Star Trek" made a successful leap from television to the big screen. "Twin Peaks"? Not so much.

		Movie Review 'Serenity'

Other than the six-episode "Police Squad!" (which begat "The Naked Gun" franchise), Fox's 14-episode 2002 series "Firefly" may be the shortest-lived TV series to inspire a big-screen flick.

But the persistence of writer-director-creator Joss Whedon and his passion for "Firefly," combined with DVD sales (500,000 boxed sets and counting) and fan adoration, led Universal Pictures to greenlight a "Firefly" movie, "Serenity," which rockets into theaters today.

Whedon, who accrued a loyal fan following with the TV shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," expressed interest in making a "Firefly" movie as soon as Fox canceled the show.

"There are two things you should never underestimate," Whedon said in a pair of phone interviews over the past two weeks. "One is genuine passion, and the other is luck."

At first, Whedon said his agents and lawyers didn't understand his insistence that he was not done telling stories in the "Firefly" universe.

"I will, by God, tell this story and fulfill the promise I made to these extraordinary people, the people who play these parts, and the people who see them," Whedon recalled. "And then Universal made it embarrassingly easy. In the face of total despair, you're prepared to take that hill, and Universal had an elevator with tea and crumpets waiting."

"Serenity" tells the story of a spaceship transport crew of final frontier outcasts led by Capt. Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), who takes in a doctor (Sean Maher) and his damaged/psychic sister, River (Summer Glau). They're pursued by The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who's ing to capture River.

That's just a brief plot sketch. All Whedon projects are reliant on characters and relationships, and "Firefly" featured a regular cast of nine. In addition, Whedon always has in mind at least pieces of a grand plan for his TV series. When it came time to do the movie, he was tempted to throw in everything he had planned for season two of "Firefly."

"It wasn't difficult to shift [to a movie] mind set; it was more difficult to figure out what information I needed and what I needed to let go of," Whedon said. "If the show had been the biggest thing ever, the characters would need no explanation. But we were making a movie as if there'd been no show."

The goal to make "Serenity" stand on its own was an important distinction to Whedon, who said, "I'm not interested in making a glorified episode of television for my first movie."

To help generate buzz for "Serenity," Universal began a series of advance screenings in cities across the country.

Bob Taylor, a Mt. Lebanon-based TV and pop culture freelance writer who contributed an essay to a book about "Firefly" ("Finding Serenity" from BenBella Books), saw a sneak preview of "Serenity" at the Loews Waterfront theater in late June.

"I think they know for this film to succeed they'll have to rely on excellent word-of-mouth from hard-core fans," Taylor said.

Whedon said Universal came up with the unusual idea after fans, who call themselves "Browncoats" after an element of the show's mythology, got into a test screening of "Serenity" and skewed the film's scores.

"This energy [and interest] is something we should harness, and let them spread the word," Whedon said, explaining the marketing plan. Some fans who attended the sneak previews plan to see "Serenity" again this weekend in an effort to help its box office and pave the way for sequels.

Not surprisingly, "Firefly" devotee Taylor is also a fan of "Serenity," which he saw for a second time at a screening this week.

"If there are no sequels to follow, it provides an excellent sense of closure for the fans that we certainly didn't get from the end of the TV show," he said. "I don't see 'Serenity' as a big sci-fi movie in the vein of 'Star Wars.' It's a little more like 'Star Trek.' It's really about the people and the relationships they have to one another and their commitment to one another."

Whedon said it's unlikely "Firefly" could return as a TV series, but he'd like to make more "Firefly" films.

"Believe me when I say the movie being a hit is more than I can hope for," Whedon said, happy to helm more movies starring the "Serenity" cast. "They're epic, funny, exciting people. These characters are ones I love on that scale."

For Taylor and other fans, interest in "Serenity" is sky-high, not just because they want to see the "Firefly" story continue, but also because of an affection for all things Whedon.

"I think a lot of it comes from a dedication and devotion to Joss and his work as a whole," Taylor said. "There are definitely people out there who aren't 'Buffy' and 'Angel' fans and love 'Firefly'; and there are 'Buffy' and 'Angel' people who never got into 'Firefly,' but they're devoted fans of his work, whether it's the 'X-Men' comic book he's writing, whatever his project, they'll turn out for his stuff. He's the star."

Whedon deflects such plaudits.

"I don't think it's me, I think it's the work and what the different pieces of work share," he said. "This is going to sound as pompous as it can, but it's a celebration of humanity.

"The idea that the everyday schmo is someone to be lauded and to be observed closely and celebrated for getting through the day. In 'Serenity,' nobody would think to look at [these characters] twice, nor would they ask them to. But in situations, some people are called upon to give and be brave more than other people. This is us writ large. It's not the great heroes, it's the schlubs like us who are put in a great situation the great heroes were supposed to show up for; but they got us instead."