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More Quotes from Whedon on The Avengers: 'This is MY Film'

by Alex Billington
September 27, 2010
Source: SFX

We're probably going to be running new quotes from director Joss Whedon on Marvel's The Avengers movie from now until, well, the day that ensemble comic book movie comes out in May 2012 (so get ready for two more years of endless quotes). After the big Comic-Con announcement, we posted some quotes from Whedon talking about why he cast Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner. Then a month ago we ran some quotes where he talked about how he's been waiting to make this his entire life. Now out of nowhere, UK's SFX (via AICN) has published some of their own new quotes and they're quite beefy, but still lacking specific details.

I'll let Whedon speak for himself, as he says a lot without revealing much, but it is still exciting to hear this stuff. This is his answer in regards to a concern over being able to tell "character stories" with The Avengers:

"There are definitely stipulations and restrictions, but Kevin Feige is very active as a producer and worked with me a lot on the story, but they are absolutely honouring the fact that this is my film. What I kind of think ultimately defines Marvel Studios was the first thing they did and that was cast Robert Downey Jr. They said, 'What if we got great actors and let them have some time to be the people they're supposed to be instead of going through the paces of hitting this mark and that mark?' They don't always 
get it right, but nobody does. But if 
you look at who they already had, and who they allowed me to add to the cast, they are thinking about the integrity of the characters. Obviously we have to get from point A to point B, and fans really want to see this – and ideas for set-pieces which I said are great. Now I'm going to make them matter and they are completely on board with the idea."

Considering we've heard some rumors about Marvel pushing Jon Favreau around on Iron Man 2 to get what they wanted, it's good to hear that Whedon and Marvel's Kevin Feige have been playing well together so far. I just hope that means he's going to be able to deliver the truly kick ass, totally perfect superhero team-up movie we've all wanted to see, because if it sucks, no one is ever going to let him down for it. He continues:

"What I will struggle with, in the outline and throughout, is that I would like to put these actors in a room and just make Glengarry Glen Ross," he laughs. "We're talking about really exciting people and at the same time I have to keep the momentum of the thing going. I can't let it turn into a lull fest. Knowing that I have enough time to do both of those things – that by the end of the movie you will feel 'in' with these guys – is the trick. It's not an easy one but one that Marvel absolutely honours. They don't hire Mark Ruffalo [the new Hulk] to say one iconic line and strike a pose. They hire him because he has so much humanity in him. He's the antithesis of the iconic actor. He's so human. He was my first choice to play the part, and the fact he is playing the part is nuts! They went to great lengths to make that happen and they understood exactly why he was right for the part."

Again, it's good to hear all this optimistic stuff, I just hope it's not Whedon talking things up as much as he can, while he can. Isn't he supposed to be working on the screenplay? As far we've heard, shooting is going to start early next year, but that means he's still probably got a lot of work to do to actually get to that point. It's always easy to talk up a project beforehand, but let's see how his comments change as things develop and once shooting actually begins. Either way, the more I hear from him, the more confident I am that he'll do a good job, but I guess we'll have to take it one step at a time. First, we have to see if Kenneth Branagh's Thor and Joe Johnston's Captain America are any good anyway. Still confident in Joss Whedon, too?

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