Ellyssa Harris
If you’ve been away from the Internet for six months, you may not have heard of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, an internet musical written by Joss Whedon, his brothers Jed and Zack and Maurissa Tancharoen. The 45 minute feature stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day, and was a smash hit from the moment it hit the internet on July 15, 2008. It crashed servers, hit the front page of websites including the LA Times, MSN, Google and Time Magazine, and jumped to the number one spot on iTunes within 24 hours of its release.
Project Manager Rachel Rhee was appointed in September to help cope with the unexpected and overwhelming response. “I’m sure after Comic-Con, fan mail, press requests, etc. they felt a little overwhelmed!” Rhee said.
A Dr. Horrible CD soundtrack and DVD will be released before Christmas and pre-orders will be available very soon. One of the DVD bonus features fans are looking forward to is the Dr. Horrible team’s 10 favorite Evil League of Evil video applications. The competition received over 650 entries. “The level of creativity that Dr. Horrible fans have is astounding. We’ve all been sifting through the hundreds of applications that were submitted and it is definitely tough trying to pick out the favorites.” Rhee said. Some applicants have been concerned that their entries might not be selected because they didn’t receive any media publicity. Rhee reassured them, “If you submitted to us before the deadline, it will definitely get seen by the Dr. Horrible team.”
Another bonus feature will be a musical DVD commentary track but the rest of the features are being kept under wraps. Rhee says, “The actual content on the DVD is going to be a surprise, so unfortunately I can’t reveal too much. We’re in the final stages of putting it all together and I definitely believe the fans will fall in love with Horrible all over again. The release date is coming up so we’re all very excited to see the response!”
Many fans have expressed a desire to hold public screenings or live performances of the musical, Rhee says, “It is definitely going to be possible for people to hold screenings or live adaptations of Dr. Horrible. On Halloween, there is actually going to be a charity screening of it at the Fairfax Regency here in LA. We’re actively collecting requests and are reviewing them one by one. If you are interested in creating some sort of event involving Dr. Horrible, feel free to pass that information along to the DoctorHorrible.net webmaster, and she’ll make sure to get it through to us.”
Several months on from its release, the response is still overwhelming says Rhee, “We’re constantly getting approached by companies wanting to help expand Dr. Horrible and we’re still getting a lot of fan mail via email, Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace. The buzz is still going, especially since we just went live on international iTunes not too long ago. Less than 24 hours after we went live, we were already the #1 TV program on iTunes in the UK and Australia. Insane!”
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along blog can be purchased on iTunes in the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK with the soundtrack available internationally.
– ELLYSSA HARRIS
