Buffy Without Whedon or Gellar ...?

... don't make me laugh! But according to E Online, this is exactly what the plans are.

This new film will not be a sequel or a prequel, but a "relaunching" on the lines of Star Trek. This also means no Willow or Zander or Spike or any of our other beloved characters. A new Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie without the film and series mastermind Joss Whedon, I just find this hard to believe.

Apparently, Fran Rubel Kuzui, the director of the 1992 Buffy movie - starring Kristy Swanson as Buffy - and her husband, Kaz Kuzui of Kuzui Enterprises feel like they need to cash in on the vampire craze that is sweeping the nation thanks to Stephenie Meyer's hit book series, Twilight.

With the success of the HBO series, True Blood, based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, the upcoming IFC series of the adaptation of Anita Blake Vampire Hunter by Laurell K. Hamilton, and the forthcoming release of the 2nd Twilight movie, New Moon - vampires seem to be everywhere.

I have been a vampire lover since Barnabas Collins entered my life in 1966. Salem's Lot by Stephen King was the first vampire book I read, but I quickly moved on to the classic by Bram Stoker, as well as Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. So this overwhelming frenzy with all things vampire, 40 years after my infatuation started, is very surprising to me.

But, in the interest of fairness, I'll wait until a movie is actually produced to make up my mind about a new Buffy launch. I'm just keeping my fingers - and toes - crossed that the Kuzui's will see reason and pull Whedon and Gellar onboard.