Sam Taylor-Johnson To Direct ‘Fifty Shades Of … 
Inside AMPAS Board Of Governors’ Meeting: Conflict Of … 
Shailene Woodley’s Mary Jane Role Cut From ‘The … 
‘Star Wars’ Cast Breakdown Unveiled 
CAA Signs Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck, Oscar-Winning … 
UPDATE: Dan Abrams Named New ‘Nightline’ Anchor … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘The Voice’ Finale On Par … 
Joy Bryant Returns To Longtime Agent Steve Alexander At … 
ITV Pays $30M For Controlling Stake In ‘Hatfields … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Anchorman 2′ 
2ND UPDATE: Charlie Sheen Fired Selma Blair From … 
Time Warner Cable Sued For Passing Lakers-Dodgers Costs On … 
Jonah Hill Signs For Management With LBI 
TOLDJA! ‘Dumb And Dumber To’ Proves No-Brainer … 
Salma Hayek’s Animated Passion Project ‘The … 
Relativity Moves Scott Cooper’s ‘Out Of The … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Lego Movie’ 
Comedy ‘I Didn’t Do It’ Gets Series Order … 
Liv Tyler To Co-Star In Damon Lindelof’s HBO Pilot … 
DreamWorks Animation Launches Effort To Re-Position Itself … 
‘Pacific Rim’ Sequel In Planning Stages, … 
UPDATES Whedon To Direct Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’
Back in April, I reported exclusively that Marvel Studios was in final negotiations for Joss Whedon to direct The Avengers. Today, Whedon confirmed the news, and Marvel sources say the deal is done. That’s the fast-tracked film that would amount to an all-star team of Marvel superheros, including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), as well as SHIELD leader Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Whedon has been rumored for this job for awhile, and was high on the fanboy wish-list. Marvel has considered all of the individual superhero movies to be an intro to The Avengers, so the wanna-see on this one in May 2012 will be huge.
Loading ...
Well, this is a great choice as Whedon is a great writer and director. Buffy, Angel and Firefly were all great.
Like I said, I still wont see this in theaters unless Norton is in it. If hes not than Marvel ain’t getting my money…atleast not my theater money. Will definitely rent it though since its The Avengers, but I’m really unhappy about Marvel’s cheapy-ness lately.
I love me some Josh, but this sounds like a train wreck in the making. Far more interesting to me is who is writing the damn thing. There are soooooo many ways to do this wrong, and doing it right? – well, camels and needles come to mind.
I hope it’s great, but it seems like a very high risk proposition to me.
Now if JJA were on it – no offense to Josh – I’d be thinking, we’re good here no matter who the f is writing it.
Clearly you have no idea what you’re talking about. First of all his name is Joss, not Josh. Also, he is both writing and directing.
JJ Abrams couldn’t pull this off nearly as well as Whedon. I have to say anyone, who thought Star Trek was anything other than a loud summer flick with plot holes the size of the red-matter-induced black holes is a few neurons short of a nervous system.
And why do you think this a train wreck/high risk? The plan all along since before Iron Man was to build a Marvel Movie Universe, obviously leading to a big crossover movie: The Avengers.
I agree with you on Star Trek, but like the guy before said, I don’t think this movie is going to be that great, these types of superhero crossovers just don’t work. Even if it has Robert Downey Jr.
Dude, do you have any idea what the Avengers is about? Anyone who has read the Avengers are used to seeing those superheroes crossing over. True comic fans won’t have issue with the format
THANKS FOR THE SPOILER ALERT…. You just ruined the movie for me. Thanks. Would have been nice to have a warning.
Are you kidding me? Nothing is spoiled in this article. If you can’t handle finding out the cast of a movie you need not use the internet.
No, Mike the wanna-see will be almost nothing.
Captain America will be “in like” with America, and will have 100% less America fighting the Nazis.
Whedon’s predictably going to create a feminist-gay-friendly Comic book movie filled with “kewl!” aging fanboy stuff that will alienate the families and kids required to make this type of movie a success (and critically, sell merchandising). He can’t play to the broad middle, or men and never has. That’s fine for something aimed at girls, or a small audience. Not here.
This is a move so stupid, only Disney could make it. It’s like putting Quentin Tarantino on say, “High School the Musical 3″ and wondering why families / tween girls walk out in the big finale where half the cast is decapitated after “tense” exchanges of dialog over guns. And I *LIKE* Tarantino’s movies. But I wouldn’t put him on a Disney film.
