title: Cougar

text: The gray wolf and the cougar compete more directly for prey, mostly in winter. Packs of wolves can steal cougars' kills, and there are some documented cases of cougars being killed by them. One report describes a large pack of seven to 11 wolves killing a female cougar and her kittens, while in nearby Sun Valley, Idaho, a 2-year-old male cougar was found dead, apparently killed by a wolf pack. Conversely, one-to-one confrontations tend to be dominated by the cat, and there are various documented accounts where wolves have been ambushed and killed, including adult male specimens. Wolves more broadly affect cougar population dynamics and distribution by dominating territory and prey opportunities, and disrupting the feline's behavior. Preliminary research in Yellowstone, for instance, has shown displacement of the cougar by wolves. One researcher in Oregon noted: "When there is a pack around, cougars are not comfortable around their kills or raising kittens [...] A lot of times a big cougar will kill a wolf, but the pack phenomenon changes the table." Both species are capable of killing mid-sized predators, such as bobcats, Canada lynxes, wolverines and coyotes, and tend to suppress their numbers. Although cougars can kill coyotes, the latter have been documented attempting to prey on cougar cubs.


title: Cougar

text: In the southern portion of its range, the cougar and jaguar share overlapping territory. The jaguar tends to take the larger prey where ranges overlap, reducing both the cougar's potential size and the likelihood of direct competition between the two cats. Cougars appear better than jaguars at exploiting a broader prey niche and smaller prey.


title: Cougar

text: Like almost all cats, the cougar is a mostly solitary animal. Only mothers and kittens live in groups, with adults meeting rarely. While generally loners, cougars will reciprocally share kills with one another and seem to organize themselves into small communities defined by the territories of dominant males. Cats within these areas socialize more frequently with each other than with outsiders. Other research suggests a much smaller lower limit of , but an even greater upper limit of for males. Male home ranges include or overlap with those of females but, at least where studied, not with those of other males. Home ranges of females overlap slightly. Males create scrapes composed of leaves and duff with their hind feet, and mark them with urine and sometimes feces.


title: Cougar

text: Home range sizes and overall cougar abundance depend on terrain, vegetation, and prey abundance. Estimates of home range sizes for cougars vary greatly. Large male home ranges of with female ranges half that size. One female adjacent to the San Andres Mountains was found with a large range of , necessitated by poor prey abundance. Research has shown cougar abundances from 0.5 animals to as many as seven per . When males encounter each other, they vocalize and may engage in violent conflict if neither backs down.


title: Cougar

text: Cougars communicate with various vocalizations. Aggressive sounds include growls, spits, snarls and hisses. During the mating season, estrus females produce caterwauls or yowls to attract mates and males respond with similar vocals. Mothers and offspring keep in contact with whistles, chirps and mews.


title: Cougar

text: Females reach sexual maturity at the age of 18 months to three years and are in estrus for about eight days of a 23-day cycle; the gestation period is approximately 91 days. Both adult males and females may mate with multiple partners and a female's litter can have multiple paternities. Copulation is brief but frequent. Chronic stress can result in low reproductive rates in captivity as well as in the field.


title: Cougar

text: Gestation is 82–103 days long. Only females are involved in parenting. Litter size is between one and six cubs; typically two. Caves and other alcoves that offer protection are used as litter dens. Born blind, cubs are completely dependent on their mother at first, and begin to be weaned at around three months of age. As they grow, they begin to go out on forays with their mother, first visiting kill sites, and after six months beginning to hunt small prey on their own. Kitten survival rates are just over one per litter.


title: Cougar

text: Juveniles remain with their mothers for one to two years. When the females reaches estrous again, their offspring must disperse or the male will kill them. Males tend to disperse further than females. One study has shown a high mortality rate amongst cougars that travel farthest from their maternal range, often due to conflicts with other cougars. In a study area in New Mexico, males dispersed farther than females, traversed large expanses of non-cougar habitat and were probably most responsible for nuclear gene flow between habitat patches.


title: Cougar

text: Life expectancy in the wild is reported at 8 to 13 years, and probably averages 8 to 10; a female of at least 18 years was reported killed by hunters on Vancouver Island. Cougars may live as long as 20 years in captivity. Causes of death in the wild include disability and disease, competition with other cougars, starvation, accidents, and, where allowed, hunting. The feline immunodeficiency virus is well-adapted to the cougar.


title: Cougar

text: The cougar has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2008 and is also listed on CITES Appendix II. Hunting it is prohibited in California, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, French Guiana, Suriname, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and most of Argentina. Hunting is regulated in Canada, Mexico, Peru and the United States. Establishing wildlife corridors and protecting sufficient range areas are critical for the sustainability of cougar populations. Research simulations showed that it faces a low extinction risk in areas, which are larger than . Between one and four new individuals entering a population per decade markedly increases persistence, thus highlighting the importance of habitat corridors.


title: Cougar

text: The Texas Mountain Lion Conservation Project was launched in 2009 and aimed at raising awareness of local people about the status and ecological role of the cougar, and mitigating conflict between landowners and cougars.


title: Cougar

text: The cougar is threatened by habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, and depletion of its prey base due to poaching. Hunting is legal in western United States, and it is threatened in Florida by heavy traffic, which causes frequent fatal accidents involving cougars. Highways are a major barrier for dispersal of cougars.


title: Cougar

text: The cougar populations in California are becoming fragmented with the increase of human population and infrastructure growth in the state.


title: Cougar

text: Human–wildlife conflict in proximity of of cougar habitat is pronounced in areas with a median human density of and a median livestock population density of . Conflict is generally lower in areas more than away from roads and away from settlements.


title: Cougar

text: Due to the expanding human population, cougar ranges increasingly overlap with areas inhabited by humans. Attacks on humans are very rare, as cougar prey recognition is a learned behavior and they do not generally recognize humans as prey. In a 10-year study in New Mexico of wild cougars who were not habituated to humans, the animals did not exhibit threatening behavior to researchers who approached closely (median distance=18.5 m; 61 feet) except in 6% of cases; 14/16 of those were females with cubs. Attacks on people, livestock, and pets may occur when a puma habituates to humans or is in a condition of severe starvation. Attacks are most frequent during late spring and summer, when juvenile cougars leave their mothers and search for new territory.


title: Cougar

text: Between 1890 and 1990 in North America there were 53 reported, confirmed attacks on humans, resulting in 48 nonfatal injuries and 10 deaths of humans (the total is greater than 53 because some attacks had more than one victim). By 2004, the count had climbed to 88 attacks and 20 deaths.


title: Cougar

text: Within North America, the distribution of attacks is not uniform. The heavily populated state of California saw a dozen attacks 1986 to 2004 (after just three from 1890 to 1985), including three fatalities. Washington state was the site of a fatal attack in 2018, its first since 1924. Lightly populated New Mexico reported an attack in 2008, the first there since 1974.


title: Cougar

text: As with many predators, a cougar may attack if cornered, if a fleeing human stimulates their instinct to chase, or if a person "plays dead". Standing still may cause the cougar to consider a person easy prey. Exaggerating the threat to the animal through intense eye contact, loud shouting, and any other action to appear larger and more menacing, may make the animal retreat. Fighting back with sticks and rocks, or even bare hands, is often effective in persuading an attacking cougar to disengage.


title: Cougar

text: When cougars do attack, they usually employ their characteristic neck bite, attempting to position their teeth between the vertebrae and into the spinal cord. Neck, head, and spinal injuries are common and sometimes fatal. Children are at greatest risk of attack, and least likely to survive an encounter. Detailed research into attacks prior to 1991 showed that 64% of all victims – and almost all fatalities – were children. The same study showed the highest proportion of attacks to have occurred in British Columbia, particularly on Vancouver Island where cougar populations are especially dense. Preceding attacks on humans, cougars display aberrant behavior, such as activity during daylight hours, a lack of fear of humans, and stalking humans. There have sometimes been incidents of pet cougars mauling people.


title: Cougar

text: Research on new wildlife collars may be able to reduce human-animal conflicts by predicting when and where predatory animals hunt. This may save the lives of humans, pets, and livestock as well as the lives of these large predatory mammals that are important to the balance of ecosystems.


title: Cougar

text: Pumas in the southern cone of America – often called Argentine cougars by North Americans – are reputed to be extremely reluctant to attack man; in legend, they defended people against jaguars. The nineteenth century naturalists Félix de Azara and William Henry Hudson thought that attacks on people, even children or sleeping adults, did not happen. Hudson, citing anecdotal evidence from hunters, claimed that pumas were positively inhibited from attacking people, even in self-defense. In fact, attacks on humans, although exceedingly rare, have occurred.


