Black Widow (Cate Shortland, 20??)

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Lost Highway
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:41 am
Location: Berlin, Germany

Black Widow (Cate Shortland, 20??)

#1 Post by Lost Highway » Fri Jul 13, 2018 7:27 am

Cate Shortland to direct the Black Widow movie

Interesting choice, I really liked her work on Lore and Berlin Syndrome.

McCrutchy
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:57 am
Location: East Coast, USA

Re: Marvel Comics on Film

#2 Post by McCrutchy » Fri Jul 13, 2018 12:46 pm

I think it will be interesting to see what happens with these solo sequels in the future. One assumes that they're all part of "Phase 4", but even leaving aside the nightmare of wrangling and/or eventually replacing some or all of these actors, I've personally hit a massive wall with these movies, and now I really can't wait for my journey to be over with Avengers 4 next year. I remember really enjoying Thor: Ragnarok back in November, but that was three (!) Marvel movies ago, and feels an eternity away. I certainly have no time for a Black Widow movie at this point, especially as Captain America: The Winter Soldier provided a lot of what a Black Widow movie would have right at the time it was needed.

I started seeing these movies for the actors in supporting roles, and it's been fun, kind of, but aside from Michael Douglas in the Ant-Man films, most of these roles since Robert Redford in The Winter Soldier have been glorified cameos. Jenny Agutter, Michael Rooker, Rene Russo, Stellan Skarsgård and Forest Whitaker have disappeared, while Anthony Hopkins and Angela Bassett aren't likely to have much screen time in their respective franchises going forward. William Hurt has only had two or three short scenes since The Incredible Hulk, and so on. I'm sure there's one or two exceptions I'm forgetting, but the point is that while it was fun to see the likes of Ben Kingsley as a main villain, it's been less fun to see things like one random, minor scene with Alfrie Woodard that goes nowhere.

But more importantly, I think the villains in these movies have all become really poor and useless. With the exception of Thanos, who is both compelling and somewhat threatening, I really can't remember a threatening villain in these movies since Iron Man 3, and that honestly makes for some pretty boring films. Even Sony's Spider-Man: Homecoming was pretty toothless in this regard, and I can't help but notice that it all traces back to roughly the time Disney bought Marvel.

I don't even really know why I persevere at this point (and I'm very likely burnt out), but for whatever reason, I feel compelled to see it through, like it's some kind of endurance test. Also, there is the fact that increasingly, all the time and effort seems to go into only these kinds of movies, up to and including exhibition, where these films (and their cousins, like the vapid Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) always dominate the biggest and best screens, as well as the "premium" theatre experiences. Regardless, I know I'm looking forward to being done, and I can't see myself seeing any Phase 4 films unless they are markedly different. I wonder if other people feel the same way?

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Kirkinson
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 5:34 am
Location: Portland, OR

Re: Marvel Comics on Film

#3 Post by Kirkinson » Wed Dec 12, 2018 8:29 pm

Apparently, at some point Marvel approached Lucrecia Martel (!!) to direct the upcoming solo Black Widow film. I wonder how many other surprising names they've approached — it now seems comparatively far less weird that Chloé Zhao is directing The Eternals.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Marvel Comics on Film

#4 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Dec 13, 2018 5:33 am

Kirkinson wrote:
Wed Dec 12, 2018 8:29 pm
Apparently, at some point Marvel approached Lucrecia Martel (!!) to direct the upcoming solo Black Widow film. I wonder how many other surprising names they've approached — it now seems comparatively far less weird that Chloé Zhao is directing The Eternals.
I'm afraid I'm at work so cannot look at the article to see if they mention it there but it is quite amusing to think that Marvel 'scouted' Lucrecia Martel! But it (and really all these leftfield directorial choices of big studios of artier directors to helm their latest blockbuster entry, even if a number of those choices do not work out) is kind of charming in the way that at least someone in that studio is using their position to at least meet a variety of filmmakers. The Film Comment podcast mentioned it a little while back and that it happened around the time she was in New York to do a retrospective of her films (and probably around the time she visited the Criterion closet). They also speculated there that one other reason for Martel meeting up with the Marvel team is because she apparently has a potential sci-fi themed project in development that might benefit from some research into CGI and action filmmaking techniques, and who better to have a meeting with than the epitome of that kind of filmmaking at the moment!

(Which kind of makes me hope that Shane Carruth got to meet with Marvel at some point as well, but I digress!)

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