Whedon would be perfect for the Twilight movies (that’s not a ding, that stuff is hard to do and Whedon is maybe one of six guys in Hollywood who could do it well). But a feminist, gay-friendly, hip-cool guy is going to be a disaster*
*Yes, he wrote X-Men. Big deal. He didn’t create them, and Comic books these days don’t make money. They exist to retain rights to characters created decades ago by creators who had pop-pulp energy appealing to kids not uber-hip adults.
“Whedon would be perfect for the Twilight movies (that’s not a ding, that stuff is hard to do and Whedon is maybe one of six guys in Hollywood who could do it well).”
Um…er…actually, it _is_ an insult because Whedon’s BUFFY was far better than the TWILIGHT series could ever hope to be. And why would you condemn someone to reinventing the wheel with rotted wood?
I get why they want Whedon to write, but also direct? They’re handing one of the most anticipated movies of the decade to a guy who has directed ONE other movie, and that flopped. Are they just assuming he’ll be able to make the JJ Abrams transition to film? I would have thought they’d want someone with a better track record…or indeed any kind of track record.
Just because it flopped doesn’t mean it’s a bad film. Serenity was always going to be a tough sell and Universal’s marketing department did a terrible job with it.
I worked on Serenity and can tell you that Universal made a great effort to market the film (just don’t ask me about Fox marketing Firely… THAT was a travesty).
The challenge was tough: how to sell a cult tv show feature, with no headliner stars, without $50M+ in marketing. They decided to leverage our substantial fanbase using an innovative marketing plan utilizing pre-release screenings, multiple Comic-Con events, and innovative online videos, etc. (successfully replicated recently by Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity, to name a couple of films). The fact is Serenity was a tough sell, the crowds did not materialize after a big Friday and, thus, we didn’t open at a level that would have made us a big theatrical success (did do very well on DVD).
Stinks, but to be fair, not Universal’s fault.
He has directed the Buffy movie, btw
You mean Im not gonna do press on Hulk because it wasn’t cut the way I wanted it to be. Oh yeah let’s be loyal to that guy! Nortons would have been great but I understand Marvels decision. That would be like Bay letting Meghan Fox do Transformers after her crap.
Tentoes, Whedon has a great reputation with Buffy, Firefly and Angel. The script is written by Zack Penn, but Joss Whedon is rewriting it.
Rep or reality?
Buffy pulled in at its height, 8 million viewers. Angel considerably less, and Firefly less than that. Dollhouse is exhibit A why Whedon will FAIL miserably on this movie, and any scripting input will be poison.
Joss Whedon is a man of many talents, but appealing to men or boys is not one of them.
GLAAD awards? He has them by the dozen. Feminist accolades? That too. Hip and edgy and trendy? Sure.
But attracting the wide, broad, mainstream audience?
Joss Whedon could not do that to save his life, any more than Pixar and John Lassiter could make a Tarantino film.
Whedon’s TV shows were cult stuff, with Dollhouse pulling at its lowest 2 million viewers, almost all of them women.
Utterly predictable script elements: instead of a “team coming together” (Whedon’s never been part of a team, not team sports, or the military, or anything so has as much understanding of it as I do say, lesbian single mothers of color) — we’ll get typical Alpha A-hole posturing with characters “put in their place” ala Hollywood. See: Angel at his (female friendly) most A-holery/killing spree, or Spike, or Captain Tightpants. Stuff women love and guys HATE.
Which isn’t the Avengers: they’re “Dirty Dozen” with Lee Marvin. Part of the story is getting past the dysfunction not embracing it.
At least one male character (probably Cap) will be gay. To the utter disgust of every 10 year old boy interested in seeing that movie.
There will be totally stupid “grlll power!” and “fight the patriarchy” stuff along with prostitution and “rescuing” prostitutes themes, and the like. There will be two guys fighting over some prostitute. All that stuff shows up repeated, again and again, in Whedon’s writing.
He “gets” hip and trendy and life on Melrose Ave. better than anyone. That alone is reason enough to disqualify him (and anyone sharing those attributes).