title: Cougar

text: An early, authenticated, non-fatal case occurred near Lake Viedma, Patagonia in 1877 when a female mauled the Argentine scientist Francisco P. Moreno; Moreno afterwards showed the scars to Theodore Roosevelt. In this instance, however, Moreno had been wearing a guanaco-hide poncho round his neck and head as protection against the cold; in Patagonia the guanaco is the puma's chief prey animal. Another authenticated case occurred in 1997 in Iguazú National Park in northeastern Argentina, when the 20-month-old son of a ranger was killed by a female puma. Forensic analysis found specimens of the child's hair and clothing fibers in the animal's stomach. In this area the coatí is the puma's chief prey. Despite prohibitory signs, coatis are hand-fed by tourists in the park, causing unnatural approximation between cougars and humans. This particular puma had been raised in captivity and released into the wild. On March 13, 2012, Erica Cruz, a 23-year-old shepherdess was found dead in a mountainous area near Rosario de Lerma, Salta Province, in northwestern Argentina. Claw incisions, which severed a jugular vein, indicated that the attacker was a felid; differential diagnosis ruled out other possible perpetrators. There were no bite marks on the victim, who had been herding goats. In 2019 in Córdoba Province, Argentina an elderly man was badly injured by a cougar after he attempted to defend his dog from it, while in neighbouring Chile a 28-year-old woman was attacked and killed in Corral, in Los Ríos Region, on October 20, 2020.


title: Cougar

text: Fatal attacks by other carnivores such as feral dogs can be misattributed to cougars without appropriate forensic knowledge.


title: Cougar

text: During the early years of ranching, cougars were considered on par with wolves in destructiveness. According to figures in Texas in 1990, 86 calves (0.0006% of Texas' 13.4 million cattle and calves), 253 mohair goats, 302 mohair kids, 445 sheep (0.02% of Texas' 2 million sheep and lambs) and 562 lambs (0.04% of Texas' 1.2 million lambs) were confirmed to have been killed by cougars that year. In Nevada in 1992, cougars were confirmed to have killed nine calves, one horse, four foals, five goats, 318 sheep, and 400 lambs. In both reports, sheep were the most frequently attacked. Some instances of surplus killing have resulted in the deaths of 20 sheep in one attack. A cougar's killing bite is applied to the back of the neck, head, or throat and the cat inflicts puncture marks with its claws usually seen on the sides and underside of the prey, sometimes also shredding the prey as it holds on. Coyotes also typically bite the throat, but the work of a cougar is generally clean, while bites inflicted by coyotes and dogs leave ragged edges. The size of the tooth puncture marks also helps distinguish kills made by cougars from those made by smaller predators.


title: Cougar

text: Remedial hunting appears to have the paradoxical effect of increased livestock predation and complaints of human-cougar conflicts. In a 2013 study the most important predictor of cougar problems were remedial hunting of cougars the previous year. Each additional cougar on the landscape increased predation and human-cougar complaints by 5%, but each additional animal killed on the landscape during the previous year increased complaints by 50%. The effect had a dose-response relationship with very heavy (100% removal of adult cougars) remedial hunting leading to a 150% – 340% increase in livestock and human conflicts. This effect is attributed to the removal of older cougars that have learned to avoid people and their replacement by younger males that react differently to humans. Remedial hunting enables younger males to enter the former territories of the older animals. Predation by cougars on dogs "is widespread, but occurs at low frequencies".


title: Cougar

text: The grace and power of the cougar have been widely admired in the cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Inca city of Cusco is reported to have been designed in the shape of a cougar, and the animal also gave its name to both Inca regions and people. The Moche people represented the cougar often in their ceramics. The sky and thunder god of the Inca, Viracocha, has been associated with the animal.


title: Cougar

text: In North America, mythological descriptions of the cougar have appeared in the stories of the Hocąk language ("Ho-Chunk" or "Winnebago") of Wisconsin and Illinois and the Cheyenne, amongst others. To the Apache and Walapai of the Southwestern United States, the wail of the cougar was a harbinger of death. The Algonquins and Ojibwe believe that the cougar lived in the underworld and was wicked, whereas it was a sacred animal among the Cherokee.


title: Lou Reed

text: Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Although not commercially successful during its existence, the Velvet Underground became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career.


title: Lou Reed

text: Having played guitar and sung in doo-wop groups in high school, Reed studied poetry at Syracuse University under Delmore Schwartz, and had served as a radio DJ, hosting a late-night avant garde music program while at college. After graduating from Syracuse, he went to work for Pickwick Records in New York City, a low-budget record company that specialized in sound-alike recordings, as a songwriter and session musician. A fellow session player at Pickwick was John Cale; together with Sterling Morrison and Angus MacLise, they would form the Velvet Underground in 1965. After building a reputation on the avant garde music scene, they gained the attention of Andy Warhol, who became the band's manager; they in turn became something of a fixture at The Factory, Warhol's art studio, and served as his "house band" for various projects. The band released their first album, now with drummer Moe Tucker and featuring German singer Nico, in 1967, and parted ways with Warhol shortly thereafter. Following several lineup changes and three more little-heard albums, Reed quit the band in 1970.


title: Lou Reed

text: After leaving the band, Reed would go on to a much more commercially successful solo career, releasing twenty solo studio albums. His second, "Transformer" (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After "Transformer", the less commercial but critically acclaimed "Berlin" peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. "Rock 'n' Roll Animal" (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and "Sally Can't Dance" (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the "Billboard" 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with "The Blue Mask" (1982) and "New Sensations" (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album "New York".


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled "Songs for Drella" which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. "Magic and Loss" (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6.


title: Lou Reed

text: He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled "The Raven". He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album "Lulu" with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015.


title: Lou Reed

text: Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth-El Hospital (later Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) (1920–2013) and Sidney Joseph Reed (1913–2005), an accountant. His family was Jewish and his grandparents were Russian Jews who had fled antisemitism; his father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed said that although he was Jewish, his "real god was rock 'n' roll".


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School. His sister Merrill, born Margaret Reed, said that as an adolescent, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked, mainly music. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed's first recording was as a member of a doo-wop three-piece group called the Jades, with Reed providing guitar accompaniment and singing backing vocals. After participating at a talent show at Freeport Junior High School in early 1958, and receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience, the group was given the chance to record an original single "So Blue" with the B-side "Leave Her for Me" later that year. While the single didn't chart, notable saxophonist King Curtis was brought in as a session musician by the producer Bob Shad to play on both songs, and the single was played by a substitute DJ during the Murray the K radio show, which gave Reed his first-ever airplay. Reed's love for playing music and his desire to play gigs brought him into confrontation with his anxious and unaccommodating parents.


title: Lou Reed

text: His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping. Visiting a psychologist, Reed's parents were made to feel guilty as inadequate parents, and they consented to giving him electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reed appeared to blame his father for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He wrote about the experience in his song "Kill Your Sons" from the album "Sally Can't Dance" (1974). Reed later recalled the experience as having been traumatic and leading to memory loss. He believed that he was treated to dispel his homosexual feelings. After Reed's death, his sister denied the ECT treatments were intended to suppress his "homosexual urges", asserting that their parents were not homophobic but had been told by his doctors that ECT was necessary to treat Reed's mental and behavioral issues.


title: Lou Reed

text: Upon his recovery from his illness and associated treatment, Reed resumed his education at Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in ROTC; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed played music on campus under numerous band names (one being 'L.A. and the Eldorados') and played throughout Central New York. Per his bandmates, they were routinely kicked out of fraternity parties for their brash personalities and insistence on performing their own material. In 1961, he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called "Excursions on a Wobbly Rail". Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Reed said that when he started out he was inspired by such musicians as Ornette Coleman, who had "always been a great influence" on him; he said that his guitar on "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate the jazz saxophonist. Reed's sister said that during her brother's time at Syracuse, the university authorities had tried unsuccessfully to expel him because they did not approve of his extracurricular activities. At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, who he said was "the first great person I ever met", and they became friends. He credited Schwartz with showing him how "with the simplest language imaginable, and very short, you can accomplish the most astonishing heights." One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life.


title: Lou Reed

text: Jeffreys recalled Reed's time at Syracuse: "At four in the afternoon we'd all meet at [the bar] The Orange Grove. Me, Delmore and Lou. That would often be the center of the crew. And Delmore was the leader – our quiet leader." While at Syracuse, Reed was also introduced to intravenous drug use for the first time, and quickly contracted hepatitis. Reed later dedicated the song "European Son", from the first Velvet Underground album, to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" from his album "The Blue Mask" as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. Reed met Sterling Morrison, a student at City University of New York, while the latter was visiting mutual friend, and fellow Syracuse student, Jim Tucker. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. "cum laude" in English in June 1964.


