Throughout this past month, we brought you the first look at S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill, the right-hand woman to S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) played by Cobie Smulders, as well as a new international trailer for director Joss Whedon’s forthcoming Marvel Studios film The Avengers.
Now, we have some details about how much studio interference that Joss Whedon had to deal with on The Avengers, as well as what the filmmaker said when asked about a sequel to The Avengers.
When asked by DenofGeek about his relationship with Marvel Studios on the film, Whedon said –
“They really did let me make my own film, they said, ‘here are the things we need; here is the villain, we want this to happen; we need the conflict here; here’s the third act, it will involve the following’. Which I’m fine with. That’s great, give me the parameters, because then I know where I’m going, and it does some of the legwork for me. And I know what their agenda is in terms of style, and what we’re delivering, in terms of thrills and the adherence to the Marvel universe, with which I’m very familiar.”
“But it was like comics, because they didn’t interfere. I told them ‘this is the kind of movie I want to make’, and they said ‘all right, make that movie’. And that is what happened. And they were as unmeddlesome as any studio I’ve ever worked with, even though they had the very strict touchstones that had to happen. So it was a weirdly free experience.”
Whedon also spoke with EW during the panel for The Cabin in the Woods at SXSW and had this to say about all of the villain speculation in The Avengers:
“It’s the Vulcans. I don’t know a lot about the Marvel universe, and I thought there were Vulcans. I know we’re going to get a lot of emails about that one… I will say only this: It is not the Kree or the Skrulls. Those two aliens are Marvel mainstays and have enormous back stories. They have a big life of their own that just could not be contained in a film where I already had seven movie stars. The Skrulls…They can shape change. That’s a whole thing. I’ve already got Loki. He’s got magic. Once you got magic along with your Iron Man and your Black Widow…It’s a real juggling act.”
When asked by DigitalSpy about how a potential sequel could be bigger than the first, Whedon said –
“By not trying to. By being smaller. More personal, more painful. By being the next thing that should happen to these characters, and not just a rehash of what seemed to work the first time. By having a theme that is completely fresh and organic to itself. I want to know what makes them tick, what makes them flawed, what makes them fight – and ultimately, what makes them awesome. I go to these movies for those moments when the heroes define themselves, either through action or deliciously overwritten speeches.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPoHPNeU9fc[/youtube]
Synopsis:
Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures “Marvel’s The Avengers”–the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson, and directed by Joss Whedon, “Marvel’s The Avengers” is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since. Prepare yourself for an exciting event movie, packed with action and spectacular special effects, when “Marvel’s The Avengers” assemble in summer 2012. In “Marvel’s The Avengers,” superheroes team up to pull the world back from the brink of disaster when an unexpected enemy threatens global security.
The Avengers starring Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Clark Gregg, Tom Hiddleston and Cobie Smulders is slated to hit U.K. theaters on April 26th and U.S. theaters on May 4th, 2012.
