Directing an ensemble superhero movie is a complex balancing act, according to The Avengers director Joss Whedon. You have to serve multiple masters without confusing things.
Opening May 4, The Avengers all-star cast is formidable, too. Answering Nick Fury’s (Samuel L. Jackson) call to save the world are Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth). Also showing up are S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).
“It’s difficult to drift from person to person without making them feel like they’re not involved,” said Whedon during an L. A. interview promoting The Avengers.
He was also aware of the trap; being too loyal to the characters. The key is “capturing the essence of the comic, and being true to what’s wonderful about it, while remembering it’s a movie, not a comic.”
Spider-Man in 2002 “was compelling” while The Avengers writer-director thinks 2003’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and 2009’s Watchmen missed their marks for different reasons.
“I think you see that in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, they just threw out the comic, or Watchmen, where they do it frame for frame, and nether of them work,” he maintained. “You have to (present) the spirit of the thing, and then step away from that, and create something cinematic and new.”
As an added bonus, Whedon weaves his trademark sardonic wit into The Avengers proceedings without slowing down the action.
“That was important,” he reported. “You can’t have it feel like a studio executive said, ‘Insert joke here.”
(Read my interview with The Avengers cast here.)
