When Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was still reporting to Marvel Entertainment CEO Isaac Perlmutter, movies like The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy were run by a Creative Committee made up of various comic book writers. In 2015, that was disbanded when Feige insisted that he report directly to Disney and we've heard a lot of "horror" stories since.
For example, it's been said that Edgar Wright butted heads with the over Ant-Man, while James Gunn has said that they suggested ditching Guardians of the Galaxy's soundtrack and were responsible for some of the issues moviegoers had with Ronan's story arc.
When I recently had the opportunity to talk to veteran writer Brian Michael Bendis about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (stay tuned for more on that), I asked what his experience was like as part of that team after Gunn talked about various clashes but he had nothing but good things to say about his time there.
"I had a wonderful time. For me, it was like going to a writer's workshop of like six people and just tearing apart a story. It wasn't my story so there was no ego, it was just about craft. Everything that I learned from whatever we were working on, whether it was Thor: The Dark World or the first Iron Man and even screenplays that never saw the light of day, I was learning an immense amount about crafting a story or was reminded about stuff that I then fed directly into my work. It was like doctor's school for writers and I loved it.
"Whatever stress James is talking about, I wasn't in the room for that part and also, I signed an NDA so couldn't even say if I was but I genuinely wasn't! You say NDA and people think you saw something but I didn't see nothing! It was a pretty cool thing. Imagine this. Literally, you get to see the first cut - and every other cut – of a Marvel movie six months before everyone else gets to see it; would you do that for free?"
I would pay to do that!
Exactly! They were paying me to do this for many, many years and every time, I would be like 'Yes!' [Laughs] It was great.
Ultimately, it's easy to see where both parties are coming from here. While filmmakers probably didn't appreciate receiving notes on a project they'd worked on, this Creative Committee was made up of a lot of talented writers who no doubt had a lot of useful feedback due to their extensive knowledge of the Marvel Universe.
Feige, however, seems to be doing just fine without them these days but it's obviously hard not to wonder what might have been!
Either way, it sounds like it was a blast for the current Superman scribe and it's a job that most of us would kill for so no one can blame him for getting involved (his role as an executive producer on Into the Spider-Verse certainly played a big role in that movie's success as well). What do you guys think? As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section.