So, on to "Dollhouse." From what I gather reading the trades, it's one part lone-rebel character drama, one part "Fantasy Island." The "dollhouse" is a place where people can live out their fantasies - with the proviso that their memories are wiped clean afterward. Except that Dushku's character starts to remember her dollhouse experiences ... and that's about as much as I could make of it. If the women know more than that, they aren't telling. "'Dollhouse' is going to be an awesome show," Craft said, "but it's a hard show to sum up in one sentence." "It will be intelligent and intricate and have amazing characters," Fain said. "It's a show about what it means to be human." "How screwed up we are and how divine we are ..." Craft said. "And everything in between," added her partner in crime. "It's really great, because as a writer you can create a whole new world with every episode." - LexGo.com, 3/03/08 [link] 
The drama, stars Dushku as Echo, a member of a group of men and women who are imprinted with different personalities for different assignments. In between tasks they are mind-wiped, living like children in Dollhouse, a futuristic dorm/lab. A group of people, known as "Actives" (or "Dolls"), have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas and hired out for particular jobs, crimes, fantasies and occasional good deeds. When not imprinted, the Actives live, childlike and unremembering, in a hidden facility nicknamed "The Dollhouse". Although the Actives are ostensibly volunteers, the operation is highly illegal, and under constant threat from a determined federal agent on one end and an insane rogue Active on the other. The story hinges around a greater and more subtle threat: Echo, a female Active, begins, in her mind-wiped state, to become self-aware. - Production Weekly, 3/06/08 [link]
According to Aaron Barnhart, former Angel writers Craft and Fain got picked up by Joss Whedon for Dollhouse two days after they exited WMC. James Patterson, BTW, is so on my list. (Thanks G.) FYI, a little digging reveals Dollhouse prod office should open in about two weeks. -Jengod Blog quoting TVBarn, 2/27/08 [link]
Seth made his name in the hit US television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and has already offered his services to director Joss Whedon's new series Dollhouse. - The Courier-Mail, 2/20/08 [link]
Eliza Dushku... Now with the writers off the picket lines, Dollhouse is presumably back on track for a fall launch. "Joss is a friend. I love him. We want to play hard. We're excited," she tells Sun Media. Whedon, returning to TV for the first time since the short-lived science-fiction western Firefly, came up with the concept for Dollhouse while he and Dushku were having lunch. "Everyone, if they're smart, is looking for a writer who gets it and brings it," she says. "I've had a long career and the important thing is the creative relationships I have with the people I work with, and to have it go beyond just business ... You make friends and allies." Sun Entertainment, 2/15/08 [link]
Newman estimated that his studio had 50 to 60 pilot scripts in the works, including one from popular TV producer Joss Whedon, whose new Fox series, "Dollhouse," was ordered from a pitch two weeks before the strike began. Whedon is now busy writing both the pilot script and scenes for auditions. - LA Times, 2/15/08 [link]
TV Guide is asked "So now that the strike is over, what's the status of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse? The status is Joss is pounding out a pilot script at this very moment. Barring any major hiccups, the show could be on the air as early as fall. - TV Guide, 2/12/08 [link]
Joss Whedon was asked "What about Dollhouse will draw in your Buffy and Firefly fans?" Well, Eliza (Dushku). Duh. It's very different than the stuff I've done before, but at the same time it's still a very hardcore examination of the human condition. It really sort of boils it down to who are we, how are we programmed, what do we need, what is okay about us, and what is really not okay. It's the most morally gray thing I've ever done. I think it might actually anger a lot of my fans, but there are questions I still have to ask. Ultimately I think it will intrigue them because that. - IO9, 2/11/08 [link]
