One of the things I most appreciate about Joss Whedon is the fact he isn’t afraid of speaking candidly when it comes to his work on the Marvel movies and once again he is speaking his mind and while the headline may sound a little dire, it isn’t having to do with onset troubles, but more with maintaining cohesion with the Marvel Cinematic Universe when it comes to bringing together so many different kinds of heroes for Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Speaking with SFX Magazine (via THR), Whedon said of Age of Ultron, “Shoot me in the face! It is a nightmare. I long for the simple movies like Serenity! This is the hardest juggling act I have ever, ever tried to pull off.”
He elaborates on these thoughts adding, “They’re very disparate characters. The joy of the Avengers is they really don’t belong in the same room. It’s not like the X-Men who are all tortured by the same thing and have similar costumes,” he explained. “These guys are just all over the place. And so it’s tough. Honestly, this is was tough as anything I’ve ever done, and I haven’t worked this hard since I had three shows on the air.”
I do wonder about Whedon as he seems to be as big a fan of these comics as the fans that love the movies themselves, and I wonder if there is an added pressure he puts on himself in that regard. The fans can be quite aggressive in their expectations, but it almost feels like Whedon is close enough to that fanbase himself that he carries similar expectations.
Continuing on Whedon discusses the actual movie adding, “There is more Hulk in this movie than there was in the first. But what I’m excited about is we shot this movie very differently. I was running a lot of cameras, I was shooting long lenses, which I don’t usually do.” He says his approach to this one was a little more like making a documentary, which I find interesting and might create a curious approach to the narrative, perhaps more of an observant role for the audience than immersive.
As for his take on Hulk this time around, “What I love is we have the opportunity, because we went in with this mission statement, to shoot the Hulk like a character in a movie, and not like a ‘Look what we’ve got!’ We have ‘overs’ – blurry ‘Hulk’s over there! Bits, very quick shots. Everything isn’t ‘We built the Hulk so for god’s sake you’re going to watch him in this long take, full frame, the whole time!’ We really got to make him one of the characters in the movie. And that was a gift.”
Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters on May 1 and you better believe it will be massive. Also be sure and watch the brand new trailer for the movie right here.