title: Lou Reed

text: In 1964, Reed moved to New York City to work as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He can be heard singing lead on two cuts on "The Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys Songbook". For Pickwick, Reed also wrote and recorded the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it". His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and assembled a supporting band to help promote the recording. The "ad hoc" band, called the Primitives: Reed, Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad and sculptor Walter De Maria. Cale and Conrad were surprised to find that for "The Ostrich", Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note, which they began to call his "ostrich guitar" tuning. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant-garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed and Cale (who played viola, keyboards and bass guitar) lived together on the Lower East Side, and invited Reed's college acquaintance guitarist Sterling Morrison and Cale's neighbor drummer Angus MacLise to join the band, thus forming the Velvet Underground. When the opportunity came to play their first paying gig at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise quit because he believed that accepting money for art was a sellout and did not want to participate in a structured gig. He was replaced on drums by Moe Tucker, the sister of Reed and Morrison's mutual friend Jim Tucker. Initially a fill in for that one show she soon became a full-time member with her drumming an integral part of the band's sound, despite Cale's initial objections. Though it had little commercial success, the band is considered one of the most influential in rock history. Reed was the main singer and songwriter in the band.


title: Lou Reed

text: The band soon came to the attention of Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gave an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Warhol pushed the band to take on a chanteuse, the German former model and singer Nico. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers.


title: Lou Reed

text: "The Velvet Underground & Nico" was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 171 on the U.S. "Billboard" 200. Much later, "Rolling Stone" listed it as the 13th greatest album of all time; Brian Eno once stated that although few people bought the album, most of them were inspired to form their own bands. Václav Havel credited the album, which he bought while visiting the U.S., with inspiring him to become president of Czechoslovakia.


title: Lou Reed

text: By the time the band recorded "White Light/White Heat", Nico had quit the band and Warhol had been fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager was Steve Sesnick. In September 1968, Cale left the band at Reed's behest. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the band. Cale's replacement was Boston-based musician Doug Yule, who played bass guitar, keyboards and who would soon share lead vocal duties in the band with Reed. The band now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. They released two studio albums with this lineup: 1969's "The Velvet Underground" and 1970's "Loaded". Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970. The band disintegrated after Morrison and Tucker departed in 1971.


title: Lou Reed

text: After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed moved to his parents' home on Long Island, and took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week ($ in dollars). In 1971, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records and recorded his first solo album at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London with session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes. The album, "Lou Reed", contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which had originally been recorded for "Loaded" but shelved. This album was overlooked by most pop music critics and did not sell well, although music critic Stephen Holden, in "Rolling Stone", called it an "almost perfect album. ... which embodied the spirit of the Velvets." Holden went on to compare Reed's voice with those of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and to praise the poetic quality of his lyrics.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed's commercial breakthrough album, "Transformer", was released in November 1972. "Transformer" was co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. The single "Walk on the Wild Side" was a salute to the misfits and hustlers who once surrounded Andy Warhol in the late '60s and appeared in his films. Each of the song's five verses describes a person who had been a fixture at The Factory during the mid-to-late 1960s: (1) Holly Woodlawn, (2) Candy Darling, (3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro, (4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and (5) Jackie Curtis. The song's transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though the jazzy arrangement (courtesy of bassist Herbie Flowers and saxophonist Ronnie Ross) was musically atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. It came about as a result of a commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name; the play failed to materialize. "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only entry in the "Billboard" Hot 100 singles chart, at No. 16.


title: Lou Reed

text: Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs. "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts.


title: Lou Reed

text: Bowie and Reed fell out during a late-night meeting which led to Reed hitting Bowie. Bowie had told Reed that he would have to "clean up his act" if they were to work together again. Reed hired a local New York bar-band, the Tots, to tour in support of "Transformer" and spent much of 1972 and early 1973 on the road with them. Though they improved over the months, Reed (with producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement) decided to recruit a new backing band in anticipation of the upcoming "Berlin" album. He chose keyboardist Moogy Klingman to come up with a new five-member band on barely a week's notice.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. "Berlin" (July 1973) was a concept album about two speed-freaks in love in the city. The songs variously concern domestic violence ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late 1973 European tour, featuring lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his "Berlin" material with older numbers. Response to "Berlin" at the time of its release was negative, with "Rolling Stone" pronouncing it "a disaster". Reed found the poor reviews it received very frustrating. Since then the album has been critically reevaluated, and in 2003 "Rolling Stone" included it in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. "Berlin" peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart.


title: Lou Reed

text: Following the commercial disappointment of "Berlin", Reed befriended Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears (who was the brother of his then-manager Dennis Katz), who suggested Reed put together a "great live band" and release a live album of Velvet Underground songs. Katz would come on board as producer, and the album "Rock 'n' Roll Animal" (February 1974) contained live performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", and "Rock and Roll". Wagner's live arrangements, and Hunter's intro to "Sweet Jane" which opened the album, gave Reed's songs the live rock sound he was looking for, and the album peaked at No. 45 on the "Billboard" 200 for 28 weeks and soon became Reed's biggest selling album. It went gold in 1978, with 500,000 certified sales.


title: Lou Reed

text: "Sally Can't Dance" which was released later that year (in August 1974), became Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, peaking at No. 10 during a 14-week stay on the "Billboard" 200 album chart in October 1974.


title: Lou Reed

text: In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book, ""The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again"", was reported to have been discovered in an archive at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


title: Lou Reed

text: Throughout the 1970s, Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. In the summer of 1975, he was booked to headline Startruckin' 75 in Europe, a touring rock festival organized by Miles Copeland. However, Reed's drug addiction made him undependable and he never performed on the tour, causing Copeland to replace him with Ike & Tina Turner.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed's album "Metal Machine Music" (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Described by "Rolling Stone" as the "tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator", many critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort inspired by the drone music of La Monte Young, and suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback, but he also said, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album, now regarded as a visionary textural guitar masterpiece by some music critics, was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks.


title: Lou Reed

text: 1975's "Coney Island Baby" was dedicated to Reed's then-partner Rachel Humphreys, a transgender woman Reed dated and lived with for three years. Humphreys also appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, "". "Rock and Roll Heart" was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and "Street Hassle" (1978) was released in the midst of the punk rock scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of "Punk" magazine by Legs McNeil.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed released his third live album, "", in 1978; some critics thought it was his "bravest work yet", while others considered it his "silliest". "Rolling Stone" described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologs with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. "The Bells" (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. During 1979 Reed toured extensively in Europe and throughout the United States performing a wide range of songs, including a suite of core songs from his "Berlin" album and the title track from "The Bells" featuring Chuck Hammer on guitar-synth. Around this time Reed also appeared as a record producer in Paul Simon's film "One-Trick Pony". From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's "Growing Up in Public" and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's "The Blue Mask". The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as "Rolling Stone" writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed’s "The Blue Mask" is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?" In the "Village Voice", Robert Christgau called "The Blue Mask" "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album." After "Legendary Hearts" (1983) and "New Sensations" (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for Honda scooters. In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including Chuck Hammer on "Growing Up in Public", and Robert Quine on "The Blue Mask" and "Legendary Hearts".


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed's 1984 album "New Sensations" marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's "Street Hassle", and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's "Coney Island Baby". Although its lead single "I Love You, Suzanne" only charted at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart it did receive light rotation on MTV. Two more singles were released from the album: "My Red Joystick" and the Dutch-only release "High in the City" but they both failed to chart.


title: Lou Reed

text: In 1998, "The New York Times" observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes." The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married."


title: Lou Reed

text: On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set, later playing bass for Roy Orbison during his set. In June 1986, Reed released "Mistrial" (co-produced with bassist Fernando Saunders). To support the album, he released two music videos: "No Money Down" and "The Original Wrapper". In the same year, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on Steven Van Zandt's 1985 anti-Apartheid song "Sun City", pledging not to play at that resort.


title: Lou Reed

text: The 1989 album "New York", which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, then-President of Austria Kurt Waldheim, and Pope John Paul II, became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997. Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed met John Cale for the first time in several years at Warhol's funeral in 1987. They worked together on the album "Songs for Drella" (April 1990), a song cycle about Warhol. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, and criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, the first Velvet Underground lineup reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit show in France. In June and July 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured Europe, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival; plans for a North American tour were canceled following a dispute between Reed and Cale.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed had released his sixteenth solo album, "Magic and Loss", in January 1992. The album is focused on mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1994, he appeared in "". In the same year, he and Morales were divorced. In 1995, Reed made a cameo appearance in the unreleased video game "Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors". If the player selects the "impossible" difficulty setting, Reed appears shortly after the game begins as an unbeatable boss who murders the player with his laser beam eyes. Reed then pops up on the screen and says to the player, "This is the impossible level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun."


