Joss Whedon‘s tenure at Marvel is drawing to a close, but his three-year stint has seen the responsibility and weight of expectation that he carries with "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" grow far beyond just making a great movie. “The dollars, what’s riding on this, the burden of having done the first one and trying to come up to that level started to freak me out in the way it never has,” he told Buzzfeed. “I feel like I have to make a movie good enough to be the next third-highest-grossing movie of all time. I do feel like if it doesn’t make a certain ridiculous amount of money, I will have failed the people who have faith in me. I’ll fold in on myself.”
In essence, Whedon’s run at the comic studio has involved making sound creative decisions that also affect the bottom line. It can be a tricky dance, and Whedon has had to advocate for the studio to other filmmakers who may not take to a process where decisions are scrutinized at almost every level. And "Ant-Man" seems to be the opportunity that got away.
“I thought the script was not only the best script that Marvel had ever had, but the most Marvel script I’d read. I had no interest in Ant-Man. [Then] I read the script, and was like, Of course! This is so good! It reminded me of the books when I read them. Irreverent and funny and could make what was small large, and vice versa," Whedon explained of the situation that saw Edgar Wright abruptly leave the movie last summer. "I don’t know where things went wrong. But I was very sad. Because I thought, This is a no-brainer. This is Marvel getting it exactly right. Whatever dissonance that came, whatever it was, I don’t understand why it was bigger than a marriage that seemed so right. But I’m not going to say it was definitely all Marvel, or Edgar’s gone mad! I felt like they would complement each other by the ways that they were different. And, uh, somethin’ happened.”
And while Whedon might be playing a bit cagey about the behind-the-scenes battle of "Ant-Man," he’s upfront about the increasingly episodic nature of Marvel’s storytelling. The filmmaker is adamant about his movie working as a whole, even if it nods to characters or situations that will develop later on.
“No matter how much they may talk about, ‘Well, this is going to lead to some terrible stuff down the line,’ in my movie, it’s designed to be a complete experience,” he explained. “And if I don’t do that, if I haven’t brought you on that journey and closed it out, fuck me. That’s the danger of this sort of serialized storytelling, turning the motion picture experience into episodic TV. Because we have episodic TV, and now you don’t even have to wait to watch it, you can binge it. So that’s to me a dreadful mistake.”
And while you might point to something like Andy Serkis being cast as Ulysses Klaue as an obvious indication of Whedon playing the very game he’s warning against, it should be noted that was done long before he had any clue Marvel was indeed going to make "Black Panther." And speaking recently with Collider, Whedon said not to get your hopes up about seeing too many fanboy winks in ‘Ultron.’
"Yeah, there aren’t a ton of Easter eggs," he stated. "It’s so hard for me to make a movie, especially this movie, I don’t spend a lot of time going, ‘You know what else would be hilarious?!’ I’m more like, ‘Was the gun in the frame? Oh my God, I’m so tired.’ I mean I would leave set every day and go home and write because it wasn’t quite right; it wasn’t quite finished. It needed to be better. So not a ton."
A lot of points to ponder, and it’ll be interesting to see who Marvel tasks with the creative guidance of their ever-expanding universe once Whedon’s contract is up this year. "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" opens on May 1st.
Avengers is there and now waiting for Antman . Yesterday read a content realted to Top 7 most anticipated upcoming movies of 2015 with its release dates at hexder.
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I get it. I don\’t think you can read.
Way to misrepresent what he said about the Ant-Man script. He said MARVEL had it right. Your headline is intentionally misleading.
"The best script Marvel\’s ever had" is like the most tasty serving of dung I\’ve ever eaten.
I think that\’s a pretty loose interpretation of what Joss has said about his films over the years. He\’s simply saying that making the Marvel films work as standalone entities, rather than teasers for future films is difficult.
And that is difficult. To see what it\’s like when a director/writer caves to that, go watch The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
I don\’t see it as him distancing himself from the other Marvel filmmakers. He\’s been quite upfront about how much he enjoys being able to play with these characters and that he\’s enjoyed the rest of the Marvel films, many of which he has had a hand in shaping.
As for Zack Snyder, the difference is that Whedon\’s superhero resume includes a film that the vast majority of people greatly enjoyed. Snyder\’s includes Man of Steel, which frustrated and disappointed a lot of people.
I want to preface this by saying that I really enjoy the work of Whedon, but why is it that he (and James Gunn is also guilty) makes these movies in a particular way and then claims to be separate from the pack – when in actuality, he\’s as guilty (moreso) than anyone. After the first Avengers, he said that it was too hard to make those types of movies and it ran the risk of turning serialized event films into 2 hour trailers for something down the road. Now, he\’s basically reiterating that and in an off handed way, distancing himself – yet twice he\’s made the most ridiculous examples of that type of filmmaking. Again, I love the guys movies, but this too-cool-for-this crap is obnoxious and he gets a pass. Meanwhile, poor Zack Snyder gets his head kicked in for even breathing in the direction of a superhero and no one bats an eye (i enjoy Snyder\’s films as well, but whatever). I guess my point is that i just get a little annoyed with the backpedaling after doing the exact same thing you\’re voicing concern over. Maybe he needs to just leave Marvel, and go direct Wonder Woman so that DC can finally feel what it\’s like to have the fans on their side for once. Less pressure on Whedon, and the world can stop hearing about how hard it is to be Marvel\’s prized pig.
He was definitely talking about the movies; he just sequed briefly into a point about TV. What he\’s saying is that a motion picture should stand on its own, not simply be one installment in a bigger story, and I agree with that. It takes away from the power of an individual film to only make it one "episode" of the bigger picture. That\’s why I like Whedon\’s approach: He understands that the Avengers movies have to fit into a bigger picture, but he\’s determined to make them stand on their own.
The difference between some superhero films and Star Wars is that Star Wars (the OT) has a very definitive beginning, middle, and end. Even A New Hope ended in a way that it could have worked as a singular film. The problem with superhero films is that they\’re very much being built to support numerous sequels, prequels, and side stories. Basically, like The Winter Soldier ending without actually wrapping up the main Rogers/Bucky plot line.
I feel like the writer of this kind of Misconstrues what joss was saying about it being episodic. I thought it seemed more like he was noking t.v not the movies. i thought it sounded more like he was talking about how t.v viewers are spoiled with their binge watching and the movies do a good jobof building suspense and making them wait biit thats just my opinion. To be honest its not like episodic movies have ever been a problem or are going away i mean Star wars did it for how long? And they are just now about to start that back up again so i feel like the worry here is irrelevent.