full image - Repost: Recapping (most of) the juiciest news and tidbits from MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios (from Reddit.com, Recapping (most of) the juiciest news and tidbits from MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios)
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Buy the book! It’s really good, especially for behind-the-scenes stories. This is not a “scoop book,” the most dramatic stories come from Phases 1 and 2. Even if you know Marvel Studios, you’ll probably learn something: I’ve followed them since 2006, but had no idea about Feige’s surprisingly scathing press release announcing Edward Norton was fired. There are thousands of details, from mundane to revelatory. I tried to keep this list to things lesser known or not publicly reported. If I missed something, let me know!Pre-MCUMarvel’s 90s bankruptcy battles were nuts. At one point, Ike Perlmutter and Avi Arad sprinted through the streets of Manhattan to crash a meeting with their pitch to save Marvel.Feige applied to USC film school six times before he was accepted. He and Geoff Johns were friends and junior staffers for Lauren Shuler-Donner. The first time Feige went to Comic-Con, he borrowed Johns’ car. Shuler-Donner believes studying under her and Laura Ziskin gave Feige a more “intuitive, empathetic” style than most male film executives.Pressed for one of Feige’s shortcomings, Shuler Donner allowed that “neatness is not his forte.”Bryan Singer had never heard of the X-Men when he was approached to direct. Michael Jackson lobbied for the role of Professor X.Donald Trump has a weird cameo: Perlmutter approved the plan for Marvel to begin producing films internally in a Mar-a-Lago lunch room.Early Marvel Studios offices were very jank. When Feige was hired, they gave him office space in a Marvel-owned kite company. After five years, they finally moved him to a rented office space… above a Mercedes dealership. After Avengers, Marvel Studios finally earned fully dedicated office space on Disney’s Burbank lot.In Spider-Man 4, John Malkovich would have played Vulture, and Anne Hathaway was Felicia Hardy, as previously reported. Angelina Jolie was actually tapped for Vulturess, who would be Vulture’s daughter. Raimi ultimately left because of quality and profitability concerns: he couldn’t see how to turn profits on a film that could cost nearly $400m. Before Iron Man, Jon Favreau and Avi Arad kicked around a comedic take on Captain America, an Elf-style journey of a squeaky clean 1940s soldier adjusting to the modern world. (This concept might even predate the Winter Soldier, who debuted in 2005.)Phase OneThe Mandarin was the original secret third act villain of Iron Man, but was cut after X-Men 3 and Spider-Man 3 were criticized for having too many villains. The final scene written for the film (Stark tricking Stane into icing his armor) was turned in minutes before the 2007 WGA strike. The film’s final explosion was so large, it accidentally fried $180k worth of lights and drew the attention of the LAPD.The Norton v. Marvel squabbles were mostly about tone: Norton wanted a longer ponderous movie, Marvel wanted a shorter adventure movie. The infamous Captain America deleted scene was Norton’s original opening for the movie, but Marvel found it too dour.Feige has always delegated day-to-day to creative producers, who journey with the film from development to postproduction. The first creative producers were Jeremy Latcham (Iron Man) and Stephen Broussard (Incredible Hulk).Fury’s Big Week was not originally planned: in 2008, Brad Winderbaum pieced together upcoming films’ timelines and realized they overlapped, involving Nick Fury or SHIELD in some way.Winderbaum also established the “zero point” for the Marvel timeline: Tony Stark’s public declaration that he was Iron Man. Just as Star Wars fans and creators mark events as being before or after the Battle of Yavin (the climax of the first Star Wars movie, when Luke Skywalker blows up the Death Star), Marvel Studios kept its calendar by the time elapsed before or after Tony’s admission.Don Cheadle was at his kid’s birthday party when a Marvel executive called, giving him an hour to decide whether to be War Machine. When he said he was in the middle of laser tag, the executive replied, “Oh! Oh, take two hours.”While trying to buy Marvel, Bob Iger recruited Steve Jobs to call Perlmutter and tell him how good the Pixar sale was for Pixar internally. Nearly a decade after their demise, we finally know the full Marvel Creative Committee: Dan Buckley, Joe Quesada, Brian Michael Bendis, Louis D’Esposito, Kevin Feige, and Alan Fine. The MCC’s most unpopular decisions and toxic feedback