Joss Talks DR. HORRIBLE and a Dollhouse Musical?

TV Guide’s Matt Roush has a sneak peek at Joss Whedon’s latest experiment, DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG, plus an interview with the man himself about this “Internet miniseries event” and Dollhouse. Here’s a non-spoilery excerpt.

Dr. Horrible, written during the writers’ strike and filmed in six days this spring “on favors and waivers” by a crew of longtime Whedon loyalists, will be streamed for free in what Whedon cheerfully calls an “Internet miniseries event” on the show’s official website (www.drhorrible.com) in three chapters. Part 1 will be available Tuesday, July 15, with the following segments (each roughly 14 minutes) available July 17 and 19. All three parts will stay up only through July 20, but deals are currently underway to make it available for downloading shortly thereafter.

The ultimate goal: a DVD, at which time perhaps enough profit can be made “to pay the people who were doing us favors,” says Whedon. In a chat following my nearly private screening (attended only by Whedon, a few of his New York-based agents and me), Whedon confided, “We’re already working on some of the DVD extras, which are going to be the finest in all the land. We’re actually going to do, in addition to the commentary, what we refer to as ‘commentary with an exclamation point’! A musical commentary that is a completely original musical, that is all commentary songs, and we’re writing that now.” As I gasped at that audacious notion, he continued: “We’re just piling it on. We’re like, we’re going to make more fun of the idea of extras than anything else.”

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How did this affect Whedon’s work on the Dollhouse pilot? “I told Fox going in that I’m making this, it’s going to take six days of shooting, and during those six days you’ll get bupkis. They’re like it doesn’t matter, you’re still filming your pilot—that you haven’t broken yet—in two months.” He sighs. “It’s been quite a time.”

Which begs the question: Could there ever be a musical Dollhouse episode? “Well, Eliza (Dushku) has a lovely voice. But first I have to make a normal Dollhouse, which is hard enough.” So how’s it going? “There’s still tweaks. Birth pangs. It’s never simple, but it’s going well.”

Read the rest of the interview (with minor spoilers for DR. HORRIBLE) at TV Guide and be sure to mark your calendar for those premiere dates: July 15, July 17, and July 19.