Tony Head says 'Ripper' is not dead
That almost rhymes. Maybe Buffy's ex-watcher can set it to music while waiting for his spin-off.
While promoting a guest spot on the BBC drama Hotel Babylon, Anthony Stewart Head spoke with CraveOnline's Fred Topel about his projects, past and present, including Buffy and the long-rumored spin-off Ripper.
Maybe he was jet-lagged (the U.K./U.S. time difference and all that bollocks), but the ever-suave Tony stumbled over the first few questions.
When asked if he was aware of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight comic series, Tony said that creator/writer Joss Whedon "sent me a couple. It's great stuff. I want him to make more TV and more film."
But when Topel got more in-depth, asking if he'd like to "act" what Giles has been doing in the comic, Tony admitted, "Basically [Joss] sent me the first one. I haven't seen anything after that."
"Wait," said Topel, "Giles isn't even in the first one."
"Well, he's just there. A tiny bit. You got a little taste." Then Tony switched gears. "As I was saying, I love what Joss has done and I hope he does more."
Rupert Giles was the "Watcher" tasked with training and supervising the Slayer, Buffy Summers (played on TV by Sarah Michelle Gellar). When a malevolent old acquaintance appeared in season two and addressed Giles as
"Ripper," the very proper tea-sipping Brit confessed he'd gotten the nickname while dabbling in the occult during his rebellious youth.
This seques nicely into Topel's next question:
"Do you and Joss ever still talk about doing Ripper?"
"We talk about it," said Tony. "It's not dead."
Maybe it's just the WALKING dead.
Ripper was discussed as far back as early 2001, when Tony Head explained to Dreamwatch magazine that the show, to be shot in the UK and aired as a miniseries on the BBC, would be like "Cracker with ghosts" (referring to the successful 90's British TV drama about a criminal psychologist, played by Robbie Coltrane).
Later reports stated that Whedon had written a two-hour pilot for the show he described as coming out of the tradition of "classic English ghost stories," and also that Buffy staff writers were penning outlines for other potential episodes.
The following year, Tony told Sci Fi Wire that the show would be a BBC production, but that Whedon "wouldn't be able to commit too much of his time. Although he adores England, he's needed over there [in America]. Now he's got Firefly going and Buffy still up and running...and Angel. He's got a lot of irons in the fire."
Two irons were soon removed for good as Firefly was quickly axed, and filming finished on Buffy in 2003.
Yet, despite Whedon's assurance to the SciFi Channel, around that time, that he was "still very invested in the Ripper story," the cancellation of Angel in early 2004 didn’t move Giles any closer to his revival. Whedon soon became immersed in scripting the proposed Wonder Woman film and shooting the big-screen Firefly adventure, Serenity.
Then, in a December 2005 interview, almost as if just to keep the dream alive, Tony Head mentioned that Ripper would be a "two hour movie, that might become part of a series of [Buffyverse] DVDs."
Meanwhile, he kept himself busy. He was in great demand, thanks to Buffy, whose fans began filing Ripper away as another pipe dream.
Then suddenly, in July 2007, there was a ripple on the water.
According to novelist Suzanne Brockmann, who'd won a private dinner with Whedon at the San Diego Comic-Con, the Buffy creator planned to produce a 90-minute Ripper TV special for the BBC.
Whedon said he had talked to Tony and others, and that all were agreed that the 90-minute show would happen soon, probably some time in '08. How Whedon would fit that in with comic-writing gigs on Buffy and Marvel's Runaways, and with his horror flick Cabin in the Woods, was not explained.
The Daily Star announced in August that Ripper had been green-lit toward that '08 broadcast goal.
Judging by his nonchalant response to Topel, however, Tony Head isn't too concerned either way. After all, he's gotten some cool jobs since then, including a guest role on a recent episode of Doctor Who.
"It's called 'School Reunion' and I got to play a really particularly unpleasant headmaster who ate children actually," he explained gleefully. "I look a little bit like Mr. [Anthony] Hopkins in his Hannibal Lecter role. My hair is slicked back."
Maybe it's practice for getting into those darker corners of dear ol' Ripper's head. Only time will tell.
[Thanks to Tony Delgado & Ben Rawson-Jones @ Digital Spy UK; Alexander G. Rubio @ Bits of News.com; SciFi Wire and Wikipedia.]