Reality: doing a Comic book movie is about the hardest thing you can do in Hollywood. Only Chris Nolan and Jon Favreau got them right. Why? Because you have to write and direct for 10 year old boys, and adult men AT THE SAME TIME, with a broad, middle class take on morality and heroism. Batman can’t be “kewl” and kill the Joker, otherwise he’s just another bad guy. And there’s no point in heroism because if you draw lines of right and wrong, you’re weak.
If you’ve seen Dollhouse, you wonder why Whedon got the gig. Either it was “get someone cheap” or another stupid move by Rich Ross (who has not a clue about appealing to boys and men, predictably).
Michael Mann (Heat), or Peter Weir (Master and Commander) should have gotten the gig. Yes they would have cost, but they get male teams/bonding. Just because its a comic book movie is no reason (indeed it demands the best effort) not to put forward the best movie you can on screen, even if it won’t win Oscars like “the Reader” or other self-indulgent junk.
Yeah, because only 10 years boys and Adult Men are consumers of comic books. YAWNAGE
Mike, I think “TOLDJA” is Nikki’s thing. We’ll have to find you a thing of your own. Actually, everyone at Deadline should have their own catchphrase.
Here’s one for you:
“You Just Got Flem’d!”
It’s yours, gratis. Enjoy.
Mike, I love ya, you doin’ great, but if I don’t see at least two strong TOLDJAs from you by the end of this week… YOU’RE OUTTA HERE!!!
(Hey maybe that could be Mike’s own catchphrase! Ed Norton, You’re outta here!! Meghan Fox, you’re outta here!! Josh Lucas, you’re outta here!!!)
“You Just Got Flem’d”??
Hilarious.
I haven’t really been a fan of JJA since the middle of Alias second season. IMHO everything he’s had a hand in has been convoluted and hard to understand with gigantic plotholes a 2 yr old could point out. Some people seem to enjoy this type of story, I do not.
I personally think Whedon will blow this film out of the water(and by that I mean the opening weekend will be huge followed by an equally lucrative boxoffice for the entire run). Some of the other stuff I have seen that he has written and/or directed clearly shows an appreciation of character and plot that is far above most other writer/producer/directors in hollywood.
Oh, by the way. Once upon a time, Abrams was also just a guy with no film credits and alot of TV. He seems to have done pretty well for himself. I know Whedon will do better.
Mark Ruffalo isn’t confirmed as the hulk yet right? Or is he?
Not gonna lie… got somewhat of abad feeling about this one. I keep thinking “Dollhouse” and getting shivers. At any rate, this thing will probably be huge given the superhero factor. People may even just go to see RDJ as Iron Man again. I hope the Cap and Thor movies do reasonably well, it only lends more support to The Avengers. This is a pretty ambitious project though, and I’m just not sure I would have put it in Whedon’s hands. He had hit television shows on the WB. I say give him the pen, and let someone else direct.
I just read an interview with Joe Johnston and I am now 100% sure that Captain America will flop hard. I’m pretty sure at least half of the potential audience will actively despise the movie and may pelt the screen with rotten vegetables.
I have greater hope for Thor, although recent costume pics have shaken the faith a bit. Even if both bomb, Avengers will do well, because it has Iron Man. The problem is what happens afterward. Iron Man alone cannot hold up the entire Marvel universe. There has to be other successful franchises, and I don’t think that will come from Dr. Strange or Ant-Man. That is getting deep into the D-list. Marvel can try to reboot Captain America or Thor, but that didn’t do any good for the Hulk.
idk how to feel about this…I love Joss with all my heart but I think he’s more of a writer than a director.
been waiting for Marvel to finaly make it official that Joss is directing the avengers. for with his skills the Avengers is sure to wind up marvels next big hit. plus if nothing else maybe he can cast Eliza duku as scarlet witch . the avengers film just got more interesting. can not wait to see Joss take on the Avengers.
Let the hackery begin
So whiskey, it’s your contention that the mainstream audience is a slavering mass of mysoginistic homophobic douchebag idiots like yourself? That’s why Whedon is a cult fan-favorite?
If they’re anything like your bizarre attention-starved rants paint you as, no wonder they don’t appreciate Whedon. They’re too backward to get his work on the level he writes at.
This is exciting. Joss is an impressive writer and director. When he pitched “Buffy” the TV series to us at The WB, he laid out a very clear vision for the series…and all thirteen storylines in the pick-up meeting. He is the real deal. Congrats.