Changes to Freedom The Series

The last day or so has brought some difficult changes to Freedom. We have decided not to base the story in the Firefly 'verse. While we would love to play in the 'verse that Joss Whedon has created, Fox owns the rights to it, and they could at any point come in and tell us that we aren't allowed to use their intellectual property. The people helping us to create the show, as well as the viewers, deserve to have a well made, completed project, and in order to do that, we have decided to make this an entirely original series. The story and characters were always original, so this will require very little rewrite. There will be several nods to popular science fiction, especially Firefly.

Auditions will still be held this Saturday, and filming will start in the next couple months. Overall, the project plan will change very little. Our hero just won't be wearing a brown coat, and the characters won't randomly break into Chinese.

Music and artwork inspired by Firefly is still welcome in the show. These artists have always impressed me, and we would be proud to feature their work.

We still plan to give the show away for free on the internet when it is completed, but this will allow us to also sell dvds and merchandise related to the show. This does mean a little more paperwork, but it will enable the show to go on much longer.

The Browncoat community deserves more Firefly, and we will continue to support it in any way we can. We may even revisit the idea of making Firefly fan films in the future. We will also keep supporting the multiple charities that have benefited from the fandom. We know that the community will continue to support a web series created by Browncoats who love science fiction in all forms.

Michael J. Welch
Producer
Freedom The Series

I'm curious what prompted taking the story setting out of the 'verse?
I'm assuming primarily the sales angle.
Although I understand the motivation, I wonder if taking the story out of the 'verse will also take away the audience.
In my area, a group wanted to do a Star Trek film, but created their own universe for the same reasons I think you made the decision.
http://darkops.risingphoenixpro.com/
Double-edged sword.
They have more freedom to tell their story,
but fewer people are willing to emotionally invest in an amateur production.

I certainly wish you success with your venture,
Mike

There were a lot of reasons. Like I said, the big motivator is the legal issues. Fox doesn't play well with others. Sure, there are ways to make it Firefly without coming out and saying it's Firefly, but I don't really feel comfortable trying to do something that is barely legal.

Being able to sell the dvd is a plus, and that may enable us to make more when we're done with this. We're also able to go through things like Kickstarter to raise some money.

A lot of it though is that our story is so easy to change. The only dialog we'll have to rewrite is the Chinese. And when you can fix things that easily to make them completely legal, why not?

And yes, we've seen a little less support since the announcement. We had quite a few people that had sent in resumes, but very few that actually showed up for the auditions. I know that to a certain extent that is normal, but it was pretty extreme on this one.

I can promise though that if you love Firefly, you'll want to see what we're making.