Cate Shortland has been hired by Marvel Studios to direct Black Widow and production is expected to begin next year in anticipation of a 2020 release. Over the years, however, the company has fallen out with quite a few directors, including Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) and Edgar Wright (Ant-Man).
Now, one of the candidates to helm Black Widow, Lucrecia Martel, has said that after talking to Marvel Studios, she doesn't believe that they want female filmmakers taking charge of action scenes.
"Marvel and other such production houses are trying to involve more female filmmakers," she said. "They also told me, 'Don't worry about the action scenes, we will take care of that.' I was thinking, 'Well I would love to meet Scarlett Johansson but also I would love to make the action sequences.'"
"Companies are interested in female filmmakers but they still think action scenes are for male directors," the filmmaker continued. "The first thing I asked them was maybe if they could change the special effects because there's so many laser lights... I find them horrible. Also the soundtrack of Marvel films is quite horrendous. Maybe we disagree on this but it's really hard to watch a Marvel film. It's painful to the ears to watch Marvel films."
Something tells us that feedback probably wasn't appreciated by Marvel Studios and if they want a grounded Black Widow movie (which makes sense given the nature of the character), then huge action scenes with "laser lights" probably won't be part of that, anyway. However, Marvel telling Martel not to worry about sequences of that nature is definitely concerning.
Bizarrely, Martel says she would still be open to helming Black Widow but we don't think she'll be getting the call somehow. What do you guys think about these remarks? Share your thoughts below.