title: Lou Reed

text: In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song titled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend", dedicated to Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. In February 1996 Reed released "Set the Twilight Reeling", and later that year, Reed contributed songs and music to "Time Rocker", a theatrical interpretation of H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine" by experimental director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.


title: Lou Reed

text: From 1992, Reed was romantically linked to avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008.


title: Lou Reed

text: In February 2000, Reed worked with Robert Wilson at the Thalia Theater again, on POEtry, another production inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer, this time Edgar Allan Poe. In April 2000, Reed released "Ecstasy". In January 2003, Reed released a 2-CD set, "The Raven", based on POEtry. The album consists of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. It features Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman. A single disc CD version of the album, focusing on the music, was also released.


title: Lou Reed

text: In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of "Prozac Nation". On October 6, 2001, "the New York Times" published a Reed poem called "Laurie Sadly Listening" in which he reflects on the September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11). Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In April 2003, Reed began a world tour featuring the cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Anohni.


title: Lou Reed

text: In 2003, Reed released a book of photographs, "Emotions in Action". This comprised an A4-sized book called "Emotions" and a smaller one called "Actions" laid into its hard cover. In January 2006, he released a second book of photographs, "Lou Reed's New York". A third volume, "Romanticism", was released in 2009.


title: Lou Reed

text: In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song "Satellite of Love", called "Satellite of Love '04", was released. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart.


title: Lou Reed

text: In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far for Beauty" in Dublin, along with Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Anohni, Jarvis Cocker, and Beth Orton. He played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song".


title: Lou Reed

text: In December that year, Reed played a series of shows at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on "Berlin". Reed played with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album and "Rock 'n' Roll Animal", and was joined by singers Anohni and Sharon Jones. The show was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The show played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and in Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled "", and a live film recording of these concerts were both released in 2008. In April 2007, he released "Hudson River Wind Meditations", an album of ambient meditational music. It was released on the Sounds True record label. In June 2007, he performed at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the city. In the same month "Pale Blue Eyes" was included in the soundtrack of the French-language film, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." In August 2007, Reed recorded "Tranquilize" with the Killers in New York City, a duet with Brandon Flowers for the B-side/rarities album "Sawdust".


title: Lou Reed

text: On October 2 and 3, 2008, he introduced his new group, which was later named Metal Machine Trio, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex in Los Angeles. The trio featured Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and played improvized instrumental music inspired by "Metal Machine Music". Recordings of the concerts were released under the title "The Creation of the Universe". The trio played at New York's Gramercy Theatre in April 2009, and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed provided the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the 2009 Luc Besson animated/live-action feature film "Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard" and appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' 2008 film "Palermo Shooting".


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2009. In 2010, Reed featured on the song "Some Kind of Nature" with virtual band Gorillaz, from their third studio album "Plastic Beach". In October 2011, Metallica and Reed released the collaboration album "Lulu". It was based on the "Lulu" plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918). The album received mixed and mainly negative reviews from music critics. Reed joked that he had no fans left. The album debuted at No. 36 on the "Billboard" 200 with first-week sales of 13,000 copies.


title: Lou Reed

text: In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust", the tenth track on their fifth studio album " Synthetica". This was to be the last original composition he worked on.


title: Lou Reed

text: In June 2022, "Lou Reed Archive Series" was announced by Light in the Attic Records with Laurie Anderson. The collection will release unreleased material with an album called Words & Music, May 1965.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterward, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71. He was cremated and the ashes were given to his family.


title: Lou Reed

text: His widow, Laurie Anderson, said his last days were peaceful, and described him as a "prince and a fighter". David Byrne, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Lenny Kravitz, and many others also paid tribute to Reed. Former Velvet Underground members Moe Tucker and John Cale made statements on Reed's death, and those from outside the music industry paid their respects such as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi.


title: Lou Reed

text: On October 27, 2013, the day of Reed's death, Pearl Jam dedicated their song "Man of the Hour" to him at their show in Baltimore and then played "I'm Waiting for the Man". On the day of his death, the Killers dedicated their rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" to Reed at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. My Morning Jacket performed a cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" in California, while Arctic Monkeys performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in Liverpool. That same night, Phish opened their show in Hartford, Connecticut, with the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". On November 14, 2013, a three-hour public memorial was held near Lincoln Center's Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Billed as "New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center", the ceremony featured favorite Reed recordings selected by family and friends. On March 14, 2014, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo produced and hosted the first full-scale tribute to Lou Reed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, with over twenty international acts performing Reed's music.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed's estate was valued at $30 million, $20 million of which accrued after his death. He left everything to his wife and his sister.


title: Lou Reed

text: Reed's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist was announced on December 16, 2014. He was inducted by Patti Smith at a ceremony in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In 2017, "Lou Reed: A Life" was published by the "Rolling Stone" critic Anthony DeCurtis.


title: Lou Reed

text: Asteroid 270553 Loureed, discovered by Maik Meyer at Palomar Observatory in 2002, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on June 2, 2015 (). Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders and one which was recently discovered in Spain is named "Loureedia", because it has a velvet body and lives underground.


title: Lou Reed

text: An archive of his letters and other personal effects was donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where it can be viewed by members of the public. In June 2022, the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center hosted the ""Lou Reed: Caught Between the Twisted Stars"", the first exhibition drawn from Reed's archive.


title: Lou Reed

text: In 2015, in unofficial biography "Notes From The Velvet Underground", biographer Howard Sounes described Reed as having been misogynistic and violent toward women he was in relationships with and racist, having called Donna Summer and Bob Dylan racial and ethnic slurs.


title: Lou Reed

text: Lou Reed's main guitar during the Velvet Underground era was a 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he modified extensively, to the extent that it became unplayable. He played various stock Fender Telecasters, later favoring models that were built specifically for him, such as the Rick Kelly 'Lou Reed's T' Custom Telecaster and the Fender Custom Shop Danny Gatton Telecaster. He has played various other electric guitars throughout his career:


title: NBA Most Valuable Player Award

text: The National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given since the 1955–56 season to the best performing player of the regular season. Starting with the 2022–23 season, winners receive the Michael Jordan Trophy, named for the five-time MVP often considered the best player in NBA history.


title: NBA Most Valuable Player Award

text: Prior to 2021, the winner received the Maurice Podoloff Trophy, which was named in honor of the first commissioner (then president) of the NBA, who served from 1946 until 1963. With the switch to the Michael Jordan Trophy, his name was moved to a new Maurice Podoloff Trophy given to the team with the best regular season record. Until the , the MVP was selected by a vote of NBA players. Since the , the award is decided by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada.


title: NBA Most Valuable Player Award

text: Each member of the voting panel casts a vote for first to fifth place selections. Each first-place vote is worth 10 points; each second-place vote is worth seven; each third-place vote is worth five, fourth-place is worth three and fifth-place is worth one. Starting from 2010, one ballot was cast by fans through online voting. The player with the highest point total wins the award. As of the , the current holder of the award is Nikola Jokić of the Denver Nuggets. Jokić is the lowest draft pick to win the award, being selected 41st by Denver in the 2014 NBA draft.


title: NBA Most Valuable Player Award

text: Every player who has won this award and has been eligible for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has been inducted. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the award a record six times. He is also the only player to win the award despite his team not making the playoffs back in the season. Both Bill Russell and Michael Jordan won the award five times, while Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James won the award four times. Russell and James are the only players to have won the award four times in five seasons. Moses Malone, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson each won the award three times, while Bob Pettit, Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokić have each won it twice. Russell, Chamberlain, and Bird are the only players to win the award in three consecutive years. Only two rookies have won the award: Chamberlain in the and Wes Unseld in the 1968–69 season. Hakeem Olajuwon of Nigeria, Duncan of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Nash of Canada, Dirk Nowitzki of Germany, Antetokounmpo of Greece, and Jokić of Serbia are the only MVP winners considered "international players" by the NBA.


title: NBA Most Valuable Player Award

text: Curry in 2015–16 is the only player to have won the award unanimously. Shaquille O'Neal in 1999–2000 and LeBron James in 2012–13 are the only two players to have fallen one vote shy of a unanimous selection, both receiving 120 of 121 votes. Since the , only three players have been named MVP for a season in which their team failed to win at least 50 regular season games—Moses Malone (twice, and ), Russell Westbrook () and Nikola Jokić ().


title: Joss Whedon

text: 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).


title: Joss Whedon

text: 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 Resurrection" (1997). After achieving success as a television showrunner, Whedon returned to film to write and direct the "Firefly" film continuation "Serenity" (2005), co-write and produce the horror comedy film "The Cabin in the Woods" (2012), and write and direct the Shakespeare adaptation "Much Ado About Nothing" (2012). For the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Whedon wrote and directed the ensemble superhero film "The Avengers" (2012) and its sequel "" (2015). He also co-wrote the DC Extended Universe superhero film "Justice League" (2017), for which he also served as director for re-shoots, replacing Zack Snyder (who retained directorial credit).


