Spectacle crucial in ‘Avengers’
All right, geeks, this is the big one. “The Avengers” is assembled. But it’s not just the Iron Man vs. Thor dustup in the forest, or Captain America commanding the supertroops, or the most effective use yet of Hulk onscreen, or Black Widow … ’nuf said … that makes the movie an event. It’s what happens when all these combustible elements come together, with the actors already associated with the roles and a bona fide comics nerd at the wheel. Or more than one.
“We have spectacle and special effects that are bigger than anything in some of our other movies combined,” says Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige (Fie-gee), “but my favorite parts are those character interactions. The scene between (villain) Loki and Widow. The banter and arguments, the ideological conflict between Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Tony Stark (Iron Man).”
“Kevin is a geek,” says writer-director Joss Whedon, who would know. “He’s a big old nerd who really understands comics, really understands movies, and knows the difference.”
Whedon is known for sharp dialogue and character development in the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” TV series, “Firefly,” and the hit Internet musical “Dr. Horrible.”
“He’s got a pretty good life, that Joss Whedon,” Feige says. “He can do whatever he wants. (The effects are) not what people come out of the movie talking about; they come out talking about those character moments. That’s what Joss’ stories have; people always talk about the characters. They’re hard-core sci-fi, hard-core fantasy. But it’s always those moments that play out.”
But wasn’t it daunting taking on a project of this scale, with so many major stars involved (Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury)?
Unflappable
“Only in the sense of, ‘Whoa, this is tiring,’ ” Whedon says. “Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but it didn’t flap me that I was doing this. I feel enormous pressure all the time as a storyteller. I don’t feel pressure from budgets and stars. The problems are the exact same problems on any project: ‘We can’t get this’ or ‘That camera move wasn’t as smooth as I hoped.’ ”
Evans describes Joss as “another comic-book geek. Joss writes comic books. So any direction he wants to push the character, you never question — Joss knows.”
Evans had his own ice to break in donning the star-spangled uniform — and the six-movie deal that came with it.
“The way movies work is it’s a one-at-a-time gig. If you do a movie and it explodes, and you’re not coping with it terribly well, you have the opportunity to step back and regroup, get your head on straight,” says the buzzcut, bearded Evans, looking more life-size than in his bulked-up Cap persona.
Big commitment
“The problem with these movies is it’s such a commitment, a contractual obligation, that if you’re struggling with that new life, too bad. You’ve got to go and make another one. That just scared me. Six movies, they could spread that out over 10 years. I didn’t know if I was ready to make a decision for a decade. So I was kind of scared, but I came around.”
Feige says of all the calls he has had to make from his celestial perch atop the Marvel Universe, casting has always been the scariest. He cites the nervous moments when they were “all in,” shooting “Avengers” with Evans and Hemsworth as cornerstone characters before their debut movies, “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “Thor,” had even came out. Luckily, those two films combined for more than $800 million in worldwide gross. He marvels at how Evans, in particular, has embraced his character.
“His screen persona is so different from Steve Rogers, and so is his own life, frankly. He will talk about what a good man Steve Rogers is. Most actors want to talk about how flashy someone is, or ‘I’ve got the best oneliners’ — Chris Evans, who has the one-liners in many movies, doesn’t want that and wants to portray this good man.”
Evans says he was