Joss Whedon On Oscar Awards And Pre-Avengers Anxiety

Joss Whedon On Oscar Awards And Pre-Avengers Anxiety

Joss Whedon acknowledges that he'll probably never win an Oscar for his Marvel Studios work despite the fact that they're such huge box office successes. Joss also touches on an earlier fear that he'd never get the opportunity to make a superhero movie the way he wanted to.

By MarkJulian - Jun 02, 2013 04:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Avengers
Source: Guardian

"I kept telling my mom that reading comic books would pay off," said Whedon, a one-time underdog geek filmmaker who now ironically finds himself among the Hollywood elite. He's still very much a geek though, as it's reported that Whedon makes a trip to Forbidden Planet every time he visits London. But looking back to a time when Whedon wasn't necessarily a household name, back to a time when his Wonder Woman studio pitch fizzled in development limbo and his Batman pitch flamed-out before he could even finish his presentation, Whedon feared he'd never get a shot at making a superhero film the way he wanted. "When Sam Raimi made Spider-Man, I was like – gah, I wanted to be the guy who got it right," said Whedon on that pre-Avengers fear. He continued, "When I saw The Dark Knight I was like, Oh, now it's postmodern… They're doing the superhero Godfather! So I guess it's over and I didn't get to make one…" Luckily for us and Marvel Studios, it wasn't over and Whedon got his shot to make The Avengers and is currently working on The Avengers 2. But during production of The Avengers, Whedon admits that the pressure almost got to him one day. "I had one bad week where some people lost confidence in me, but I told them to shut up and got on with my work," said Whedon with his usual wit. A pretty interesting statement but I doubt will ever get any details on the identity of the "some people" Joss vaguely references. His work on The Avengers ended up accumulating $1.5 billion dollars in 2012. Yet Whedon is fully aware that despite being the most seen and universally well liked film of the year, that acclaim doesn't necessarily translate to prestgious film awards. Said Joss, "If you make a movie where you're just trying to delight people, and you want them to come out overjoyed, then… you're [frick]ed."

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Luminus
Luminus - 6/2/2013, 4:48 AM
If that doesn't translate to film awards, then what good are those awards?
DutchMovieFan
DutchMovieFan - 6/2/2013, 4:49 AM
See, directors like Whedon respect the work of people like Nolan, properbly the other way around as well. Then what's the point of fighting each other when they, the creators, don't care?
EpitomeofAwesome
EpitomeofAwesome - 6/2/2013, 4:57 AM
He at least needs to win, like, Special effects or somethin'
Physicslover
Physicslover - 6/2/2013, 5:03 AM
In Whedon we trust...
Tempo
Tempo - 6/2/2013, 5:05 AM
A class lessons,Whedon is the boss,maybe the only one have the power to make faithful and good CBM without the oppressing power of Robert Downey Jr and Kevin Feige,I hope Marvel/Disney don't [frick] up Whedon in the future.
ROMsnotdead
ROMsnotdead - 6/2/2013, 5:26 AM
good news he's not striving to get one.
NeoBaggins
NeoBaggins - 6/2/2013, 5:28 AM
I like how Whedon calls the Dark Knight the "Superhero GodFather".
kadetra
kadetra - 6/2/2013, 5:30 AM
Outside technical categories,CBMs are not regarded as Oscar materials.Maybe he should do a science fiction movie similar to inception.
kadetra
kadetra - 6/2/2013, 5:37 AM
Snow white and huntsmen got more nomination than all the 3 CBMs last year,that shows how bias those awards are.
MightyZeus
MightyZeus - 6/2/2013, 5:39 AM
He'll do fine.
I cant wait to see Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver, hopefully Whedon will dismiss Hawkeye and Black Widow from the film.
MrCBM56
MrCBM56 - 6/2/2013, 5:46 AM
The dark knight is the Godfather of superheroes. It's a crime drama and its one hell of a movie. Love Whedon though, I loved his work even before the avengers.
MrCBM56
MrCBM56 - 6/2/2013, 5:47 AM
@Raccoonwithrockets

Dismiss Black Widow. Hawkeye is a long time Avengers member.
gambgel
gambgel - 6/2/2013, 6:17 AM
interesting how he doesnt mention X-Men (2000) and how he was approached to direct X3.
kadetra
kadetra - 6/2/2013, 6:17 AM
@DoubleD

Superman doesn't crack jokes.If you don't like MOS then don't watch it.
shamo
shamo - 6/2/2013, 6:21 AM
i'll take character devolpment over corny jokes any day. but with that said, Avengers is the only CBM comparable to TDK. can't wait for the sequel.
Earth69
Earth69 - 6/2/2013, 6:24 AM
@DoubleD - You would prefer MOS be full of fart jokes and slapstick?...gimme a break. MOS has the perfect tone to it going by the trailers. CBM are always better when taken seriously and rooted in a pseudo reality. Iron Man 1 is a good example of this, as is Watchmen, as is the Batman trilogy.

