A SUCCESSFUL RE-ENTRY? JOSS WHEDON'S CANCELED SCI-FI SERIES GETS A BIG-SCREEN MAKEOVER WITH 'SERENITY' BY DAVID KRONKE STAFF WRITER.

Joss Whedon is as obsessive as his fans.

As the mastermind behind ``Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and its spinoff, ``Angel,'' Whedon is considered akin to a deity in some circles, and he personally has a crazed devotion to the fantasy worlds he creates.

Case in point: Whedon's TV series ``Firefly,'' a stylish hybrid combining elements of science-fiction and Westerns, about an unlikely group of misfits traversing the universe in a spaceship with the inapt moniker Serenity, usually chased by authorities and villains alike. ``Firefly'' debuted on the Fox network in the fall of 2002 and was gone in just a little more time than it took you to read this paragraph.

And there, by every rational measure, it would have ended, except for Whedon's desire to pursue the Serenity's saga further and some rabid fans.

``My commitment was not a small factor - it bordered on the psychotic,'' Whedon admits during an interview at a posh L.A. hotel.

In a navy pullover and tan pants with a tight plaid pattern - Vince Vaughn could play touch football in this outfit - Whedon looks about as out-of-place here as Serenity's crew usually did wherever they turned up. He's soft-spoken and wryly self-deprecating, but his leg furiously pumps away his nervous energy, up-and-down, during much of the interview.

``It had been a long time since I had come up with a story and not been able to tell it - it hurt too much,'' Whedon continues. ``The idea that I let all these people down who were so compelling in these roles didn't set well with me.''

So Whedon pressed, and from the ashes of ``Firefly'' emerges ``Serenity.'' Written and directed by Whedon, the film reassembles the series' entire original cast and advances the series' mythology, revealing grim secrets about the authoritarian Alliance and the irrationally murderous Reavers, both of whom generally made life miserable for the Serenity's crew.

While movies about popular TV shows are (somewhat depressingly) de rigueur, movies about failed programs are understandably rare. The last short-lived series to realize a cinematic incarnation was ``Twin Peaks,'' and that film tanked. And, of course, there was ``Star Trek'' before that.

While Whedon was The Man over at The WB, which had evolved into a viable network thanks to his programs, Fox wasn't so impressed with this auteur.

``I felt responsible, a little bit, for being arrogant,'' Whedon confesses. ``I sort of (felt), 'Hey! It's me!' and if you make a show and it's good, your job is done. There's no way you're going to spend all this money on a show that's this well-done and then (expletive) it. It simply can't happen.'' He pauses, then responds to this earlier assumption: ``Oops.''

His witty mea culpa doesn't entirely mask the pain that lingers from that experience.

``I was selling to a buyer who did not want what they were getting,'' he says. ``I do feel we made the show well, I tried to cooperate - it wasn't like I alienated the network by saying, '(Expletive) you, I'm going to do the show my way.' We worked together, but they didn't want it, they barely aired it - it wasn't a good match. There was some guilt involved with my hubris.''

By the time a New York Times Magazine piece all but declared ``Firefly'' the Best TV Series Ever and its creator Mayor of TV Town - before the series had even debuted - ``It was all over by then,'' Whedon declares. ``I'll never understand what happened. There may have been a personal agenda there with somebody because it's so counterintuitive on so many levels. But that may be conspiracy-theorizing.''

Says Adam Baldwin, who plays mercenary muscle-head Jayne Cobb in the film, ``When we were canceled, there was a large amount of disappointment that we weren't given more of a chance. There was some animosity toward Fox, but I don't look at it that way at all. You're running a business and we didn't get the ratings, bottom line.''

(Executives who scheduled and subsequently canceled ``Firefly'' have since left the network.)

A considerable factor in helping Universal bankroll ``Serenity,'' Whedon says, was the show's loyal cult fan base. The series sold well on DVD, and inspires feverish online chatter to this day. When Whedon announced sneak previews of ``Serenity,'' tickets to some screenings went for as much as $300 on eBay.

``It's a nice feeling to go online and see people talking about episodes that aired how many years ago?'' says Jewel Staite, who plays the gal- next-door ship's mechanic Kaylee. ``It's incredible, really.''

Whedon says of his fans, ``They did an extraordinary thing with this movie - they kept me going, they kept the fire going at Universal, they've been active in trying to get people interested in it. That's really gratifying. Everyone assumes they're a ginormous bunch of nerds who have never seen the opposite sex, but when I go out and meet them, they're much more well-adjusted and better-looking than me. Which is very dispiriting, actually. I feel like I'm one of them. Actors can get into very weird situations with fans, but it's different for writers.''

Whedon's work expands from the requisite male fan base to include female cultists because, as he notes, ``The woman who is kicking the boo-tay is always going to be an obsession of mine.''

In ``Serenity,'' mysterious waiflike telepath River (Summer Glau) is revealed to be a killing machine.

``I trained every day for three months'' to perfect combat moves, Glau says. ``I still have my scars that I can look down on.''

Powerful women terrorizing evildoers' posteriors will definitely be the theme of Whedon's next project, ``Wonder Woman.''

``People may get sick of that, and there will be other things I want to do that won't concern women kicking the boo-tay,'' he says. ``Wonder Woman is, in fact, the granny of all my works, so she makes sense for me. She's very different from Buffy.''

Another ``Buffy'' film (the TV series was spun off from a mismanaged movie that Whedon had scripted), at this point, looks unlikely.

Ironically, Whedon's beloved ``Firefly'' quite likely would have had much better chances for survival had it debuted this season. Serialized science-fiction is all over the networks' prime-time lineups, with shows such as ``Lost,'' ``Threshold,'' ``Invasion'' and ``Supernatural'' drawing decent audiences.

Does Whedon curse the bad luck of worse timing?

``I try not to,'' he says. ``Regret is a luxury. Having said that, damn! ''

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

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5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) REACHING SERENITY

Joss Whedon and fanatics now at peace as dumped TV show hits big screen

(2) Morena Baccarin, left, as Inara, and Chixwetel Ejiofor as the Operative in ``Serenity.''

(3) Nathan Fillion as Mal

(4) Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb

(5) no caption (spaceship)