Can a failed TV show spawn a successful film?

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December movies
James Cameron’s spectacle “Avatar” hits theaters, along with George Clooney, who is “Up in the Air,” and Robert Downey Jr. as “Sherlock Holmes.”

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A tough sell
“Serenity” faces tough hurdles. The cast is generally unknown. Science fiction is a hard sell beyond its genre fans. Broader audiences, hearing that the film is based on a TV show they never saw, may decide it’s too much of an inside story for them.

Still, with a comparatively frugal $40 million budget, “Serenity” could earn its money back with only modest box-office success, plus TV and DVD revenues down the road.

And few movies with a cast of nobodies have a built-in squad of marketers, fans who have been talking up “Serenity” for years on the Internet and introducing friends to the TV show on DVD.

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“It’s very Jehovah’s Witness,” Fillion said. “I’m not sure if anyone’s actually going door to door, but it’s not far off.”

“Even now, my friends back in Texas are giving DVDs to other people, and our fan base is still growing and growing and growing,” said co-star Glau, a San Antonio native.

Whedon hopes “Serenity” performs well enough to justify sequels. He remains wistful over losing the chance to tell weekly stories with his characters on the small screen, though.

“I really love ‘Serenity.’ I’m really proud of it and excited to see it my guys on the big screen, bringing something new to it,” Whedon said. “But ‘Firefly’ was a different animal, something I will regret losing until the day they put me in a box, because I did have a lot of good stories I wanted to tell.”

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