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon has also worked as a composer (notably for the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" musical episode "Once More, with Feeling" and "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog") and comic book writer, both for comic book continuations of television series he created and for established franchises, such as "Astonishing X-Men".


title: Joss Whedon

text: Since 2020, multiple actors have accused Whedon of abusive behavior on film and television sets, which he has denied. WarnerMedia investigated "Justice League" actor Ray Fisher's allegations and announced that it had taken "remedial action" in December 2020.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Born in New York City and raised on the Upper West Side as Joseph Hill Whedon, he would later become a third-generation TV writer as a son of Tom Whedon, a screenwriter for "Alice" in the 1970s and "The Golden Girls" in the 1980s, and a grandson of John Whedon, who worked on "The Donna Reed Show" in the 1950s and "The Dick Van Dyke Show" in the 1960s, as well as writing for radio shows such as "The Great Gildersleeve". His mother, Ann Lee (née Jeffries) Stearns, originally from Kentucky, was an activist and a teacher at Riverdale Country School as Lee Whedon, in addition to being an aspiring novelist. Jessica Neuwirth, a former student of Stearns, has often cited her as her inspiration, describing her as a "visionary feminist". His parents both acted, and appeared in a play together at the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club. The family would spend vacations reciting Shakespeare.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon is the younger sibling of Samuel and Matthew Whedon and the older sibling of writers Jed and Zack Whedon. Whedon stated that his parents expected constant creativity from their children and were often verbally demeaning and gave them the silent treatment if he and his brothers were not amusing, entertaining and/or simply disagreed with them. He stated, however, that he was more afraid of his older brothers who constantly bullied him. At the age of 5, a friend (age 4) died by drowning in a pond on the Whedon's upstate property. His parents divorced when he was 9. Whedon cited his childhood trauma as having a direct influence in his relationships, addictions and behaviors into adulthood and has stated that he suffers from complex post traumatic stress disorder.


title: Joss Whedon

text: At a young age, he showed great interest in British television series shows like "Masterpiece" and "Monty Python".


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon attended Riverdale Country School in New York City where his mother taught history. At age 15, he spent three years at Winchester College, a boarding school in England. There, taking note of omnipresent bullying, he concluded, "it was clear to me from the start that I must take an active role in my survival". Whedon graduated from Wesleyan University in 1987, where he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters in 2013. There, he also studied under renowned academic Richard Slotkin. It was at Wesleyan he would meet Jeanine Basinger, a film scholar who became his mentor. After leaving Wesleyan, Whedon conceived the first incarnation of Buffy Summers, "Rhonda, the Immortal Waitress".


title: Joss Whedon

text: From 1989 to 1990, Whedon worked as a staff writer on the sitcoms "Roseanne" and "Parenthood". As a script doctor, Whedon was an uncredited writer on films including "The Getaway", "Speed", "Waterworld", and "Twister". Whedon worked on an early draft of "X-Men" which subsequently contained at least two of his contributions to dialogue exchanges, while the final cut of "Speed" retained most of his dialogue. While he was script consulting, he also wrote "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (the film that would precede the series), "Alien Resurrection" and early drafts for "Titan A.E." and "" - but would subsequently express strong dissatisfaction with the released versions of the first three of these films. He co-wrote "Toy Story" , which earned him a shared Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. He became one of the highest paid screenwriters when he sold his "Afterlife" script to Columbia Pictures for $1.5 million.


title: Joss Whedon

text: In 1997, Whedon created his first television series, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". The series depicts Buffy Summers, the latest in a line of young women called to battle against vampires, demons, and other forces of darkness. The idea came directly from his aversion to seeing the Hollywood formula of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror movie". Whedon said he wanted to subvert the idea and create someone who was a hero. This conception came from "the very first mission statement of the show, which was the joy of female power: having it, using it, sharing it". The writing process came together from conversations about the emotional issues facing Buffy Summers, and how she would confront them in her battle against supernatural forces. Whedon usually directed episodes from his own scripts that held the most cathartic moments in Buffy's story.


title: Joss Whedon

text: The series received numerous awards and nominations, including an Emmy Award nomination for writing for the 1999 episode "Hush". The 2001 episode "The Body" was nominated for a Nebula Award in 2002, and the fall 2001 musical episode "Once More, with Feeling" was nominated for a Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo Award and a Best Script Nebula Award. The final episode "Chosen" was nominated for a Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form Hugo Award in 2003. All written and directed by Whedon, they are considered some of the most effective and popular episodes of the series.


title: Joss Whedon

text: A. Asbjørn Jøn, an anthropologist and scholar, recognized that the series has shifted the way vampires have since been depicted in popular culture representations. Since the end of the series, Whedon has stated that his initial intention was to produce a "cult" television series and acknowledged a corresponding "rabid, almost insane fan base" that subsequently emerged. In June 2012, "Slate" identified it as the most written about popular culture text of all time. "[M]ore than twice as many papers, essays, and books have been devoted to the vampire drama than any of our other choices—so many that we stopped counting when we hit 200".


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon, a lifelong comic book fan, authored the Dark Horse Comics miniseries "Fray", which takes place in the far future of the Buffyverse. Like many writers of the show, he contributed to the series' comic book continuation, writing for the anthology "Tales of the Slayers", and also for the main storyline of the miniseries "Tales of the Vampires". Whedon and the other writers released a new ongoing series, taking place after the series finale "Chosen", which he officially recognizes as the canonical eighth season. He returned to the world of "Fray" during the season eight-story arc "Time of Your Life". "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine" was published from August 2011 to September 2013, for which Whedon wrote "Freefall, Part I–II" (with Andrew Chambliss).


title: Joss Whedon

text: As a result of the success of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Whedon was given the opportunity to make "Angel", his 1999 spin-off series of the show. David Greenwalt and Whedon collaborated on the pilot which was going to be developed for The WB Network. During the series' early expansion, efforts were made by the network to mitigate Whedon's original concept. "Corrupt", a precociously optioned second episode, was entirely abandoned due to the gloominess written into the script. The tone was then softened in the opening episodes, establishing Angel Investigations as an idealistic, shoestring operation. It follows Angel, who works as a private detective in order to "help the helpless".


title: Joss Whedon

text: Though praised for presenting a unique and progressive version of the archetypal noir hero as a sympathetic vampire detective, early in its run it was criticized as being lesser than its parent show, in the context of having devolved from a more popular original work. Despite that it won a Saturn Award for Best Network TV Series and three episodes, "Waiting in the Wings", "Smile Time" and "Not Fade Away", were nominated for Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form in 2003 and 2005.


title: Joss Whedon

text: The WB Network announced on February 13, 2004, that "Angel" would not be brought back for a sixth season. Whedon said of the cancellation, "I believe the reason "Angel" had trouble on The WB was that it was the only show on the network that wasn't trying to be "Buffy". It was a show about grown-ups". An official continuation of the story came later in the form of a comic book series. Following the successful eighth season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", IDW Publishing approached Whedon about similarly producing a canonical sixth season for "Angel". "" released 17 issues written by Whedon and Brian Lynch.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon followed "Angel" with the space western "Firefly", starring Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau and Ron Glass. Set in the year 2517, "Firefly" explores the lives of the people who while on the outskirts of society, make their living as the crew of "Serenity", a "Firefly-class" spaceship. The series' original concept progressed after Whedon read "The Killer Angels", a book on the Battle of Gettysburg.


title: Joss Whedon

text: An ever-present element was Whedon's injection of anti-totalitarianism, writing into the show a historical analogy of the Battle of Gettysburg, the "Battle of Serenity Valley". The beaten soldiers were called "Browncoats" after the brown dusters they wore as their uniforms. Whedon said, "I wanted to play with that classic notion of the frontier: not the people who made history, but the people history stepped on—the people for whom every act is the creation of civilization". "Firefly" was written as a serious character study, encompassing what Whedon called "life when it's hard". He went on to elaborate that it was about "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things".


