July 17 2015
Bugs in the system.
"From 'Ant-Man' to 'Thor,' why does Marvel clash with its directors?" An attempt to answer the question: "...why, in a world of friends and heroes, do Marvel directors so often walk?"
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They are obviously not there yet, but Ant-Man was a huge step in that direction.
RobynH | July 17, 22:10 CET
Snugels | July 17, 22:29 CET
“Marvel is so unlike anything Hollywood has quite seen before […]”
Marvel Studios reminds me of the old Hollywood studio system. Where producers heavily meddled with the creative decisions––as shown in The Bad And The Beautiful (1952)*––which gave us great classic movies as well as edited messes, where we had to wait for a “directors cut” for 40 years.**
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvn6xE5mmrY
** http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/93695/Touch-of-Evil/
[ edited by Udo Schmitz on 2015-07-18 15:20 ]
Udo Schmitz | July 18, 01:36 CET
Jason_M_Bryant | July 18, 01:41 CET
Plus, the burnout factor. Two to three years on a movie is a long time for a director, and the good ones will want to move on to something else -- something bigger, something more personal, something where they have more control.
MissKittysMom | July 18, 04:34 CET
barboo | July 18, 11:52 CET
http://www.empireonline.com/features/joss-whedon-avengers-ultron-secrets
Simon | July 18, 23:01 CET
Kessie | July 19, 06:34 CET
Marvel probably don't want another Edward Norton situation either.
Jaymii | July 19, 07:34 CET
barboo | July 19, 08:14 CET
Nebula1400 | July 19, 09:45 CET
--Nebula1400
St. Peter, don't call me cause I can't go.
I owe my soul to the comic book store.
You load 16 Puns, whataya get ...
RobynH | July 19, 15:14 CET
Nebula1400 | July 19, 20:35 CET
Ava DuVernay has turned down the opportunity to direct Black Panther because (wait for it) "It might have been too much compromise."
Full article.
RobynH | July 20, 11:48 CET
IrrationaliTV | July 20, 12:17 CET
Because we all know how dangerous it is to mix artistic edginess and big ideas with television...
[ edited by brinderwalt on 2015-07-21 00:28 ]
brinderwalt | July 20, 15:23 CET
How many directors have been announced for a Superman movie, only to never do it? Batman and Wonder Woman (Joss can attest to this), too. I just saw something yesterday about Stan Lee writing a soap box article about how excited he was that James Cameron was going to direct Spider-Man.
It's not just comics. Directors come and go on James Bond, Harry Potter, and tons of one-off movies.
I don't accept that Marvel is clashing with its directors more than any other studio.
Jason_M_Bryant | July 20, 15:43 CET
Completely different situation. This article is about what seems to be patterns of behavior with directors starting from the time after they've successfully completed chapters in the MCU.
brinderwalt | July 20, 16:10 CET
Also, the article is not *just* about directors who've completed chapters in the MCU. A big chunk of it is on Edgar Wright.
Plus, this article makes a big deal of how "challenging" Whedon found the second Avengers movie. The thing is, we all know he had several reasons for leaving the franchise. He's been saying for awhile that he needed to start working on his own stuff again.
The article is also misinterpreting things. It specifically mentions Kenneth Branagh not returning for the Thor sequel, but that wasn't because he had problems with the studio. He's specifically said that he'd really like to work with Marvel again. The article forgot to mention that.
They held up Pixar as being able "sell its directing chair on a wish", whatever that means, but they didn't report the fact that Pixar has had to shuffle directors as well. Brad Bird was a replacement on Ratatouille, for example.
This is all just pattern recognition. They're looking for patterns that show Marvel losing lots of directors. If someone is looking for evidence to support that, they'll find it. However, that's not at all unusual for any studio. Whether we're talking about directors working on something for a long time without making a movie (like Wright), making a couple of movies and moving on (like Whedon) or just making one movie and moving on amicably (like Branagh), all these things happen all the time for major studios.
Jason_M_Bryant | July 20, 20:36 CET