Kiwi brings ‘comedy of mundane’ to Hollywood

Los Angeles: Known mostly for his inventive, low-budget comedies, Taika Waititi joked last year that his deeply affecting and funny adventure Hunt for the Wilderpeople was “The Revenant, without any money”.

If that sounds like a stretch, it should be noted that Waititi’s fourth feature went on to become the highestgrossing locally-made release in New Zealand history, smashing his own record for 2010’s Boy. A year on, New Zealand’s most talked-about cinematic export since Peter Jackson is on the cusp of releasing his first Hollywood feature, having been trusted with the $180-million third instalment in Marvel’s “Thor” trilogy.

“What goes through your head is, ‘Okay, well Marvel’s lost their mind and they’re just asking anyone to do movies now,’” the 42-year-old Kiwi told AFP, recalling the moment the Disney-owned studio came calling. Early reviews for Thor: Ragnarok ahead of its November 3 release have been glowing, with Waititi widely praised for turning what many believe to be Marvel’s dullest Avenger into the wisecracking Cary Grant of the comic book genre.

The script leans much more heavily on Chris Hemsworth’s comic chops, inexplicably overlooked in the previous instalments, particularly in Alan Taylor’s lumbering sequel Thor: The Dark World.

“We knew it was there when we watched ‘Ghostbusters’ and he had a couple of lines in the other Marvel films,” says Waititi. “Just from knowing him, I thought, ‘I like you more than the version of Thor that I’ve seen in the other films — I’d much rather hang out with you.’”

“Everyday stuff” — Relatability has been the director’s stock-in-trade since he started out in feature films a decade ago, each new movie populated with fantastical but disarmingly down-to-earth characters. In What We Do in the Shadows (2014) murderous vampires divvy up household chores and werewolves worry about ruining a hemline, while in Ragnarok the God of Thunder and the Hulk bicker and then make up like any married couple.

“We like to call it comedy of the mundane. It’s like, how do I get all of these actors and these characters who are very unique, all very different, on the same level, and on a level where the audience can really relate to them?” Waititi says.