title: Joss Whedon

text: Fox chose to play the episodes of the series out of order, running "The Train Job" first, and not airing the pilot until a dozen episodes later, resulting in some confusion from viewers. The series was also promoted as a comedy, not a science fiction drama, and placed in the infamous "Friday night death slot". The show was praised by critics overall, but some objected to the fusion of American frontier and outer space motifs. Faced with these hurdles, the show had an average of 4.7 million viewers at the time and was ranked 98th in Nielsen ratings. The series was cancelled by Fox before all of the episodes had aired. Whedon took to Universal Pictures as a means of achieving a continuation of the story. Following "Firefly" was "Serenity", a follow-up film taking place after the events of the final episode. "Serenity" developed into a franchise that led to graphic novels, books and other media. "New Scientist" magazine held a poll in 2005 to find "The World's Best Space Sci-Fi Ever", and "Firefly" and "Serenity" took first and second place, respectively. It also received an Emmy shortly after its cancellation, as well as a number of other awards. Since being canceled, "Firefly" has attained cult status.


title: Joss Whedon

text: In 2004, Whedon created the comic book line "Astonishing X-Men". He finished a 24 issue run in 2008 and then handed over the reins as a writer to Warren Ellis. One storyline from the comic, the notion of a cure for mutation being found, was also an element in the third X-Men film, "". In February 2009 "Astonishing X-Men" #6, which depicted the return of Colossus to the title and concluded Whedon's first story arc, was named by readers as #65 in Marvel's Top 70 Comics of all time.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Taking over after series creator Brian K. Vaughan completed his run on the series, Whedon became the second writer of the Marvel comic "Runaways". Having already been a committed reader, he had a letter published in the first volume, which was included in the Volume 1 hardcover edition. He also wrote short pieces for "Stan Lee Meets Spider-Man" and "Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men" #1, and he was the subject of an issue of the comic book, "Marvel Spotlight" (alongside artist Michael Lark). As part of a panel of writers, he contributed to Marvel Comics' "Civil War" crossover event lending advice on how to tell the story and also how to end it. In March 2016, Whedon contributed a story for the 75th anniversary issue of "Captain America: Sam Wilson" with "Astonishing X-Men" collaborator John Cassaday. He introduced several new characters into the Marvel Universe such as the villainous Ord, X-Men Ruth "Blindfold" Aldine and Hisako "Armor" Ichiki, Runaway Klara Prast, and Special Agent Abigail Brand along with S.W.O.R.D., the organization Brand commands.


title: Joss Whedon

text: After Universal Pictures acquired the film and distribution rights from Fox, Whedon began writing the screenplay for "Serenity". Transforming the series into a film, he says, "... was the hardest piece of writing I've ever done ... It had to be self-contained and work as a movie, which meant I had to cope with problems like introducing nine main characters who'd already met!" The script was based on unused story ideas for "Firefly"s unfilmed second season. On writing the dialogue, Whedon felt that part of it came from "getting to invent the language", which "once I had... reads like a kind of poetry". The narrative centered on Captain Malcolm Reynolds as the hero accompanied by River Tam acting as the catalyst for what he does.


title: Joss Whedon

text: The score was composed by David Newman, and according to Whedon was intended to "deglorify space — to feel the intimacy of being on a ship as opposed to the grandeur". He used two long steadicam shots for several minutes of the film's opening sequence to establish "a sense of safety in space". In 2006, it won a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. The elements of science fiction that Whedon wanted to convey were essentially different in kind, and held "a sort of grittiness" and "realism", which he said, together, "get the most exciting kind of film-making". Critic Roger Ebert observed, "Like "Brave New World" and "1984", the movie plays like a critique of contemporary society, with the Alliance as Big Brother, enemy of discontent". The film received the 2005 Nebula Award for Best Script, the 2006 Prometheus Special Award, and was voted the best sci-fi movie of all time in a poll set up by "SFX" magazine. There have since been multiple rumors regarding sequel possibilities.


title: Joss Whedon

text: The limited three-issue comic book series called "", the story of which was written by Whedon, was released in 2005 as a tie-in to "Serenity". Set between "Firefly" and the film, it was intended to connect the two storylines. "" also spanned three issues, and was written by Whedon and Brett Matthews. Whedon later co-wrote "The Shepherd's Tale" with his half-brother Zack.


title: Joss Whedon

text: As a guest director, he contributed two 2007 episodes of "The Office" ("Business School" and "Branch Wars") and a 2010 episode of "Glee" ("Dream On"). Denoting this period, Whedon has said, "I had free time, but I'm pretty sure I mean my career was on the skids".


title: Joss Whedon

text: In collaboration with Fábio Moon, Whedon created the free webcomic titled "Sugarshock!", as part of the revival of "Dark Horse Presents", which was launched on Myspace. Whedon later executive produced another free comic book on the Internet, "Serenity: The Other Half".


title: Joss Whedon

text: As a response to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, Whedon directed, co-wrote and produced "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog". It tells the story of Dr. Horrible, an aspiring supervillain, who shares a love interest in a girl named Penny with his nemesis, Captain Hammer. To Whedon the miniseries was "a project of love", an accomplishment that from their excitement would be embellished with passion and "ridiculousness". His half-brothers Zack and Jed and sister-in-law Maurissa Tancharoen share the other writing credits. Whedon said it was a "glorious surprise" to him to discover how well they worked together.


title: Joss Whedon

text: After having attended meetings with companies discussing the prospect of producing something for the Internet and faced with negative feedback on his ideas, he realized that as long as the strike was still in progress, acquiring corporate funding was an unlikely prospect. Whedon himself funded the project investing just over $200,000 and earned more from it than he did directing "The Avengers". He enjoyed the independence he gained from "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" as it provided him the freedom to include content without the expectancy of lessening it on behalf of the runtime. He and Jed composed the music, parts of which were influenced by Stephen Sondheim.


title: Joss Whedon

text: The miniseries was nominated and won numerous awards. Whedon was awarded Best Directing and Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series at the Streamy Awards, a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, and a Creative Arts Emmy Award in 2009.


title: Joss Whedon

text: In 2009, Whedon created his fourth television series "Dollhouse", and explored themes throughout the show that were initially present in an unproduced spec script of his called "Afterlife". The series follows Echo, whose brain is programmed to accomplish various assignments, on her journey towards self-awareness. As stated by Whedon, "Dollhouse" was about "the sides of us that we don't want people to see", sexuality and, on some level, a celebration of perversion, which he equates to obsession, "the thing that makes people passionate and interesting and worthy".


title: Joss Whedon

text: Despite low ratings in its first season, the series was renewed for a second and final season. The reason for the renewal given by Fox's president of entertainment was to avoid any backlash that would have resulted from its cancelation. In reflection of Fox's disruptive involvement, Whedon lamented the loss of ideas with identity and moral culpability, saying they were dancing around them in the process which then devolved the series into a procedural show.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon co-wrote and produced a horror-comedy film titled "The Cabin in the Woods" with director Drew Goddard, finishing production in 2009 though the film wasn't released until 2011. Whedon and Goddard intended to make a film that exemplified horror movies while still preserving the fun and frightening elements necessary to being a horror film. The script was written in three days and they produced a minimum of 15 pages a day. Whedon described it as an attempt to revitalize horror, calling it a "loving hate letter" to the genre, continuing:


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon thought part of what distinguished it from other horror films was that people were not disposable – "As a culture, for our own entertainment, we tend to assume that they are (expendable)". He reiterated a sentiment that the introduction of torture porn into this genre was becoming an exercise in nihilism and misogyny as a means to promote distress and instead of trying to scare its audience.


title: Joss Whedon

text: In July 2010, it was confirmed that Whedon would write and direct "The Avengers", a live-action adaptation of the superhero team of the same name.<ref name="/Film; The Avengers"></ref> Of his desire to take on the film, he explained that the core of the movie was about "finding yourself from community" and the togetherness derived from a group that ultimately doesn't belong together.


title: Joss Whedon

text: It became the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time at the North American box office, and it received considerable praise from critics. In retrospect, Whedon thought the film had "imperfections", begrudging its quality in comparison to that of "The Matrix" and "The Godfather Part II". Nonetheless, he felt he "pulled off" the endeavor of making a summer movie reminiscent of those from his childhood.


title: Joss Whedon

text: In August 2012, Whedon signed a deal to develop the Marvel TV show "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." for ABC. The series focuses on the secret military law-enforcement agency featured throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Created by Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, the show involves individuals who possess powers within the spectacle of science fiction, while also focusing on "the peripheral people ... the people on the edges of the grand adventures." The character Phil Coulson was resurrected after his death in "The Avengers" to helm the show.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon spoke about certain complications that factored in with making the show for Marvel, noting confusion between him and the company regarding the degree to which they wanted him to create it, citing their demand that he prioritize "Avengers: Age of Ultron". He once expressed regrets for having brought back Phil Coulson, feeling that his death had lost meaning as a result, but later clarified that he did not regret this decision.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon returned to write and direct the , following the deal with Marvel Studios, which expired in June 2015. On the matter of approaching a sequel, Whedon reasoned not to go "bigger" but "deeper", and likened it to digging with a scalpel to cause pain. He said of the film's characters, "Strong but damaged by power describes every person in this movie. It may, in fact, describe what the movie is about ... the more power that we have, the less human we are." Whedon discerns that "Age of Ultron" "is an odd film" that proved challenging when it came to finding the rhythm between both its calm and exciting moments. Drawing parallels to a symphony, he wanted to bring about "grace in the middle of ultimate chaos".