Joss Whedon... IESB caught up with Joss Whedon right on the picket line this week where he briefly discussed his upcoming dance project with Summer Glau. “There’s a few things I’m trying to do without the studios,” said Whedon, “either for the internet or shorts and there’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time which is a ballet with Summer Glau. We’ve been talking about it for years and I’ve been doing most of the talking and none of the doing. I finally finished the score and we have a choreographer working with us. We’re hoping that sometime in the late spring/early summer we will actually get to shoot it.” Though most of his time these days is going towards the picket line, Joss Whedon’s art is hitting in so many forms that a ballet isn’t even a surprise. Shortly before the strike he announced a new TV series, Dollhouse to star Buffy veteran Eliza Dushku. (“Yeah, I did,” Whedon joked about his unfortunate timing, “That was a little awkward.”) Lately, he’s been writing Runaways for Marvel and he’s been both continuing the Buffy series in comic form for Dark Horse as well as authoring their Myspace web-comic Sugarshock! Unfortunately, the strike has made things even busier for Whedon and some projects have fallen a little behind schedule. - IESB, 2/8/08 [link]
There’s currently talk that his “Buffy” colleague Joss Whedon might be looking to reunite with him [James Marsters] on the new series “Dollhouse” featuring Eliz Dushku. - 11/14/07, MovieHole [link]
"Dollhouse" follows a top-secret world of people programmed with different personalities, abilities and memories, depending on their mission. After each assignment—which can be physical, romantic or even illegal—the characters have their memories wiped clean and are sent back to a lab (dubbed the dollhouse). The show centers on Dushku's character, Echo, as she slowly begins to develop some self-awareness. - 11/6/07, SkullRing.org [link]
The 43-year-old writer vowed that, despite already having outlined the first seven episodes of Dollhouse and, like the geek he is, designed the poster too, he would not put down another word until the looming conflict between Hollywood’s artists and executive “suits” was settled. - Times Online, 11/4/07 [link]
Buffy (and coming soon - Dollhouse!) creator, Joss Whedon told E!’s Kristin Dos Santos that he supports what the WGA is doing, stating, “I will be busy picketing. I support the guild, and I think what we are doing is unfortunate, but necessary. And that means I don't get to have my fun, but that isn't the point.”. TvBlend, 11/2/07 [link]
"Joss has been my favorite friend, genius, ally and confidant in the business since I was 17," said Dushku, now 26, who also will serve as a producer on the project. "It's incredible how much energy and excitement I have for this; I can't wait to be this Echo character." "Dollhouse" came out of a lunch between Whedon and Dushku in September, shortly after the actress had signed a development deal with Fox and sibling studio 20th Century Fox TV. Whedon was giving her advice about writers and types of shows that might be good for her, but he wasn't interested in venturing into TV himself because he was trying to get a couple of movie projects off the ground at the time. "In the middle of the conversation, I went, 'Oh, God. I thought of the show, and I had the title,'" Whedon said. Dushku came on board immediately. Within a week, the show was set up at Fox. - Reuters, 11/1/07 [link]
"It was a mistake!" Whedon said. "I sat down with her to talk about her options, and acted all sage, saying things backwards like Yoda and laying out what I thought she should do. But in the course of doing it, I accidentally made one up. I told it to her, and she said, 'That's exactly what I want to do.' " Fox Entertainment chairman Peter Liguori had been pursuing Whedon about making a return to TV for some time, and said he couldn't believe his luck when Dushku brought him in the door. - MovieHole, 11/1/07 [link]
“The show was pretty much fully formed,” Whedon says. “I wrote a synopsis, treatment, pilot episode and six suggested future episodes. I made a poster in PhotoShop because I couldn’t sleep.” - TvWeek, 10/31/07 [link]
Dollhouse will air on Fox, the network that Whedon fans know as the one that axed Firefly as well as Dushku’s Tru Calling. While some might see this as a bad sign, Whedon is optimistic, saying "I always had a good relationship with [20th Century Fox], and on the network end, it's a completely new bunch of people, and from what I’ve seen, a fairly impressive bunch." - 10/31/07 [link]
Echo (Eliza Dushku) [is] a young woman who is literally everybody's fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo's burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse. - Eonline, 10/31/07 [link]
The show, which boasts a seven-episode commitment for 2008 and a hefty license fee between $1.5 million and $2 million per ep, will chronicle the exploits of a group of individuals who are "imprinted with personality packages" - Hollywood Insider, 10/31/07 [link]
Whedon and "Buffy" buddy Eliza Dushku (Faith from the show) will be launching a new series, "Dollhouse," with Fox. The actress' Boston Diva Production and Whedon's Mutant Enemy will produce the show, which has gotten a seven-episode commitment. Though a writers' strike could delay production, it's scheduled for fall 2008. - LA Times, 10/31/07 [link]
