While talking to
Collider director Joss Whedon opened up about the runtime of Marvel's
The Avengers. He says the first cut was about three hours long, but has been cut down. And if you're hoping to see a longer director's cut, don't count on it. He is very adamant that the final cut is the best cut:
“No [there won’t be a director’s cut on the DVD]. I… believe very strongly in putting
the director’s cut into the theaters. I believe that the director’s cut is the best movie for
the studio and the best version of the movie for the audience."
“My first cut was three hours long and it’s now down to 2 hours and 15 minutes, and I’m extremely proud of that. I had always intended to go over two, under two and a half. There was no way a movie with this many great actors and this much epic scope was gonna clock in under two and not feel a little anemic, somebody wasn’t gonna get their moment if that happened. But at the same time, I get very angry that romantic comedies run over two hours long, it’s like ‘Guys, that’s not okay.’ More isn’t more. I don’t want anything in the movie that shouldn’t be.”
“There’s a lot of me that got cut out, but I think part of the process in a situation like this is you make the movie, you make your movie, then you remove yourself out of the equation. At some point you stop looking beyond The Avengers movie at your own stuff, you don’t look at that horizon you look at this movie and you go, ‘You know what, The Avengers are more important than I am so these things that I’m obsessed with aren’t necessarily moving the story forward, and therefore they are baggage.’ You can do that in a TV show, you can bring your baggage and sort of lay it out because you have a season to do it, but in a movie you actually have to remove yourself from the equation a bit and when I was finally able to do that, I saw a much clearer road to how to get the best experience for the audience.”
Joss also won't include any nods to his past films or television show in
The Avengers. He understands that the Marvel universe has nothing to do with his Whedonverse. But he did include nods to the Marvel universe in the film. He tells
Collider, “There are a couple of mentions of things; we were preserving the continuity and I threw in one or two things where I’m like, ‘Well this is something one of them would say because it’s part of the Marvel universe even if it’s not a part of this movie necessarily.’"
Visit Collider to read the rest of the interview.
Marvel's The Avengers picks up when an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security. And Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. With director Joss Whedon at it's helm, and an ensemble cast including Chris Evans (Steve Rogers), Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark), Chris Hemsworth (Thor Odinson), Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff), Clark Gregg (Agt. Phil Coulson), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), with Tom Hiddleston (Loki), and Stellan Skarsgard (Professor Erik Selvig), the film releases worldwide May 4, 2012!