After taking the US box office by storm at the weekend, literally breaking records to take the biggest opening weekend with a final tally of 7.4m., Joss Whedon has taken to the web to say thank you to all his loyal fans for the years of support throughout his career.

Writing on a fan-site dedicated to him work, Whedonesque, he goes on to discuss (in a brilliant question-and-answer session with himself) a great few things that include, but are by no means limited to, what’s coming next for him (Much Ado About Nothing), looking forward to The Dark Knight Rises, and his love of TV (which is great).

His adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, he says, is next on his schedule, and he’s set on finishing it this month, which is awesome news in my books. Word first surfaced of the project after it finished shooting in secret, and it’s been a highly-anticipated project of his ever since.

Whedon said when the microbudgeted film was first announced that he’d be taking it on festivals, and if he’s finishing it up this month, I’d imagine that we might hope for a debut this summer at Venice or Toronto, before hopefully getting a wide release in both North America and the UK (at least).

In case you’ve missed it, you can catch up on all the awesomeness we’ve seen from The Avengers over the past few months by clicking here.

For now, the open letter, after reading which you can (and should) read the following Q&A in full here.

“Dear Friends,

Well, it’s been quite a weekend. Someday, long from now, I will even have an emotional reaction to it, like a person would. I can’t wait! But before I become blinded by this “emotion” experience, there’s a few things I’d like to say. Well, type.

People have told me that this matters, that my life is about to change. I am sure that is true. And change is good — change is exciting. I think — not to jinx it — that I may finally be recognized at Comiccon. Imagine! Also, with my percentage of “the Avengers” gross, I can afford to buy… [gets call from agent. Weeps manfully. Resumes typing.] …a fine meal. But REALLY fine, with truffles and s#!+. And I can get a studio to finance my dream project, the reboot of “Air Bud” that we all feel is so long overdue. (He could play Jai Alai! Think of the emotional ramifications of JAI ALAI!!!!)

What doesn’t change is anything that matters. What doesn’t change is that I’ve had the smartest, most loyal, most passionate, most articulate group of — I’m not even gonna say fans. I’m going with “peeps” — that any cult oddity such as my bad self could have dreamt of. When almost no one was watching, when people probably should have STOPPED watching, I’ve had three constants: my family and friends, my collaborators (often the same), and y’all. A lot of stories have come out about my “dark years”, and how I’m “unrecognized”… I love these stories, because they make me seem super-important, but I have never felt the darkness (and I’m ALL about my darkness) that they described. Because I have so much. I have people, in my life, on this site, in places I’ve yet to discover, that always made me feel the truth of success: an artist and an audience communicating. Communicating to the point of collaborating. I’ve thought, “maybe I’m over; maybe I’ve said my piece”. But never with fear. Never with rancor. Because of y’all. Because you knew me when. If you think topping a box office record compares with someone telling you your work helped them through a rough time, you’re probably new here. (For the record, and despite my inhuman distance from the joy-joy of it: topping a box office record is super-dope. I’m an alien, not a robot.) So this is me, saying thank you. All of you. You’ve taken as much guff for loving my work as I have for over-writing it, and you deserve, in this our time of streaming into the main, to crow. To glow. To crow and go “I told you so”, to those Joe Blows not in the know. (LAST time I hire Dr. Seuss to punch my posts up. Yeesh!) Point being, you deserve some honor, AND you deserves some FAQs answered. So please welcome my old friend and certainly not-on-my-payroll reporter/flunky, Rutherford D. Actualperson!”

 

Source: via THR.