In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Joss Whedon talks about Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

And the Internet musical you’ve been doing?

Eventually. At first I was just really working the problem because the strike was a very serious issue and one that I don’t feel we resolved adequately. I reached out to the people in Silicon Valley, like everyone else, and said, if you will finance something, I will put it together. I will shoot it tomorrow. I will make something so low-budget that will look so good. That deal still isn’t made. It took so long. But I wanted to get out there and create jobs and tell stories, and really explaining to people that there really is another way. Well, I found out that wasn’t it. And that ate up a lot of my time. So I thought maybe something smaller. “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” was something I’d thought of before to do as an audio podcast so I could write some songs. I thought it would make a nice little piece — three 10-minute segments. Maybe find a way to monetize it. And I got my brothers involved. So we all wrote it together, the four of us, and then Neil Patrick Harris, who is a buddy, agreed to star in it. And that was our dream because he’s got the greatest singing voice and he’s a brilliant actor. And Nathan Fillion agreed to star in it as the villain. And Felicia Day agreed to star in it. And when we came back, Fox said instead of 3 1/2 months to write a script and a few months of prep time, we’re shooting ["Dollhouse"] in two months. And we hadn’t even fully broken an episode.

And I had “Dr. Horrible” to shoot two weeks from then and no line producer for that. It was a time of work. The thing is, I wasn’t going to abandon or short-shrift either project. You just can’t. You can’t put something out there with your name on it that isn’t the most wonderful you can make it. I also had the comic books that I should have written during the strike, but I didn’t. Apart from being sick, I really have no excuse, and they all hate me now. And they should.

When will “Dr. Horrible” launch?

We’re dropping in the last effects and color-timing it right after upfronts, and then I’ll be talking to people about how we can put it out. I would like to monetize it so I can not only say, ‘Look, I can tell stories,’ but people can be paid.

• External Link: Los Angeles Times Article

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