Interesting. In an Australian interview, filmmaker Joss Whedon admits that he is working with a heavy dose of restrictions and compromises for “The Avengers” film.
“Right now, I’m working on a movie that’s got enormous stipulations and is going to be changing and fluid every second. I’ve come up with dozens of scenes and lines and exchanges and monologues that I adore that are not going to be in it. But while I’m writing them they feed me, excite me and they ultimately inform the character. It all goes in.”
He doesn’t outright say these limitations and prerequisites are coming from Marvel, but who else would they be coming from unless he means these imposing restraints are issues stemming from the scripts of “Captain America” and “Thor” and how those film affect “The Avengers.” But “Thor” is in the can and “Captain America: The First Avenger” is shooting now, so it shouldn’t be that big a problem, right?
Either way, Whedon seems to have a good attitude or a positive spin about how the limitations influence creativity.
“I feel that movies got more imaginatively dirty after the Hays Code was introduced in America. There’s something about having restrictions that does make you want to be sly about how you come at something. I do think that fighting against something, if it’s a real creative collaboration, the frisson between what the artist is trying to get out there and what the market place expects, creates very exciting entertainment.”
One assumes (and hopes) that when “The Avengers” hits screens on May 4, 2012, it is a stand-alone film and won’t have the same frustrating set-up baggage that “Iron Man 2” had (seriously, no need to set up the Nick Fury, SHIELD, or Hawkeye films, guys, just tell a fucking story). Time will tell. Hopefully Marvel will keep those “commercials for other films” detours to a minimum with “Captain America” and “Thor.” [Sydney Morning Herald]