Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Tells the story of an underdog supervillain who maintains a video blog to chronicle his efforts to be accepted by the Evil League of Evil.
Information:
The "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon self-financed "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," a 40-minute "supervillain musical" starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. During the WGA strike, Joss Whedon started writing a three part musical series for the internet. Joss’ brothers Zack and Jed and Jed’s Fiancé Maurissa Tancharoen also co-wrote.
Joss and Jed penned the music and lyrics to "Dr. Horrible." Much of the musical recording was done at Joss' home studio "with my kids running around." Filming was done on location for seven days at a budget in the very low six figures in Los Angeles at the end of March and some on the Universal backlot, on the New York street set a few months before it was destroyed by a fire.
When Act 1 premiered on July 15, "viewers clicked so fast and so furiously at drhorrible.com to see the online production that demand for the debut installment crashed the site." Act 2 and Act 3 subsequently premiered on July 17 and 19, respectively. The musical "shot immediately to the top of the iTunes video chart, and was viewed over 2.2 million times in its first week."
Actors:
Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible
"I'm a huge Joss fan, professionally but also personally. We travel in the same circles. I am very close friends with Amy Acker, who was on Angel for many years, and of course the connection with [Buffy alum] Alyson Hannigan [who stars with me on How I Met Your Mother]. I even read for a part as a regular on Firefly, for the doctor, and it almost happened. So when the phone rings and it's him, I'm quick to pick up. He said, ''I am doing a Web musical —' and I said 'yes.' And then he got mad and said 'Wait a second, let me pitch first.' And then he told me the name of it, and the idea behind it and the reasoning behind it and I said 'Hell, yes.'" -Neil Patrick Harris
Felicia Day as Penny
"I think there are a lot of the things that Hollywood doesn't understand about the Internet. It's kind of the reverse of mainstream media: You don't want to aim for everybody. You want to aim for a targeted audience, and then from there, that passionate audience is going to spread the word. It's a different approach to creating something for the Internet, and clearly, Joss's got it. Dr. Horrible was all word-of-mouth." -Felicia Day
Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer
"It's a brand new deal. The people who created it are the people who are in control of it. It's such a weird thing, an incredibly cool thing. I think a very interesting peek at how I think things are going to start to be: the future of entertainment, I believe." -Nathan Fillion
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