culture came from Fine, who was Perlmutter’s attack dog. “Screaming matches” were had because the MCC wanted Captain America to be set in the modern day.Even before they cast Hiddleston, Marvel knew they wanted Loki to be the villain of Avengers. Thor screenwriter Zack Stentz: “They literally said, ‘If you fail at everything else, please just give us a villain as good as Magneto in Loki.’”Chris Evans turned down Captain America twice, even after Marvel offered him the role without an audition. Downey was enlisted to call Evans and convince him.Whedon chose the Chitauri: he didn’t want an alien army with complicated baggage, like the Kree or Skrulls. Whedon only intended Thanos to be a quick bit of fan service, and Marvel approved the cameo without any thought or planning on how that would shape the MCU.Marvel uses keyframe art to shape its stories: visual artists like Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen come up with a concept, and Marvel writes screenplays around it, “an extraordinary inversion of the usual Hollywood approach.” The Avengers circle shot began as a keyframe.Perlmutter resisted even Black Widow being an Avenger: he wanted the team to be all men. Marvel corporate believed the sweet spot to move action figures was white men in their 30s. Runaways was cancelled because it wasn’t “toyetic” enough. Phase TwoAs Marvel Studios entered Phase Two, the Creative Committee became a production chokepoint, insisting on reading all scripts but taking longer than ever to respond to them. The notes coming out of New York coalesced around a single idea: the Marvel Cinematic Universe should exist to sell merchandise. When Rebecca Hall signed IM3, it was explicitly to play the film’s villain. The MCC forced Shane Black / Drew Pearce to change this due to toy sale concerns. For the same reasons, Hela was replaced as the villain of Thor 2.Marvel Studios and Marvel Television were housed on opposite ends of Disney’s Burbank headquarters. Marvel Studios regarded TV spinoffs as “forced synergy.” When Blade, Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Ghost Rider reverted back to Marvel, the MCC assigned them to Television, over Studios’ objections.Jessica Jones fell apart at ABC because the network wanted to retool the show to focus on Carol Danvers. (It was later repackaged into the Netflix Defenders deal.)The Russos insisted on using physical sets and practical effects wherever possible, and closely fine-tuned the fight choreography. For the elevator sequence, Evans was required for most of his stunts due to the limited filming space.Nicole Perlman initially had Nova lead GOTG, but it was decided a more roguish figure was needed. Quill’s mixtape was her idea, which the MCC opposed. Otherwise, they didn’t contribute much feedback because they believed GOTG would inevitably fail and they could reign in Feige.Edgar Wright first pitched Ant-Man all the way back in 2001, four years before Marvel Studios even existed. Wright was hired in 2006, but production was never an urgent priority for either party. Each time it was pushed back, the culture inside Marvel Studios changed, reconceiving how the film would serve the MCU.The MCC noted the hell out of Ant-Man, clumsily shoehorning in MCU references, which Wright and Cornish tried to make work. To nudge things forward, Marvel Studios hired an in-house writer to do a rewrite, but it backfired. Wright was so shocked, he no longer believed Marvel operated as good faith collaborators and left the film.Patrick Wilson was originally Yellowjacket. The McKay/Rudd rewrite expanded Hope’s role in part because Lilly hadn’t actually signed her contract. After Wright left, she negotiated for a larger part.Edgar Wright wanted to make an Ant-Man movie, but he wanted it to reflect his vision, not the larger needs of the MCU—so much so, he walked away from his own film. It marks a significant “What If . . . ?” moment in the history of Marvel Studios: If Wright had filmed his Ant-Man script in the early years of Marvel, he likely would have been able to make it his way, and he might have even shifted the trajectory of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, infusing it with his own sensibility and humor. He just waited too long.Phase ThreeThe MCC wanted to cut Tony Stark from Civil War (lmao). They also pushed for the airport fight to be superheroes vs. super soldiers. Iger called Perlmutter to try and smooth things over, overriding Ike on greenlighting Black Panther and Captain Marvel. The production grew more contentious and the Russos threatened to quit. Finally, when Perlmutter decided to fire Feige, Iger cut the strings, freeing Feige. The MCC was dead.After this, Phase