CHAPTER 8:
HOW TO LOSE A DIRECTOR IN 8 YEARS
Well, Avengers was the third highest grossing movie ever made. It would make zero sense if a sequel wasn't made.
On October 2011, Kevin Fegie announced that there would be a Marvel Phase 2 and that Iron Man 3 would start it off and it would end with Avengers 2. On the film's premiere night, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Avengers 2 was in development. At first, Whedon wasn't sure about directing, but then Marvel said:
By the end of 2012, Whedon had finished an outline with Ultron as the main villain.
Now let's talk about Quicksilver. FOX had always wanted to use Quicksilver in their X-Men movies. But they couldn't because they didn't get the rights. However, Marvel & FOX made a deal. The deal was that Marvel could use Quicksilver if they didn't include any references to Magneto or the mutants and FOX could use him if they didn't reference the Avengers.
While FOX and Marvel had made an agreement, the Marvel fans didn't see it that way. They thought that FOX's Quicksilver was going to suck. But he didn't suck! HE KICKED ASS!
You wanna know what happened when FOX's Quicksilver almost got shot?
He moved the bullets!
You wanna know what happened when Marvel's Quicksilver almost got shot?
HE ACTUALLY GOT SHOT!
Okay, that's mean. I actually liked this Quicksilver (Just not as much as Evan Peters).
Also, for those people who complain about the X-Men rights...
Now for casting. It was rumoured that Paul Bettany was to play Ultron, but James Spader got the part. Bettany did get cast as Vision, a role rumoured to go to VIn Diesel. Siarose Ronan was wanted for the Scarlett Witch, but she turned it down and the role went to Elizabeth Olsen.
When the film was released, it got decent reviews. Not great, but pretty good. Some people love this movie (like me), others not so much. As for the box office, it did great... just not as great as the original. Mixed word-of-mouth stopped this movie from making as big as it should have, not to say it bombed. Some people didn't like Ultron as a villain,but I thought he was alright. Although, I will admit Elizabeth Olsen's smile is scarier than Ultron.
This will haunt my nightmares.
But let's talk about Joss Whedon. Marvel and Joss Whedon has some arguments about what should be in the movie. Joss Whedon wanted the pool scene with Thor to be longer Marvel said No. He wanted the Hawkeye family subplot. Marvel said No (but he convinced them anyway). He wanted an ending tag with Captain Marvel. Marvel said No. So Joss Whedon left The Avengers, leaving Infinity War in the hands of the WInter Soldier team. By the way, for those of you who think Whedon was overreacting, he got paid more doing the Sing-Along Blog than the Avengers sequel. He is justified in leaving. Speaking of directors leaving Marvel...
One major complaint about the first Avengers film is that Ant-Man, one of the team's founding members was not in the film. What people didn't know an Ant-Man film was in development since the '80s.
The film was in devlopment at NewWorld Entertainment as a family film, until the release of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids stopped development entirely.
Fast-forward to 2000, Artisan Entertainment made a deal with Marvel to coproduce and distribute an Ant-Man film. When this deal was announced, two writing buddies, Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish, started to write a treatment for the movie. However, this never came to be. However, when Marvel made the distribution deal with Paramount, it was announced an Ant-Man film would be coming.
In 2006, Edgar Wright said he was still intersted in making an Ant-Man picture. He said his idea would be an action movie with some comedic elements (similar to Iron Man), and would feature both Scott Lang AND Hank Pym.
And Wright would do whatever it took to get the Ant-Man gig. He completed a script in 2008. His script featured a opening that took place in the 60s featuring Hank Pym, which would be inspired by Tales to Astonish. In March of that year, he sent the draft to Marvel, and began working on the second draft.
In 2010, he met up with Stan Lee to discuss the character. That same year, when Wright was promoting Scott Piglrim, he said that his draft didn't fit in the MCU timeline. In January of 2011, after finishing the international promoting of Scott Pilgrim, Wright and Cornish started working on another draft.
The next year, during the same month as the release of Avengers, Kevin Fegie said the project was closer than ever and Wright was now officially on board. During SDCC of that year, Wright screened a test footage of the film THAT KICKS ASS! Later that year, the movie was set for release on November 2015.
In 2013, Marvel had to delay the project so Edgar Wright could work on The World's End. After the relase of that film, Wright confirmed Ant-Man as a heist movie. He also stated that Eric O'Grady would not be Ant-Man. He also revelaed that Paul Rudd would play Ant-Man. With this, many were under the impression that he was playing Hank Pym, until Michael Douglas was cast. By the end of the year, Wright & Cornish finished their final draft and they wrote a scene that wasmeant to appear in AGe of Ultron.
However, the next year, diaster struck. Marvel announced that Edgar Wright had left the project over creative differences. Adam McKay took over writing duties, whileMarvel searched for a new director.
Their choices were: Zombieland director, Ruben Fleischer; We're the Millers director, Rawson Thurber; Neighbors director Nicholas Stoller; Goon director, Michael Dowse; Role Models director, David Wain; and Yes Man director, Peyton Reed, who was chosen for the directing gig and was originally supposed to direct GotG.
When Reed got chosen, everyone (except a few people, including me) were outraged. Many people were under theimpression that this would be awful.
So maybe it was the lack of high expectations that made everyone like this, or maybe the movie was really good. Speaking as someone who was still very exited for the movie, even after Wright's departure, Ant-Man was my favorite CBM of the year. Unless you count The Peanuts Movie. Then again Peanuts was just a comic strip,not a comic book. As for the box office, it did okay in the US, but did even better worldwide, thanks to China. Because, as Terminator: Genisys proved, China will go see anything. Maybe Fant4sticwould have been a hit if it was released in China.
So that's as far as Marvel as gotten with movies. However, it doesn't end here. You see, Marvel was so popular, that they decided to move to the television industry.
TO BE CONTINUED...