Variety is reporting that Universal Pictures has given the green light to Serenity, a feature film based on the cancelled TV series, Firefly.  Joss Whedon, who created the TV series (and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), will write and direct the feature film, which will be entitled Serenity (after the name of the space ship used in Firefly) to provide it with some distance from the TV series.  Whedon explained to Variety: 'It was important that people understand that the movie isn't the series, the movie is bigger, more epic than anything you can do in a series.'

Nathan Fillion will return as Captain Malcolm Reynolds and other members of the TV cast including Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite, Gina Torres, Adam Baldwin, and Sean Maher are also on board for the feature film.  Serenity is set some six months after the last action in the TV series.  While Whedon wants to retain many elements of the TV series, he also wants to make Serenity accessible to people who never saw the TV show, which was cancelled after eleven episodes.  According to Variety, Serenity is budgeted in the mid-eight figures with production scheduled to start in June for a 2005 release.