myself.
Obviously I have strong, mixed emotions about something like this. My first reaction upon hearing who was writing it was, “Whit Stillman AND Wes Anderson?  This is gonna be the most sardonically adorable movie EVER.” 
Apparently. I was misinformed. Then I thought, “I’ll make a mint!  This is worth more than all my TOY STORY residuals combined!” Apparently, I am seldom informed of anything. And possibly a little slow.  But seriously, are vampires even popular any more?
I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death.  But, you know, AFTER.  I don’t love the idea of my creation in other hands, but I’m also well aware that many more hands than mine went into making that show what it was. And there is no legal grounds for doing anything other than sighing audibly. I can’t wish people who are passionate about my little myth ill.
I can, however, take this time to announce that I’m making a Batman movie.  Because there’s a franchise that truly needs updating. So look for The Dark Knight Rises Way Earlier Than That Other One And Also More Cheaply And In Toronto, rebooting into a theater near you.
Leave me to my pain! 
Sincerely, Joss Whedon “

The re-boot film is apparently based on the original 1992 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, starring Kristy Swanson as a rather less intelligent-seeming cheerleader-turned-Slayer.   Joss Whedon also wrote that film, but doesn’t hold the rights.