Galaxy sends Nicole Perlman into orbit
Writer of Marvel movie hit took a scientific road to sci-fi
There are government campaigns in Canada and the U.S. to get more girls to study science in school. Maybe the trick is to just send them to Guardians of the Galaxy and point out Nicole Perlman’s name in the credits as one of the movie’s writers. Perlman is the first woman to write a movie for Marvel Studios and is one of the panelists talking to Canada’s industry pros this weekend as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival’s Industry Conference.
Perlman’s passion for science fiction led to a passion for science, and then back to her roots in sci-fi.
“My father was a huge influence in my life and he was an enormous consumer of science fiction,” Perlman told the Sun.
“Growing up a real way of bonding with my dad was reading science fiction and watching Star Trek and Star Wars and talking about it. This was the currency of my parental love.”
As a kid she even met legendary sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury, who inspired almost everyone who ever lit a Bunsen burner or punched holes in a computer card in the pre Star Wars universe.
But for Perlman “the real game changer” was when she was a teenager growing up in Colorado and her dad’s science fiction book club — which included real-life rocket scientists — started talking about physicist Richard Feynman.
“Someone in the group had taken a class with him at Cal Tech and was talking about what an amazing influence he was. This was the first time I’d heard a scientist being described so vividly — a fascinating rock star of a character as opposed to the way they’re frequently shown in media as being uptight or the crazy professor. There was something really intriguing about that.”
Intriguing enough that her first script was about Feynman’s role in investigating the wreck of the space shuttle Challenger. That script landed her on Variety’s 2006 list of writers to watch and led to her penning science biopics about astronaut Neil Armstrong and original aerospace icons the Wright Brothers.
In 2009 it led to an invitation to join the ultimate fantasy camp for fantasy fans — a Marvel writing program where screenwriters were invited to try their hand at turning some of the company’s more obscure characters into feature film fodder.
“It was basically giving four or five writers who’d sold a bunch of things but hadn’t had a movie produced yet their own office on the campus and the opportunity to choose projects off a list of about a dozen properties that Marvel had, which were really C-list characters. They said choose one of these, we can’t guarantee that we’ll make any of them, but if the script is solid you’ve got a chance.”
Perlman laughs as she admits that “Guardians was the most obscure property on that list.”
Not only had Perlman never heard of Guardians, she wasn’t a big Marvel fan.
“I’d read a fair amount of graphic novels, but I was never a big Marvel girl. That changed after I got there and I was reading stacks and stacks of comics.”
Originally launched in Marvel Comic’s universe in 1969 as a team featuring a variety of cosmic characters in the 31st century, Guardians was rebooted in 2008 for 25 issues.
For Perlman the obscure series was the perfect playground.
She wanted to create an epic outer space adventure and, “I really wanted to do the origin story of an ensemble.”
Says Perlman: “People want to write movies they would want to see and movies like Contact (with Jodie Foster) really made a huge impact on me, so I wanted to make movies like that. Also fun movies like Galaxy Quest.”
Besides, Guardians was so far outside mainstream Marvel-land that neither fans nor executives had a tremendous stake in the storylines.
“They gave me pretty much free rein to do what I wanted.”
Perlman was free to choose her favourite team members ( like most super-teams the Guardians changed rosters regularly).
“I did many, many, many, many, many versions,” says Perlman. There were versions with more romance, different heroes and different villains. “The last seven or eight drafts had the team as it is now because those are my favourite characters and I felt that they each required something for the team that the team needed.”
When director James Gunn (Scooby Doo) came on board he took over the script. Gunn has publicly downplayed Perlman’s contribution, but a Writers Guild of America jury awarded credit to Perlman and Gunn.
“I’m just really happy there is an arbitration process with the Writers Guild that eliminates the need for a ‘he said, she said’,” says Perlman.
“I think James did a great job and I’m thrilled that he made the project what it is now.”
It was very hard for people to believe that a movie about a comic no one had heard of about a talking raccoon and a talking tree and this crazy space adventure would do well.
NICOLE PERLMAN
SCREENWRITER
Perlman says being on set to watch filming in London was, “definitely one of the top five experiences of my life. There were moments watching (leading man) Chris Pratt and (leading lady) Zoe Saldana perform that I was just ‘oh, my gosh.’ I have never had so much respect for actors in my life. They would take direction so well and do it differently at the drop of a hat as if they’d been practising all day and it was really very impressive.”
As for the film’s success, Perlman says she’s “blown away.”
Says Perlman, “Once I told people what I was doing they immediately looked at me askance. They were thinking Howard the Duck or they were thinking Green Lantern. It was very hard for people to believe that a movie about a comic no one had heard of about a talking raccoon and a talking tree and this crazy space adventure would do well.”
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Guardians is now one of the highest grossing comic book films ever (domestically it ranks third behind Avengers and Iron Man 3).
Not surprisingly, Perlman’s career has also shot into orbit.
She’s creating a new fantasy feature for Cirque du Soleil, a TV pilot and a fantasy film for Dream-Works based on a series of young adult novels.
Perlman has also been contracted by Marvel to write a new comic book series based on Guardians mean, green leading lady Gamora.