Three was very smooth sailing, so this section of the book is a bit dry.Sony’s contract with Marvel specified that after the release of a Spider-Man movie, the studio had to start production of the next one within three years and nine months, and get it into theaters within five years and nine months. Otherwise, the hugely valuable Spider-Man movie rights would revert to Marvel.Captain Marvel was a period piece to avoid figuring out how Carol would interact with SHIELD and the Avengers. They considered setting it in the 60s and 80s. The same firm that de-aged Patrick Stewart in X-Men 3 de-aged Samuel L. Jackson. The technology itself hasn’t actually evolved much: the artists are just more skilled.Endgame’s final battle began previz in 2016. Cut moments: Black Panther fights Ebony Maw, Scott Lang accidentally alerts the baddies by playing a Partridge Family song. As they prepared to expand into television, Feige established the Marvel Studios Parliament, the top creative producers who have been with the company the longest. (They're basically Feige's direct reports.) Members: Stephen Broussard, Eric Hauserman Carroll, Nate Moore, Jonathan Schwartz, Trinh Tran, and Brad Winderbaum.While filming Endgame, the on-set plan was to have Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Spider-Man be the three new faces of the MCU. It didn’t work out well: Marvel lost Spider-Man right after FFH and Boseman passed. The book is short on details, but by 2022 Brie was pretty disillusioned about working with Marvel, likely due to years of Internet harassment campaigns.Phase FourHow determined was Marvel Studios to minimize any connection with Marvel Television? When it developed a movie starring another obscure superteam, the Eternals, the creators were instructed that none of it could take place in Hawaii. The studio didn’t want any risk that audiences might be reminded of the Inhumans.After GOTG3, Gunn planned on sticking around the MCU to flesh out its cosmic side. But after being fired and rehired, he made clear his future loyalties would be with DC.For Disney Investor Day 2020, Feige and Kathleen Kennedy were pressured into announcing projects “nowhere near ready,” noting Armor Wars and Fantastic Four. “The event wrongfooted Marvel: The studio struggled to deliver on all the promises it made during that presentation.”Abomination’s Shang-Chi cameo was set before they decided to fully revive the character for She-Hulk.No Way Home basically never had a finished screenplay because so many elements were in flux. Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, and Sally Field’s Aunt May were all in various drafts. Maguire and Garfield weren’t signed until two months into filming. The book seems to imply No Way Home's over-the-top Arad callout was actually added by Marvel Studios, and not contractually obligated or requested by Arad.Marvel Studios assigned junior executives to work on their initial TV series. This freed up the writers/directors from bothering Feige and the Parliament with creative minutiae, but also meant Feige didn’t perform much oversight over the TV shows. The shows were built more like movies: the head writers delivered scripts, but the director ultimately called the shots on the production. Kate Herron had a mini-room reworking Waldron’s Loki scripts.Victoria Alonso joined Marvel during Iron Man, becoming the #3 executive in the company, responsible for VFX and post-production. In 2019, when Feige became head of Marvel Entertainment, he immediately promoted Alonso, but a rift began developing. Feige was incensed after Alonso criticized Chapek for not denouncing Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, breaking Kevin’s “don’t air dirty laundry in public” rule. Feige speculated if she’d “outgrown” her role. One of the only times Alonso refused a request from the higher-ups was removing LGBTQ references in Quantumania for release in certain countries. Louis D’Esposito hired a VFX team behind her back, which she considered a profound betrayal. When Disney fired Alonso this year, nobody from Marvel Studios intervened.Feige places a great deal of pride on the MCU’s Rotten Tomatoes scores, displaying the “Certified Fresh” plaques in Marvel Studios.I’ll leave you with one final quote, a stick of dynamite to throw on the campfire. This is in reference to Anson Mount’s cameo in MoM. Make of it what you will:If the Inhumans could be rehabilitated, apparently everyone in MCU history was on Feige’s call list—except Edward Norton, the franchise’s first Bruce Banner, and Joss Whedon, whose Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters remained in limbo.
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