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon also served as a creative consultant on the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe leading up to "Age of Ultron". He rewrote some dialogue for "", directed the mid-credits scene of "", and suggested that James Gunn make "Guardians of the Galaxy" "weirder" after reading an early draft. Whedon said it was unlikely that he would return to make another sequel, stating that he "couldn't imagine doing this again". He remarked that not having created his own fictional universe in over five years felt wrong and intended to use the proceeds made from "Avengers: Age of Ultron" for such ventures. In January 2016, Whedon announced that he will no longer work with Marvel.


title: Joss Whedon

text: To create "Much Ado About Nothing" in 2012, Whedon established Bellwether Pictures. He filmed it in black-and-white on digital video over a period of 12 days at his residence in Santa Monica, California. The film was scripted, produced, directed, edited and composed by Whedon, based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name. His idea to adapt the play for the screen originated from having "Shakespeare readings" at his house with several of his friends, years prior. Despite the play's comedy, he discovered that there were elements in the text "of debauchery" that brought out a core darkness, and said the visual nature of film influenced him to permeate a motif of sexuality into the script.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon wrote and executive produced the paranormal romance film "In Your Eyes", the second feature by Bellwether Pictures. The film tells the story of Rebecca Porter and Dylan Kershaw who can feel each other's emotions, but are ultimately strangers. Whedon's script marked a theme of human connection as the metaphor for the couple's mysterious link. He conceived the idea in the early 1990s, and had written drafts of the screenplay since then.


title: Joss Whedon

text: In summer 2014, Whedon encountered artist Shawnee Kilgore on Kickstarter. Whedon funded her album and when Kilgore contacted him about his fulfillment reward, he suggested they make a song together. She agreed, and the collaboration was later repurposed into producing an EP.


title: Joss Whedon

text: At the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International, Whedon announced "Twist", which was described as a comic book about "a Victorian female Batman".


title: Joss Whedon

text: In May 2017, Whedon took over post-production duties for "Justice League", including writing and directing additional photography for the film. He received a co-writing credit for his contributions to the film, which was released in November 2017. Despite reshooting a majority of the film and largely changing the tone from what Zack Snyder had originally intended, Snyder retained sole credit as director of the film. After Snyder's original cut was released in 2021, fans began to refer to the theatrical cut as the "Whedon Cut" and "Josstice League".


title: Joss Whedon

text: On July 13, 2018, HBO announced that the network had obtained the rights to "The Nevers", an "epic science fiction drama about a gang of Victorian women who find themselves with unusual abilities, relentless enemies, and a mission that might change the world", on which Whedon was going to serve as writer, director, executive producer, and showrunner. Production on the series started in July 2019 in London where scenes are filmed at Trinity Church Square and the New Wimbledon Theatre area. By 2020, production was completed on five episodes before being shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only resuming in September of that year to complete six of the season's ten-episode order. On November 25, 2020, HBO announced that Whedon had exited the project.


title: Joss Whedon

text: In July 2020, "Justice League" actor Ray Fisher accused Whedon of showing "gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable" behavior toward the cast and crew of the film, going so far as to invite Whedon to sue him for slander if he believed the allegations were untrue. A virtual panel for the 2020 at-home San Diego Comic-Con focusing on Whedon's work was cancelled following Fisher's statements. The following month, it was reported that WarnerMedia had begun an investigation into Whedon's behavior during the production of "Justice League". Jason Momoa posted in support of Fisher, writing about "the shitty way [they] were treated" on "Justice League" reshoots and saying that "serious stuff went down". In December 2020, WarnerMedia announced that its investigation had concluded and that "remedial action" had been taken.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Fisher also claimed that Whedon's exit from the HBO Max series "The Nevers" was a result of HBO parent company WarnerMedia's inquiry. He said on Twitter that "I have no intention of allowing Joss Whedon to use the old Hollywood tactic of 'exiting'" and claimed, "This is undoubtedly a result of [the investigation]." HBO had announced on November 25, 2020 that the company had "parted ways" with Whedon, and Whedon released his own statement, claiming the departure was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. HBO chief Casey Bloys declined to elaborate on the decision to part ways, but said HBO had received no complaints about Whedon's behavior. Nonetheless, in what Bloys acknowledged was an unusual step, Whedon's name has not been used in marketing for the series, though he remained credited in the series itself.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Gal Gadot told the "Los Angeles Times" in December 2020 that her experience with Whedon had not been "the best" but that she had taken it "to the higher-ups and they took care of it". Grace Randolph later reported that Whedon had asked Gadot to film a sexually charged scene in "Justice League", but that Gadot had refused and a body double was used in her place.


title: Joss Whedon

text: In February 2021, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" actress Charisma Carpenter alleged that Whedon had "abused his power on numerous occasions", calling him a "vampire" and "casually cruel". In a tweeted statement, Carpenter said that Whedon had called her "fat" and asked her "if [she] was going to keep it" upon learning of her pregnancy, mocked her religious faith, and repeatedly threatened to fire her. Carpenter also revealed that she had participated in WarnerMedia's "Justice League" investigation.


title: Joss Whedon

text: "Buffy" co-stars Amber Benson and Michelle Trachtenberg corroborated Carpenter's allegations. On social media, Benson wrote: ""Buffy" was a toxic environment and it starts at the top. [Carpenter] is speaking truth". Trachtenberg wrote that "we know what he did" and alleged that his behavior toward her when she was a teenager was "Very. Not. Appropriate." Trachtenberg later stated on social media that there was a rule on set preventing Whedon from being in a room alone with her. "Buffy" star Sarah Michelle Gellar also lent her support and distanced herself from Whedon. Jose Molina, a writer on "Firefly", also spoke out against Whedon's behavior saying that "casually cruel" was a "perfect" description and that "He thought being mean was funny. Making female writers cry during a notes session was especially hysterical. He actually liked to boast about the time he made one writer cry twice in one meeting." Other "Buffy" and "Angel" costars voiced their support for the alleged victims including David Boreanaz, James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head, Eliza Dushku, J. August Richards and Amy Acker.


title: Joss Whedon

text: In April 2021, in light of Fisher's accusations, Gadot told "The Hollywood Reporter" that "I had my issues with Whedon and Warner Bros handled it in a timely manner." A knowledgeable source stated that Gadot "had multiple concerns with the revised version of the film, including 'issues about her character being more aggressive than her character in "Wonder Woman". She wanted to make the character flow from one movie to the next,'" the report said. "The biggest clash, sources say, came when Whedon pushed Gadot to record lines she didn't like, threatened to harm Gadot's career and disparaged "Wonder Woman" director Patty Jenkins." The following month, Gadot added that Whedon "threatened" her career during the reshoots saying, "if I did something, he would make my career miserable and I just took care of it instead." In October of that year, Gadot went on to say that she was "shocked" by the way Whedon spoke to her adding, "You’re dizzy because you can’t believe this was just said to you. And if he says it to me, then obviously he says it to many other people."


title: Joss Whedon

text: In January 2022, Whedon claimed Gadot "misunderstood" him due to English not being her first language and called Fisher a "bad actor in both senses". He also said he had never worked with "a ruder group of people" than the rest of the "Justice League" cast. Gadot responded to this by stating that she "understood perfectly" and would not work with Whedon again in the future.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Early in his career, Whedon sold two spec scripts that were not produced, "Suspension" and "Afterlife". He sold "Suspension" for $750,000, with an additional $250,000 if production had commenced. In September 2014, "Empire" suggested the script was being made, with Liam Neeson attached to the project. In 1994, he sold "Afterlife" for $1.5 million, with an additional $500,000 if production had commenced. In 2000, Andy Tennant was in talks to direct and rewrite. In "Afterlife" there were precursors to themes Whedon would later explore in "Dollhouse". The script was about Daniel Hoffstetter, a government scientist, who awakes after dying to discover his mind has been imprinted on a mind-wiped body.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon had a number of planned "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" spinoffs that became stuck in development or terminally stalled. Among these were "Buffy the Animated Series", a set of television movies for The WB based on "Angel" and "Buffy" characters, a Spike spin-off film, and "Ripper", a proposed BBC pilot about Rupert Giles.


title: Joss Whedon

text: "Goners" was announced in 2005. According to "Variety" magazine, it was a fantasy thriller under development by Universal Pictures, and was to be produced by Mary Parent and Scott Stuber. From a 2006 interview with "Fanboy Radio": "I've been seeing a lot of horror movies that are torture-porn, where kids we don't care about are mutilated for hours, and I just cannot abide them... it's an antidote to that very kind of film, the horror movie with the expendable human beings in it. Because I don't believe any human beings are".


