When the Veronica Mars movie reached its $2 million fundraising goal on Kickstarter in just 10 hours, devoted fans began to imagine what other cancelled shows could seize this financing opportunity.  The first series that came up, repeatedly and emphatically: Firefly.  After all, no one can mobilize his core fanbase like Firefly creator Joss Whedon.  And Whedon admits that his first reaction to the unqualified success was “unfettered joy” because he feels like this is “a real game-changer.”

But before you get your hopes up, Whedon went on to explain why this will not lead to another Firefly movie anytime soon.  Read what he had to say after the jump.

It’s the ten year anniversary of both the birth and death of Firefly, the short-lived sci-fi / post-apocalyptic Whedon-helmed Western that continues to rabidly lives on in the hearts of its fans.  In fact, that’s a major theme addressed in the Science Channel’s one-hour special Firefly: Browncoats Unite, airing November 11th at 10pm after a marathon of the series.  In it, the cast (most — Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin and Alan Tudyk — at a roundtable, a few — Morena Baccarin, Gina Torres and Jewel Staite — with separate interviews) along with executive producer Tim Minear and executive story editor Jose Molina, discuss at length the entire oral history of the series, from their favorite moments to their first impressions of each other, and what exactly made the series so magical to fans but not to, at the time, Fox executives.

Attendees to this past summer’s San Diego Comic-Con got a sneak peek of some of the material that’s covered in the special during the series’ panel, and though the special lacks Joss Whedon, it gains Entertainment Weekly senior writer Jeff Jensen, who helps guide the conversational flow.  For more on the special, hit the jump.

I got in line for Ballroom 20 at 6:30am today.  I was early enough to be twenty minutes late to the first panel, because Firefly fans are crazy.  They camped out en masse for the Firefly 10-year reunion—the third panel of the day—and effectively throttled the line for fans of any other properties.  For a show that was cancelled after one shortened season a decade ago, the Firefly crew—Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, writer Jose Molina and producer Tim Minear—sure does draw a crowd.  Could it possibly live up to the Comic-Con hype?  Hit the jump for the panel recap.

This weekend Hero Complex in association with The Los Angeles Times hosted the third annual Hero Complex Film Festival. Highlights to which included a screening of Shaun of the Dead with Edgar Wright, Wall-E with director Andrew Stanton, A Clockwork Orange with Malcolm McDowell, and Robocop with Peter Weller.

Joss Whedon’s cult-favorite Serenity closed out the festival Sunday night.  Star Nathan Fillion was on hand to discuss the film and its short-lived television predecessor Firefly.  (I still maintain that show’s season/series finale “Objects in Space to be the finest piece of writing Whedon’s ever done.)  In the post screening Q&A, Fillion reflected on reuniting with the cast for the film, reciting Whedon’s particular cadences and previews his role in another Whedon project/film: Much Ado About Nothing.  For all this and more, hit the jump.

To the surprise of no one, Adam Chitwood, Dave Trumbore, and I gave The Avengers our full attention in the latest episode of Collider’s new podcast, The Collision.  We talked about the film, its record-breaking opening weekend, what it could mean for future Marvel movies, why Marvel needs to bring back Joss Whedon (provided he wants the gig), and the film’s epilogue (we put that at the end of the podcast to avoid spoiling it for people who haven’t seen the movie yet).  Finally, we finished up with our recommendations, and you can check out trailers for those recommendations after the jump.

Click here to listen to the new episode, click here for last week’s episode, and click here to add The Collision to your RSS feed.  Also, we are now on iTunes, and while it’s still not where we want it to be, we’re working on it and I thank everyone who helped us out.  Also, I’m in the process of looking for a new Skype recording program and a good mixing program for PC.  As always, please sound off in the comments section on how we can improve the show. [Special thanks to Jason Barr for mixing this week's podcast]

Last year’s Los Angeles Times Hero Complex Film Festival included screenings of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan & J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, a Jon Favreau-hosted double bill of Iron Man and Iron Man 2, and Warren Beatty opened the festival with his 1990 film Dick Tracy.  The event sounded like a lot of fun and proved more than insightful with some truly swell panels.  The line-up for this year’s iteration of the festival has been announced, and as expected it’s a fun mix of old and new films with special guests galore.  Hit the jump for more info.

Every once in a while, I like to remind readers that our weekly “Top 5″ is a perpetual “work in progress.” That in mind, if you ever find yourself thinking, “Man, I wish Jason wasn’t such an idiot and would do this or that with the ‘Top 5′,” then I’m inviting you to either leave your suggestion in the comments section and/or e-mail me (colliderjason@gmail.com). The goal is to make the weekly feature as beneficial and entertaining to you, the reader, as possible. So, by all means, let us know if there is something missing that you would like to see. Now, with that out of the way…

In this week’s installment, you’ll find all of our video interviews with the cast of Conan the Barbarian, Matt’s editorial documenting what he views as the rise and fall of cult status, the first trailer and 34 hi-res images from Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, news confirming all of our worst fears regarding a Blade Runner follow-up, and our visit to the Alamo Drafthouse to check out the new Fright Night with stars Anton Yelchin and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Hit the jump for links and brief recaps for each.

Look back on this week.  How many times did you directly or indirectly reference a movie or TV show you like?  Did you wear a T-shirt with some sly reference or did you simply make an offhanded quote?  Our world has become drenched in allusions to the entertainment we enjoy and it can dominate our dialogue as our identity becomes more and more entrenched with brands and our identities entwined what we enjoy.  A recent study published in the Journalism of Consumer Psychology [via BoingBoing] concluded that criticism of a brand caused personal offense to the supporters of that brand.  Or, as Devindra Hardawar put it, “Fanboys explained.”  It’s the same way religion functions except now zealots worship at the altar pop culture and, even more fervently, entertainment that landed outside the mainstream.

This editorial will explore the latter and the irony of how a fandom’s fervent devotion and popularization of a cult property can drive off an original adherent.

Joss Whedon is in final negotiations to direct Marvel’s big superhero crossover movie, The Avengers.  The sound you just heard was my mind exploding all over my apartment.  IESB reported a couple weeks ago that Whedon was on the short-list to direct the pic, but I brushed that off as madness even after Hero Complex confirmed the story.  I thought it far more likely that Whedon would direct a smaller Marvel Comics movie, Runaways, since he wrote the second volume of the series. It turns out that Peter Sollett (Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist) has gotten that gig.  Deadline reports that Whedon is going to take the helm of Marvel Studio’s biggest planned project.

Whedon’s only previous feature film was 2005′s Serenity.  Despite a relatively small budget of $40 million, the film still flopped and only earned $25 million domestically.  Marvel now wants him to direct the film that Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America are all building to.

Hit the jump as I piss off Whedonites with my explanation of why this is a bad idea.

“Castle” is one of the most depressing shows on television right now.  It’s not because of the show itself which is just a generic cop show except Fillion is a crime fiction writer and he gets to have “Moonlighting”-type banter with his co-star Stana Katic.  It’s because “Castle” is just a bad show and Fillion is so much better than the material.

However, for 35 glorious seconds, this week’s episode of “Castle” was amazing as Captain Malcolm Reynolds re-emerged…or Fillion’s character Richard Castle dressed as a “space cowboy” for Halloween.  You’ll see that even though it breaks the fourth wall like it was tissue paper, Fillion still has a lot of love for the character and for the fans (like myself) that continue to love the character.  Hit the jump to check out the clip and keep flying.