Joss Whedon Updates Progress on The Avengers; Discusses Sequels and Comic Book Inspiration
Posted 08.05.11 by Ryan
Since landing the job directing The Avengers, writer-director Joss Whedon hasn't said much about the upcoming comic book adaptation. During the 2011 Comic-Con, Whedon discussed working with an ensemble of characters he didn't create, and later praised his cast.
With a preview teaser for The Avengers showing the first brief snippets of footage from The Avengers finally online, Whedon talked to Poptimal (via Latino Review) about the progress on the movie.
We're about 2/3 of the way through filming. For some reason, I am not dead, and for some other weird reason, I have not been replaced, but we're having a lot of fun. Is that okay for us to have fun? Everybody's working really hard, throwing themselves all over the place emotionally and physically, interacting with each other in fascinating ways. I'm trying desperately to keep the big picture in my head, make sure it coheres and is an exciting film all the way through. Every scene has something in it that I'm so proud of, and so delighted by what the actors have given me — not to mention the crew and everybody else. It's not just big, it's big. It's a blockbuster. There are certain things you do: you bust blocks.
Whedon again praised his cast saying that they "are giving me so much life and texture in their characters that I'm just thrilled." Thrilled enough to start thinking about sequels? Whedon says that it's too soon to worry about The Avengers' "franchise potential."
I'm thinking that far ahead as much as I should. My main goal is make a movie that's good. If possible, make a movie that's super good. Don't try to make a movie that's great, because then it'll be pretentious. Just go for super good. But yes, it's not like they all die and The Avengers are shut down forever. There's definitely franchise potential, obviously, but I didn't pepper the movie with franchise notions. I've seen a lot of movies that failed because they were just being part ones. This is a complete film. We'll tease out something that might happen later, but basically, all I did was complete this story. Han [Solo] is not frozen in carbonite at the end of this movie.
While Whedon wouldn't divulge plot details, he told Comic Book Resources that his script takes from "everything" including both the comics and the Marvel movies that have led up to The Avengers.
You're basically looking at everything. I don't want to say "stealing from" — but I just did — [but] yeah, you're looking at the very first issue [of The Avengers comic], you're looking at Ultimates [comic], you're looking at what they've done with the movies, and you've just got to factor in everything, because, ultimately, this movie is about taking people who shouldn't be in the same movie, or possibly even in the same room, and turning them into a team. So you just draw from everything that helps. The trick is to be respectful and excited by the stuff you've loved, but not so wed to it that you can't tell if it's not working. You have to create something that is unique that is a hybrid of all of those things.
Whatever the story behind the adaptation is, OnLocationVacation reports that The Avengers is shooting at the DHL facility in Wilmington, Ohio, where they've built a mock Navy flight deck and are also shooting inside a military plane.
Opening on May 4, 2012, The Avengers cast includes Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Cobie Smulders as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill, and Samuel L. Jackson as S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury.