How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying is making a big push on Facebook, with a contest to find its biggest fan by asking users to record video testimonials. Those testimonials become great word-of-mouth advertising for other potential theater goers.
Despite tentative assurances at last Thursday’s Q&A that the web hosts streaming Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog would be up to the challenge today, drhorrible.com has been crashing all morning, and server traffic has been slow at best. Per the Twitter of star Felicia Day: “Wow, Horrible is breaking all the internet. Their site, my site, their fan site, whedonesque…”
If you want to keep posted on the site’s ups and downs, downforjustmeoreveryone.com is a good place to start, but right now the only certain way to watch the musical spectacular is via a $3.99 iTunes season pass. Of course, this could change at any moment, so feel free to comment with updates if you catch them before we do. The one thing we know for sure at this point — any concerns we might have had about a web series of this nature building an audience seem pretty moot.
Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog goes live today (go here to buy it on iTunes) with the first of three all-singing, some-dancing installments, the way it was meant to be seen: on your computer monitors. But how was it on the big screen? I had a chance to see it (and review it) at last Thursday’s cast-and-crew screening, where it played beautifully — Nathan Fillion’s manly attributes and big musical numbers getting almost equal amounts of applause.
From left, writer Maurissa Tancharoen, Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Felicia Day and Nathan Fillion; and Neil Patrick Harris, back, in a hat. Photo by David Sarno, used with permission.
And afterwards, Whedon, stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day, and co-writers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen hung around to answer a few questions, mostly revolving around the difficulties of production when not working with a studio. With an estimated budget in the low six figures that came directly out of Whedon’s pocket (“I sold a lot of Girl Scout cookies,” said the man with two different TV series in syndication), the project’s pedigree makes claims to guerrilla filmmaking a bit hard to swallow. But everyone involved clearly relished the chance to participate in a project made under conditions Whedon defined as “street legal” — even if, in Whedon’s words, the hectic seven days of shooting “broke a few people.” Read More about Dr. Horrible Goes Live, and More on Joss Whedon’s Evil Plans
Nas became a punching bag for Bill O’Reilly and the Fox News Channel after performing a concert at Virginia Tech last year. But rather than take it, the rapper aims his latest video at the “fair and balanced” news channel — and really, all media — for a ditty entitled “Sly Fox”.
And for all you Joss Whedon fans, we have an early review of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog — no real spoilers, just lots of raving about the supervillain musical extravaganza. Check it out on NewTeeVee Station!