Realistically Clark/Kal-El would struggle with being who he is. It wouldn't be as simple as 'Oh I can fly, and shoot lasers from my eyes, so I think ill sew me up a blue and red costume and get some kittens out of dem trees'. Struggling to find yourself is a universal problem that every person faces whether you know its happening to you or not, so its a highly relatable position to put a character in.
jlabatman
jlabatman - 6/2/2013, 6:26 AM
Don't worry about it Joss, just keep putting out movies, playa! We got your back!
Battabing
Battabing - 6/2/2013, 6:27 AM
Who. the. f.uck. cares?
NoAssemblyReqd
NoAssemblyReqd - 6/2/2013, 6:29 AM
I wonder who decided to cut the Maria Hill intro/outro. That was one of the smartest big edits of the movie, as it felt like such a forced downer fakeout to what was obviously going to be a triumphant upbeat film.
cloudrider
cloudrider - 6/2/2013, 6:30 AM
joss can always try to win the oscar for the animation category, i'm sure avengers qualify as a cartoon. oh wait, pixar films have more substance than the avengers. bummer then.
AmazingFantasy
AmazingFantasy - 6/2/2013, 6:36 AM
Oscars HA
JawBreaker1981
JawBreaker1981 - 6/2/2013, 6:38 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYVZjKgoKdg
JawBreaker1981
JawBreaker1981 - 6/2/2013, 6:45 AM
Even bad comedians see the plot holes in his films

figuresmaniac
figuresmaniac - 6/2/2013, 6:46 AM
@JawBreaker1981 And?
cloudrider
cloudrider - 6/2/2013, 6:47 AM
didnt the oscar reward LOTR film with 10 oscars? i didnt know that was a high brow entertainment. wasnt that a story about hobits and wizards and fighting orcs and stuff? and i'm sure avatar was nominated for best picture, along with a slew of other sci-fi that year(district 9 and some other). wasnt that a film about blue cat people who love trees?

contrary to what some of you might believe, the oscars are very open-minded. they're not some old farts who only go for "high brow" films. for that, you have the cannes film festivals.

comic book films CAN win oscars. whedon is just not the person to make that happen.
JawBreaker1981
JawBreaker1981 - 6/2/2013, 6:56 AM
@figuresmaniac

NeoBaggins
NeoBaggins - 6/2/2013, 7:07 AM
People don't care about box office money, Awards and critics... unless they are in favor of a movie they like, in which that case, it means EVERYTHING.
cloudrider
cloudrider - 6/2/2013, 7:13 AM
Said Joss, "If you make a movie where you're just trying to delight people, and you want them to come out overjoyed, then… you're [frick]ed."

that's a lame dig at oscars because he himself knows it's just a bullshit excuse.

someone here already mentioned 'the artist'. that's one example of a film that was meant to delight people, and i and many people came out of that film overjoyed.

imadick is right, most of the time the oscars tend to go for middle brow films. but even for that middle brow standard, avengers just do not qualify. you have to, at least, have bone and meat in the film to qualify. avengers is like cotton candy, all sugar and nothing else.

Sephiroth
Sephiroth - 6/2/2013, 7:18 AM
@jawbreaker1981 that was pretty funny stuff bro
SageMode
SageMode - 6/2/2013, 7:24 AM
THE AVENGERS isn't meant to be some overly dramatic movie to make people go on this mental nirvana. It's a film that meant to entertain and give you an enjoyable movie experience for all ages. Just because its a flick that doesn't take itself extremely serious to present itself as something that its not doesn't make it a bad film. It did what it was supposed to do and that's why it's my favorite CBM.
Bodwulf
Bodwulf - 6/2/2013, 7:41 AM
I like the props to Raimi and Nolan. When the fanboys learn to enjoy all good films no matter DC or Nolan of whatever. That will be the beginning of wisdom.
Here is a pic of Thor I made.
Thor God of Thunder! photo Thor832_zpse9c63802.jpg
ekrolo2
ekrolo2 - 6/2/2013, 7:45 AM
I wish they would try to make a more serious Marvel movie, theres nothing wrong with doing big, fun superhero movies but limiting your whole universe to a singular tone or style is going to get old at some point.

I'm not sure Disney would let them do something like the Dark Knight despite it proving that a superhero movie can have big themes and ideas but still be successful at the box office.
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