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon was hired to write and direct a Warner Bros. adaptation of "Wonder Woman". However, in February 2007, Whedon announced that he would no longer be involved with the project. "We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work. Non-sympatico. It happens all the time". Conversely, he stated, "the fact of the matter is, it was a waste of my time. We never [wanted] to make the same movie; none of us knew that". Whedon also pitched a screenplay to adapt Batman for the same company as development started on what would eventually become "Batman Begins". It was described as having included a new, "more of a 'Hannibal Lecter' type" villain, and portrayed Bruce Wayne as "a morbid, death-obsessed kid" whose grief was overcome by protecting a girl from being bullied in an alley similar to where his parents were murdered. In March 2017, Whedon was in negotiations to direct, write, and produce "Batgirl" set in the DC Extended Universe. He withdrew from the project in February 2018, saying he didn't have a story for the movie.


title: Joss Whedon

text: The sequel to "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" has been shelved on multiple occasions. In 2009, Whedon remarked upon the possibility of presenting it in the form of another miniseries or a feature film. The script was planned to be written in summer 2012 and the principal photography to take place the following year. However, production was delayed because of his commitment to projects at Marvel Studios.


title: Joss Whedon

text: "Wastelanders", a web-based "end-of-the-world" project, once in development with author Warren Ellis, was postponed due to Whedon's preoccupation with "The Avengers".


title: Joss Whedon

text: On October 20, 2016, Whedon revealed that he was writing a new project: a historical fiction/horror film set during World War II. He also expressed an interest in making a "Star Wars" movie after seeing the trailer of "Rogue One".


title: Joss Whedon

text: Thematically, Whedon's work often explores perspectives on existentialism, anti-authoritarianism, free will, power, powerlessness, sexuality, adulthood, sacrifice, atheism, misogyny and feminism. His projects usually revolve around an ensemble of protagonists, primarily focused on a loner hero who ends up working with others to accomplish a goal. He says of the recurring aspects of community, "Everything I write tends to turn into a superhero team, even if I didn't mean for it to. I always start off wanting to be solitary, because a) it's simpler, and b) that isolation is something that I relate to as a storyteller. And then no matter what, I always end up with a team". Examining a typical motif, he says, "I tend to write about people who are helpless or out of control who then regain or retake control".


title: Joss Whedon

text: Articulating his approach to screenwriting, Whedon has noted outlining and act structure as the hardest parts of storytelling, but emphasizes that he feels they are "completely essential". Many of Whedon's altered phrases and heavily popularized words have entered a common usage called "Slayer Slang", which PBS included an entire section of in their article series "Do You Speak American?". In an issue of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight", where Buffy travels to the future, Whedon writes Buffy's reaction to the future dialect of Manhattan; this allows Whedon to comment on the series' distinctive style of dialogue; "Buffy blames herself for what's happened to the English language, and there's a lot of hubris in that joke. I like to think that adding Y's to words that don't usually have Y's is going to destroy the whole fabric of our society". His use of self-aware dialogue to humanize characters, which relies heavily on dry humor and subtext, treating clichés subversively, using misogyny to define the trait of a villain, and the recurring theme of self-sacrifice led by subverting moral icons have been defining to his style of storytelling.


title: Joss Whedon

text: His penchant to kill off characters has been widely acknowledged. Whedon has admitted extreme tiredness to the criticism, explaining, "The percentage of people who die... is a lot. I think it's pretty near everybody. The percentage of people that I kill—not so many. I think the reason that my rep is so nasty is that I tend to do it... unexpectedly, or to someone people are recently invested in, and that is a real mission statement for me, because, death doesn't leave a card. Death doesn't take Hitler. It doesn't work according to story plans, and when a death feels like a loss, gives you grief... then you have told a story that involves death." Dramatic effect is used to convey the sense of realism and shock value that comes from fatal circumstances.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon has kept ambivalent on whether to shoot on film or digital video, saying that he has "no allegiance to film as film. If the story is in front of me, I'm fine". In terms of visual aesthetics, he prefers to incorporate as many practical effects as possible when using computer-generated imagery, so people "really don't know where one begins and the other ends". On working with high or low budgets, he remarked that both offer "the exact same job" and whether one has $100 million or $100,000, "you're trying to hit someone in the gut with an emotional moment." Whedon determines that, although giving actors notes for guidance, he also aims to assuage their concerns when communicating the reasons and outcomes of a scene.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon has cited Ray Bradbury, James Cameron, Rod Serling, William Shakespeare, Stephen Sondheim, Steven Spielberg, Charles Dickens, Stan Lee, Robert Klein, Jerome Robbins, Frank Borzage, Steve Gerber, Steven Bochco, Frances Hodgson Burnett and John Williams as influences. When asked about his five favorite films, Whedon listed "The Matrix", "Once Upon a Time in the West", "The Bad and the Beautiful", "Magnolia" and "The Court Jester".


title: Joss Whedon

text: Elements of feminism are present throughout much of Whedon's work and he gives his mother credit for inspiring this. The character Kitty Pryde from the "X-Men" comics was an early model for Whedon's strong teenage girl characters. He said, "If there's a bigger influence on Buffy than Kitty, I don't know what it was. She was an adolescent girl finding out she has great power and dealing with it." Kitty Pryde later played a central role in Whedon's run on "Astonishing X-Men". In his 2006 Equality Now address, Whedon said that journalists frequently ask him why he writes such strong female characters. In his speech he provided several answers, concluding with, "Because you're still asking me that question."


title: Joss Whedon

text: In college, Whedon studied a theory called "womb envy", a concept he says observes "a fundamental thing that women have something men don't, the obvious being an ability to bear children. Men not only don't get what's important about what women are capable of, but in fact they fear it, and envy it, and want to throw stones at it, because it's the thing they can't have." In 2007, Whedon expressed his outrage over the murder of Du'a Khalil Aswad, and because the act was caught on video, was prompted to attack the underlying attitude he felt led to the murder, comparing the video to torture porn.


title: Joss Whedon

text: In late 2013, Whedon spoke at an Equality Now event, where he issued a pointed dissection of the word "feminist". He begins to say, "I have the privilege living my life inside of words ... but part of being a writer is also living in the very smallest part of every word." Arguing against the suffix "-ist", he continues, "you can't be born an –ist. It's not natural." Whedon explains that because of this, the word "includes the idea that believing men and women to be equal ... is not a natural state. That we don't emerge assuming that everybody in the human race is a human. That the idea of equality is just an idea that's imposed on us..." This sparked an unfavorable reaction from the feminist community, but also an appreciation for Whedon's arguments' thought provocation.


title: Joss Whedon

text: News website Digital Spy released in early 2015 an interview they had conducted with Whedon, during which he criticized the entertainment industry for its "genuine, recalcitrant, intractable sexism, and old-fashioned quiet misogyny". Whedon exemplified "The Hunger Games" film series as an argument for female-led franchises, and hoped Marvel Studios would pursue production of more such franchises. However, critics noted an almost stereotypical lack of feminist ideals in his writing decisions and portrayal of Black Widow, one of two female protagonists in Marvel's 2015 "", played by Scarlett Johansson.


title: Joss Whedon

text: In August 2017, Whedon's ex-wife, Kai Cole, published an essay on an industry trade site accusing Whedon of 15 years of multiple infidelities and the hypocrisy of touting feminist ideals while using their marriage "as a shield" for his misuse of power. A Whedon spokesperson said the essay contained "inaccuracies and misrepresentations", but did not clarify what those were.


title: Joss Whedon

text: Whedon has repeatedly hired the same actors for his projects and has been described as "the gravitational center of the Whedonverse, a galaxy that spins recurring actors and themes through an orbital system of TV shows, films and comic books that all share similar traits: a unique brand of witty dialogue, relatable characters and fantasy/sci-fi mythology".


title: Joss Whedon

text: Note: Due to Whedon's frequent casting of the same actors in various projects, the above list only includes those who have played two or more different roles in Whedon productions; actors that only played one role in multiple Whedon productions are not included.